A few days ago Tokyopop, as the last of the five main German manga publishers, announced their acquisitions for the coming spring/summer. In the following list I will not divide them by publisher, but order the new licenses according to their genre, though I will mention the publisher. Each publisher gets its own colour so it’s easier to see who licensed what…or not. It looks pretty ugly, but I’m too tired and lazy to change it now, sorry.

Seinen
- Alive! by Tsutomu Takahashi (Carlsen)*
- Ikkyu by Hisashi Sakaguchi (Carlsen)*
- Inu wo Kau by Jiro Taniguchi (Carlsen – Graphic Novel)*
- Holiday by Otsuichi & Hiro Kiyohara (Egmont)*
- The One, Voices of a Distant Star by Mizu Sahara & Makoto Shinta (Egmont)*
- Brave 10 by Kairi Shimotsuki (Panini)* (interested, but a purchase is unlikely)

Shounen
- Blood+ by Asuka Katsura (Carlsen)* (interested, but a purchase is unlikely)
- Dragonball Z – The Saiyajin by “Akira Toriyama” (Carlsen)
- E’s by Satoru Yuiga (Carlsen)
- Chrome Breaker by Chako Abeno (Egmont)
- Air Gear by Oh!Great (Heyne)
– Zombie Powder by Kubo Tite (Tokyopop.de)
- War Angels by Jae-Hwan Kim (Tokyopop.de)* (interested, but a purchase is unlikely)

Josei
- Peking Reijin-Syo by Natsuki Sumeragi (Egmont)
- Deep Kiss by Katsane Katsumoto (Tokyopop.de)
- Deep Sex by Katsane Katsumoto (Tokyopop.de)

Shoujo
- Betrayal Knows My Name by Hotaru Odagiri (Carlsen)
- Wanted! by Hino Matsuri (Carlsen)
- Harlem Beat wa Yoake made by Kazusa Takashima (Carlsen)
- Zeus Collection by You Higuri (Carlsen)
- Disney: Fairies by Jun Asuka (Egmont)
- Love Celeb by Mayu Shinjo (Egmont)
- Shishunki Miman by You Watase (Egmont)
- Tenshi Ja Nai!! by Takako Shigematsu (Egmont)
- Mamotte! Lollipop by Michiyo Kikuta (Heyne)
- Host ~ Yuugi by Shiho Watanabe (Panini)
- Atashi gahamatta Yottsu no Junai by Mayumi Yokoyama (Panini)
- St. Dragon Girl Miracle by (Tokyopop.de)
- Taranta Ranta by Maki Yoko (Tokyopop.de)
- Peter-Pan Syndrome by Mayu Sakai (Tokyopop.de)
- Sugars by Minori Kurosaki (Tokyopop.de)

Shounen Ai
- Mizu no Kioku by Sakuragi Yaya (Carlsen)
- Romance by Moka Azumi (Carlsen)
- Brother X Brother by Hirotaka Kisaragi (Egmont)
- Hate to Love You by Makoto Tateno (Egmont)
- Hero Heel by Makoto Tateno (Egmont)
- Martini for Two by Makoto Tateno (Egmont)
- Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru by Hinako Takanaga (Tokyopop.de)
- Crimson Spell by Ayano Yamane (Tokyopop.de)

Global Manga
- Alle Guten Geister by Laura Müller & Marco Paal (Carlsen)
- Keyla by Nicole Klementz & Nhung Vu (Carlsen)
- Chochin by Franziska Steffen & Tina Lindhorst (Carlsen)
- Paris by Alexandra Völker (Egmont)
- Freche Mädchen – Freche Manga by Bianka-Minte König & Inga Steinmetz (Tokyopop.de)
- Warcraft Anthology by Various (Tokyopop.de)
- Kulla by Anne Pätzke (Tokyopop.de)
- Hell Gate: London by Jeong Mo Yang & Arvid Nelson (Tokyopop.de)

Art-books
- One Piece Yellow by Eiichiro Oda (Carlsen)
- Subway to Sally by Various (Egmont)
- Benjamin: Remember by Benjamin aka Zhang Bin (Tokyopop.de) *

Light Novels
- Kyo Kara Maoh! by Tomo Takabayashi & Temari Matsumoto (Carlsen)
- Only the Ring Finger Knows by Satoru Kannagi & Hotaru Odagiri (Carlsen)
- .hack // Ai Buster by Tatsuya Hamazaki (Carlsen)
- Naruto – Innocent Heart, Crimson Demon by Masatoshi Kusakabe (Carlsen)
- Death Note: Another Note by Ishin Nishio (Tokyopop.de)

Total:
Seinen: 6 (-) | Shounen: 7 (-) | Josei: 3 (-) | Shoujo: 15 (-3) | Shounen Ai: 8 (-) | Global: 8 (-) Light Novels: 5 | Art-books: 3 = 55 (-)
Carlsen: 20 (-) | Egmont: 14 (-) | Tokyopop: 16 (-) | Panini: 3 (-) | Heyne: 2 (-)

Comment:

Well, now I am disappointed. Tokyopop did not even license ONE seinen manga. I knew that Panini certainly wouldn’t license a seinen title after their recently canceled some manga series and need more mainstream manga.

However I would’ve thought that Tokyopop’s good running titles, like Death Note and Shinshi Doumei Cross might be able to make up for the losses that a new seinen title could cause. I guess they decided to play save. They also only published 6 seinen titles (if I counted correctly) since Tokyopop’s founding in 2004. But hey, there’s a good side to it! I have more money left for other things and overall I guess I still can be satisfied. There are enough manly manga being released every month to get my fix from other publishers!

Besides that it’s easy to spot, who publishers target: young boys and mainly girls. The many shoujo and shounen ai licenses, even though those are mostly one-shots, outnumber the seinen and shounen titles. They also try and further push their domestic manga lines and with success.