Tokyopop gets 38 new titles

THE EFFORTS of a few industrious people poking through Amazon.com sales listings recently led to one of the biggest piles of manga licensing announcements in recent memory.

Before the formal announcement came through, the combined efforts of animeondvd.com forum members and people on the Rosetta Stone Cafe mailing list managed to dig up 17 titles listed as available for preorder on Amazon. The most notable of these were two castoffs from other publishers: "Boku to Kanojo no XXX," formerly known as "Your and My Secret" with ADV Manga; and "Mamotte Shugo Getten," known as "Guardian Angel Getten" with Raijin Comics/Gutsoon Entertainment before that publisher went defunct.

When formal confirmation finally came June 19 via Anime News Network, 38 new titles were revealed, all of which are scheduled to ship in the first half of next year. The list includes Japanese manga, Korean manhwa, art books, light novels and global/OEL manga.

I must admit that I don't have much to go on other than titles and what I've been able to dig up online, but here are the series that intrigued me the most:

» The "FLCL" novel, based on the mind-bending anime and the even more mind-bending manga. I'd expect it to be ... well ... mind-bending.

» ".hack//G.U.+," another installment in the sprawling ".hack" multimedia universe of anime, manga, novels and video games.

» "Shin Megami Tensei," which hopefully retains the off-kilter horror elements that made the video game franchise feel so different from other Japanese role-playing games.

» "Rose Hip Rose," the prequel to current Tokyopop property "Rose Hip Zero," which I also enjoyed ...

COURTESY MAYOR'S OFFICE OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS
Christine Koizumi's "My Anime Self" is on display at Honolulu Hale. CLICK FOR LARGE

ANIME FLAVORS ART

Dymian Racoma, program administrator with the Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts, sent along a heads-up last week about an art exhibit going on at Honolulu Hale through July 12.

The National Arts Program's annual art exhibit features artwork by city employees and their families, some of which, according to Racoma, has an anime-influenced tinge to it. (A photo of Christine Koizumi's "My Anime Self" certainly impressed me.)

Go for the anime ties; stay for the overall artistic goodness. That seems like a fair deal to me.

IN SUNDAY'S D&Q

Aspirations of stardom abound in the Sunday Today section as I take a look at a trio of musically themed anime from ADV Films: "Wandaba Style" and "Nerima Daikon Brothers" ...

Cel Shaded, a look at the world of Japanese anime and manga, appears every Monday. Reach Jason S. Yadao at jyadao@starbulletin.com