Spotlight: Broccoli Books
I’m using my manga charts to look at the output of select publishers —
covered previously:
Aurora Publishing, ADV Manga, CMX, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DMP/DMP June/801
In the Spotlight this week:
Broccoli Books
I was wondering which pub to tackle next (Go! Media was the next one up, alphabetically, and is slated for next week) when it occurred to me to maybe take a closer look at exactly which, and how many, publishers I should be looking at anyway. The fruits of that effort were posted this morning, and after combining those percentages with a straight-up title count, I’ve managed to outline the full course of these columns: 19 publishers, plus 2 special features, plus (to close this out with a bang) special 3-part articles for both Tokyopop and Viz for a total of 25 columns —of which this is the 7th.
So. We’ll be doing this for a while.
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In no way meant as a slight, I initially skipped Broccoli because at the time there were only 17 of their titles in my spreadsheet (10 of them ranked) and I figured I would lump them in with some others in a consolidated, 3rd-tier publisher report.
In the interim, another 9 titles have migrated into my database, Koi Cupid debuted well, all four volumes of My Dearest Devil Princess are picking up online sales — and maybe there’s a Nintendo DS port of Disgaea 2 coming or whatnot, because some of these titles are on the move. The 26 current titles (17 ranked) when weighted by score add up to around .5% of the market
.5% of a $210M market is One Million Dollars. (I just like saying that) (…and that’s only an estimate, and would be gross sales, not net revenue or EBITA or profits)
So: Broccoli.
Broccoli Books specializes in Japanese comics, illustration books, graphic novels, and more. Broccoli Books is a division of Broccoli International USA, parent company of Anime Gamers USA and Synch-Point.
…
Many familiar with Japanese animation goods know the name Broccoli. Broccoli is a name that people have come to recognize in the field of anime and manga merchandise. Broccoli International’s Japan-based parent company, Broccoli, opened Gamers, a store catered to the Japanese animation, comics, and card game fans in 1996.
Ah… so nice to be back in the comfy realms of lazy-bloggerdom, and having the luxury of just linking to the publisher’s website
While we’re touring the Broccoli site, please look out the window to your left for a magnificent view of a regularly updated industry blog, always nice to see that, and to our right is an index of the books that you can find by clicking a tab marked, you know, ‘books’. I hate to make a big deal out of this, and really, it’s just so I can knock Tokyopop for their atrocilicious web site design, but we All need to berate Tokyopop for that at every opportunity.
But wait, there’s more! A current new release list! — Product Previews! — Online-exclusive content! — Links to Company HQ in Japan where you can find boring financial information!
I can almost see your eyes rolling on that last one, but come on: when I can load up a site and go from front page (and across a language barrier) to “FY2007 sales of 10.1 billion yen” in under two minutes? That’s some good web design.
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Broccoli has also set up a BL imprint, Just like everyone else. (I think I may even have one, and I’m not even a publisher.) Boysenberry Books isn’t trying to quickly flood the market with a mess of books, though; true to their roots they are taking the time to put out quality product as a first priority, and that strategy seems to be paying off. While Sex Friend may not be ranked, the other 3 books are.
310. ↓-49 (261) : Pet on Duty – Boysenberry Books, Nov 2007 [94.3] ::
738. ↓-171 (567) : Delivery Cupid – Boysenberry Books, Jul 2007 [15.7] ::
1520. ↓-725 (795) : Cigarette Kisses – Boysenberry Books, Jul 2008 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 27 Jul 08) : Sex Friend – Boysenberry Books, Dec 2007 [0] ::
I don’t know about their release shedule, but even 2-3 books a year beats ADV.
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BL is just a sideline, anyway. The main imprint has the benefit of anime & game tie-ins, access to the most saccarine-sweet-chibi-moe-characters ever (the company was practically built on them, and they continue to “innovate”) and on top of that, when they say Deluxe (which they do, right on the cover of every book) they mean it. Next time you’re at your local, find a Broccoli book and pick it up: you’ll note that it feels substantial, even heavy for a book that size. This isn’t recycled newsprint.
Disgaea is on a tear; or at least the Art Book is. Other books breaking into the most recent Manga 500 include Koi Cupid vol 1 and Sola vol 1. The first two books of My Dearest Devil Princess aren’t that far behind.
I only have 26 Broccoli titles in my database — that’s with the 4 Boysenberry titles above. 26 of 3499 titles is only a very small fraction, but Broccoli seems to be on pace to do well.
currently tracked Broccoli titles, alpha by series:
1491. ↑new (0) : Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion 5 – Broccoli Books, Mar 2005 [0.1] ::
1612. ↓-161 (1451) : Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion 2 – Broccoli Books, Jul 2004 [0.1] ::
177. ↑42 (219) : Disgaea The World of Disgaea 2 – Broccoli Books, Apr 2008 [186.1] ::
970. ↓-70 (900) : Disgaea 2 vol 2 – Broccoli Books, Jul 2007 [6.8] ::
1669. ↓-99 (1570) : Disgaea 2 vol 1 – Broccoli Books, Feb 2007 [0.1] ::
1743. ↑new (last ranked 13 Jul 08) : Disgaea 1 – Broccoli Books, Sep 2006 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 3 Aug 08) : Disgaea 2 vol 3 – Broccoli Books, Jan 2009 [0] ::
. (last ranked 27 Jul 08) : Disgaea The World of Disgaea Character Collection – Broccoli Books, Feb 2007 [0] ::
1619. ↓-160 (1459) : Galaxy Angel II 4 – Broccoli Books, Sep 2008 [0.1] ::
. (last ranked 27 Jul 08) : Galaxy Angel Beta 3 – Broccoli Books, Aug 2006 [0] ::
. (last ranked 1 Jun 08) : Galaxy Angel II 2 – Broccoli Books, May 2007 [0] ::
. (last ranked 1 Jun 08) : Galaxy Angel II 3 – Broccoli Books, Feb 2008 [0] ::
252. ↓-15 (237) : Koi Cupid 1 – Broccoli Books, Apr 2008 [122.9] ::
. (last ranked 13 Jul 08) : Kon Kon Kokon 1 – Broccoli Books, Jun 2007 [0] ::
549. ↓-171 (378) : My Dearest Devil Princess 1 – Broccoli Books, Nov 2007 [33.7] ::
577. ↑124 (701) : My Dearest Devil Princess 2 – Broccoli Books, Feb 2008 [29.6] ::
928. ↑new (0) : My Dearest Devil Princess 4 – Broccoli Books, Sep 2008 [7.9] ::
953. ↑new (last ranked 3 Aug 08) : My Dearest Devil Princess 3 – Broccoli Books, Jun 2008 [7.2] ::
. (last ranked 18 May 08) : Murder Princess 1 – Broccoli Books, Mar 2007 [0] ::
455. ↑333 (788) : Sola 1 – Broccoli Books, Jun 2008 [52.9] ::
1159. ↑new (0) : Until the Full Moon 1 – Broccoli Books, Feb 2005 [3.8] ::
. (last ranked 13 Jul 08) : Until the Full Moon 2 – Broccoli Books, Apr 2005 [0] ::
