Kodansha and DNP To Purchase US Manga Licensor Vertical

by dtshyk
Feb 23, 2011 5:58 PM | 7 Comments

According to Anime!Anime!, Kodansha and Japan's top printing company Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) will purchase US manga licensor Vertical Inc. Kodansha and DNP will acquire 46.7% and 46.0% of Vertical's stock shares, respectively. Vertical specialized in minor titles targeted at older demographics. The financial status of the company has been relatively stable despite the steep shrinkage of the manga market in the US. Kodansha has continually been behind its rivals Shueisha and Shogakukan, who dominate the US market with their subsidiary, VIZ Media. Kodansha has made inroads into North America by launching its US branch in 2008 and by taking over DelRey's titles last October.

Source: Anime!Anime!

7 Comments Recent Comments

N1nj4br34dm4n said:

zombieguy said:
Kind of related, I'm really tired of the constant changes in the US licensing business. Nothing is ever straightforward, nothing ever works the way it's supposed to, and no one ever tells you what's going on. I guess that's the way it goes in the business world, but it pisses me off.

I can tell you that this is not the way that it is in the business world. This is the way that badly run business are run. The fact that this is the state of the licensing business in the US is sad and laughable. While I respect that a lot of the people who are starting these businesses have a love for anime and manga, what they really need to do quickly is bring on people who actually know what they're doing in a business sense. You need to have some kind of dialogue with your customers to let them know what's going on. Until these companies get some real business people, the manga market in the states will never really grow.

That's what makes the Kodansha USA thing so sad. They should have known what they were doing, considering they were, well, technically a part of the largest publisher in Japan.

And amen about having a dialogue with customers. The lack of that is the most frustrating thing.

Feb 24, 2011 7:34 PM by therubicon

N1nj4br34dm4n said:

Other then VIZ you mean, right?

Feb 24, 2011 10:07 AM by Sabinlerose

well good luck doing that

Feb 24, 2011 8:06 AM by Mr_Gutts

Kodansha made inroads into the North America by launching its US branch in 2008 and took over DelRey's titles last October.

Made inroads? They missed like their first four release dates and only reprinted the versions of Akira and Ghost in the Shell that had already been published, one (or both?) of which was in worse quality than before. Their entire website is one blank white page with text. The hell have they been doing for over a year? Kodansha USA is / was pretty much a joke.

Anyway, they announced they were publishing 20+ volumes over four months after doing jack shit for over two years, and four months later (halfway to the first publishing date) Kodansha buys an established licensing company? Guess they called back to Japan and told them they wouldn't make the release dates again, so Kodansha got tired of paying them to sit on their asses. Hopefully Kodansha is smart enough not to put those two idiots in charge again.

Edit: ANN say Vertical will only start by publishing 2-4 Kodansha titles. I don't buy it.

Someone should ask about this. I would, but I don't have Twitter..

Kind of related, I'm really tired of the constant changes in the US licensing business. Nothing is ever straightforward, nothing ever works the way it's supposed to, and no one ever tells you what's going on. I guess that's the way it goes in the business world, but it pisses me off.

Feb 23, 2011 10:03 PM by therubicon

hopefully the quality won't change....the only american manga distributors i know are Viz,Del Rey, Tokyo Pop and Yen Press, and for french manga it would be Glenat and Kana....manga is still kind of expensive though....

Feb 23, 2011 9:41 PM by rpn101

As long as the quality isn't effected.
Vertical is the Atlus of manga.

Feb 23, 2011 8:05 PM by Sabinlerose

took over DelRey's title's? well hopefully this will sell more stuff in america...

Feb 23, 2011 6:16 PM by Neverarine