Anime Expo Keeps Manga in Focus
By Ian Brill -- Publishers Weekly, 7/5/2006
A sunny Fourth of July weekend in the shadow of Disneyland offered a quintessentially American backdrop for the 15th annual Anime Expo, a wild celebration of Japanese pop culture held at the nearby Anaheim Convention Center. On the first day of the convention, Anime Expo officials reported 30,000 people attended, breaking previous attendance records of 33,000 for the four-day event.
 Cosplayers at Anime Expo 2006 photo credit: Audry Taylor/Go! Comi |
Certainly one of most anticipated manga events at this year's Anime Expo was the appearance of the four women behind CLAMP, the reclusive superstar manga collective responsible for creating such huge bestselling manga series as Chobits and Xxxholic. Igarashi Satsuki, Ohkawa Ageha, Nekoi Tsubaki and Mokona were introduced to a jam-packed auditorium—more than 6,000 fans thrilled at the chance to see and hear their favorite manga-ka. Manga-ka rarely have the time to make appearances in Japan, let alone visit a country an ocean away. This was CLAMP's first appearance in the U.S. At the press conference Satsuki and Tsubaki expressed their pleasure at the "nice, dry" California weather, while Ageha praised "the great California champagne." Mokona noted that the group had long heard about all the anime and manga fans who turn out for Anime Expo. Ageha spoke about the group's beginning in high school and the development of their characters. The status of the long-delayed Legal Drug came up, and the group said they plan to resume working on the book in the near future. The CLAMP press conference lasted three hours and there was a drawing held later for fans to attend a CLAMP autograph session.
There were more than 10 manga publishers on the exhibition floor, including ADV, Viz Media and Tokyopop, which offer both manga and anime properties. Super-popular anime properties like Naruto drew hordes of casual fans to the Viz booth. Del Rey and Tokyopop had smaller booths offering libraries of their titles.
 Manga-ka Mick Takeuchi (l.), author of Her Majesty's Dog, signs a poster for a fan at the Go! Comi booth photo credit: Audry Taylor/Go! Comi |
At the Del Rey panel, manga director Dallas Middaugh and Mutsumi Miyazaki, Del Rey director of licensing and publishing, discussed the continuing growth in the popularity of manga in bookstores around the country. Del Rey publishes CLAMP's Xxxholic and Tsubasa in the U.S. and was a co-sponsor of the group's visit to Anaheim. One of Del Rey's biggest books of the coming year will be a shojo version of Train Man (Densha Otoko), a property that has captured the imagination of the Japanpublic. It began as a series of posts on an Internet forum before becoming a novel, a live-action movie and several different manga (see accompanying story in News). CMX and Viz are also releasing versions of the title. Del Rey's books are more mature, the next step for the younger fans reading Viz's and Tokyopop's books now. Responding to questions about the potential for censorship, the editors outlined Del Rey's policy. The publisher doesn't censor content in its books, but also doesn't license overly risky content in the first place. Del Rey also announced plans to release prose novels based on various manga works and plans to publish original manga in the future. The editors even suggested that Del Rey would consider publishing an anthology magazine like Viz's Shonen Jump, if there's enough demand.
At the Dark Horse panel, manga editor Carl Horn said Dark Horse's policy is to shrinkwrap and sticker books with mature content, rather than censoring or rating. Even though Dark Horse is one of the oldest American manga publishers, this was its first appearance at Anime Expo. With its flipped books and samurai titles, Dark Horse has an old-school manga feeling. DH announced plans to publish Samurai Champloo, which has already gained some popularity in the U.S. in anime and manga form. The house is also publishing Dame Dame Saito Nikki by Saitou Tomoyuki, a satirical tale by a manga-ka who shares her opinions on manga fandom in America.
This was CMX's first Anime Expo appearance as well, and the new imprint of a traditional comics company had a modest booth on the convention floor. Fred Gallagher's recently acquired and popular Web comic/print comic Megatokyo was bringing in the fans, as was the upcoming Densha Otaku, CMX's take on the Train Man story. Editor Jim Chadwick, director Asako Suzuki and Wildstorm v-p Hank Kanalz described how being a part of DC Comics didn't bring the sort of recognition at Anime Expo that it would at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con. Indeed, many fans seemed surprised to learn that CMX was part of a much larger American comic book company.
In other publishing news at Anime Expo, Tokypop was hyping its previously announced Pop Fiction line of novels aimed at older teens, starting with Trinity Blood and Twelve Kingdoms. Tokyopop is also publishing Manga Chapters, a series of illustrated prose books, and Manga Readers, a series of short manga graphic novels, both aimed at preteens and designed for the children's section of bookstores. One of the titles is the American-grown book Zapt! Tokyopop held a panel to show off its original manga artists and their Original Global Manga, the latest name for the category formerly known as OEL. Zapt! artist Armand was there, as were MBQ creator Felipe Smith and Sorcerers and Secretaries creator Amy Kim Ganter. Global manga doesn't have the fan-base created by scanlations and Internet buzz; Tokyopop editor Lillian M. Diaz-Przybyl discussed how advertising is a big part of alerting the public to these books. The Rising Stars of Manga contest—all but one of the six creators on panel were RSOM winners—is another component of Tokyopop's system for locating talent for OGM. And Tokyopop also announced that previously announced manga properties Labyrinth, Mirrormask and Dark Crystal—created in collaboration with Jim Henson Productions—will be released in 2007. And Tokyopop has acquired three properties previously published by ADV Manga, Tactics, Peace Maker and Aqua.
ADV, a major distributor and producer of anime, attracted a huge crowd of fans to its two-story booth with constant giveaways. Anime makes up about two-thirds of ADV's output, according to ADV sales account manager Chris Oarr, and the company sees the manga segment as a complement to its anime line. ADV Manga is bouncing back after cutting its manga list. Oarr says the company is more focused on the smaller number of titles it publishes now and he cited the success of darker, noir books like Anne Freaks, which was getting a major push at ADV's booth.
Smaller companies also announced acquisitions. Digital Manga Publishing announced that it will publish manga based on the Vampire Hunter D novels. The property is also a popular anime that had a small theatrical run in the United States. Bandai Manga will release a manga-sized trade paperback edition of Witchblade, a superhero series from American company Top Cow. And upstart original manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment will join Tokyopop and Viz in releasing prose novels, beginning with the Shinigami no Ballad novel series by Hasegawa Keisuke.
Anime Expo Chief Financial Officer Trulee Karahshi says that manga is responsible for the growth of the convention, especially in female attendees. "The marketing side has grown," Karahashi says of manga publishers. "The girls' side has taken off. The women's market has higher loyalty and will buy things longer. Manga has reevaluated the reading habits of kids, especially girls."
