Broccoli Japan has announced the dissolution of Broccoli International USA.
This means that Broccoli Books will no longer publish books in North America.
As the operations manager overseeing various aspects of the company, I have lots to do in the next several months. But I’d like to continue to give updates on Broccoli Books production blog periodically about specific titles.
All of the book licenses revert back to the Japanese publishers at the end of this year. And we are working w/ them so that the titles can be released by other US publishers sometime in the future. We are gathering all production material, including finished books that haven’t been printed yet, so that the new licensees will be able to use the materials if they choose to do so.
There are a few titles that are currently in talks already, so hopefully I’ll be able to provide updates until the end of this year.
Also, we still have a lot of requests for dust jackets & stickers for all of our books, and we’ll continue to mail them out until they’re all taken care of. If you want the dust jackets & stickers, please make sure you mail them to us by early December.
Thanks to all of you who read Broccoli Books over the years.
We enjoyed working on every single one of them.
We have a lot of promo goods that will be tossed out at the end of the year, and I’d like to send them to libraries & school clubs as much as possible. If your local library (or school club) is interested in receiving promo goods, please have the librarian or club officer email pr(at)bro-usa.com with the subject line “Broccoli Books Promo Goods”
More updates coming soon.
PS. I’ll leave the comments open & will be reading them, but may not have time to respond. Please play nice. If comments start getting unpleasant, comments option will be closed.
Entries (RSS)
November 21st, 2008 at 12:10 am
Thanks a lot for everything you’ve brought us. I hope most, if not all, of the titles can be saved, especially sola (isn’t it only two volumes?) and Galaxy Angel II (and the rest of GA).
Yikes, better send that last dust jacket thing.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:30 am
Thanks for all your work on KAMUI, it’s become one of my favourite series and I hope the last two volumes will be published by some other company. Best of luck to all of you!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:30 am
Thank you so much for all that you and Broccoli have done to provide legit anime and manga to the US. It hurts to see you go, but I understand the reasons behind it.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:58 am
[…] just as the yaoi market began to level off. Meanwhile, operations manager Shizuki Yamashita is starting to shut things down: All of the book licenses revert back to the Japanese publishers at the end of this year. And we are […]
November 21st, 2008 at 6:50 am
It is sad to see Broccoli USA is closing down; hopefully in a few years when the economy gets better and lesser competition, you guys will come back and reopen the USA division. I really miss some of the properties like Digi Charat, FLCL and Sola…etc… this is definitely another big loss to the anime & manga industry. I can’t image what will happen to other companies next year…yikes.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:35 am
Well, now may not be the best time to say this, but I have a feeling FLCL won’t be in licensing limbo for very long since “it’s too big to fail”.
It’s a shame, really: the good (Broccoli USA) die young while the bad (TokyoPop) live on. Still, it was nice having some place to turn to that didn’t treat its’ customers like cattle (unlike Tokyopop). See you around…
November 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
This is too bad, as I was really was enjoying “My Dearest Devil Princess”. Assuming volume 3 will still come out this month as scheduled, there are only 2 volumes or so to go so I hope another publisher can pick up the reigns and finish this one off.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for all their hard work.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am
of all the anime companies i contacted when i was running an anime club, broccoli was one of the nicest and most helpful! it was really a great feeling knowing there was at least one company out there who would respond to us when we needed screening permissions (even if we dropped the ball and requested really late)
i’m really going to miss you guys, your manga and dvd’s were always really high quality and you guys picked up licenses i didn’t think anyone else would pick up. nothing else on my bookshelves comes anywhere close to the printing or editing quality of my broccoli books manga, and words can’t describe how appreciative i am that i was able to find so much galaxy angel stuff in US, or that i was able to read yoki koto kiku.
anyway, good luck everyone at broccoli!!! i hope you guys find really great opportunities after this, you guys really rocked and will be greatly missed! you were the best of the best!
now i’m going to see if i can gather together the courage to cut out and mail my dust jacket requests ^_^
November 21st, 2008 at 9:46 am
I was hoping the digi charat movie would make it. The books I have from you guys have always been of excellent quality compared to other labels.
Will anime gamers or dot anime in some form still be leff? A store was open before Broccoli decided to open an official presence in the US. Or will the Broccoli e-shop in JP be updated to accept orders from folks outside of Japan?
November 21st, 2008 at 11:31 am
I agree with Geese1, I was enjoying the releases of My Dearest Devil Princess. Its been hard enough for me to find the first and second volumes that have been released as it was, but now that your closing up, its going to get even harder. Thank you for everything so far.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:52 am
[…] Biggest manga news in recent days is undoubtably the announced shutdown of Brocolli Books USA International. While not a big fan of the publisher myself, it can’t be denied that they had some popular titles and a good reputation of quality. I first heard of Brocoll’s shutdown thanks to Gia who was quick to learn of the news. Since then ICv2 has recieved confirmation of the shutdown and more information was shared with the public through Brocolli Books’ production blog. […]
November 21st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I really loved the quality of your books, and I wish I’d had a chance to see more from Boysenberry. I really hope someone takes over Cigarette Kisses. It would be a shame for it to not be released over here.
Good luck to all of you, and I hope you find jobs that make you happy. :)
November 21st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Wow, this is bad news. I was so looking forward to Nase Yamato’s books, she’s one of my favorite authors. Let’s hope some other publisher is interested in these titles.
I have to thank you guys for the good work and enthusiasm you’ve put in releasing manga. So, THANK YOU A LOT!!! Good Luck!
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Dang, it’s a shame you guys had to go down this way. I was really looking forward to the rest of Devil Princess.
Good luck to the lot of you.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Does this mean that the Disgaea Vol. 3 is cancelled?
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Wow, what a surprise… and not in a good way! ): What on earth happened, I wonder?! It’s really sad to see you guys go…
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
It’s always sad to see a manga company close down. I absolutely love this company’s printing quality, too. Their paper is so nice. It isn’t even yellow on any of my copies!
I’ll miss you guys. Who else licenses any artbooks I care about, haha.
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I’m so sorry shizuki - san, i really enjoyed all of the broccoli titles, this blog and the industry babble blog. Thanks for all of the sleepless nights you and the other staffers had trying to get the books out to us on time. I wish you and the rest of the staff nothing but the best and hope you all get to stay working in the industry you love as much as us.
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
[…] Broccoli USA is shutting down. This is very sad; not only did they produce some excellent books (and – to be selfish for a moment – I was looking forward to Cigarette Kisses), but I really liked the couple of people I met who worked there. I hope they are doing okay! […]
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 pm
It was a sad day…
Hopefully some other publishers would pick up Cigarette Kisses…I was so looking forward to it since Nov 2007…Oh, and Kamui…only 2 books left…Now, I definitely cry :-(
I do hope to see you again…
Good luck in everything…
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
NOOO galaxy angel!!!!!!
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 am
I hope we can see volume 3 of the Disgaea 2 manga. I’ve seen volumes 3 and 4 and they absolutely need a translation. I really hope you at least release volume 3 before Broccoli USA dissolves.
But it looks the Disgaea light novels being translated was only a dream…
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
I really hate to see you guys go. I love all of the Di Gi Charat stuff that you guys have released. The quality was always top notch. You could really tell that a lot of care and effort went into them. You guys will definitely be missed.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:04 am
That so sad news T__T
I will miss broccoli,the translations of Aquarian Age and Disgaea 2 manga were perfect ;__;
Nobody will ever be similar to broccoli T_T
well I hope maybe Disgaea 2 manga would be licensed by another US publisher ;/
I would miss to Broccoli V.V
November 24th, 2008 at 11:16 am
One publisher to another: commiseration and good luck! It’s been a very tough time for everyone. You had some great material. Nice thing about publishing is that even though authors and publishers may come and go, the works live on.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I just checked amazon and I can’t find any Boysenberry titles to purchase. I know that the company and all it’s U.S. subsidiaries are going out of business, but will we, the customers, still be able to the buy the products until the end date? Or since production has been shut down, whatever is able to be bought is already out and sold?
November 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
i wish this was a horrible bad dream that i would wake up frmo
i can’t beleave this is happen.
just 3 more GAII manga to go!
i love the quality type book you made. sinc thay never got yellow
i wish thay would not shut down until the series that have bin running still for more then 2 years could let you guys finish translating then publish them
November 26th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Sad to hear that its goin down, but i enjoy reading!
November 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Sorry to hear the bad news. I really love the quality of your books especially those of Sola and Koi Cupid. Broccoli Books was one of the few publishers that put those great colored inserts in the books which increased the quality even more. Plus the books were such a great size. Anyways, I hope all of you will have a door of opportunity open for you soon and hope that you’ll find great homes for all your titles that you worked so to get out. To future success!
~mewmewgal312
November 29th, 2008 at 12:55 am
[…] announced here, Broccoli Books is going to stop distributing their high quality manga in North America, which of […]
December 1st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[…] I’ve laid out most of the information in the post on Nov 20, so please make sure you read through that before making comments or asking […]
December 9th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
[…] dunno how I missed this but it looks like Broccoli Books USA is closing shop. This is really depressing and makes me wish I had reviewed more of the stuff they sent me. I […]
December 14th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I was so sorry to hear you’re shutting down. I loved Boysenberry Books in particular. The quality of your books is so much better than many others out there. I live in a small town and picked up “Pet on Duty” a few months ago while on vacation. It was so funny and cute. I guess now I’ll never get to read Cupid’s Delivery. I should have bought it when I had the chance.
Best of luck to all your staff!
December 17th, 2008 at 7:20 am
I’m so sad at this unfortunate news. I can understand especially the way the US economy is headed right now but I’m still sad to see a great manga publisher have to close it’s doors. I’m hopeful for a come back or at least that someone else will pick up your titles and continue to do the excellent work that everyone at Broccoli has done.
I wish everyone at Broccoli much luck in their future endeavors.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
This is kind of late but…
Thanks for everything that you have done for us readers. I enjoyed Sola and was hoping for Pandora Hearts, but I guess it’s fine. You guys did a lot. Hope you guys (and girls) the best in the upcoming years. :)
February 13th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hello,
I’m the owner of Twin Moons Anime and you guys still owe us a shipment. You guys cashed our check over 10 days ago and have not shipped us a thing. Where is our shipment??? Are you guys just stealing money and running?
February 13th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Have you tried contacting them? You probably won’t get an immediate call since this is their production blog and they don’t check it really anymore since they’re officially closed. I’d suggest you contact Broccoli’s international branch they could tell you about that shipment.