In what has become a recurring topic in this column, it’s time to introduce a new small publisher to the market!
On June 11th, a Twitter account by the name of Star Fruit Books teased they would soon reveal their first licensed series. According to records, Star Fruit Books was established at the end of May as a Florida-based company.
Well, three days later, the title was revealed: Minami Q-ta’s Pop Life.
This seinen slice-of-life manga was serialized on Shueisha’s now-defunct web manga site Funwari Jump. This will be the author’s first work translated into English although she’s had several works targeting different demographics since her debut in the mid-90s.
According to their Twitter, Star Fruit Book plans on making this a digital-only release “for now” and will be available to buy and download on their website. Anime News Network reports the two-volume series will be in .pdf and .cbz (comic book zip) format with the first volume due in September.
When I first heard the announcement, I did something that seemed natural: head to their website. Except…they didn’t have one. It’s in progress according to the company, but for now, Star Fruit Books’ presence is limited to social media like Twitter and Facebook, and their email is a Gmail account.
Later on, a search result on Google popped up.
“Oh, they must have uploaded their site, which makes the paragraph I wrote about them useless!”
…Or maybe not.
As of Friday, June 19th, the page still isn’t live. Perhaps it will be by the time this article goes live. Maybe I’m in the minority here in thinking this, but a website would have been nice to coincide with some early hype with their license announcement — explaining how Star Fruit Books got started, the type of series they plan to go after, etc. Especially since their social media was relatively quiet. As of June 19th, they had only six tweets or retweets and one Facebook post. While they do share some images of Pop Life, the series isn’t given a description to help explain what the story is about.
What we do know is that they are billing themselves as, “A tiny US based Digital Manga Publisher!” So for now, they’re going after the manga market. I only mention this because my first thought was, with a name like Star Fruits Books, it was going to be another small light novel publisher. With the popularity of the Shousetsuka ni Narou website and the fact that novels don’t require as many steps to localize versus manga, I’m sure there will be more Star Fruit Books-like publishers popping up.
I will say that, compared to the other similar debuts in recent months, Star Fruit Books’ definitely seems more low-key. Perhaps this is partially due to the pandemic, or maybe it’s because they kicked off with one license versus at least two like other smaller publishers. But to launch with no website or even a blurb about the series?
I also wish we knew what their niche was going to be. Seinen? Slice-of-life? Webmanga? Even though Pop Life wasn’t serialized in a traditional Shueisha publication, it’s still noteworthy that a humble newcomer to the manga scene licensed a Shueisha title. Minami Q-ta has worked with several companies, so maybe her contract is a little different than someone who has spent their whole career with the same publisher.
Still, it’s nice that we’re getting a new manga company in the US. And the “for now” quote leaves room to hope that, if Pop Life is successful, Star Fruit Books will opt for a physical release. For now, though, I want to learn more about this company. Perhaps by the time this column goes live, they will have their website up, and maybe that will address some of the questions I — and surely others — have.