english BL licenses

[piranha]

this weekend was yaoicon, and bunches of new licenses were announced. i made an alphabetized list to check what i'd seen already, in as far as i could figure that out (not all publishers are clued in to giving us the original titles instead of just their choice of english title, and some of the naming is beyond strange; just differently strange from the original japanese).


legend:

x = i've seen it
- = not seen yet
? = not sure (possible title guesses in parens)

x A Gentlemen's Kiss (Tsumasaki ni kiss) by Fuwa Shinri (Juné)
- A Love Song for the Miserable (Ochibure shinshi ni ai no uta) by Yukimura (Juné)
- A Promise of Romance (Keiyaku ~Brand Romance~) by Akitsu Kyooko & Miyagi Tooko (Juné)
x A Strange and Mystifying Story (Konoyo ibun) by Suzuki Tsuta (Juné)
? Alley of First Love Love (Hatsukoi yokochou) by Mamahara Ellie (Blu)
- Author's Pet (Sakka dorei wo kau) by Cotorino Deathco (= kotorino desuko) (Juné)
x Baseball Heaven (Yakyuu tengoku) by Mamahara Ellie (Blu)
- Blue Sky (Aoi sora ga aerba) by Kuwabara Yuko (Juné)
- Candy (Ameiro banyu inryoko) by Sugita Satomi (Juné)
x Cigarette Kisses (Kuchibiru no yukue) by Yamato Nase (Boysenberry)
x Clear Skies! A Charming Love Story (Mainichi seiten) by Ninomiya Etsumi & Sugano Akira (Juné)
x Dekiru otoko ga suki nan da by Takanaga Hinako (no english title yet) (Blu)
x Endless Rain (Oto no nai ame wa furi tsukuzu) by Yuuya (Juné)
x Feverish (Netsubyou) by Kusaka Takaaki (Juné)
? Future Lovers (Mirai no kioku? Natsu jikan?) by Kunieda Saika (Deux)
x Gakuen Heaven (Nakajima version) by Higuri You (Blu)
x Golden Prince and Argent King (Kin no ouji to gin no Ou) by Agawa Kouko (Juné)
- Happiness Recommended (Koufuku no susume) by Himawari Souya (Juné)
- Hard Rock (Seifuku no tameno love song) by Abe Akane (Juné)
x Hot Limit by Minori Shima & Kanbe Akira (Juné)
- I Shall Never Return 3 (Boku wa kono mama kaeranai) by Uchida Kazuna (Deux)
- I Shall Never Return 4 (Boku wa kono mama kaeranai) by Uchida Kazuna (Deux)
- I Shall Never Return 2 (Boku wa kono mama kaeranai) by Uchida Kazuna (Deux)
x Just Around the Corner (Ano kado wo magatta tokoro) by Kawai Touko (801)
x Kimi ga koi ni ochiru by Takanaga Hinako (no english title yet) (Blu)
x Kiss All the Boys 1 (Deki no ii kiss warui kiss) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)
x Kiss All the Boys 2 (Deki no ii kiss warui kiss) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)
x Kiss All the Boys 3 (Deki no ii kiss warui kiss) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)
x Kiss Blue by Kanoshita Keiko (Juné)
x Love Quest (Rabu kue) by Hoshino Lily (Yen Press)
- Love+Alpha by Kanzaki Takashi (801)
x Loving Gaze (Otonari no biru ni koi no shisen) by Kanbe Akira (Juné)
x Make Me Happy by Miyamoto Kano (Deux)
? Mister Mistress 1 (Aijin incubus?) by Shinba Rize (Deux)
? Mister Mistress 2 (Aijin incubus?) by Shinba Rize (Deux)
x Mr. Flower Bride (Hanayome-kun) by Hoshino Lily (Yen Press)
x Mr. Flower Groom (Hanamuko-san) by Hoshino Lily (Yen Press)
x New Beginnings (Harete bokutachi wa) by Yamamoto Kotetsuko (Juné)
x One Night Lesson by Takagi Ryou (Juné)
x Pathos by Sadahiro Mika (Juné)
x Red by Rokuya Sanae (Juné)
x Restart by Hidaka Shouko (Juné)
x Say Please by Miyamoto Kano (Deux)
? Seduce Me After the Show (Show ga hanetara aimashou) by Esuto Emu (Deux)
x Steal Moon by Tateno Makoto (Juné)
x Sweet Regard (Mitsumeru manazashi) by Fusa Juuji (Juné)
x The Cause of My Teacher (Sensei no jijou) by Matsumoto Temari (Blu)
x The Devil's Secret (Akuma no himitsu) by Takanaga Hinako (801)
- Today's Ulterior Motives (Kyou mo dokokade himitsu no jouji) by Fujii Sakuya (Juné)
? Tomcats (Shippo no kimochi? Tenshi no kudasai?) by Minamino Mashiro (Deux)
- Tough Love Baby (Bucchou baby) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)
x Two of Hearts (Te wo tsunaide sora wo) by Miyamoto Kano (Deux)
- Wild Butterfly (Kokkyo no chou) by Kusumoto Hiroki (Juné)
- Yakuza in Love 2 (Hanagumi ninkyouden) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)
- Yakuza in Love 3 (Hanagumi ninkyouden) by Kano Shiuko (Deux)

deux has the world's worst website, but they're licensing a whole slew of titles and have an ambitious publishing schedule.

man, they're liking kano shiuko this year. also my personal fave, miyamoto kano (theirs are all deux licenses -- let's hope they do a good job).

there are also 8 novel licenses, about which i don't know anything. except one has illustrations by chiharu nara, mmh-mmmh.


thanks to yaoisuki for the heads up and much of this information.

Comments

[seraphim-12.livejournal.com]

oh wow, there are a lot of new licenses . . . I'm pretty pleased about Mamahara Ellie, I really enjoy her works. BIG YEAY for Kunieda Saika I hope it's the one your thinking it is, XD.

english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, kunieda saika is just wonderful. i'm ok with either of the ones i am thinking it might be, though i am hoping for Mirai no kioku, because that and its sequel are my favourites, and they would be perfect for introducing a lot of people i know to BL because they're simply good stories.

[julineh.livejournal.com]

Mamahara Ellie, Mamahara Ellie and ... Shinba Rize, Sakia Kunieda and many other....
T______T
Don't have enough money to buy. Want money.
But want to read some, before buying. Yesterday, i just begin to read Konoyo ibun by Suzuki Tsuta... Waaah, want the end of the story, don't like to wait.
Need to check what i really want (though, i want a lot and haven't even buy most of the other that are already on sale).
Thank you for your list, it help me a lot to know what i already read or know.

english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's always the problem with english licensing; they tend to stop scanlators immediately, but nobody gets to see the story until at least a year from now (or much much later, such as the problems that are still with us from biblos going bankrupt, and now be beautiful seemingly stuck in limbo because their licenses went byebye in the aftermath of that).

i always hope the scanlators finish a manga before it gets licensed.

[whey.livejournal.com]

Ahh, thank you! There were a couple I had missed moving from my public sendpspace folders to my "licensed" folders because I didn't recognize the English titles.

english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

do you read yaoisuki? there were 3 more today:

x Love Quest (Rabu kue) by Hoshino Lily (Zen Press)
x Mr. Flower Bride (Hanayome-kun) by Hoshino Lily (Zen Press)
x Mr. Flower Groom (Hanamuko-san) by Hoshino Lily (Zen Press)

Re: english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

make that Yen Press.

Re: english BL licenses

[whey.livejournal.com]

Yes mam, yaoisuki is a mini-treasure-trove of helpful information! ^^ I used to hate Hoshino Lily... I now love her, so to see even more of her work licensed in the U.S., happy day!

Re: english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i figured you read it, since you know about all the good information places. :)

i don't hate hoshino lily, but i don't like her stuff either. she's a good artist, but -- waaaay too heavy on the prepubescent girl look. there is one fantasy/mystical collection of hers that i would buy, but for the most part, no.

i find it interesting what publishers decide to license, and i totally cannot guess. well, i can guess about some things, like takanaga hinako and yoshinaga fumi; those make perfect sense, but i would have expected them to give hoshino a pass because of the "child" porn issues, and yet here they go. i would have expected nobody to touch ogasawara uki because of a) weird, not always cohesive storylines and b) very graphic sex with blood tendencies. but no, DQ went right for it, and for the most difficult one of the lot to boot. and monchi kaori -- the art is so ... i wasn't gonna say "ugly" about anybody's art, but man, it's sort of the anti-yamane ayano art.

on the other hand, i would have expected several works of naono bohra to have been snapped up long, long ago, and it took forever for the first one, and now, nothing again. i do not get it.

you didn't just call me "mam", did you. i'll pretend i didn't see that so i don't have to kill you. i wouldn't want to kill you, you know. :)

Re: english BL licenses

[whey.livejournal.com]

*shakes head frantically* No, no, I did NOT call you "mam". I really need to remove that word from my vocabulary (I usually use a more gender-neutral "yessum"; I blame it on temporary crap-of-the-brain).

That whole "it might as well be a girl" is exactly why I used to hate Hoshino Lily. It wasn't until I read Hanamukosan and Hanayome kun that I started to like her work. I'll admit it; I love her weepy ukes, I think the artwork is beautiful.

I'm too giddy over all the licenses to even care what's been licensed. Does that make sense? Does it make me as pathetically grateful as I sound? I'd much rather overpay for a book I may only read once than deal with a lot of the BS in the BL-scanlation world (uh-oh, I hope that doesn't backfire and make groups think "Yeah! If we make it more of a pain, people will buy more US manga!").

Re: english BL licenses

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i sorta kinda care what gets licensed, in two sorta contradictory ways:

a) i am totally over the moon happy when a mangaka i like gets licensed because man, it must be SUCH a thrill. heck, i am so happy for them vicariously that i am even happy for mangaka i don't care for. i want them all to make a good living so they continue providing us with smut and pretty art. i love watching them become aware that there are people on the other side of the world who're fans and who wait eagerly for each new release. it was such a kick when miyamoto kano realized half her fans voting in a poll were not in japan, and changed the poll to include english options.

b) i hate it when something gets licensed that's in the middle of scanlation. that means it'll get dropped like a hot potato (except in very few cases and i adore the scanlators who don't stop), and i'll have to wait years before i get to read the rest of it. which bums me out. Must Learn Japanese Faster.

other than that, i want everyone i like to get licensed by dramaqueen, *sigh*. and i want dramaqueen to start printing their books in june's larger format. because while their paper is better, the larger format really makes a difference in how well i can see the art.

i don't really care about the BS of the BL scanlation world. i look at it, and occasionally i rant, but in the grand scheme of things i just don't care. i've figured out how to get my hands on everything i want (except for ginryuu, where the heck does zie release? tell me, you must know!). i'll praise the ones who i think do great (even if they release manga i don't care for), and the rest can just go and fight with their readers like nasty, small-minded hyenas. i'll make exactly one effort with each group to tell them honestly, if they ask, how i think they're doing, and if they then prove they don't actually want to hear it, i move on.

cause ya know, i've got japanese to learn, manga to scan, translate, and edit, other fans to burble with about cool manga we have read, and all that is a lot more fun than watch scanlators verbally masturbate in public. since they're neither extremely pretty boys nor does the masturbating come with sexy images, i leave them in a flash for a oneshot by inariya fusanosuke.

Re: english BL licenses

[whey.livejournal.com]

k, I'm totally not kissing your ass, but I agree with everything you said.

Well, except about Dramaqueen licensing everything, not because of quality but quantity. Their work is top-notch, but their distribution is not so great.

ginryuu, I can't remember where I get their releases from, but I'm thinking it's from one of those top-secret places that I can't mention, because then I'll get kicked out of the club. Or, being exposed will cause problems for them, and they'll move, and I won't be able to find them. I think ginryuu has some association with Chibitora (a fabulous group for the reasons you described above), so I'm sure there's a place out there the general public can get their releases. We just have to find it.

"all that is a lot more fun than watch scanlators verbally masturbate in public"
Yes, yes, yes!