Monday, October 05, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Kodansha Sets Up Shop in the U.S.A!

Looks like the buzz from last month is true! Kodansha is establishing an office in New York City, and will publish and sell manga directly in the U.S.A this month! They will be called Kodansha Comics, and will be published under Kodansha USA Publishing and distributed by Random House. Among the first titles to be published will be Katsuhiro Otomo's legendary story Akira, and Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell. More titles will be announced later this year. The new office will not be the exclusive label for all Kodansha titles, but the company has high hopes for long-term growth. To read more, check out this article from Publisher's Weekly. We are anxiously waiting to hear future titles will include Sailor Moon, but fans should at the very least complete Phase 3 of Operation Moonrise and answer the manga question. We will send Kodansha a short package with the demographics and the results from that question!

4 comments:

Cyn G. said...

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!! YES YES YEEESSS!!! This is excellent news!!! Thx for posting guys!!!

ochibawolf said...

I'm a bit confused. Did you say that it's certain that they will retranslate and republish SM here in America in the future?

sailordees said...

Sorry about the confusion Ochibawolf! What I was trying to say that if the SM manga comes back here, it's likely that Kodansha Comics/Kodansha USA will be the ones doing the translations and publishing. Also, one of my colleagues is inclined to blieve that Tokyopop's editorial decisions and somewhat questionable translations may have been what prompted Kodansha to end ties with them, along with their desires to make it on their own.

Does this help any?

ochibawolf said...

Yup! Sure does! Thanks for clearing it up! And it would be awesome to get a retranslated BSSM from Kodansha! =)