Baltimore's Otakon Brings in the Fans

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on August 8, 2006 Sign up now!

by Kai-Ming Cha, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 8/8/2006

Anime ruled the roost at Otakon, held this past weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center, but fans still want and buy books. Otakon attracts thousands of attendees--22,147 this year after drawing 22,000 people last year. As convention operations department head James Burns put it, "It's a convention for the fans." Otakon is a combination of the words "otaku," the Japanese word for fanatic that's used as a term for anime or manga fan in the U.S., and "convention."

Otakon catered to fans with seven conference rooms screening episodes of anime series like Genshiken, Nana, Sugar Sugar Rune and Gantz. And manga publishers Drama Queen, Digital Manga Publishing, ALC Publishing and Tokyopop were present to meet their fans, while the yaoi (boys' love) category continues to surge. DMP had the strongest publisher presence, with three separate panels and a signing with boys' love manga-ka (author/illustrator) Makoto Tateno.

Tokyopop featured original global manga artists like Bettina Kurkoski (My Cat Loki) at its booth and announced online exclusives on some of forthcoming titles. These books will have a limited print runs and will be available only through the Tokyopop Web site. Tokyopop also added Shizumi Seino's Heaven to its list for February 2007. Meanwhile, Drama Queen held a boys' love panel after hours, for the 18-plus crowd, and drew fan approval with its publishing philosophy: "Faster, harder, cheaper."

manga-ka Makoto Tateno (c) and her
assistants Yumi Kimura (l.) and Michiko Kokubu (r.)

Drama Queen announced its 2007 lineup, which includes two manhwa (Korean) titles, Peter Panda by Na Ye-Ri and Promise by Eun Young Lee. Boys' love titles include Invoke by Kiriko Higashisato, Not/Love by Kang Miyamoto and the rock-star romance Omen by Makoto Tateno. Not/Love, about the angst-laden romance between a prostitute and a detective, is appearing six months ahead of schedule due to Drama Queen senior translator Calynda Pellikka's commitment to the title. "It's sexy, erotic and well written," Pellikka said. "It feels very true."

Not to be outdone, DMP announced the forthcoming line-up from their June Manga imprint for spring 2007: Passion, La Vie en Rose, Waru, Wagamama Kitchen, Fake Fur and Paradise on the Hill. DMP will also publish Flower of Life by Fumi Yoshinaga in January 2007. Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery is a Kodansha Award-winning series. DMP also announced that it will bring manga-ka Toko Kawai to Yaoicon this fall.

DMP also announced a bishonen (boys' love) tour organized through Pop Japan, a travel agency owned by DMP that does tours to Japan for American otaku. The junket includes a shopping trip to Tokyo's Otome Road for boys' love merchandise and paraphernalia, and will feature a female take on maid cafes, which cater to men--there will be afternoon tea at a "butler cafe," where attractive young men dressed in traditional butler uniforms wait on the patrons.

But DMP's biggest announcement was the launch of 801 Media, a new affiliated company that will publish books with hardcore/explicit boys' love content. 801 Media derives its name from the pronunciation of the number "8" in Japanese, with "ya" and "01" standing for "oi," making 801 the phonetic equivalent of "yaoi," another name for boys' love.

Cosplaying Deathnote Fans.

801 Media books will be available starting in March 2007 with one or two new titles appearing every month. 801 Media titles will be available only at online retailers, independent bookstores and comics shops. "You won't find [801 Media books] in Borders or Barnes & Noble," said Rachel Livingston of DMP's PR department. Livingston explained that while 801 Media is working with distributors, the books will not have a wide level of distribution because of their explicit content. She added that fans will be able to special order the books through Walden or retail chain stores. "We're letting retailers know we're not giving them inappropriate material while giving readers what they want and supporting online retailers," Livingston said.

Outside of the yaoi category, Chris Oarr of ADV Manga had no manga announcements to make, but he did express excitement for Line, an upcoming one-volume title from Yua Kotegawa. Kotegawa is the manga-ka of Anne Freaks, a teen sci-fi series in which high schoolers murder their parents. Line, an October release, is about a popular high school girl who finds a cell phone in the subway and ends up working with the owner to save potential suicide victims around the city.

ADV Films' anime version of Gantz was screened at Otakon. Adapted from the manga of the same title by Oku Hiroya, Gantz is a dark science-fiction series about life after death, where killing is the only means of survival. ADV licensed the hyper-violent and sexually explicit Gantz anime series in 2004 and has sold more than 100,000 copies of the anime on DVD, including boxed sets. Asked whether ADV has plans to license the manga, Oarr hesitated to be specific. "I can't say," Oarr replied. "We're weeks away from making an announcement that will answer questions about the series. I don't want to jinx it."

DNAngel Cosplayer.

Elsewhere on the dealers' room floor, the Kinokuniya booth, run by managers of the Japanese bookstore, was moving large quantities of Japanese-language books. This year the booth stocked only Japanese-language publications. "Our competitors are selling the books in English already," said Shingo Nozaki, manager of the Palisades, N.Y., store. "Even if it's only in Japanese, the customers are buying it. We're selling double the amount from last year."

Nozaki said that the store had specially ordered two art books for Otakon: the art books Death Note and Final Fantasy: Kingdom Hearts. Nozaki said Kinokuniya's sales were also getting a boost from a special guest retailer, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, a Japanese gothic lolita boutique that is fast becoming the most popular retailer of its kind internationally; it was featured in the live-action feature Kamikaze Girls. Gothic Lolita is a meticulous manner of fan costumery that combines Victorian-style dresses and corsets adorned with lace and ribbon with bonnets and tiny top hats. Dresses from Baby retail formore than $300. "We've sold 10 so far," said Nozaki, adding that fans can will be able to find more Gothic Lolita merchandise at Kinokuniya stores beginning this winter.

Given Otakon's strong attendance, there have been rumors of a possible move to the larger Washington, D.C., Convention Center. But Otakon 2006 chair Jim Vowles said Otakon will remain at the Baltimore Convention Center for 2007, and the dates have been moved up to the weekend of July 20-22.