Seven Seas Launches Yuri Line
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on October 24, 2006 Sign up now!
by Calvin Reid, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 10/24/2006
Looking to bring still more variety to the U.S. manga market, indie manga house Seven Seas Entertainment announced plans for a line of yuri titles, a genre of Japanese manga focused on girl/girl relationships. The new line, called Strawberry, will debut in 2007 with a series of licensed titles.
Seven Seas will launch the line with two series: Sakurako Kimino’s Strawberry Panic (Seven Seas will also publish the prose edition of this title as part its previously announced light novel series); and Mera Hakamada’s popular Saigo no Seifuku (The Last Uniform), about the crushes and heartbreaks at a girls’ boarding school.
Jason DeAngelis, Seven Seas publisher, told PWCW that in December the house will publish Kashimashi, a comical yuri series about a boy who is transformed into a girl by aliens. This will be Seven Seas’ first yuri title, but will not be a part of the Strawberry yuri line.
Seven Seas will publish at least seven yuri titles in 2007; some will be one-shots and others part of a series. Much like yaoi, the popular manga genre focused on male/male relationships, there is a wide variety of yuri available in Japan, says DeAngelis. “From mild content dealing with relationships and romance to those with more mature themes,” he explains. DeAngelis says Seven Seas will focus on strong stories, “then the elements portrayed in the art become secondary. We’re dedicated to leaving the material we license uncensored, so we will be releasing a wide range of yuri aimed at different age groups. That said, we have no intention of releasing outright pornographic material.”
While DeAngelis expects the yuri line to appeal to “the same people who read yaoi—females,” he also believes the books will draw a male readership. “I think yuri has the potential for an even wider audience than yaoi, drawing from both sides.” DeAngelis is also planning to release more yuri prose novels and he encourages fans to go to the Seven Seas Web site to suggest licenses the house should pursue.
The launch of the Strawberry yuri line makes Seven Seas one of the first North American publishers to focus on the genre. “We've listened to both fans and retailers,” says DeAngelis, “ and the consensus seems to be ‘Bring us yuri!’ There's clearly a deep interest.”
