Broccoli Books, the newly launched publishing arm of Broccoli International (which includes the Gamers retail stores in Japan), is set to release its first manga titles in the U.S. Broccoli's first two volumes will feature the characters of Di Gi Charat, the very cute and equally mean mascots of the Gamers anime and game hobby stores in Japan. Viz has already brought out four volumes of Di Gi Charat manga, which were published by Mediaworks in Japan, while Studio Ironcat is publishing yet another series of Di Gi Charat manga. A spokesperson for Broccoli Books told ICv2 that Gamers had allowed several different publishers to publish Di Gi Charat volumes in Japan and Broccoli Books is very comfortable with the same sort of situation here in the states. Broccoli Books will feature authentic, unflipped manga titles in the 5' x7.25' format with a $9.99 price point.
Broccoli plans to publish its first volume, Di Gi Charat Theater Vol. 1: Dejiko's Summer Vacation ($9.99) in November. This volume was actually published in Japan before the series that Viz has published here. It includes ten stories about Dejiko, the cat-eared girl from another planet who wants to become the next idol super star. The original Di Gi Charat character designer, Koge-Donbo, actually drew one of the stories in this anthology, which also includes character profiles, translation notes, and comments by the artists. Broccoli Books also makes good use of the highly acclaimed translation/production team behind the US DVD releases of FLCL and I'm Gonna Be An Angel.
In December Broccoli Books presents the second volume in its series, Di Gi Charat Theater Vol. 2: Piyoko Is Number One ($9.99). Piyoko is the head of the Black Gema Gema Gang from Planet Analogue and she wants to capture Dejiko and hold her for ransom. Volume 2 also contains ten stories by some of Japan's top artists including Koge-Donbo and Kanan.
Broccoli has announced two other series, but hasn't yet set a release dates for them. Galaxy Angel is a science fiction comedy adventure centered around five very different warriors of the female persuasion. This popular property has already spawned two anime series in Japan. Bandai will be releasing the anime in the U.S. The other Broccoli manga series is Juvenile Orion, which is actually a spin-off from the Aquarian Age collectible card game created by Gamers in Japan. Broccoli has at least two more volumes of Di Gi Charat in the works and potentially lots of other titles if the initial releases are successful. Broccoli has not made a decision about distribution yet, but plans to be well represented in both the pop culture shops and the increasingly important (for manga publishers) traditional bookstore market.
