Viz's "Shojo Beat" begins in June

[rugrats1]

According to Diamond Comics' "Previews" magazine, a new manga magazine from Viz, "Shojo Beat", will begin publication in June (with a July cover date).

By the description, "Shojo Beat" is, more or less, a companion series to "Shonen Jump" -- like Jump, Beat will have several manga series in each issue (the first issue is said to have 330 pages in length), plus extra articles pertaining to Japanese culture. The exception, though, is that "Shojo Beat" will, as the name implies, feature "shojo" (romance) stories, aimed at girls (Jump is action-based, aimed at boys).

The cover price for the first issue is US$5.99.

The question, though, is how well do Shojo stories sell, as compated to action manga, and how well do you think Beat will sell (especially since there's currently no shojo anime in the US to tie in with the manga featured in that magazine, unlike Jump, where most of the stories also have an anime series to go along with it)?

[gubi-gubi]

Shojo does sell well and alot of titles are shojo now compared to the good (bad) old days. Look at the line up of Tokyopop... Alot of their stuff is shojo and has sold well...

Shojo doesn't mean romance either it just means manga aimed at girls (although alot of readers are male) so therefore it can and often does contain action. Cardcaptor Sakura is full of action for example.

[rarnom]

sounds cool enough. I am sure I'll get a subscription for the first year and see how I like it.

[tsunami]

I hope the shojou manga they put in it isn't the yaoi crap they have in raw japanese shojou mags. Although the romance they have in non-yaoi series is so serious.... give me a tissue. lol

[rugrats1]

I hope the shojou manga they put in it isn't the yaoi crap they have in raw japanese shojou mags.

Knowing Viz and Shonen Jump, there probably won't be any yaoi in Beat. Though of course, in the Previews ad, Viz rated it "T+", for Older Teens (Jump is usually rated "T" for teens).

[CrayonShinChan]

It could be of interest if they feature some series which are not too soppy to attract a wider audience. It is interesting to see anthologies increasing in popularity.

[gubi-gubi]

Yaoi is porn, shonen-ai is romance. Why would they put porn in a teen shojo anthology?