With the swiftly approaching release date for Kodansha’s first English-foray as Kodansha Comics, Publishers Weekly has official word that they’ve set up camp in their New York City headquarters (popular manga publisher base it seems) and are preparing to get the ball rolling on their upcoming releases.
While confirming their release plans (or re-re-release plans) for Akira and Ghost in the Shell, the article also establishes that Kodansha is not looking to hold a publishing-monopoly on their properties, one possible theory that arose after Kodansha recently put a halt to their license renewals with Tokyopop. Del Rey is still releasing a number of Kodansha series and their parent company Random House will act as Kodansha Comics’ distributer.
Representatives of Kodansha Comics also acknowledged that they will be focusing on older titles for now, instead of publishing any new/original content. While this spells promising news for those looking for shiny new editions of popular classics, it also bolsters the hopes of those of us looking for some resurrections of series long since out of print and eager to see a crisp unflipped edition. Yes even at risk of sounding repetitive: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, please. Or Codename Sailor V? They seem safer bets at least than my crossed fingers for the rest of Kilala Princess. Those are the titles that call to me loudest but with such a huge library behind them, there’s no end to the wish lists that will likely surface from many manga readers.
While there’s no website or further information from Kodansha Comics themselves as of yet, we’ll hopefully see some later in the month with the first volume of Akira and Ghost in the Shell scheduled for release next week.
(Credit for the news goes to the many on-the-ball bloggers of Twitter)
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