{"id":1252,"date":"2014-06-25T16:11:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2014-06-25T16:11:40","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T20:11:40","slug":"seven-seas-expands-on-monster-manga-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/seven-seas-expands-on-monster-manga-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Seas Expands on “Monster” Manga Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time we talked in-depth about manga publisher Seven Seas on this website, the topic was their surprise hit Monster Musume<\/em>. The quirky supernatural harem comedy has continued to be a sales success, with volume three matching its predecessors in terms of taking up long-term residence on the bestseller lists. In my previous article<\/a> on the subject, I suggested that this snake-tailed, bird-winged underdog might help to encourage the acquisition of other quirky licenses. Well, it\u2019s time for me to say \u201cI told you so\u201d with a smug grin on my face. Behold!<\/p>\n

\"MonsterInfirmary\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eye see what you did there.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Japanese cover of volume one of Nurse Hitomi\u2019s Monster Infirmary<\/em>, and Seven Seas recently announced that they\u2019ll be bringing the series to the US in early 2015. Along with Monster Musume<\/em> and A Centaur\u2019s Life<\/em>, that makes three titles featuring supernatural \u201cmonster\u201d characters. You could try to argue that Musume<\/em>\u2019s sales success and Centaur<\/em>\u2019s critical acclaim didn\u2019t play a role in Hitomi<\/em> being licensed, but doing so would be\u2026 monstrously difficult. (I couldn\u2019t resist.)<\/p>\n

This is an interesting case because it adds a sense of truth to a common refrain amongst US manga and anime companies: if a series does well, they\u2019ll look for more like it. It\u2019s a pattern that\u2019s occasionally questioned by disgruntled fans (\u201cTitle A sold well, so why did no one license Title B?\u201d), but if you ever wanted a concrete positive example, Nurse Hitomi\u2019s Monster Infirmary<\/em> is it.<\/p>\n

\"MonsterManga\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If only these had been released back when I took a mythology course in college.<\/em><\/p>\n

Honestly, I\u2019m glad this little niche is doing so well. There\u2019s a very worthwhile theme that comes up throughout Monster Musume<\/em> and A Centaur\u2019s Life<\/em>, and I hope it shows up in Nurse Hitomi<\/em> as well. As the menagerie of monster girls and guys go through well-executed harem comedy and slice of life storylines, the reader begins to pay less and less attention to how they look. We never forget that they have four legs or fish tails, but the \u201cweird\u201d factor ends up taking a back seat to plot advancement and character dynamics. That shift from novelty to normalcy makes a serious point: no matter how strange or different a person may seem, they probably have the same goals and concerns as the rest of us. If it takes a busty snake girl or a bird-brained harpy to drive that lesson home, then so be it.<\/p>\n

That about wraps it up for my analysis this week, so I\u2019ve decided to use the rest of this space to conduct a little experiment. As I mentioned before, my past prediction that Monster Musume<\/em>\u2019s success would lead to more unusual titles being licensed ended up being correct. So here\u2019s the question: did I just make a lucky guess, or do my manga industry predictions have the power to shape the future? Time to ignore everything I learned from superhero comics and use my powers for personal gain.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned in previous articles<\/a>, I really enjoy Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru<\/em>, which is available digitally through Crunchyroll\u2019s manga service. The thing is, I\u2019d really like to see an English print release of this delightfully bizarre series. Now for the experiment: I hereby predict that SoreMachi<\/em> will see a print release in the US by the end of 2015. In hardcover format. Including the original\u2019s colored pages and the author\u2019s afterword notes. And free pizza somehow. Now all I have to do is sit back and see if my prediction will alter future events. Your move, Seven Seas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kawaii Overthink is written by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime and manga on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Check back every Wednesday for new articles.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last time we talked in-depth about manga publisher Seven Seas on this website, the topic was their surprise hit Monster Musume. The quirky supernatural harem comedy has continued to be a sales success, with volume three matching its predecessors in terms of taking up long-term residence on the bestseller lists. In my previous article [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1259,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}