Easily the most anticipated panel of this year’s Yaoi Con, Digital Manga brought out the big guns as promised in recent weeks to deliver to the eager audience. Deb Aoki and The Yaoi Review were both present and live-updating the panels so thanks to them both for the information.
You can read all about it under the cut –
First off the licensing list, which is sure to make more than a few readers excited:
A Bloody Kiss Tonight – Makoto Tateno
Koyoi ha kimi to chi no kiss wo, Mid 2010Cafe Latte Rhapsody – Toko Kawai
Mid 2010Double Cast – Ellie Mamahara
Mid 2010Endless Comfort – Sakura Sakuya
Mid 2010Kizuna – Kodaka Kazuma
Late 2010 (Previously licensed by BeBeautiful)No Touching At All – Kou Yoneda
Doushitemo FuretakunaiStay Close To Me – Yaya Sakuragi
Early 2010Your Love Sickness – Kiku Hiyate
Mid 2010The Tyrant Who Falls In Love – Hinako Takanaga
Summer 2010 (Previously licensed by Drama Queen)
The Tyrant Who Falls In Love and Kizuna were the most fan-anticipated announcements, both rescues from defunct manga publishers. Kizuna will also be the deluxe editions of the series, with each volume collecting two of the originals and includes the elusive eleventh volume.
Digital Manga staff also had confirmations that several previously announced titles are on track for publication.
Crimson Cross – Kyoko Negishi, Sakae Maeda
Doki DokiMaiden Rose – Fusanosuke Inariya
June, March 2010Maniac Shorts Shot – Miya Ousaka
801Media, January 2010Otodama: Voice From the Dead – Youka Nitta
Doki Doki, February 2010Spiral of Sand – Yuna Aoi
June, Late 2010Tale of a White Night – Tooko Miyagi
Wolf God – Ai Tenkawa
Doki Doki, Mid 2010Yokan: Premonition – Makoto Tateno
June, February 2010
Crimson Cross and Wolf God are not boys’ love titles, while Otodama and Spiral of Sand are , and all four were announced at Anime Expo 2008. Maiden Rose, Maniac Shorts Shot and Yokan have been previously listed on Digital Manga’s website.
Other interesting tidbits of news include that Digital Manga is activiely looking for submissions for their eManga website, including boys’ love novels. You may recall they’ve recently posted Yaoi Press’s Yaoi Hentai volumes on their online manga reading site, along with the original series, Games With Me.
eManga will also have exclusive online publication of the Harlequin Manga, which I believe is this project by Japanese publishers and the Canadian company Harlequin Enterprises. Edit: AnimeNewsNetwork has more details regarding the Harlequin Manga including will include 20 titles.
The Digital Manga staff fielded some questions as well, addressing several interest-heavy areas:
Youka Nitta’s Embracing Love, which was partially released by BeBeautiful, is owned by Libre but is in licensing limbo because of the tracing scandal in which it was discovered Youka Nitta was utilizing copyrighted material as tracing guides for some of her artwork. Otodama, also a Youka Nitta series, was able to be licensed because it was owned by a different company – Shinshokan – with whom Digital Manga has a partnership.
Any news regarding the status of Amane Yamano’s Viewfinder still falls under the “lips are sealed” category.
A second volume of Black Sun, released as a one-shot with a very open end by 801Media, is not currently being worked on by the artist so no way of saying if a second volume will ever actually exist for release though in more positive news, the second book of Close the Last Door by Yugi Yamada should see publication in late 2010.
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So what do you think – did Digital Manga’s licensing announcements hold up to the hype that preceded them? As for me, I’m busy fan-girling over the announcements of Tyrant and Kizuna (finally on both counts!) so I’ve been quite appeased :) Thanks, Digital Manga!
More updates on Yaoi Con to come as information becomes available (aka, it actually happens). Hope those there are having fun – I hear it’s pretty crazy but quite entertaining.
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Eventually they'll probably get all the major yaoi (currently unclaimed) titles (I couldn't decide which license I wanted more — Tyrant or Veiwfinder but it seems likely they'll have both of them eventually!).
These were obviously some good announcements but I'm most excited about the Kou Yoneda title. She is a very exciting up-and-coming yaoi creator and DMP snatched this up fairly quickly which was a smart move.
It does seem a safe assumption that Digital Manga will have all those big talked-about licenses eventually – they're certainly the biggest boys' love players in the game.
And I agree about the license of Kou Yoneda. A friend of mine is a big fan so I've seen a lot of her art which is really nice. I can't wait to read a complete translated book to see how the stories work alongside it, and all the more so hearing your enthusiasm.
I also got a tweet about DMP getting Your Love Sickness by Kiku Hiyate – mid 2010
I'm very excited about the licenses they announced, and very sad about the Nitta situation, though I understand it. How many of her titles does Libre own? :(
Viewfinder btw is still being negotiated for by multiple companies that want it.
The Harlequin titles intrigue me enough that I'll check a couple of them out. I hope they're not like the ones that Dark Horse (I think?) published a few years ago though. They used stories from the 1980s, which are the romance equivalent of cavemen and women.
Thanks for the missed title, Kate! It's been added to the list.
I'm not sure how many of Nitta's titles are owned by Libre after the Biblos bankruptcy but I believe BeBeautiful's licensed works from her were through Biblos, so that at least includes Embracing Love, Casino Lily and Sound of My Voice.
Viewfinder is definitely proving to be a sneaky one isn't it? Several companies have been asked about it over the years, all can't say anything and even Yamane Amano herself drops notes about the licensing negotiations. Time will still tell it seems.
All very exciting news, I think I need to start saving up to buy all these titles starting now….
Thanks for the all information!!
Out of all of the yaoi titles that's been acquired, Viewfinder is arguably the most lucrative and highly sought after. Ayano Yamane was even aware about the high bids for the English version of Viewfinder at Ebay. Many of those auction still receive sky high bids.
Whoever receives Viewfinder truly struck gold.
Great news!! I'm glad to read that Close the Last Door vol 2 is coming!!
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