Dec 13, 2012

Rambling Post About Upcoming Projects

Please pardon me now because I'm going to self-indulgently ramble.

Holding off and not rushing into starting new series until we finish some series that are already done in Japanese has given me a lot of time to think about what future projects I want to do and we should do. I've been experimenting with different magazines, "online magazines," and random tankoubon purchases over the past year or so. I thought it would help refine my tastes, but all it's done is thrown me into confusion. There are way too many shiny things out there and I want them all.

I basically choose projects that I like, but every once in a while I find myself asking what would be popular, which is the wrong question because we're not doing this for money. It's hard not to feed our hungry egos and it's always nice to be popular. But popular series rarely hold my attention for long as evidenced by the series we've dropped. In case you haven't noticed, we always end up dropping our most popular series (AnS, Orange Chocolate, and Pika Ichi). This is mainly because these series stories stagnate or become repetitive.

Anyhow... I'm always looking for "heart" and a certain amount of "emotional realness" in the series and oneshots we pick, though I admit with the 2011 color Lalas, I let go of that just to feel the excitement of variety. Hee!
That was fun, but now I'm going back to being more selective.  Even so, there are a lot of potential projects on my mind and I'm having a hard time prioritizing them.

Random Thought: I'm getting really, really, really sad about the ending of "Ojousama no Untenshu."  I need to find something with comparable feels to fill the hole that series is going to leave when it ends.  I feel that way even more deeply about "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo." I know we haven't release a chapter in a good long while, but those characters are dear to me, so I've let them be stuck in the middle so I don't have to say "goodbye." We will get back to that series and finish it, but when we do, I'm might have a good long cry while working on the last chapter.  It ends very nicely with LOTS of feels.

After we finish "Rex Fabula" I may quit getting Comic Gene magazine.  Many groups do series from Comic Gene and I'm feeling as though if I chose another series from that magazine, toes I don't want to step on will get stepped.  So... Comic Gene has a few more months with me to show me something super compelling or I'm moving on.  I also am considering abandoning Zero Sum and Zero Sum Ward for the same reason. I like the oneshots, but there's a high risk of stepping on toes with both of those magazines.  A move like that would effectively remove us from doing further shounen-like titles. And yes, I am thinking that "Servamp" may need a better home than Omari's Sister.

I'm not ready to reveal what series I'm considering.  We will move forward as planned with at least two of the series I've already announced. "Megane no Incubus" and "Kurogane Girl" are a go.  "Dolci" I need to rethink. It's very slice-of-lifey and I started losing interest somewhere in the middle of the third chapter -- ouch! I can also say that we will being doing a lot of oneshots and short series. I'd also like to find some more mature josei short projects, but quality material is really hard to find. Most of it is pure smut, angst, and grown women practicing bitch craft.  I really hate smut for smut's sake, angst, and bitch craft. Bitch craft is the worst! Down with bitch craft!

Well, that's what's on my mind now. Most of the stuff I'm looking at is fantasy romance and fantasy comedies.  I'm also very much into the horror oneshots.  Oh man do I love them horror oneshots! Aka Lala is the best! I can wait to dive more into that later in 2013. I also like guys with animal ears (just saying...) Oh! And there's this other nice little seinen gem from one of our favorite artists that I've got my eye on... heheheh...2013 is going to be good :).