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Forum - View topicNEWS: Harlequin Manga from Dark Horse
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v1cious
 Posts: 6235 Location: Houston, TX |
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so... i'm guessing there's something special about this particular shoujo title that would make Dark Horse of all companies pick it up?
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Dejiko
 Posts: 276 Location: Holland (between Great Britain and Germany) |
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Well, since they ARE based on these existing cheap cliche Harlequin romance novels, I wouldn't bet on it. Like anime, about 95% of it consists of utterly predictable fodder, so it will probably have no problem finding a wide audience  . On the plus side, I can't wait to see moms being introduced to actually reading manga by their starry eyed daughters. Who knows, they might be inclined to pick up original shojo in the near future and expand the market further? 
Getting back to the original question: shojo is BIG at the moment. Dark Horse has always betted on the shonen horse (har har), but really, really wants a bit of the shojo pie as well. It's a far cry from their usual policy of only buying cutting edge and innovative stuff for a slightly older male crowd. These are harsh times to be in the manga business, it would appear. |
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luhead
 Posts: 151 |
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I just find this alternately hilarious and disturbing. Hordes of Harlequin readers getting turned on to manga...hmm, this I gotta see.
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Haiseikoh 1973
 Posts: 1590 Location: Waiting for the Japanese 1000 Gunieas. |
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So will this be with the manga, or with the other Cheap Romantic Trash?
A more important question: Will the price point reflect the current prices of the cheapie romance books (as it's the reason why it sells well: nothing over $6) or the current Manga market (between $7.95-10.95). |
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studioplugnplay
 Posts: 52 Location: Texas |
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No there isn't.
Congratulations Dark Horse, again you've aimed with a worthy arrow and again you've missed the target. In another bid to tap into the elsuive 70% female manga market you've completely overlooked the fact those female fans of 'romance' manga are not HETERO ROMANCE NOVEL READERS but are in fact, for the most part, shounen-ai and or shoujo fans. Perhaps if you chosen to ally yourself with 'Alyson Publications' you'd have better luck and this wouldn't be a completely tired endevour. The average age of said percentage above have the disposable cash you're looking for to purchase 'said' manga and from my observations DO NOT READ HETERO ROMANCE NOVELS FROM HARLEQUIN. Your mistake is not without some valid research on your part as I am certain you've modeled this on taking a look at the healthy 'josei' market in Japan. 'Josei' manga is for older women who read manga with 'hetero romance' as the theme-however, these same women who make 'josei' a market in Japan grew up reading manga and did start out with 'shoujo', 'shounen' or even 'shounen-ai' manga when they were young. To expect the same results from older women in America is simply far fetched. Oy vey. -Gynocrat |
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