The Important Stuff:
I believe these are all the new licenses, but if I’m wrong and some aren’t new, my apologies:- Qwaser of Stigmata
- .hack//LINK
- Ratman
- Croquis
- Blood Honey
- Cute Demon
- Love Story in the Isolated Island (title subject to change)
And some new original or western-based works:
- Priest: Purgatory, to connect the original Priest manhwa to the upcoming live-action film
- Seekers, based on The Warriors creator Erin Hunter’s YA novels
I think that’s pretty much it for the time being, but if I missed something on this list, it’s probably in my writeup!
The Full Writeup
Apparently the TOKYOPOP presentation is being live broadcasted online for readers on its mailing list, but for those of you who aren't, you can catch the liveblog RIGHT HERE on Anime Vice. <3 We've been handed ramen, apparently there's some kind of vote-for-your-favorite-ramen thing going on.
Hokay, Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl is addressing a hot topic: they WILL be going back to higher-quality paper starting in the October time frame. Also, the Van Von Hunter film-- for which footage was shot at NYAF '07 --is finished and will be released soonish.
D.N. Angel: they've been waiting on Sugisaki-sensei to publish more, which she just did, so two volumes are on the way out. As for Gravitation EX, well, no new content there just yet, but a repackaged version of the original Gravitation manga IS in the works, with volume three currently in the works.
Now we're on the regular presentation...except that we just lost the connection to the at-home watchers. D'oh! Okay, on our way now.
Apparently the ramen promo has something to do with something going on in TOKYOPOP's announced November webcast, so we'll see how that goes.
Chibi Vampire (aka Karin) is very nearly at its end, and they were trying to get 14 out in advance, but he hasn't gotten his box just yet...new trilogy Princess Ai: Prism of the Midnight Dawn also has a manga trailer. Aaaand a cute little promo featuring Domo-kun at San Diego Comic Con.
Priest: Purgatory is a new original manga set in the Priest universe to unite the original manhwa with the upcoming movie. Speaking of movies...they're also doing a manga based on Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods. Hmmm! Shutter Island, another movie, is being pushed out in February, and they'll be doing a manga version of the novel that the film is based on.
Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition volume 5, originally pushed back, will now come out on June 8th 2010; the Fruits Basket Fan Book - Banquet will come out May 11th, for you Furuba fans. And another one for you: Natsuki Takaya's Song and Laughter, a collection of short stories from before her Furuba days.
.hack//Link will be coming out in August. Lillian, who "knows next to nothing about .hack," thinks it's really really cute. Ratman (The Smallest Hero!?) by Comic Party creator Inui Sekihiko, which is sort of a Japanese version of a superhero comic, as a comedy of course.
Finally, Qwaser of Stigmata, missed the release date of it, but it'll be an M-rating for fanservice, action, giant boobs, and religion. That, as you may recall, is the "nursing" manga that's getting an anime.
The Warcraft: MAGE book comes out next in that series, but it’ll be out in June 2010, followed by Warcraft: SHAMAN. TOKYOPOP will also be putting some comics in Warcraft magazine with art by someone for whom we will go crazy when we find out who they’re by.
Boys Love time! Junjo Romantica's last volume (12) on April 6th '10, You Will Drown In Love 2 on May 11th '10, and Voice or Noise volume 3 on August 1st '10. And a couple of new titles: Croquis, by Hinako Takanaga, which appears to be paint-themed; Blood Honey by Sakyou Yozakura, which is about vampires and a male nurse (...), and a few we already spotted on Amazon: Love Knot! I can't remember if Cute Demon is one of those too, but it looks cute. And Duo Brand.'s Love Story in the Isolated Island, which will be getting a "slight title revision." Duo Brand. fans unite!The best way to keep books from getting cancelled, we're told, is to (zomg) BUY them! Tell your friends to buy them! If you love it that much, support it, because that makes a huge difference. Reminds me of something Toshifumi Yoshida told me: if everyone in the anime industry spent their convention ticket money on anime instead, we could save the industry no problem.
We're on the Q&A right now, and yes, they'd love to publish more of Julietta Suzuki's works if Karakuri Odette does well enough, so make sure you buy it when it comes out. (It's a pretty and serious shoujo romantic drama kinda thing).
Futari Ecchi's fifth volume, licensed from Kodansha, MAY manage to make it out, but it's a mature title and it sounds like it's not doing as well as the high-quality production would warrant, but Lillian thinks it'll come out in some form.
What about hiatus titles, like Scrapped Princess? Do the licenses lapse? Lillian points out that novels cost five times as much to do (mostly to translate) than a manga, which is part of why they're so hard to do, especially given that they don't seem to sell very well. Can they release the licenses? That may have more to do with the Japanese copyright owners than Tokyopop, but it's also political because it's hard to tell Japanese companies that you don't want to publish their beloved series.
Kingdom Hearts? They would love to continue it, but Disney is "kind of a pain to work with, to be frank," and the licensing has gotten complicated, so Lillian says not to expect it, though it's unclear if someone else will pick it up-- maybe Marvel will publish it (cue chuckles).
Will TOKYOPOP reissue titles in omnibus form, like VIZ Big? Definitely something they're talking about and they have done it with a couple of series, and Pick of the Litter (by Yuriko Suda) will be coming out that way, and KareKano and Sgt. Frog already have them, and .hack//Legend of Twilight will also be coming out that way this December. "It's good for older series," says Kasia Piekarz, who by the way, has also been on this panel. (Sorry for not mentioning earlier, Kasia!)
The end!
I've been watching the webcast and the audio has been spotty (i.e., skipping words, dropping entirely) due to a poor NYAF wifi connection but the slides seemed to have worked. They said there'd be a webinar set up at a later date with the same information.