Digital Manga

Digital Manga
Founded 1996
Founder Hikaru Sasahara
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location Gardena, California
Publication types Comics, Manga
Fiction genres Yaoi, Josei, Romance, Shōjo
Imprints JunéManga, 801, DokiDoki, eManga, Project-H
Official website www.digitalmanga.com

Digital Manga is a company that licenses and releases, in English, Japanese manga, anime, and related merchandise. The company has several subdivisions: Digital Manga Publishing, which publishes Japanese manga, novels and instructional and illustration books in North America with multiple imprints, and 801 Media, a sister company that focuses on more explicit yaoi manga works. Digital Manga also owns and operates eManga, a digital publishing site for manga and light novels, that publishes both Digital Manga titles as well as e-book versions of works from other publishers. Non-publishing divisions include Pop Japan Travel, a tour service; Dream Shoppe, an import clothing retailer specializing in Lolita fashion; and several e-retail sites for their books and for import products, including Akadot Retail and Yaoi Club. The company's headquarters are in Suite 300 in the 1487 West 178th Street building in Gardena, California, United States.[1] Since 2011 Digital Manga has been utilizing Kickstarter as their means of publishing, starting with restocking out of print Osamu Tezuka's titles to the most popular title The Finder series by Yamane Ayano.

Subdivisions

Digital Manga Publishing

The company has co-published several manga with publishing house Dark Horse Comics, including Berserk, Hellsing, The Ring, and Trigun.

Imprints

The DMP Books imprint is used for general-audience manga. The company prints various how-to books on drawing manga, as well as online tutorials and contests, under the "Manga Academy" imprint.[2]

Juné is DMP's yaoi-oriented line of manga, novels, and other related books. Until April 2006, all of DMP's yaoi manga bore the DMP label, but starting with the release of The Art of Loving by Eiki Eiki, a new design was displayed on the dust cover of a white rose under the text Juné. The imprint was named after Jean Genet, particularly the Japanese pronunciation of "Genet" as "Jooneh". The choice of name may also have been influenced by the early Japanese yaoi anthology magazine Juné (also named after Genet); the popularity of this magazine led to "june" being used as a synonym for yaoi in the 1980s.[3] Some Juné titles originally published by Taiyoh Tosho or Oakla Publishing are co-branded with the Japanese publisher, whose logo appears on the spine.

A division of Digital Manga, Inc. and sister company to DMP, formed in 2006 to publish more explicit yaoi titles. [4]

In April 2009, DMP announced the DokiDoki line (the name being Japanese onomatopoeia for a heartbeat), a co-branding operation with the Japanese publisher Shinshokan to license yaoi and shōjo manga from their Wings, Dear and Dear+ anthologies.[5]

Project-H is a new imprint of Digital Manga Inc. as of 2011 powered by 801 Media to publish solely explicit Seinen hentai manga which will carry a mature warning "For adults 18+ only". [6]

Akadot Retail is the official retail store for Juné and Digital Manga Publishing. The shop imports manga, clothing, figures, magazines, and miscellaneous merchandise from Japan.[7]

References

  1. "Contact DMI." Digital Manga. Retrieved on April 21, 2009. "Digital Manga, Inc. 1487 West 178th Street, Suite 300 Gardena, CA 90248"
  2. Manga Academy. "Manga Academy ~ About Us". Retrieved January 4, 2010.
  3. "Definitions From Japan: BL, Yaoi, June". aestheticism.com.
  4. 801 Media. "801 Media - About Us". Retrieved January 4, 2010.
  5. "About Us". DokiDoki. Retrieved August 18, 2009.
  6. Digital Manga Inc. "Project-H Launches in August (2011)". Retrieved November 23, 2011.
  7. Digital Manga Inc. "AkadotRetail". Retrieved May 2, 2014.

External links