http://kokoromedia.com Covering the Business of Asian Media - Metrics for a Genre Market Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:39:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yesterday, the Anime News Network reported that two of Viz Media's parent companies are joining in a unique way to streamline the licensing and distribution of anime and manga titles. Major publisher Shueisha has made an investment in Shogakukan Productions, the licensing and merchandising arm of publisher Shogakukan. Both companies ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=64 Major manga distributor Tokyopop has split in half in a move that will eliminate 39 positions within Tokypop, Inc. The company is creating a new film and media division, Tokyopop Media LLC, which will supervise projects outside the pages of manga. The company is also going through re-structuring at the ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=63 CrunchyRoll Inc., a leading destination Anime & Asian media fansubs, raised $4.05 million in Series A funding, according to regulatory filings. Venrock led the round, with partner David Siminoff joining their Board of Directors. Crunchyroll, a website for fans, offers free ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=56 Even though its been almost two years since the Sony E-reader debuted with electronic pages of manga, we're no closer to discovering if e-manga will come home to roost. In the area of e-readers, the reviews for the Kindle make it ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=58 After a well deserved and necessary break, we return. We tried to keep the lights on here-- If you have any news items, please contact us at news @ kokoromedia.com http://kokoromedia.com/?p=57 Japan's interest in cross-border licensing was pretty apparent from this years International Licensing Show last month in New York. According to LIMA Japan, at least 20 companies from Japan exhibited at the show in addition to Korean and Taiwanese pavilions that each housed a half a dozen organizations or ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=54 Rebuild of Evangelion is one of four films slated for release beginning this September by GAINAX, the studio behind the seminal and profitable series Neon Genesis Evangelion A viewer in Japan recorded the trailer while sitting in a movie theatre, then uploaded it to YouTube. The footage is grainy and ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=53 For the next week, we'll be providing Anime-Expo (AX) post-conference analysis on the industry presentations we attended. Today is on Anime DVD sales: One apparent issue is the dropping of DVDs sales starting last year. Over in Japan, anime DVD sales dropped to $826 mil, or down 2% over 2006. ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=52 DC Comics, possibly intimidated by Marvel's Mangaverse and Dark Horse's close relationship with Masamune Shirow and other mangaka, has invested in a manga start-up called Flex Comics Snip: Translated editions of Japanese manga dominate U.S. graphic novel sales, and the Flex Comics venture makes DC Comics one of the first English-language ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=50 A few months ago I did a wrap up of the anime social networks as well as a later article on adding legal content to your blog in Japan. One site they like to visit and show their skill ... http://kokoromedia.com/?p=49