Crimson Flower 2014 Oneshot/Short Series Stats

I decided to take a look at the performance of our Valentine's Day oneshots and the other oneshots and short series we've completed this year. I'll just publish the numbers here now, since I haven't made any sense of what the numbers mean. I'm not really sure whether I can.

The readership is normalized against "Risou no Kareshitachi" which had the highest readership.

1. Risou no Kareshitachi -- 1.00
2. Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya -- .8
3. Lip Smoke -- .72
4. Risou no Ouji no Tsurikata -- .45
5. Ringo no Asobikata -- .43
6. Tobenai Washi -- .4
7. Kuma-san to Issho -- .34
8. Megane no Incubus -- .31

My Ranking from Favorite to Least Favorite

1. Lip Smoke -- shoujo age-gap romance
2. Risou no Kareshitachi -- shoujo horror
3. Ringo no Asobikata -- shoujo psychological
4. Kuma-san to Issho -- shoujo horror (zombie apocalypse)
5. Risou no Ouji no Tsurikata (guilty pleasure) -- shoujo royal social gap romance with historical setting
6. Tobenai Washi -- shoujo fantasy with animal themes
7. Hajimari wa Suna no Ichiya -- Josei desert prince romance
8. Megane no Icubus -- shoujo supernatural high school romance

What surprises me the most is the poor performance of "Megane no Incubus". Granted the female MC wasn't to my liking, but it seems in typical shoujo, this is the preferred type of heroine. Between the first chapter and the last, it lost 37% of the readers. Supernatural high school romances are popular license getters, so I expected it would be popular.  I also thought "Kuma-san to Issho" would do better, but I guess zombies were too far out of readers' shoujo comfort zone.  As for "Risou no Kareshitachi" coming out on top, I know some people were lured by the beginning because it started out like a typical high school shoujo and by the end, they were taken somewhere they didn't want to go. I think the pure shock value keeps small waves of readers coming to it every couple of weeks. "Ringo no Asobikata" seems to be one of those oneshots that only a few people got. I'm actually surprised it's hanging out in the middle of pack. I don't know... feel free offer your explanations in the comments section. "Lip Smoke" and "Hajimari" did well as I expected. No surprises with those two.

Anyhow... a lot of what's planned for the June oneshot party is different from what we done before.

Happy Valentine's Day

Cute Red Panda says, "happy Valentine's Day everyone!" Viz unleashed some wonderful news for us shoujo and josei lovers today.  They have licensed four series near and dear to a lot of our hearts.  The series are:

• "Yoroshiku Master" which they are localizing to "Sweet Rein"
• "Seiyuu-ka!!" which they are localizing to "Voice Over!"
• "The Midnight Secretary"
• "Hapi Mari?!" which they are localizing to "Happy Marriage?!"

Here's link to the official Shojo Beat announcement on Facebook (LINK) and some additional information on the series from ANN (LINK)

Let's give Shojo Beat our support by purchasing these books so we can get more wonderful licenses like these.
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I don't have a special for you today because we've been directing our effort towards unfinished projects. I thought about releasing "Furou Kyoudai" today, but that would have been creepy, so I'll hold on to it.  Anyhow... we have done some romantic oneshots in the past, so let's celebrate with five of my favorite!

• The Honeybee Earl and The Flower Dress
• The Wizard and the Love Potion
• The Most Beautiful Name in the World 
•  
• Souai Metaphysica

It looks like we'll have a flurry of releases toward the end of the month as we wrap up "Fushigi no Maria-kun" and "Furou Kyoudai".

One-Shot: "Furou Kyoudai" The Long Version

Phew! We managed to get this done before Thanksgiving madness goes full-swing!  Anyhow, here is the long version of Furou Kyoudai!  The story is the same as short version, however, there's more detail and character development.  I really enjoy this sibling pair and I hope Hakusensha allows Shiwasu-sensei to turn this into a series.

Links to the long version of "Furou Kyoudai": (Zip) (PDF)

There is a 40-page follow on "Furou Kyoudai" one-shot.  We will try to release it early in the new year.

Next up is J+K and Magnolia.   December will be nuts because of the holidays and vacation plans, so please don't expect to see J+K and Magnolia within a week after I receive Aria.  Please check the release schedule for the latest release dates.  We'll do our best, but at the same time, it's a special time of year to spend with our families and friends.  So enjoy the holiday season and we'll be back in full-swing January :).

Happy Thanksgiving to folks in the US!  And for heaven's sake, don't bring your manga to the dinner table...put it down and eat...

"A Small World" -- One Shot Translation

Yay!  Another rich granny to hate!  Haha!!!  I sorta feel like this story is a nice companion to the events happening currently in Ouran.   Anyhow ... Mariko-chan suggested this one-shot.  Thank you sooo much!  It's a great story and I loved reading and translating it!  So here it is for Mariko and whoever else wants to read it:

Link to "A Small World" 

I'm still waiting for a response from my second proofreader.  If there are any changes from her, there will be a version 1.

Also, if there are any other one-shots you think I should check out, let me know!  I really liked reading this one :).