Gollancz Manga Launch Details

Date: 2005 July 14 15:07

Posted by Joe

Gollancz Manga have sent us the details for their UK Manga releases. Starting August they'll be releasing manga on the first Monday of every month. Gollancz entered into an exclusive arrangement with VIZ to publish their titles in the UK. The titles available will include Yu-Gi-Oh!, Fushigi Yugi, Dragon Ball and Case Closed.

Many UK manga fans would have already got these titles from certain retailers offering the American import versions, but since these are the official UK versions it means that they'll be more easily available. Libraries for example will be able to order manga if they so wish through their distributors. The Otaku News Crew are excited to hear about this and look forward to seeing even more manga in the UK.

Full Story

Press release as follows:

GOLLANCZ MANGA

Get ready for Manga Monday!

Begins Monday, August 1st, 2005

Prepare yourselves! From next month, Monday means "Manga Monday" as Gollancz proudly unleashes its new GOLLANCZ MANGA imprint on the UK.

In a unique venture Gollancz Manga will be publishing some of the very biggest and best titles from the hugely popular cult phenomenon that is sweeping the world. The first Monday of every month will see the latest releases in a stunning collection of the world’s very best Manga titles, published in the UK for the first time!

Gollancz has entered into an exclusive arrangement with San Francisco-based publisher VIZ to publish their Manga series in the UK. VIZ is one of the top five comics publishers in the U.S. and a subsidiary of Shogakukan and Shueisha Inc., two of the top publishers in Japan.


Previously only available as expensive imports from specialist outlets, this will see Manga properly published and distributed in the UK for the first time with 30 titles across four series being released over the first 12 months. The new titles will cost £4.99 each, £2 less than the imported versions, which will make them a massive draw for children and collectors alike.

The series kicks off with the first two titles in four different series. These will be: YU-GI-OH!, FUSHIGI YUGI, DRAGON BALL and CASE CLOSED. The next volume in each series will be published on the first Monday of every month, guaranteeing an action-packed start to the week for fans and collectors. New titles will also be added to the list in 2006, ensuring Gollancz Manga will feature only the biggest and best Manga around.

YU-GI-OH!

A fantastic melding of cool teenage drama and ancient myth as Yugi, a shy young student, unleashes the power of an ancient Egyptian spirit from the age of the Pharaohs . . .

Awakened after three thousand years, the King of Games possesses Yugi, and recklessly challenges all comers, whether school bullies or violent criminals to the Shadow Games.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Has sold over 34 million copies worldwide and has spawned an industry that is worth £1 billion worldwide, incorporating a hugely popular animated series on Sky and Nickelodeon, trading card sets, video games and action figures.

FUSHIGI YUGI

Fushigi Yûgi is the story of carefree high school called Miaka who, together with her more serious best friend Yui, finds a book entitled "The Universe of the Four Gods." The book is magic, and it transports them both into its story and the world described there, where Miaka becomes embroiled in a fantastic adventure

The series creator, Yû Watase, is an incredibly prolific manga artist who has produced more than thirty compiled volumes in the past ten years. Yûgi was an unexpected hit in Japan, breaking a long-standing anime industry theory that no anime based on a shôjo (aimed-at-girls) manga could do well on TV.

DRAGON BALL

Son Goku is a naive young monkey-tailed boy whose quiet life is completely over-turned when he is nearly run over by a precocious and spiky girl called Bulma. She is on a quest to collect seven Dragon Balls and thereby be granted one wish.

But the balls are scattered all over the world and Bulma gets much more than she bargained for when she tricks Son to hand over the dragon ball he owns and gets him to join her quest.

Son Gokumay be tiny and naive but he's supernaturally strong, has a magic staff and owns a flying cloud. Also he's not as stupid as he appears.

The Dragon Ball series has sold over 85 million copies in translation alone and, like YU-GI-OH! has spawned a huge worldwide industry in trading cards, cartoon shows, action figures and video games. The Dragon Ball series has sold 1 million copies in Denmark, 1 million in Sweden, 6 million in Germany and 10 million in France.


CASE CLOSED

A cool and utterly charming Manga detective series about a teenage super-sleuth called Jimmy Kudo who evades death at the hands of gun smugglers, only to become trapped in the body of a child. Taking on the name of Conan Edogawa, he attempts to track down the people who did this to him. But until he finds a cure for his bizarre condition, Jimmy continues to help the police solve their toughest crimes.

Will you crack the case before Conan does?

"Case Closed" has sold 20 million copies in 20 countries, and in Japan alone it has sold 100 million copies.

The Gollancz Manga imprint will be backed by a major marketing campaign, ensuring that Mondays, and Manga will never be quite the same again!

Note to editors:

• Gollancz Manga is an imprint of Gollancz, part of the Orion Publishing Group


• Gollancz has entered into an exclusive arrangement with San Francisco-based publisher VIZ to publish their Manga series in the UK.


• VIZ is one of the top five comics publishers in the U.S. and a subsidiary of Shogakukan and Shueisha Inc., two of the top publishers in Japan


• The deal was negotiated on VIZ’s behalf by Sophie Hicks at Ed Victor Ltd, together with Chigusa Ogino at the Tuttle Mori Agency in Tokyo.


• The Gollancz Manga editions will be sublicenses of VIZ’s editions, from and limited to Shonen Jump and Shogakukan titles in Japan, originally published in the USA.