An ICv2 release. ICv2 has announced the release of the fourth issue of its ICv2 Retailers Guide To Anime/Manga.  Diamond Comic Distributors, Alliance Game Distributors, Koen Book Disributors, and TMZ Distribution are distributing the Guide to their accounts.  The Guide is free to all retailers.

Now that the Anime/Manga Guides are coming out on a quarterly basis, ICv2 can do an even better job of following market trends.  To that end, in issue #4 of the Retailers Guide we decided to concentrate on identifying the top properties.  With the proliferation of both anime and manga titles, it is more important than ever that retailers are able to separate the wheat from the chaff.  'In the capitalist system, success breeds imitation and nowhere in the field of pop culture is this more evident than with anime and manga,' noted ICv2 publisher Milton Griepp, 'Our goal is to provide retailers with an unbiased look at what is working best in the market at this point.'

The new issue of the ICv2 Retailers Guide To Anime/Manga aims to help retailers by analyzing the top new anime and manga properties debuting during the fourth quarter of 2003.  On the Anime side, in addition to the usual update on 'Anime On American TV,' the Guide also examines the growing phenomenon of anime-based collectible card games.  Meanwhile, the Manga side of the Guide contains a market survey, a look at the growing list of new manga publishers, the hottest manga newbies, as well as a look at manga from around the world (see 'Manga, It's Not Just From Japan Anymore') and much more.

The Guide is available free to all retailers (send an email to dviau@icv2.com) and to others for $10 via the ICv2 online store (click here).