A little bit of old news, but state-side manga and Japanese publisher Kodansha International has announced that they are closing their state side with plans to discontinue some of their titles. Those visiting their website (http://www.kodansha-intl.com/) will be greeted with:
Kodansha International has devoted itself to publishing English books on Japan for nearly half a century. As of the last day of April, however, we will be closing down. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who supported us during these long years.
Of our many titles, some will go out of print and some will stay on the market. Those that will continue being sold will be transferred, along with our business operations, to Kodansha Ltd. and Kodansha USA Inc. We ask for your continued support.
While many of their titles were not limited to anime/manga they did publish other things of interest in addition to bilingual omnibus style manga (A listing of can be seen Here on Amazon.com). Their most notable releases were the “How to draw Manga” series and Love Hina omibus releases.
With the closure of TokyoPop and Kodansha it seems getting translated goods from Japan is going to grow even tougher. On the bright side of things, there is still possibility of a online distribution but only time will tell.
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