Digital Manga, Inc. to Bring the Remaining Tezuka Library to the Rest of the Manga Reading World!
Gardena, CA (February 12, 2014) Tezuka Productions Co. Ltd. (Main Office: Tokyo, Shinjuku, Takadanobaba. President: Takayuki Matsutani) and Digital Manga, Inc. (Main Office: Los Angeles, California, USA. President: Hikaru Sasahara), are proud to officially announce its latest partnership deal—to bring Tezuka’s backlist of manga titles, which have not yet been adapted and published beyond the shores of Japan, to the English language market, utilizing Digital Manga’s localizing production strong-arm, the Digital Manga Guild—to publish and distribute in digital editions.
Tezuka Productions—the Japanese production studio founded by the Father of Manga, Osamu Tezuka, and brought to the anime and manga fandom famous works that stirred controversial, political and cultural awareness to the masses since the 50’s, for such titles as Astro Boy, Unico, Budda, Blackjack, etc.—specifically appointed the Digital Manga Guild to localize their library to English, and then eventually to other languages. Tezuka Productions believes that DMI’s Digital Manga Guild, which brings together the enthusiastic and energizing spirit of the manga/anime fandom in a co-op revenue share venture between Japanese publishers, manga localizers (comprised primarily of manga/anime fans) and Digital Manga, follows the spirit of community and membership, which is in-line with the same philosophy of Osamu Tezuka’s vision of his works through Tezuka Productions.
With over 250 of Tezuka Productions’ works untapped to the rest of the manga reading world, it’s the Digital Manga Guild’s privilege, pride and joy to be able to undertake this huge localization task and to help fulfill every manga translator, editor, and typesetter’s dream to work on such high profile projects. Digital Manga welcomes all localizers, especially Tezuka fans, to join the Digital Manga Guild, digitalmangaguild.com, and participate in the localization efforts to bring these great works to the rest of the world. Some of the most notable works DMG will start will be titles such as The Three-Eyed One, Vampires, Metamorphosis, Big X, and Rainbow Parakeet.
Plans for publishing the backlist of titles are tentatively set for Spring 2014, first with releasing digitally, Digital Manga’s already published English Tezuka works—Barbara, Swallowing the Earth, Unico, Atomcat, and Triton of the Sea on eManga.com—in development in the eManga platform, will be a specially dedicated section for all things Tezuka, “Tezuka World”, where Hollywood movie and television directors, script writers, and producers will be able to browse through the Tezuka properties and propose treatments for potential Hollywood projects. Digital releases on to other platforms would soon follow. The future prospect of this partnership includes multi-language development based from the English editions of the properties which enables the readers to select the language to read.
All facets of this partnership, from the licensing, production, promotion, distribution and development of Tezuka’s works, are based on a community driven effort, to not only to bring Osamu Tezuka’s high literary and award winning works to hungry fans, but to bring his message of world fellowship to all borders of the globe. So come and be part of the Digital Manga Guild and Tezuka’s world community!
Questions? Contact us at contact@emanga.com or contact@digitalmangaguild.com
Biography of the Partners
Takayuki Matsutani
President of Tezuka Productions Co. Ltd.
He was born September 24th, 1944 in Yokohama, and graduated from the law department of Chuo University in March of 1967. After gaining experience as the editor responsible for Osamu Tezuka at Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, he joined Tezuka Productions as a manager in April of 1973. In April of 1985 he became the President, and remains in that role today.
He has produced many color versions of works like “Astro Boy” and “Black Jack”, and TV series such as “Phoenix” and “Jungle Emperor Leo”, as well as many theatrical films based on Osamu Tezuka’s works.
Tezuka Productions: http://tezukaosamu.net/
Hikaru Sasahara
President of Digital Manga, Inc.
Born to a family already delved in the thriving animation industry in Japan, he immigrated to the US during the 70’s in his early 20’s. Sasahara’s never-ending life goal is to bridge the concept of “East meets West”. Developing businesses in America from the restaurant industry, the Hollywood movie industry, and to the importation and distribution of Japanese anime and goods, he finally founded and developed Digital Manga, Inc., a company where he can focus and bring all his goals to one place. Through his company, he also developed a tour business and his major manga publishing business, in which he provides to the English speaking world in digital and print editions.
Digital Manga, Inc.: http://www.digitalmanga.com/
About Digital Manga, Inc.
Located in Gardena, CA, Digital Manga, Inc. is one of the industry’s most unconventional and innovative companies, specializing in building corporate and cultural bridges from Japan to the West — specifically through the licensing, importation and preparation of anime (Japanese animation), manga (Japanese comic books) and related merchandise for North America’s mainstream and niche markets. In this capacity, DMI serves as a catalyst for the spread of Japanese pop culture institutions into the global arena. The company’s imprint lines include DMP (its mainstream imprint), DMP PLATINUM (its classic manga imprint), JUNÉ (its boys love imprint), 801 MEDIA (its adult boys love imprint), DokiDoki (its exclusive co-publishing imprint with Shinshokan Publishing), DH/DMP (a co-publishing venture with Dark Horse Comics), Project-H (its Seinen Hentai manga imprint), and DMG (a unique digital distribution initiative).
For more information about Digital Manga Publishing, visit www.digitalmanga.com as well as:
www.dmpbooks.com
www.junemanga.com
www.digitalmangaguild.com
www.emanga.com
www.akadot.com
Follow us on twitter @digitalmanga
Find us on Facebook: Digital Manga Inc.
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