Forum - View topicKodansha to publish in the US on it's own?? (RUMOR)
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bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
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Someone on another forum showed me this, and if it's true this is huge news and potentially really bad for US manga companies (especially Del Rey and Tokyopop):
http://www.japanator.com/elephant/post.phtml?pk=8035 To sum it up, there is a rumor going around that Kodansha is going to start publishing it's manga on it's own in the US and will no longer license it's titles to any American publisher, and might be cutting off deals they've already made. So what do you guys think? True, false? If it's true, it might mean we would get even more titles published here (might not), but it would be sad to see Del Rey and the others suffer because of it. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I'll believe it when I read it from a reputable news source. It doesn't explain Tokyopop's problems as they barely had anything from Kodansha anyway. However, if Kodansha was going around canceling all of their existing contracts, that would pretty much kill Del Rey as we know it. It would also be a terrible business and PR move. Even if they decided to start their own publishing arm here, the idea of them canceling all of their current contracts will Del Rey (or anyone else) seems absurd.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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And Bush is going to ban all manga before leaving Oval Office.
Seriously. Let's wait for a more reputable, trustworthy source. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Given the current state of the US economy, I think it is a bit absurd for Kodansha to start doing anything now. Plus, I do not think they would mess Del Rey up that much, since Kodansha has business ties with Random House (they co-own Random House Kodansha).
Plus I don't imagine it would be that easy for them to get out of contracts they already have. I can't see the North American companies letting that happen. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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So this person is positing that Del Rey, Dark Horse, Tokyopop and a few other companies I'm neglecting to mention would all somehow give up their contracts?
There's idiocy on one side of this, and I'm doubtful it's the Japanese. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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If Kodansha were going to start publishing manga in the US for themselves (which I think is probably a bit of an if) it would make the most sense for them to start with unlicensed properties. That way, they'd be bringing out brand new series (possibly even series that US companies might consider untouchable) which would allow for them to treat the whole thing as more of an experiment while keeping money flowing from the US license holders. I worry that Japanese companies trying to publish here might be hypersensitive to censorship issues. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Too many damn Chicken Littles in this business.
The Industry Roundtable panel at AX is going to be interesting times. |
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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Well, as I said before... if nothing else, that "Gundam in forest" pic is just hilarious.
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GATSU
Posts: 15627 |
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Hopefully, they'll be more successful than Gutsoon.
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I believe this was was posted on The Beat blog and then was posted elsewhere. A poster named Cthulhu was talking about what he heard at the BEA (Book Expo America). So take that rumor for what it's worth.
Meanwhile, Kodansha might try it. I wouldn't think they'd screw over the number of US Publishers from TokyoPop to Dark Horse to Del Ray tp ADV to even CMX who have current and well selling licenses. What they might do is just do some new ones that haven't been picked up yet, like say BiOmega. Here's their list of stuff. A number of them are distributed across many companies. company#88 Though manga should be a lot simpler than anime, let's remember what happened when Toei tried to do direct distribution with titles Slam Dunk and Air Master. (edit: Yet funny enough, what's on ANN's banner ads? Toei's Slam Dunk. Though this time it's On Demand, not DVD.) |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7584 Location: Wales |
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Seriously, even if they did start publishing themselves it would probably have no more impact on Del Rey et al than the opening of Bandai Visual USA had on Bandai Entertainment.
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ashez2ashes
Posts: 44 |
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Argh, I just got an email about my preorder of Nodame Cantabile vol. 14 being canceled. Seems like it HAS impacted Del Ray... Is this to do with this Kodansha crap? God this sucks, not only was I hoping to finish the series, if they do pick it up again they'll probably start over AND have terrible translations. Anytime a japanese company tries to do something direct they suck at it (original shounen jump dvds anyone?). Talk about a public relations nightmare...
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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There has been no confirmation that this Kodansha thing has happened. TRSI still has volume 14 and 15 up for order and my pre-order of Negima 19 has not been canceled. If Kodansha was going to screw over Del Rey and revoke licenses (something I find highly unlikely) they would probably take the much bigger sellers like Negima as well. Who did you order Nodame from and what did it say?
I see no reason to jump to a baseless conclusion because one store canceled an order for unspecified reasons. |
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ashez2ashes
Posts: 44 |
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I bought it from deepdiscount.com Who said in an email today quote: "Thank you for your recent order. Unfortunately, we have been informed by our vendor that this title is no longer available." Sounds pretty omnious to me, imho, but heck I hope I'm wrong.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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But that the contracts would be the same across the board, for all companies and titles and spanning over several years? I'm skeptical, to say the least. I'd consider this if the original blog comment merely stated that Kodansha would set up shop here while allowing other companies to continue on publishing and licensing other titles; but as it stands, with such a dubious claim that they're yanking their titles away from Del Rey and others, I await an announcement and/or press release. |
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