Actually, “Inside the DMG” is a misleading title, since there has been little action on that front since last month’s teleconferences. As members wait for their contracts (perhaps forthcoming in the next couple of weeks), most have been reluctant to ask too many questions, even on the Guild’s message boards. With DMP President Hikaru Sasahara visiting crisis-stricken Japan, the general sense around the forums has been very much wait-and-see.
That said, yesterday’s press release from the company suggests that its President has been hard at work overseas! Check out the full text below:
Gardena, CA (March 21, 2011) – Digital Manga is excited to announce the first acquisition of 487 titles from Japanese publishers for the Digital Manga Guild (DMG). That number is expected to grow exponentially, as publishers have shown an increased interest within the past few weeks to be a part of DMG.
While the names of the publishers must still be kept under wraps, the growing amount of titles has astounded everyone at Digital Manga Publishing (DMP). In addition, the genres have varied between yaoi, shojo, josei, and seinen, with more to come. DMG has been President Sasahara’s personal project over the past years, as he sought a new way to produce more titles quickly for manga fans. The Guild finally came to fruition in October of last year under the DMP umbrella, and has steadily grown with over 1,100 members joining to take part in this manga community initiative. With their help, DMG promises to be a guaranteed success.
The titles keep rolling in from Japan, further establishing the Digital Manga Guild as a serious business changing the way manga will be localized.
Personally, I’m a fan of the new counter graphic, which very much illustrates the vision presented to us all by Mr. Sasahara in the teleconferences (both of which can now be downloaded from the Guild’s main page).
Meanwhile, we continue in “wait and see” mode. I hope to be reporting on contracts in the very near future, and perhaps even on what’s next for the beta groups!
Jade says
March 23, 2011 at 2:23 pmI’m a little mixed about the banner. On one hand, it’s cool to make note of the accomplishments so far and all the 0s give a sense of the hope, but it’s also a little daunting. As a reader supporting the project, it makes me feel a little bad that I won’t be able to support over a million titles, haha. That’s completely stupid and unreasonable, but I think that feeling illustrates how readers are going to have to change their perspective and reading habits for something like this IE: we can’t read everything just because it’s there. I think it’s a necessary change for the future of media in general; I’ve felt that way for years now, but even I having trouble actually getting it into my head.
Also, I’m excited about some genre confirmation on the shojo, josei and seinan. I know, I know, I’ll get on some yaoi one of these days, but I’m pretty busy courting Mistress Manga’s nineteen other faces.