Broccoli Books Blog

Hello, blogger Shiz here.

Freelance designer Chris was finally able to get the Industry Babble blog set up. Yay!

So please visit http://www.bro-usa.com/industry_babble/. I’ll be posting daily!

Hello, blogger Shiz here.

Since we’re working on Koi Cupid vol 2, graphics assistant Cno reminded me that we need a synopsis for Koi Cupid vol 3 to include with the preview pages.

So I read through the book once again… altho I had just read it a few days ago, but you tend to remember less as you get older… anyway, I wrote up the general storyline & tossed the synopsis task to re-writer Jason.

Hmm, I wonder if we have the cover materials for Koi Cupid vol 3. Cuz we’ll need that for the preview page introduction too.

Hello, blogger Shiz here.

Forgot to mention this on Tuesday, but graphics assistant Cno uploaded the newest issue of BROCOMI.

This month is Nui vol 1.

I think next month we’ll feature the first 19 pages from Leave it to Piyoko vol 2. Since it was the most requested title in the August 2008 Q&A blog entry.

Hi blogger Shiz here.
Currently swamped by doing customer service emails & catching up with convention requests for donations and the like.

Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu sent in their review of My Dearest Devil Princess vol 2 a looooong time ago, but I forgot to link to it.

Happy reading!

This is blogger Shiz.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. And watching the Olympics.

Graphics assistant Cno printed out the layout pages for Koi Cupid vol 2, so I’m handing them over to freelance editor Hope to start working on the edits.

I also read through Koi Cupid vol 3 today to pick out pages for the preview page that goes in the back of volume 2. Although there’s only 2 pages allotted for the preview pages, so it was a bit hard to pick the pages.

There are four new major(?) characters that make an appearance in Koi Cupid vol 3, and I didn’t know which one to feature. In the end, I picked the devil… but maybe girls would have appreciated the bishounen more. Oh wells.

Hi blogger Shiz here.

Questions that have been coming into pr @ bro-usa.com & editor @ broccolibooks.com.
I wish I had time to answer all of them individually, but I want to get those FLCL Ult Ed t-shirts out… and work on these books that needs to be printed ASAP… so please forgive my mass reply.

Q. Do you know if the last two volumes 10 & 11 of Kamui will be released soon. If so when?
(from Dawn + Lisbeth who was concerned about the series, Debra)

A. KAMUI vol 10 and vol 11 production are currently on hold. The book market is changing a lot these days, and as a small publisher we need to wait and see how the big players are going to tackle the issue before jumping into the waves ourselves.

We hope to get them back on track by the end of 2008.

Q. I was wondering if Broccoli Books was going to translate the Juvenile Orion doujinshi, Worlds End Garden. And is Broccoli going to be translating anything else from Sakura Ashika?
(from Melissa)

A. We don’t have any plans on translating Juvenile Orion doujinshi.
If Broccoli Japan ever makes a Juvenile Orion anthology book, we will most likely license it.

And no, we don’t plan on licensing any of Sakura Ashika’s any time soon. Her works are too “hardcore” even for Boysenberry ^_^
For those who don’t know, Sakura Ashika is another pen name of Sakurako Gokurakuin.

Q. Do you still have any plans for Pandora Hearts, or a rough estimated realese date?
(from “a fan”)

A. We’ve been mentioning Pandora Hearts in our production meeting, but we’re still trying to figure out which one of our translators will be best for the project. We need to get our butts moving on this project… I’ll try to post an update here soon. Sorry!

Q. I’ve been interested in the release of Koreaki Kamuro’s Sex Friend. Is it going to be releasing soon?
(from Mary + Andrea)

A. Sorry, Sex Friend been sitting on my desk. I recently had another set of copy editors go over the book, because I wasn’t satisfied with how the last story was handled… and I haven’t looked it over yet. But I’ll wrap it up soon. Sorry!

Q. I’ve been waiting since nearly February for this book. Is there any information on when this will truly be available?
(from Jermaine + Chuck, Charles)

A. Hopefully you’ve found World of Disgaea 2 by now. We just got it right before Anime Expo 2008.

Q. I purchased a manga entitled “Kon Kon Kokon” from your publishers a while back. The vol 1 was released in Japanese back in the beginning of ‘07. I was wondering if you happened to know why the manga halted, or why there is no mention of a vol 2 being released anytime soon.
(from Jon)

A. Kon Kon Kokon serialization was halted in Japan for a while, because ComiDeji+ decided to cross-promote Kami-chama Karin in their magazine while the anime was out. I haven’t talked to the Comic Dept of Broccoli Japan in a while, so I’ll ask what the status of the series is.

Since there’s no book out in Japan, we can’t release one here. Sorry!

***
I hope that answers all of the questions you guys may have. I went back to early May for all the emails. If I deleted your mail by mistake, please send an email to editor @ broccolibooks.com.

Hello, blogger Shiz here.

I’m cheating with this blog… I’m posting the last three blog entries on Wed night.
It’s because I did a lot of production work on Wed… which is because I’ve been procrastinating for a week. Well, my work is just “assigning work to other people,” so some of you may not say it’s really work… but the heaviest thing I carry is a pen! (Hmm, I think that’s a Japanese saying. Does the meaning come across in English?)

Anyhoo, I wanted to spread out the blog entries so I can procrastinate on the blog writing. No that I don’t like to blog, because I think I spend half my non-work hours blogging. The other half is spent sleeping, but I digress. (I’m rambling because it’s actually really late & I’m super sleepy)

Anyhoo 2.
I finally got around to assigning My Dearest Devil Princess vol 3 layout work to freelance layout staffer Erikat. I saw her at Comic Con too. *waves*

But I realized we haven’t worked on the cover design for My Dearest Devil Princess vol 3. Damn… time to contact freelance designer Chris. But do we have materials? Time to have graphics assistant Cno look around…

Hi blogger Shiz here.

I was supposed to work on Honoka Level Up vol 1 edit (looking over the translation & stuff), but since freelance editor Dee came by the office, I handed him the packet to copy edit.

Why was he at the office? He goes out with the rest of the staff to eat at Pioneer Chicken.

Pioneer Chicken!? They’re still around?

No.
It’s just a leftover restaurant from the franchise days.

Anyway, freelance editor Dee will bring Honoka Level Up vol 1 back next week. It really doesn’t take that long to copy edit, but he’s busy planning a special birthday party for retail operations manager Dennis.

We have a lot of August birthdays (three of them!), so I’ll go out and buy a cake on Friday.

Hi blogger Shiz here.

Freelance layout staff Brian emailed saying he uploaded the files for Koi Cupid vol 2. So I downloaded the file, and will have graphics assistant Cno print out the first draft of the book tomorrow.

I also recruited a new freelance editorial staff to work on this book.
Of course I’ll be taking part in the editing as usual… like looking over the translation & language nuances.

Maybe photos tomorrow~

Hi blogger Shiz here.

Did you notice the new top banner image for August?
This month it’s Dejiko with an ukiwa (floating tube thing?).

Thanks to graphics assistant Cno for updating the banner!