The Latest with Tokyopop

[Gypsy]

As most of you well know, Toykopop releases the majority of manga around here (others include Dark Horse and Viz), and aside from printing the manga in the original sequence (left to right) they also have ratings on the back of the comics. I think it's great that they do that.
However, since Toykopop is intent on staying on the cutting edge, they are importing some of the first official English yaoi manga. Two series that you'll see in your local manga pick-up are "Gravitation" and "Fake." Although these have material that many people find objectional, they are keeping the rating system the same as if it were a guy/girl theme instead of guy/guy. So, you could pick up a manga that has a good rating, but get a rude surprise later on.

[ShiroiHikari]

Ut oh. I smell trouble coming for Tokyopop. And....why the heck are they publishing yaoi manga???? Graaaaaaa. ::sigh::

[Ashley]

*Draws sword* Thanks for the heads-up.

[inkhana]

*shakes head* Somehow I'm not surprised...thanks for the info, Gypsy.

[Christianotaku]

dotn get mad tokyopop has to do it as a company to be politacally correct and open to gayness. if nto they can expect to be even sued for it!

[Ashley]

Out of curiosity, where did you hear that?
I'm not sure how true that is; sure they would want to try to keep up a "good public image" by marketing lots of genres, but Christian companies are not sued for not printing gay/lesbian material. A company chooses which products it sells and which it will not; therefore how can they be punished for NOT selling something?
It'd be a different story if they published something that was say, anti-homosexual, because by the world's standards that's discriminatory.

[andyroo]

Well, I don't think that Christian stores would be under as much scrutiny from that because it might already have been accepted in the athiest community that Christians are "un-p.c." Of course, there are also alot of other laws that they might go for to get more profit out of a law suit. The real big thing that I find would be to sue about is on racist issues. And also, socialism through the back door. This is also done by suing to control what get's sold and what doesn't. I don't think being sued over such things is an issue to them right now though.

I always go to a book store and preview the manga before I buy it. I guess that will become handy in the near future.

[uc pseudonym]

Christianotaku does make a good point about political correctness. A secular company won't necessarily acknowledge any morals, so they would feel the need to be politically correct. But I think the point of this thread was to say that they are not rating yaoi any differently than normal romance.

[Enrico Maxwell]

*nods to uc*

Out of curiousity, where would you rate a manga that, aside from shounen ai romantic angst (nothing physical implied or shown) is quite tame? Older teen? Mature?

Personally, I feel that homosexual content is something that is my responsibility as a reader to be aware of, not something that should necessarily be rated "higher". I had no trouble identifying Fake as a title with homosexual focus, or for that matter, Under a Glass Moon as a title with sorcery and witchcraft and Demon Diary as having demonic themes. These are the sort of things that may not be appropriate for Christians of any "maturity" but don't necessarily make a title more "adult".

[Gypsy]

Thus, the very point that I mentioned it in the first place.