Japanime Launches Original Manga
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on April 10, 2007 Sign up now!
by Kai-Ming Cha, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 4/10/2007
Japanime, the publisher responsible for marrying two of Japan's most popular exports, sudoku and manga, is publishing a selection of unusual gift and reference titles and is venturing into original narrative manga.
Japanime's new gift book, 50 Things We Love About Japan, is an illustrated miniencyclopedia of Japanese culture that explores 50 favorite cultural icons, from the shinkansen (bullet train) to koi (carp). The book is a small (5"x 5") hardcover and Japanime CEO Glenn Kardy, is worried that chain store buyers will pass on the book because of its unusual format. "A hardcover manga is unheard of," Kardy said. Ideally, Kardy said, 50 Things would find a home in the "prime restate" by the store registers, the typical area for placing impulse buys.
50 Things is similar to another Japanime publication, Manga Moods, a vocabulary book about the different moods and facial expressions commonly seen in manga. Moods was introduced at last year's Anime Expo and according to Kardy, its popularity spread by word of mouth. "We put it out on the table and people just started buying it," he said. "We had no publicity for it. People just found it." Kardy is looking into selling the book through school book fairs.
Later this year, Japanime will publish The Manga Cookbook and another manga gift book, Manga Sisters. For The Manga Cookbook, Kardy says that Japanime's goal "was to make the recipes authentic and kid-safe," Rather than providing recipes for ordinary Japanese food, The Manga Cookbook actually teaches readers how to make the foods commonly seen in Japanese comics, like onigiri (rice balls) and yakitori (skewered chicken). The cookbook will also feature a special section on the bento box (lunchbox) and the proper presentation for bento box lunches. Kardy also has plans to release a special edition of The Manga Cookbook, with a bento box and chopsticks.
The Manga Cookbook is set for fall release, in time for holiday sales, and Kardy hopes it will attract parents with young manga readers in their families. Manga Sisters is by two sisters, Saori and Misato Takarai, who are both manga artists and tells their story of growing up together. The will be released in June at this year's Anime Expo.
This summer Japanime will publish its first original English-language manga, Moe USA. Volume 1: Maid in Japan. The book follows the story of two American teens who find work at a maid cafe in Tokyo and happen upon a pair of magical maid costumes. Kardy likens it to Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo, a popular original manga series and webcomic published by DC Comics CMX line and the first chapter will be available free to readers online.
Japanime will also publish Harvey and Etsuko's Manga Guide to Japan, a book that Kardy describes as "a country mouse visits the city mouse, except the country mouse is a mouse [from another city] visiting Tokyo." Harvey and Etsuko's Manga Guide to Japan combines American and Japanese artwork by American artist and writer Charles Danziger and Japanese artist Mimei Sakomoto. The book is slated for summer.
Based in Japan, the American company caters to young manga readers with a great interest in Japanese culture. "American kids want to be Japanese," Kardy said. "What we do is manga journalism. We report on Japan through manga." Japanime is also the parent company of the Manga University, which offers online manga instruction and art tutorials at www.howtodrawmanga.com as well as art supplies for the aspiring manga creator.
