TOKYOPOP and Viz interviews

[Yukino Miyazawa]

ICv2 has three-part interviews with Tokyopop's Mike Kiley and Viz's Liza Coppola.

Let's talk about fiction. You publish some imported fiction, are you also generating fiction on your own?

Yeah we are. Probably our highest profile license release at the moment is the Twelve Kingdoms series, the second volume of which will be out in hardcover next year. We've had very successful novelizations of .Hack and Love Hina; FLCL comes out in novel form next year. All of those are really exciting, but we're developing a series of original novels based mostly on our own IP for properties like Princess Ai and Bizenghast, and things like that.

I'm glad that at least some of Tokyopop's novels are doing well.

Tokyopop obviously has a massive hit with Fruits Basket. What's next? How are you going to match that in terms of a sustainable long-term hit like that's been?

Of the things that are truly new that could rise to that level, if I had to single out one, it would probably be another Hakusensha series that's coming out near the end of this year (I believe it's a December 18th release) called Gakuen Alice. We were enormously pleased to get that license. The fan anticipation on Gakuen Alice is considerable, so we're going to be taking a great deal of time and energy and energy to get that off on the right foot.

Other things that are newer debuts, whether they ever become Fruits Basket-type franchises is a little more difficult. Trinity Blood has that potential because of its powerhouse nature across anime and manga and fiction. It's kind of a triple threat and we're seeing very good results from that.

Chibi Vampire and +Anima are incredible out of the gate. Chibi Vampire has the advantage of being published in a couple of different formats, fiction and manga, so they both feed off each other.

It's interesting that +Anima did so well.

What are you looking at for 2008 in terms of your manga output versus 07?

We're really looking into what exactly are Shonen Jump titles, what exactly are Shojo Beat titles, and just really trying to define what that strategy would be to appeal to that market. I think a lot of the problems that publishers have is they do the whole "slash" thing (it's a romance/horror/science fiction/fantasy), so we need to learn how to segment down a little better. At Viz, something we're looking at for 2008 is building a much more overall rounded program. It's not just dropping a title out there in publishing and finding that audience, but it may be finding a different distribution channel for the anime, it may be that the manga comes to you in a completely different format. I think for 2008, we're taking a really good look at our properties and really building them more as brands versus one-off properties.

More variety is always good. "Branding" is also pretty helpful for people who like a certain kind of manga, but are unsure of what titles fit into the category that they like.

Is there anything in your pipeline for the next 12-18 months that has the potential to be a mass brand on that scale, other than Naruto?

Blue Dragon is one of the other properties that we've identified as a pretty huge program, with all the history and everybody involved with it; the fact that Microsoft is a key partner; you've got Toriyama on there and some incredible talent involved. So that's another one we know has huge potential.

Interesting. I'll have to check it out.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Originally Posted by Yukino Miyazawa

It's interesting that +Anima did so well.

It got a big boost from Scholastic orders, which can more than triple the print run of the average manga.

[Lovely]

Huh. I really like +Anima myself, but I never ONCE thought that it was a popular series for TP. That actually is pretty interesting.

[dunno001]

it may be that the manga comes to you in a completely different format.

Am I just worrying too much, or does this line concern other people also? I want to keep my books, thank you very much...

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by dunno001

Am I just worrying too much, or does this line concern other people also? I want to keep my books, thank you very much...

This could be in reference to the Viz Big line that starts up next year. Viz could also be looking into online distribution, though that wouldn't interest me very much.