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And we shall rename your land "Narutopia"

April 26, 2007 by

From a Viz press release:

“VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media)… has announced the launch of NARUTO NATION™, a broad campaign that will bring an unprecedented increase in the frequency of publication of its wildly popular NARUTO™ manga series. In order to catch up to the present Japanese release schedule and to prepare readers for upcoming notable changes in the main character and story arc, VIZ Media will offer three new volumes of NARUTO per-month from September through December 2007 – a first for any U.S. manga publisher.”

Okay, this could mean one of two things:

  • Best-seller lists are going to be very, very boring during the third quarter of 2007, or
  • we’re about to find out just how much people like Naruto.

    • (I’ve posted the full press release at the Flipped Forum, but be warned that it seems to contain some SPOILERS for future volumes. Here’s the link.)

    I’m still considering the possible ramifications of this kind of accelerated publishing schedule, but damn… that’s a lot of Naruto in a very short span. Will audience appetite and disposable income support it?

    Filed under: Press releases, Viz 21 Comments

    Speculation

    February 15, 2007 by

    I got an intriguing press release from Go! Comi in the e-mailbox yesterday:

    WENDY PINI TO APPEAR AT GO! COMI PANEL

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Legendary comic creator Wendy Pini (“ElfQuest”) will be appearing at manga publisher Go! Comi’s panel at New York Comic Con to announce a major new project, which she describes as “darkly exciting and adult oriented.” The panel will be held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 24th. Wendy will be joined by her husband, Richard Pini, for an autograph session at Go! Comi’s booth (#564) at 3:00 PM immediately after the panel.

    In light of Go! Comi’s previous announcement that they’ll be conducting portfolio reviews at NYCC, it seems increasingly likely that someone’s thinking about branching out.

    Filed under: Conventions, Go! Comi, Press releases 1 Comment

    Notebooks

    January 10, 2007 by

    Another interesting press release, this time from Viz:

    “VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV) the Download to Own (DTO) and Download to Rent (DTR) rights for the United States for the smash hit DEATH NOTE anime series, currently airing in Japan.”

    I posted the full release over at the Flipped Forum.

    Edited to note: After posting in haste, I checked with a Viz spokesperson, and the anime episodes will be subtitled for their downloadable release.

    Filed under: Anime, Press releases, Viz 4 Comments

    Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are chibi

    January 8, 2007 by

    Some press releases are just more fun than others. One landed in my in-box via SelfMadeHero, who will be publishing those manga adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays (starting with Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in March).

    “Emma Hayley, director of SelfMadeHero, says: ‘We are creating visually dynamic versions of the classics to make the books accessible, cool and understandable to new readers.’ Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s film Romeo and Juliet, in the Manga Shakespeare series she decided to retain the original language and use the visual impact of manga to help re-tell the stories in an abridged version.”

    Having a theatre background, I’ve seen what feels like more than my share of modernized Shakespeare, including a deeply ghastly Richard III, where the title monarch wandered through a field of dead bodies humming “Over the Rainbow”, and a Comedy of Errors where everyone wore casual cruise togs and some of the female characters kept striking Charlie’s Angels poses. But it doesn’t sound like SelfMadeHero is going to be taking quite those kinds of liberties.

    Sonia Leong and Emma Vieceli, the creators working on the books, have been keeping a LiveJournal and sharing page scans (found via the Sweatdrop Forums).

    Filed under: Press releases 4 Comments
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