NYCC '08: THE TOKYOPOP PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Russell Burlingame

The 2008 New York Comic Con’s Tokyopop panel was one of many manga and anime panels hosted on kids’ day at the show. The panelists included Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, Senior Editor, and Distribution Services Manager Kasia Piekarz.

Due to early technical problems, the panel began with a question and answer period, with an audience member starting things, asking, “I was actually trying to find the interview with Van Von Hunter at the anime festival—where can I find those?”

Diaz-Przybyl elaborated that they shot footage with a person dressed as this character and conducted interviews on green screen. “Those are not yet available online because they’re being compiled into a larger movie. There’s an in-house project being done by Stu Von Levy and Stephen Calcoat.”

They had so much fun filming that 20-minute segment that they decided to turn it into a feature-length film.

It’s being compiled into what Diaz-Przybyl called a “Spinal Tap-like Van Von Hunter movie parody thing.”

Voice actor Uri Lowenthal plays the character, a fact which came as a shock to the audience member who had already been interviewed by him. “He was unrecognizable in costume, it was amazing how well he got into that character,” Diaz-Przybyl laughed. “His amazing job with that particular part has been an inspiration to our fearless leader so I’m kind of looking forward to that in spite of some personal reservations that I had originally.”

A young audience member said Lowenthal thanked her for mentioning his wife at SDCC. He said that it’s nice to remind the fangirls who hang around him at conventions that he’s married.

“Most American voice actors are super cool,” said Diaz-Przybyl. “They’re always responsive to fans and that I think is really awesome.”

Asked if there was any consideration of doing further Iokano titles, Diaz-Przybyl responded, “Whenever we have a surprise hit, we always look to do more from that creator in the future,” but that she had nothing specific to promise.

Lagoon Engine has never really caught on; despite the fact that Diaz-Przybyl felt it was superior to better-selling books.

A fan asked how Tokyopop decides which titles they keep in the Japanese names and which ones get a translated or Westernized title to.

“The answer is that it’s not a very exact science,” said Diaz-Przybyl. Fan recognition plays in, as does retailer feedback. Occasionally, though, word will come down from “on high” and they will do what the boss commands.

“We try to reduce that as much as possible because we realize that there is a very knowledgeable fan base out there,” Diaz-Przybyl said. She said a good example of that is Tramps Like Us, which was originally translated to “You Are My Pet,” which Tokyopop didn’t like, but people continued asking for the Japanese title even after Tramps Like Us was around.

A fan asked, “Have you seen any move in the Japanese market to gear their titles more friendly toward the English language market?”

“The answer is not in that particular regard,” Diaz-Przybyl said. “The Japanese publishers are all extremely aware of what’s going on in the United States. They try to be up to date about it and we try to keep them up to date about it. But at the end of the day the licensing revenue that we generate is miniscule compared to the overall Japanese market.”

Piekarz added, “They’re certainly very curious about the American market. They want to understand how the market works and are very interested, but as far as the content goes, they really don’t think about us.”

Diaz-Przybyl explained that the way that the American market works is much more different from the Japanese. She gave the example that a lot of Yaoi has a lot of teacher-student relationships. It’s a big problem in the US and in Japan is “sort of a fun kink factor.”

The discussion then moved on to upcoming releases.

Coming up this summer:

Fruits Basket Planner. It’s an 18-month, undated planner. It’s a Barnes & Noble exclusive starting in July. Everyone else will get it in October. Also a Fruits Basket sticker collection, which includes cell phone stickers “which I think we stole from the Japanese magazine,” Diaz-Przybyl joked.

Geneimuso (Phantom Dream) was projected on screen. It’s an early title by the Fruits Basket author. “Please ignore that cover art,” Diaz-Przybyl joked. The series had been mentioned many times in relation to Fruits Basket and was brought to the US to meet fan demand.

The big announcement of the con was that Blizzard Entertainment is continuing a relationship with Tokyopop, including another Warcraft trilogy and some Starcraft material. From August through December, they’ll be releasing five books in five months.

“The poor editors involved in this are kind of freaking out right now,” Diaz-Przybyl said. “It’s a great relationship, but it requires approvals at every step of the way.” She promised more detailed information coming at the summer conventions.

Castlevania, based on the hit video game. “Who doesn’t love sexy vampire hunters?” Diaz-Przybyl joked. The title is coming out in September. “If you don’t know Castlevania you probably won’t be that interested and if you do know Castlevania you should buy this book.” This is the first of two volumes in the US—there may be more coming out in Japan.

They then showed a projection from Star Trek: The Next Generation. They’ve got a third “original series” Star Trek anthology in the works, and a Star Trek: The Next Generation anthology coming in either October or November. Tokyopop said that they’ve gotten some of the original Star Trek talents, and they have some Star Trek: The Next Generation writers working on this too.

An audience member asked if they thought they could get Peter David, but Diaz-Przybyl answered, “I honestly don’t know offhand. If we can we probably will.” She assured the fan that the editor in charge of the project “is actively pursuing writers like that.”

Fate Stay Night, a spinoff of the popular anime, will have an October release date.

Goth: a Novel of Horror by Otsuichi, a well known pop novel figure in Japan these days, “is a gruesome and dark and suspenseful thriller,” said Diaz-Przybyl. They projected a sample of the prose—it’s not an illustrated novel, but there is a manga version which Tokyopop will also be publishing, which was described as tremendously gory. “It’s the story of two kind of messed up teenagers investigating various gruesome things that they come across.” It’s the relationship of these two twisted people. The novel has also been optioned by Fox Atomic.

Bizenghast scheduled to come out in July, and a Bizenghast novel (which will be promoted more at the summer cons). It’s a novelization of the first volume of the novel but with a lot of background information. There are seven planned manga volumes, but “this is a great kind of secondary way to explore that world.” This is the first of hopefully many of this sort of franchise spin-off that we’ll be doing.

Princess Ai, which started in 1996 or so, was projected on screen. It’s about a woman who comes from Ai-land (which is a pun) and she got lost, got home and disappeared for a few years until recently but now they’re starting a new trilogy called “Prism of the Midnight Dawn” starting in November of December, depending on how the holiday season plans out.

“Prism of the Midnight Dawn starts a year after we see I leave for I Land and she’s kind of bored, her brother is the king, and she goes on a new series of adventures involved with finding this Prism of the Prism of the Midnight Dawn. We’ll learn a lot more about Ai-Land and we’ll get to see a lot more of it, which we haven’t before.”

Leading up to that, there are two anthology volumes: Rumors From the Other Side and Encounters. The first are apocryphal stories, such as through the eyes of supporting characters, and Encounters are kind of crossover stories. The anthologies “kind of” fill in what’s happened in the missing year. That’s a September release.

“We have a lot of promotions planned for when Encounters is coming out, but she can’t discuss yet,” said Diaz-Przybyl.

The I Luv Halloween Ultimate Twisted Edition is coming out in September, on store shelves in time for the Halloween rush and entirely in color. It includes a ten-page bonus comic, larger trim size, hardcover, and some other bonus content.

The DramaCon Ultimate Edition is coming in October. The volume is a bind-up of the three existing volumes with a new cover, a new back cover and a variety of bonus features, including a 15-page original story from Svetlana about Mad Kristy’s first date.

Vassalord by Nanae Chuono was projected. On sexy vampires, Diaz-Przybyl said, “They’re super hot and it’s super wrong and it’s all kinds of awesome.” Of the title, she said, “In spite of the violence and weird jokes, it’s a very kind of engaging, engrossing series. Two volumes and counting. It might be kind of a wait after volume 2 in December but she’s working on it.”

Silver Diamond is coming, about a young man who has an incredible green thumb and plants grow when he looks at them. He discovers he’s a prince with another world. He learns this when a hot guy with a tree gun lands in his back yard. Lo and behold, a plot is revealed and an adventure is started.

Jyu-Oh-Sei by Natsumi Itsuki is a combination of hard science fiction and a lot of shojo elements. It was re-released in Japan recently in a three-volume oversized bind-up edition and that’s what we’re replicating for our version of it. This is one of her best-known series so we’re looking forward to it. It’s set in a galaxy far, far away about a young boy named Thor who—he and his twin brother end up being part of a government conspiracy. They’re cast down to a prison planet and he discovers that in order to get off it, he has to unite the four different tribes, become the Beast King and then he’ll have a chance to escape.

Daemonium by Kosen is an original property they’re developing. It’s a tale of “demons and lost paths and complicated love and drama and pretty boys,” said Diaz-Przybyl. “Check it out in July.”

Vassalord and Silver Diamond are both in July as well.

Loveless volume 8 is coming out in September, and just came out in Japan at the end of February.

The third volume of Return to Labyrinth coming out in November. It’s the conclusion to the first Labyrinth trilogy—there may be exciting news about the Jim Henson stuff eventually but I’m not allowed to talk about it yet.

Gakuen Alice volume 3 and 4- it was compared to Harry Potter, but sophisticated and more mature than the characters’ ages would necessarily indicate.

“It’s the at least third series by these particular creators and it’s interesting to go back and look at their earlier works and see how they’ve really grown as creators since then,” Diaz-Przybyl said. “You can tell this world is infinite and that it’s going to get more complicated as she goes along.”

Sgt. Frog continues to go strong. Volume 15 is coming out in May, 16 in December. “We’ve caught up to the series now so we’re waiting for it to come out now. There’s a volume 1-3 bind-up that’s 12.99 for three volumes.”

Spy Goddess, distributed by HarperCollins, by Michael P. Spradlin. Volume 1 came out in March, volume 2 is due in March next year. Also with Harper, the Warriors series will continue, described as “Watership Down with cats.” The next volume, featuring the series’ major villain - The Rise of Scourge - is coming in May. With Warriors: Tigerstar and Sasha coming out in the summer.

Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives, written by Ellen Schreiber and art by Rem. Volume 2 coming in September.

Tokyopop’s Pilot Program web initiative was then discussed. The program is commissioning one or two chapters at a time from up and coming manga creators, and paying them. The chapters will then be placed on the web, and if the reaction is positive, the creator will be greenlit for a full manga volume. There are currently five stories ready, with 25 more in some stage of development. The chapters will be available, for free, on the website soon. “It’s a way for us to test out a lot of content a lot easier and for you fans out there it’s a way to read a lot of manga for free and to get your voice heard.” The Program will hopefully will launch in the next couple weeks.

Tokyopop is also partnering with Verizon’s Vcast service to offer fans Rave Master and Bizenghast and more on the Vcast cell phone media service. Tokyopop’s IManga featuring – Gyakushu!, I Luv Halloween, Sokora Refugees and others either are running or will be very soon on the Web-animated format.

They gave a schedule of appearances for the rest of the year as well, which can be found on the Tokyopop website.

An audience member asked if there was anything from Japanese-origin novels coming down the line. Diaz-Przybyl answered, “Full Metal Panic is ongoing, and they’re awesome. We’re going to have some novel announcements later in the year.”

Finally, even though IDW has Star Trek, the difference between comics and manga licenses is kind of a loophole. It’s much the same with DC’s Warcraft series.

[Illustr8r]

These people lost my money when they stopped putting out Lupin III.

[ShinAkuma666]

Too bad there was no news on a date for the second volume of Pop Mhan Blame! manga...

[Question86]

Tokyopop is such a crappy company. All this American and Korean crap being advertized as manga. Viz Media has much better releases.

[EgonSpengler]

Originally Posted by Question86

Tokyopop is such a crappy company. All this American and Korean crap being advertized as manga. Viz Media has much better releases.

Quit yer belly aching, good books are good books no matter what they call them. Giffen's I Luv Halloween was hilarious!

[beta-ray]

Sgt. Frog continues to go strong. Volume 15 is coming out in May, 16 in December. “We’ve caught up to the series now so we’re waiting for it to come out now. There’s a volume 1-3 bind-up that’s 12.99 for three volumes.”

Hmn coulda sworn there were more Keroro Gunsou... but I guess of the manga proper there was only 16. The TV series is several seasons long now..

This shows 1-16 plus some other books...
http://www.keroro.com/comic.php

I would love to see (but I doubt we would) is the musha Keroro stuff. I think that is playing out in Keroro Ace or Comic Bonbon...
http://www.keroro.com/comic/sengoku.php

[lostphrack]

Originally Posted by ShinAkuma666

Too bad there was no news on a date for the second volume of Pop Mhan Blame! manga...

Blank! not Blame!, Blame!'s a sci-fi series from Tsutomu Nihei. But yeah, I would have liked to have heard some mention of a second Blank! volume, or maybe a release date for the second East Coast Rising.

[ShinAkuma666]

Hahaha, yeah your right, its Blank!, as for East Coast RIsing, maybe it was the format but I tought it was very very confusing and I could not connect with it at all.

But I gave it a try since I enjoyed Becky Cloonan work on American Virgin.

[Arnout]

Originally Posted by EgonSpengler

Quit yer belly aching, good books are good books no matter what they call them. Giffen's I Luv Halloween was hilarious!

Even though I wasn't for OEL at first at all either, I now think Gyakushu & King City are among the best post-manga things around.
Along with James Stokoe's Won Ton Soup & Scott Pilgrim, I think these are good versions of how to make the storytelling, format, B&W work without it simply being derivative & sub-par.