News
Tokyopop Announces Love x Love Romance Imprint
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Comics industry news source ICv2 reported on Tuesday that North American manga and graphic novel publisher Tokyopop is launching the new romance imprint Love x Love. The imprint will have new and existing works that include shojo, josei, yaoi, and yuri works with "an age range of 13+ to 18+." The imprint will focus on short works, including one-shots, short stories, and series of up to several volumes in length.
The imprint will feature Japanese manga, as well as manga-inspired graphic novels from countries such as Korea and China. Love x Love will not differentiate its titles between those by Japanese and non-Japanese creators. The imprint will classify all its titles under the Japanese terms for stories aimed at teenage girls (shojo), more mature works for young women (josei), boys-love (yaoi), and girls-love (yuri).
Tokyopop editor Lena Atanassova explained to ICv2, "Rather than separating girls' love and boys' love into distinct genres traditionally considered more niche in the manga market, we want to elevate all romance." Atanassova added, "By including all of these different romances under one umbrella, we hope to encourage new readers and those familiar with manga alike to check out stories they might not have otherwise found because they were separated into a supposedly niche genre."
The imprint will have print releases of manga and graphic novels, as well as a digital magazine. The first issue of the magazine will debut on March 14 (White Day), and it will be available for the publisher's newsletter subscribers to download for free. The issue will include the first chapters of the Love x Love imprint titles Scarlet Soul, Dekoboko Sugar Days (seen left), RePlay, Still Sick, and Breath of Flowers. Additionally, the magazine will include a code to purchase the featured titles in a "very attractively priced limited-time bundle."
Following the first issue, the magazine will launch with new content this fall, and each issue will have about 100 to 150 pages. The magazine will debut quarterly, but the publisher aims to increase frequency "depending on fans' reactions."
Tokyopop announced its licenses of Dekoboko Sugar Days and RePlay in July, after announcing Still Sick in May. The publisher has already begun releasing all five titles named above in print.
