ANNCast

Divine Ed-ification

ANNCast Episode 034 - Divine Ed-ification

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

We're a little more laid back this week, so expect some smooth vibes, hep cats. First up we chat a little about what we've been watching, including Gundam Unicorn, House of Five Leaves and the completely substance-free Tsubasa movie on Bluray. Then we get into the Aniplex Gurren Lagann announcement and what it means for retail, which is potentially not good.

Our guest is Ed Chavez, head of marketing over at Vertical Inc, known best for their Tezuka manga (among other hoity-toity manga titles!). We talk to Ed about his long career, Vertical's catalog and their business model, and of course, the ever-looming and seemingly unstoppable threat of scanlations. Ed then gets into the situation with manga artists in Japan and how most doujinshi artists are aiming to actually be graphic designers rather than mangaka, who essentially give up their life to draw comics. Then it's Twitter time! Enjoy the relaxing times, folks.

You can listen to the show on our player here, direct-download the MP3 version here, or you can just use these handy links:

Click here to subscribe to our show in iTunes!	RSS feed (for other software)

Also: if you like the show (or don't like the show, I guess) be sure to write us up a review over on iTunes! It'd be a big help!

NSFW Language Warning: Not a lot of swearing. Just enough to satisfy the senses.

ANNCast Episode 34 Breakdown

00:18 Host introductions, Gundam Unicorn and the Tsubasa movie

05:00 Love Exposure, an extremely strange live-action movie, and House of Five Leaves

08:40 Aniplex's gamble on Gurren Lagann and the potential fallout for traditional retailers

22:10 Ed Chavez introduction and the start of his long career

25:55 How he got the gig at Vertical

31:00 Vertical's decidedly highbrow catalog and how that's working out for them

32:50 Selling Vertical's challenging titles and their mature audience

38:35 Scanlation chat! Will it ever end?

51:00 Doujinshi artists and where they fit in the world of Japanese mangaka

57:20 Twitter time! Recapturing manga's 2007 audience, licensing Gō Nagai manga, books printed on rolls of toilet paper, Ed's favorite manga and more!

And that's it! See you next week.

Have questions for the ANNCast crew? Tweet 'em to @ANNZac! Or check out the community forums thread about the show, or send email questions to zac@animenewsnetwork dot com!

Special thanks to Phillip Harrington for designing and creating the ANNCast logo.