10 Major Manga Trends for 2008

With feature film versions of Iron Man and Batman hitting the theaters in 2008, why not movies inspired by manga? 2008 will be a major manga movie year:

Speed Racer (Warner Brothers) - The same folks who brought you The Matrix are revving their CGI engines to bring Speed to the big screens.

Dragon Ball (20th Century Fox) - Son Goku is coming to the big screen with a star-studded cast (Chow Yun Fat, James Marsden). UPDATE: Release moved to Spring '09

Nana and Nana 2 (VIZ Pictures) - Ai Yazawa's rock and roll love story comes to life in Spring 2008

Honey & Clover (VIZ Pictures) Chica Umino's art school romantic comedy debuts in February.

Love*Com (VIZ Pictures) - Risa and Atsushi's lopsided romance is due for a Spring DVD release.

Several publishers are welcoming back popular but once-orphaned manga series.

• Slam Dunk - Takehiko Inoue's popular sports manga series was once published by now defunct Raijin Comics, but returns in September 2008 with new editions from VIZ Media.
• Black Jack - Osamu Tezuka's rogue doctor comes back from the dead, this time it's Vertical who's picking up a title once published by VIZ for release in September 2008.
• Crayon Shin-Chan -With the Shin-Chan anime now running on Cartoon Network, the manga version is making an uncensored comeback in February 2008, thanks to CMX Manga.
• Aria - TokyoPop picked up the lapsed license for Aria from ADV Manga for an early 2008 debut and published its prequel, Aqua as well.

The second notable trend was the increase in new original English language (OEL) manga from a wider variety of publishers.

Del Rey's Dallas Middaugh announced their first three OEL releases: The Reformed and Yokaiden. The Reformed is a vampire gothic tale with art by Anzu, written by Christopher Hart. Yokaiden is about Japanese spirit demons, and is created by Nina Matsumoto, who's best known for her illustration of The Simpsons, done manga-style. These titles were later joined by Kasumi, a new shojo comedy series by Surt Lim and Hirofumi Sugimoto due in Fall 2008.

Meanwhile, Yen Press jumped in the OEL manga pool with Y-Square by German manga creator Judith Park in January and Svetlana Chmakova's Night School in July 2008.

More conversational and topical than a book, and too pretty and collectible to be a mere magazine, "mooks" are a staple of Japanese publishing that are just now making a splash in the U.S. Here are the new mooks to look for:

• The Gothic and Lolita Bible (TokyoPop) - Part fashion magazine, part lifestyle guide, this style mook will appear quarterly starting in February.
• Cosmode (Broccoli Books) - Cosmode is Japan's leading cosplay magazine, filled with photos and cosplay tips. Look for it in July.
• Megami Deluxe (DMP) - A English edition of the popular anime pin-up girl magazine hit newsstands in January.
• Faust (Del Rey Manga) - Due for an August debut, this new literary/art anthology includes stories and art by leading manga creators.

TokyoPop and CMX Manga showed off their new mobile phone manga initiatives at their booths and at their panels. According to TokyoPop's marketing lead, cell phone manga is a $20M market in Japan, and has tripled in the past year.

Hot on their heels is Flex Comics, who recently announced their partnership with CMX Manga. Currently available on Yahoo! Japan, U.S. editions of Flex Comics titles are scheduled to debut in 2008. CMX will license and publish English editions of some of the titles that Flex Comics is serializing as multimedia mobile phone, online and print comics in Japan, including Daisuke Torii's Zombie Fairy to start.

Not content to rest on the success of shonen and shojo manga, several publishers are putting out genre-defying manga that offer fresh takes on storytelling and art styles.

• Me and the Devil Blues by Akira Hiramoto was described by Del Rey's Dallas Middaugh as "a dark, fascinating take on the life of blues singer Robert Johnson," making it one of the most intriguing titles on their 2008 roster.
• Yakuza in Love - Deux Press is also staking out new turf in the boys love genre with this tale of gay gangsters in lust.
• The Manga Bible - The greatest story ever told gets a manga makeover courtesy of global manga artist Siku and Doubleday Books.

Answering the often-raised request from fans to release more manga closer to its street dates in Japan, Dark Horse Comics announced a unique co-publishing agreement with superstar artists CLAMP. CLAMP's new "mangettes" will debut at the same time in Japan, Korea and the U.S. UPDATE: Release moved to Spring '09.

Also worth noting is Yen Press' newly inked deal to take over Ice Kunion's Korean manhwa publishing catalog and taking the reins to work closely with Korean publishers to bring more original content to U.S. readers.

Another nod to the land of manhwa, Korea as Seen By 12 Creators is a Fall 2008 anthology from Fanfare / Ponent Mon that brings together Korean and French artists in an artistically invigorating comics cultural exchange.

American manga publishers have figured out what girls in the know have known for years: yaoi manga is hot stuff. Several new imprints have joined DMP/June/801, TokyoPop/Blu, YaoiPress and DramaQueen in the boys love section, including:

• Boysenberry Books - an imprint of Broccoli Books, Boysenberry started off with a modest roster of 4 titles, with much more planned in the months ahead.
• Deux Press - As the boys love division of newcomer Aurora Publishing, Deux started off small, but announced a full release roster of 17 volumes for 2008 at Yaoi-Con 2007, including 9 new titles.
• Yen Press - A surprising entry into the BL market, Yen Press announced two new yaoi titles by Lily Hoshino in mid-2007 for 2008-2009.

Sensing that the manga market place is ready for more mature fare than Fruits Basket, LuvLuv Press is bringing out a line of sexy stories about twenty-something femmes falling in and out of lust. Look for the first title, Voices of Love to appear in bookstores (shrinkwrapped, of course) in January 2008.

While not technically josei manga title, Manga Sutra from TokyoPop is plenty sexy for readers of both genders. A "tasteful" and "educational" exploration of love and sex between consenting adults, the Manga Sutra will be available at better bookstores and adult novelty shops in January 2008.