Broccoli Books Blog

We received our copy of the PGW Spring 2008 catalog.

There is one title we haven’t announced yet that’s on there (Title Merazoma), so I told marketing coordinator Jonathan to prepare a press release.

Hopefully we’ll be able to send it out today.
It’ll include more information about sola manga too.

As announced on the Broccoli Books fan club mailing list, we put up a little feature page on dot-anime for a new title coming out in 2008.

We already have the materials for the first volume, and I believe designer Chris is wrapping up the cover design (will almost be identical to the Japanese one).

We haven’t started translating it yet. Gotta assign it to someone.

It’s already December.
What happened? Didn’t we finish the summer conventions just a while ago? Geez… it’s a very urashima feeling. (For those who don’t get that last reference, please Wiki “Urashima Taro”)

I’ve been procrastinating blog entries all over.
Here. Over at our friend dot-anime. The Synch-Point one that I’ve long neglected that it moved away from my town, grumbling about the weeds that are spouting all over. You never gave me a framed photo anyway!!

To prove that the Broccoli Books staff have been working instead of just posting reviews, here are some things we’ve been working on:

Galaxy Angel II vol 3 proofs
We got them last week, but I was out due to some unexplained stomach pain, so I didn’t approve them til now. Sorry, the book might not come out in December. Please don’t hurt me, Galaxy Angel fans.

But Kahlua fans, rejoice. She adorns the cover, the back cover, the spine. Don’t forget to get the dust jacket of Kahlua and Tequila. It’s the original Japanese cover, not the “alternate” cover they made in Japan. That alternate cover image… we’ll have to find something to use it for. It’s an awfully cute image.

There’s an Aya Hirano interview in the back of the book too.

And the few hardcore Lily fans… she finally re-joins the group! And with all her weirdness. NG da~!!

Koi Cupid vol 1 translation
Translations are complete & we shipped the script off to re-writer Jason.

Production staffer Yukiko worked on the style guide for Koi Cupid, since each of the cupids have their unique way of talking. I’d like to see how re-writer Jason recreates the different nuances for Koi, Ai, and Ren. There is one thing we can’t re-create, though… they all speak in hiragana. Which gives the “childish” feel to their speech pattern.

Coyote Ragtime Show vol 3 layout
Has been turned in by layout staffer Knuckles. And freelancer Dee and production staffer Yukiko already made their stabs, so it’s in the hands of designer Chris. Who is busily updating the Holiday card list… instead of working on Coyote Ragtime Show vol 3. Grrr.

Speaking of holiday cards… this year’s Broccoli holiday cards features Rico.
Image will be posted soon.
When graphics assistant C-No makes me a JPG.

We also started getting all the materials for Title Do Re Mi and Title Merazoma.
I think Title Do Re Mi will be posted on dot-anime this week… if I don’t procrastinate on getting the all the approvals needed. Hafu~

Next time… images!

I headed over to the Bandai Visual US office today for our not-so-regular meeting.

We’re exhibiting together at Mikomi Con (Northridge, CA).
Sign up for any of the Broccoli Books or Bandai Visual mailing lists & get a free Kenshin calendar.

We just got a sample copy of Galaxy Angel Rune DVD vol 3, so we might show that.
Or Royal Space Force Wings of Honneamise on HD.

We also talked about what to do with title announcements during the off-convention-season time. Since dot-anime.us will eventually have a content section (the Japanese site has a section called Tornado Base, that has original novel serialization, creator blogs & stuff), I thought it would be cool to put up off-season announcements in the content section.

Or even an image banner.

I’m thinking Title Do Re Mi or Title Merazoma! would be ideal to post up on dot-anime.

Especially Title Do Re Mi.
Our marketing plan for Title Do Re Mi included promotions on dot-anime, so it makes sense to start the promotion with the online announcement.

Now to plan out the timing of the release.

I was griping to an unnamed press member that I had very few announcements for the summer convention season.

Well, we did have one big one with COSMODE English edition during Anime Expo. But it was only briefly mentioned at the Broccoli Books panel, but at the COSMODE panel. Well, that’s all my doing, since I didn’t have anything planned for the Broccoli Books panel. I was living on 3 hours of sleep those 2 weeks, so you gotta forgive me.

We were pushing, pushing, pushing to get more licenses confirmed by San Diego Comic Con. We only ended up with one title that was announce-able… which is NUI. But it did end up being good, since the audience at the Comic Con panel seemed to be at the target readership & we got to talk about NUI at length (for the lack of other announcements).

Then after all the conventions were over… we get a flood of confirmations. Well, flood is a Broccoli Books size type of way.

Oh, how I wanted to announce them at conventions.
But it’s okay. We’ll just go the route of sending out a press release.
Mendokusai kedo.

So here’s another round of Broccoli Books Title X round up.

Title Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
This is a Boysenberry title, which we’ll be announcing at Yaoi Con. We already made an ad for it for Pet on Duty, so it’ll actually be in bookstores before the announcement. But we’ll have the final English title at Yaoi Con.

We’re currently brainstorming for title ideas. Some day, I’d like to open it up for non-staff to contribute their title ideas… But for now, I’m asking all of our staff to list up names. I even asked the men in the office, just to be fair. But they just giggle like 10 year old girls. Geez.

Title Do Re Mi
I wonder if this is considered a moe title? Tsundere?
Even though Broccoli Japan is the capital of moe culture, we haven’t done much moe in the US yet. I suppose Di Gi Charat and Galaxy Angel are moe, but it’s not the same type of moe. If that makes sense.

This one is a moe that marketing staffer Jonathan likes. Or former buyer Koji likes. By the way, former buyer Koji now lives in Japan and has a moe-moe blog called Akihabara Channel. Take a look. Hmm. I can’t find the site right now. I’ll Mixi him.

Title Merazoma!
We thought this would be a good follow up title to the Disgaea series. Cute art too. Well, I won’t pick up anything that doesn’t have cute art. That’s the rule here.

There are a few more titles that are still pending.
Could go either way.
Two BL.
One game.
One gag.

Stay tuned!

(retro post below)

So the main reason for me to come up to N California was to attend the sales conference for Publisher’s Group West. Usually I would send sales manager Ardith or editor Dee, but they were busy & I’m more familiar w/ the new releases for 2007… so I ended up going.

I promised them we’ll get the press release out for Title Madadane, Title Calendar Girls, and Title Angel Food Cake in a Box this week, so they can add it to their database.

So maybe… Friday?
Ganbaru nyon!

We’re at the mercy of Broccoli Japan when it comes to licensing.
Although we’ve been petitioning to have it changed & maybe things will change in October.

But for some reason, we got OK to pursue more new titles & actually got some.
The planets lined up, the tea column stood up, and the geta landed face up.

Hm.
Two of the three were Japanese expressions.
And the last one has nothing to do with luck, but with weather.
But hurray!

So here’s a brief list of soon-to-be-announced titles.

From 8/09/06 blog entry, Title Madadane.
This one, which we’re thinking of releasing in summer 2006, will probably be announced at Sakura Con. But how would that work if we want to put an ad in Disgaea 2 vol 1, which is a February 2007 release? Hmm. Time to whip out the calendar again.

And there’s Title Angel Food Cake Mix in a Box.
What a long title!
We probably won’t release this until Q3 2007, so the announcement will come sometime between Sakura Con & Fanime. The first ad will be in Galaxy Angel II vol 2, probably.

And there’s Title Calendar Girls.
As the name implies, it’s a moe title. (lie)
If all goes well, this will be released in Q3 2007. But it’s hard to tell, because it’s going to take a while before the next volume comes out in Japan (so I heard).

And there’s Title Trekkie Paradise.
This code name is very misleading. But it’s hard to come up with a code name for titles with very few letters.
This one will be announced soon. Probably next month. We were hoping to couple it with another Title X during the announcement, so hopefully we’ll have more than one to announce.

I don’t think I left out anything.

Well there’s a few more that’s being warmed by the hen (I think that’s a Japanese saying too), so maybe there will be more leaks when President Kaname comes back from his licensing trip to Japan during Tokyo Game Show.

It’s been a while since we talked about the production progress here.
I mean, isn’t that what a production blog should be about?

Although I’m not directly involved in the day-to-day production stuff, so I should have editor Dee write in the blog. At least a weekly one.

Disgaea is currently printing.
I bleeped some of the information out last time, but there is a 4-page preview of Disgaea 2 at the end of Disgaea.

We did have some problems w/ the Disgaea 2 preview pages, though. For one thing, it’s drawn the opposite direction. It reads left to right.

So we forced it to read the Japanese way by adding arrows. For the actual Disgaea 2 book, we’ll add it back in its original way (opposite direction). Confusing? You tell me.

KAMUI vol 5 is almost ready to print. We’re waiting an extra week for approval because SQUARE ENIX is on summer vacation. KAMUI vol 5 is shorter than the first 4 volumes. So we are adding extra previews like E’S.

And Juvenile Orion illustration book.
It’s still a secret, but I’m planning for it to be a two-volume series. So the first book is called Realm of Light. The subtitle of the book was named by freelancer S@ki, who shared my vision of making it a two-volume series. But if the first book doesn’t do well, I can’t convince the higher ups to make the second book. So make sure you pick it up at your local bookstores.

Oh, Juvenile Orion Illustration Book Realm of Light finally has a solid release month. October 2006. There was a lot of issues with getting the release date set, which I can’t talk about yet. But I’m glad it’s finally being released. It’s been almost 2 years with the planning & everything. All the troubles of getting the images too. Almost long forgotten (but not quite).

Let’s see.
We also got the translation for E’S vol 1 turned in from freelancer S@ki.

And we just assigned graphics staffer Knuckles with the layout of the Disgaea illustration book. This book still doesn’t have an official name. The original Japanese title is Disgaea Character Collection, but it just doesn’t work in English. Got any suggestions? Send them to editor @ broccolibooks.com.

And translator Yoshi is working on Disgaea 2, and translator Koji is working on Galaxy Angel II.

So that’s the main stuff for production progress.

Now for the licensing stuff (which is what I mainly do).

We found out late last week that we got a new title from Company M.

I like to call all of our new titles Title X, but I keep getting objections from our staff. Namely designer Chris, editor Dee, freelancer S@ki… oh, everyone? Production assistant Krystal hasn’t found the courage to object to me yet. But she’ll get there soon. They all do *grumble*

So I’m not sure what to call this one.
Title M would be the straight-forward name, but I think I like code names.

So how about Title Madadane?
Like Prince of Tennis (mada mada dane), but not really. Actually, not at all. But there might be some connections. Docchi da yo!? (trans. “Which is it!?”, ie. hitori-tsukkomi)

We’re also finalizing a few more titles with another company.
Two titles for now, with couple more later on.
Codes names next time!

It’s been a while since I posted a long blog.
Tsukareta pyon.

Designer Chris and Online Store Manager Dennis left for Otakon tonight.
Thank goodness the Prinny hats made in time.
So they are hand-carrying it there.

Chris will be wearing the sample to the panel, so you can check it out there too.

The panel is on Saturday at 1pm in Panel Room 2.
We are making an announcement on the Broccoli Books side.

We are also pre-selling the Galaxy Angel Beta volume 3.
This is the final volume, and you will find out what happens to Milfie, Chitose, and Takuto.
Exciting!!

The secong issue of E’S Press will be passed out too.
Of course, you can get a copy even if you’re not at Otakon if you’re signed up for the Broccoli Books fan club.

So we have another title X.
Although it’ll be announced at Otakon by designer Chris.

Anyway, we just assigned translator Yoshi to translate the book.

We might have him translate Galaxy Angel II too.
Then he’d have two sequels to translate.

Did I just smell a hint?
Naw, that’s just your dirty socks.