Publishers: Del Rey Manga

I mentioned last week that Del Rey is the English publisher for xxxHolic, along with many other titles (including Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Gundam Seed Destiny, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney comics, and some of my favorites like Air Gear and Ghost Hunt), and I thought I should give a little more background on them.

Del Rey Manga (which is a subset of Del Rey Books, a scifi and fantasy publisher) is a relative newcomer to the manga translation world. They began publishing manga series in 2004, and are probably most famous for being the first to consistently include honorifics in their translations, to maintain Japanese references within works instead of converting them to equivalent English ones, and to have notes at the beginning and end of each volume of their manga to explain both of these to new readers and readers unfamiliar with Japanese culture. Del Rey also began a practice of including a few pages, still in the original Japanese, of the next volume of a series in the back of the manga; but unlike the notes on honorifics and references, this is not consistent for each series.

Del Rey took the foundation that its main predecessors, TokyoPop and Viz, had built in bringing over manga titles, and added to it by assuming that manga had settled enough into the American landscape that more of its original, Japanese aspects could be preserved without causing too much confusion (or risking a rejection of the titles!). And since the manga they've brought over has been enjoyed for six years now, they may have gambled right. Del Rey's manga titles might not be the right place to start if you're just beginning to explore this whole 'manga thing,' but if you see one you want to read among their series, the notes will make sure you don't lose the story among the translation.