Kadokawa haut ab, Kodansha sagt Hallo.

Dem US Manga Markt scheint es wohl besser zu gehen wie dem Anime Markt, dass sich mal ein Japanisches Unternehmen traut, direkt als Publisher einzusteigen. In den letzten Jahren haben sie ja eher die Pforten ihrer US Niederlassungen geschlossen.

Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan, has confirmed with Publishers Weekly that it is establishing the Kodansha USA Publishing company in New York City to directly publish and sell manga in the United States under the Kodansha Comics imprint. Yoshio Irie, vice-president and board member at Kodansha, will lead the New York subsidiary with general manager Tomoko Suga. As previously revealed in retail listings, the new imprint will launch with Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira dystopic science-fiction manga and Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell cyberspace manga — both formerly published by Dark Horse Comics.

Publishers Weekly reports that Kodansha USA will focus on Kodansha’s back catalog of manga, but Irie said that original publishing „is one of our eventual ambitions.“ He also emphasized that “Kodansha Comics doesn’t aim to be the exclusive label for titles from Kodansha.” Kodansha decided not to extend its manga licensing agreements with the North American publisher Tokyopop, but Del Rey is still publishing Kodansha titles into next year.

Word of Kodansha’s new American plans first became public last year, although it has entered the North American market and the English-speaking market before. Almost a decade ago, Kodansha experimented with a line of Kodansha Bilingual Comics that included CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura, Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina, and Yōzaburō Kanari and Fumiya Sato’s The New Kindaichi Files (Kindaichi Case Files). Kodansha stopped publishing those titles when Tokyopop licensed the right to publish English editions doe many of them. Del Rey Manga now publishes most of the recently translated manga from Kodansha, such as Akamatsu’s Negima! Magister Negi Magi and Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail.

Quelle: ANN

Heute mal zu faul, es mit eigenen Worten zu schreiben^^“

Ob das beenden der Lizenzen von Tokyopop da wohl ein taktischer Schritt war? Sollte das dann wiederrum bedeuten, dass Kodansha evtl auch in Deutschland Fuß fassen will? Ich denke mal, eher nicht.