If you are in any way familiar with manga, then you have heard of "Shonen Jump." For those of you who aren't fans of manga, let me bring you up to speed with the story. "Shonen Jump" is Viz's American version of the famous Japanese manga anthology of the same name (minus the 'u'). Each month's issue of "Shonen Jump" is over 300 pages, is printed on (good) recycling paper, and has a subscriber rate of over 2 million subscribers (or maybe that's just how many copies of the magazine is sold each month in general, I forgot). Inside the pages of "Shonen Jump" are popular comics of series like "Yu-Gi-Oh," "Dragon Ball (Z)," "Yu Yu Hakusho," "Shaman King," "One Piece," and fan favorites "Hikaru no Go" and "Naruto." These series bring in hardcore manga fans as well as new readers, and more popular series like "Rurouni Kenshin" and the dreadful "Knights of The Zodiac" have staying power on the Top 100 Books lists. Since the magazine premiered two years ago, Viz has established the "Shonen Jump" name as THE place to get the best shounen manga out there (and I'm not going to completely argue that point either)! So now that "Shonen Jump" has been clearly established as the place to get your shounen fix, Viz is now hoping to do the same thing with the shoujo market. And by June of this year, Viz's "Shojo Beat" will hit store shelves... and from the looks of things, it's headed straight for disaster.

Now, you may be wondering how I can spell such doom for Viz's new anthology without having read it yet. After all, what made manga popular in America? Shoujo (thanks in large part to "Sailor Moon"). What is the most-loved genre on the manga market today? Shoujo. What do adult women read? Shoujo. Who's the top selling manga artist(s) in America? CLAMP, who writes shounen, although most of their series are considered to be shoujo given their big appeal with women. So what's the problem, then? Well, the problem is some of the choices that have been made regarding content, pricing, and marketing just seem completely wrong for what they are trying to accomplish. When "Shojo Beat" hits shelves in June, it will premier with six new series. These series are:

"Akachan to Boku" by Marimo Ragawa
"Crimson Hero" by Mitsuba Takanashi
"God Child" by Kaori Yuki
"Kaze Hikaru" by Taeko Watanabe
"NANA" by Ai Yazawa
"Zettai Kareshi" by Yuu Watase

Now, I have to point out that while these series will most likely get more "Americanized" names so that we can remember them more easily, my problem is, has anyone honestly HEARD of any of these titles before? People may know who Ai Yazawa (of "Paradise Kiss" fame) is, but who are these other people? Even more importantly, what are all these series? I haven't heard of a single one of these titles, and considering how much of a manga fan I am, this is pretty disheartening. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying any of these series are bad (in fact, they may be very good), but there are no names here to attract too many people to the magazine. There's nothing by CLAMP here, nothing by Rumiko Takahashi, "Full Moon wo Sagashite" isn't here (and that is frustrating since that is the most popular shoujo series in America that hasn't even had an official release of ANY kind). The reason people welcomed "Shonen Jump" into their open arms so easily is because it had material that they were familiar with. DBZ and YGO! alone were enough to attract casual readers, and series like "Naruto" and "One Piece" kept them reading (although I'm NOT suggesting that YGO! or DBZ are bad series as they are quite good). However, "Shojo Beat" contains no big names that click with the general public. No "Cardcaptor Sakura," no "Sailor Moon," nothing from CLAMP, and for some reason, Viz decided not to pull readers of "Please Save My Earth" and "Boys Over Flowers" to the mag by continuing the series in "Shojo Beat" first. Sure, that would have been playing dirty, but it would have been SOMETHING right?!

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that these unknown series might be bad as they may prove to be very enjoyable series, but underground no-names are still not going to sell a lot of magazines to the general public. So we may not have any big names here, but at least we have competitive pricing, right? Wrong. When "Shojo Beat" premieres, each issue will retail for $5.99, the "Shojo Beat" graphic novels will retail for $8.99 each, and a year-long subscription will cost you $34.95 (with a special promotion value of $29.99). In my eyes, this pricing scheme is complete bull. One of the things that made "Shonen Jump" a hit was competitive pricing all around. The magazine offered you a few hundred pages of everyone's favorite series for just $5, you could get the SJ graphic novels for $7.99 each (which is $2 less then almost all other manga on the market), and the promotional subscription rate was a mere $19.95 while the subscription now rests at $29.95 (although I have heard some people had to pay $34.95 for their subscription renewal). As you can see, the pricing for "Shojo Beat" seems far from competitive, and considering all the titles they are releasing are all series virtually no one has heard of... well, I can't help but wonder what Viz is thinking.

The magazine price and subscription rate are the least of my worries since the competition in the manga anthology market is pretty bare, but I have issues with the other pricing. The promo subscription rate isn't that big of a deal and the book prices are a joke. At $8.99 a book, these books are going to be a mere $1 less then all the other manga on store shelves. Hardly competitive pricing and hardly enough to look like a great deal. If you buy five books of manga at the current prices, here's what you could be looking at (without tax):

Del Rey: $55.00
Tokyopop: $50.00
Shojo Beat: $46.00
Shonen Jump: $40.00

See the difference? While I gave each price its own category, a majority of manga books are $9.99, which means the Tokyopop price is the price you're most likely to be stuck with if you buy multiple books. As you can see, Shojo's $1 price difference doesn't do a whole lot to fight with the competition, and (again) seeing as how the series that are being released in graphic novel format first are no names just like the magazine series... well, then people aren't going to be as willing to shell over the bucks for these series. The selection of shoujo manga has become so big, so large, with so many choices, that Viz REALLY needs to price these books more competitively if they plan to brand these books just as successfully as they have branded "Shonen Jump" books! Now after everything I've said, you may be thinking that I want nothing more than "Shojo Beat" to fail miserably so that I can have the last laugh. This is far from the truth. Despite all the doom and gloom I'm predicting, I DO hope that I'm wrong, that "Shojo Beat" is a rousing success that would match (if not rival) "Shonen Jump"’s success, I will be subscribing to this and I will be reviewing the graphic novels within the first couple of weeks of their release. In fact, if "Shojo Beat" is a success, then it will be even more of a blessing since this will mean that manga has become mainstream enough that big profile series aren't NEEDED to make a manga anthology work, and boy, wouldn't THAT be something to brag about?!

Still, I think at least ONE big-profile series could really make a world of difference, and so far, I see none on the horizon! Even though "Raijin Comics" was a huge flop, I can't help but wonder if the magazine would've caught on if Gutsoon could have gotten at least one title that mainstream people recognized (like "Trigun") instead of grabbing a handful of (mostly) unknown series and letting them cut loose. What's also worth noting is that while "Shonen Jump" fans may frown on the constant usage of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" covers for the magazine, the truth is, Yugi sells copies of "Shonen Jump" just by being on the cover. However, there's nothing in "Shojo Beat" that they can use on the cover to grab a non-manga fan’s attention. After all, a couple of my friends aren't exactly anime fans, but when they saw their first "Dragon Ball Z" cover on "Shonen Jump" they picked it up, enjoyed the non-DBZ series, and now they are subscribers. Yet "Shojo Beat" doesn't have a series like that now. I mean, I guess part of me should know that there aren't as much manga series that are super-popular with girls. What are some of the biggest shoujo titles out there? "Sailor Moon” (currently in licensing hell with Tokyopop and Kodansha), "Cardcaptor Sakura," "Kare Kano," and "Fruits Basket." Most of these series are series the general public knows about, and the ones that aren't are pretty darn popular for never being on TV. Unfortunately for Viz, Tokyopop holds the licenses to all of these, ruining Viz's chance to use these series in their own magazine.

So it may seem like there isn't anything Viz themselves can use. However, that is a bald-face lie. One series that Viz DOES have that they could use is "Inu-Yasha," which is very much in the minds of the general public thanks to Cartoon Network, and the core fanbase of "Inu-Yasha" is women. Yeah, I know "Inu-Yasha" is technically shounen, but come ON, Viz! Women LOVE "Inu-Yasha!" He's a big name with Joe Schmo (or typical Amy in this case), and he's YOURS! Lock, stock, and barrel. Honestly, I don't see what the problem is. This would actually make perfect sense since the "Inu-Yasha" manga has had some extremely big (and frustrating) problems, and by continuing the series in "Shojo Beat," you will finally have an excuse to do the rerelease of the series where fans don't have to deal with the flipped artwork. Of course, seeing as how you're launching in a few months, it may be difficult to change the current content, but if you survive to get to your 1st year anniversary, here's some series you should look into adding:

"Inu-Yasha" - It's popular, it's a hit with both women and men (mostly women), and you'd have a reason to rerelease the series in an unflipped version. This is a no-brainer.

"Bow Wow Wata" and "Guardian Angel Getten" - If Gutsoon's manga licenses ever go up for bidding (and I wouldn't be too surprised if they did at this point), then these series would make perfect additions to "Shojo Beat." Especially "Guardian Angel Getten," seeing as how there is already a pretty big fanbase dedicated to the series.

"Full Moon wo Sagashite" – Honestly, Viz, not having this series in the magazine when it launched... well, that's just stupid. You blew it with this one, and you need to do everything you can to get this series in your magazine. If ANYTHING will bring in lots of anime fans looking for a familiar name, this series will!

And with that, here's me hoping that you WILL be successful so that you CAN be everything I hope you can be!! I'm just sorry to say that looking at the current way you're dealing with things, I can't help but feel that this may be a big disaster. But we'll wait and see, I've been wrong before, and I hope I'm wrong now.

- -Kevin T. Rodriguez- -