(no subject)

[ivyfic]

Harlequin is launching a manga imprint, called Ginger Blossom. Am I the only one who finds it odd to try to sell manga to the Bible belt housewife set?

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Apparently they're targeting it towards girls for now:

"After the couple of volumes in the two flavors that came out last year from Dark Horse, Harlequin has decided to bring over and distribute the titles themselves while having Dark Horse translate them, according to ICv2. The more mature line has for now disappeared as they want to focus on the younger imprint where girls are more likely to try them. Hopefully they'll ditch the pink/purple ink though since that made the books unreadable to a lot of people."

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Good point. I know they've been having a hard time pulling in the yournger readers (and by younger I mean under 50), so this makes a lot of sense. So they're just publishing translated shojo? I was hoping for OEM in the style of Harlequin series romances. Cause that would be funny. And I'd probably buy it, at least once, just to point and laugh.

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

I think the original line (the one with the pink/purple ink) was actually originally English romance novels from the seventies that had been translated and become popular in Japan. Of course, since they were so old-fashioned, they didn't appeal to the current crop of romance readers. So they didn't sell very well.

(And, btw, if you think "Bible belt housewives" are the modern core audience of romance novels, you really might be surprised.)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

(And, btw, if you think "Bible belt housewives" are the modern core audience of romance novels, you really might be surprised.)
I actually got that description of the core audience from a Harlequin exec -- at least with respect to the series romances. But I know romance is far and away the best-selling genre in fiction, and there are many many readers of all sorts out there who buy it in bulk.

I'm kind of horrified by this idea of manga versions of seventies serial romances done in pink ink. I've read some Harlequins from that era. They really are putrid, without exception.

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

I've read some Harlequins from that era. They really are putrid, without exception.

Oh yeah-- smartbitchestrashybooks did a review of the first one, and it sounds TERRIBLE. Seducing a girl to get revenge on her brother! The hero lying to an amnesiac girl and telling her she's in a relationship with him! Ew, ew, ew!

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Seducing a girl to get revenge on her brother! The hero lying to an amnesiac girl and telling her she's in a relationship with him! Ew, ew, ew!

Actually, it sounds like some of the more 'wtf?!' stories I've seen in HP fandom. Do you think it might be a case of cribbing the plot, or are those tropes migrating from romance novels targeted at younger readers to fanfic *written* by younger readers..?

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

Well, like I said, this manga was adapted from a romance novel that was apparently (1) published in the 1970s and (2) typical of its kind, so if there is influencing going on, the romance novel plots obviously came before the HP stories... but the Harlequin!manga just came out very recently (and wasn't very popular anyway) so I don't think the *manga* could be the influence on HP.

I think revenge!seductions and amnesia angst are just some of those timeless free-floating classic tropes that appear EVERYWHERE there is cheesy romance, whether it's harlequins or fanfic or Bollywood or what, and there is no way to track them back to their source. *G*

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

In other words, those plots are Cheese From The Collective Unconsciousness?

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

If only we could raise a fangirl in isolation from all types of media and then give her the HP books and see what kind of fanfic ideas she came up with!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

If a fangirl in the woods has no media, does she still squee?

Discuss.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

If I believed that plotlines about seducing a girl's sister to take revenge on her or telling an amnesiac you're having an affair were an inherent part of the human condition, I might have to choose myself.

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

If not now, it's only a matter of time. Welcome to the 21st and a half century :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Harlequin's trying to be hip! How *cute*!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

What I find more confusing is--isn't that porn amongst that readership? And aren't they really, vehemently opposed to porn?

Maybe it's not that graphic, but when you manga-ize a romance novel, you can't like skip over the sex. I suppose you can be vague about it and not literal, the way Harlequin books are anyway, but still, there's got to be something there for the point to come across.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

See thread above -- no this is not meant to be porn, I don't think. Just YA shojo. With really awful plot lines. To train the readers at a young age not to expect much logic in their romances.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

God, as if shojo needed any help manufacturing crappy ass plotlines. Not everything can be Fushigi Yuugi...