Caution: Industry Comments – TokyoPop’s cancelled titles, CMX’s mature titles, Yen Plus
June 22, 2008
The first wave of possible Tokyopop cancellations has been released. The only series I was actively following was Suppli. If that series is being dropped, as opposed to delayed, I wonder if Tokyopop has decided to give up on josei titles all together. Other titles on the cancelled list that I probably would have sampled some day include Blood Sucker, Forget About Love, Lagoon Engine, Liling-Po, and Pick of the Litter.
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Now I really like CMX as a manga publisher. They have the best shoujo manga line up right now, and their eccentric licensing choices come off as eye catching rather than desperate and pathetic.
The other night I stumbled upon the old Flipped interview with CMX’s main editor. What caught my eye was a discussion of seperating mature titles from the others. This dicussion included a list of previously released titles that could also quality as mature. It was just about the oddest list of licensed manga I’ve seen yet: Sword of the Dark Ones, Young Magician, Madara, Kikaider Code 02, Testerotho, and Monster Collection. Admittedly when I first read this I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However, there do seem to be supporters of Monster Collection and Young Magician around, and Madara was done by the same team that created MPD Psycho.
Any ways, this is the first I’ve heard of any kind of separation of mature titles. Good luck finding out anything about it on their website.
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I have to say that I am excited about the new upcoming manga magazine from Yen Press, Yen Plus. Granted, the only title that interests me specifically is Bamboo Blade but I mean come on… magazine!
If you look closely you’ll see that Yen Plus is clearly aimed at males, particularly males on the older side of the traditional shounen demographic. I figured it was only a matter of time before something like this arrived, but I actually thought we’d see a female equivalent first. There is a number of appealing Japanese shoujo magazines that are popular amongst a slightly older demographic than what’s commonly licensed that could be used to piece together a similar anthology for release here.
I am surprised that they’re including manhwa in it. I mean, what’s the point of getting an exclusive deal with Square-Enix and then releasing manhwa?
