MediaWorks (publisher)

MediaWorks, Inc. 株式会社メディアワークス
Type	Kabushiki kaisha
Founded	October 15 1992
Headquarters	Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Industry	Books, Magazines, Manga, Video games
Revenue	3,866,000,000 yen as of September 27 2007[1]
Website	mediaworks.co.jp

MediaWorks, Inc. (株式会社メディアワークス, Kabushiki kaisha MediaWākusu^?) is a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group known for their Dengeki (電撃, Dengeki^? meaning electric shock) brand magazines and book labels. These include such well-known magazines as Dengeki Daioh, and Dengeki G's Magazine, along with MediaWorks' main light novel publishing label Dengeki Bunko. They mainly cater to the Japanese male otaku crowd, covering such topics as anime, light novels, manga, plastic modelling, and visual novels. However, MediaWorks has published three magazines targeted towards females — Comic Sylph, Dengeki Girl's Style, and Character Parfait — but each one is a special edition version of another magazine. MediaWorks runs yearly contests for original novel and manga submissions, such as the light novel Dengeki Novel Prize contest. The company is planned to be merged with ASCII on April 1 2008; the name after the merger will be ASCII MediaWorks.^[1] In addition to publishing printed material, MediaWorks has been involved with the production of other media. They have developed and published visual novels for popular "media-mix" Japanese series where many different forms of media are published for a given series. Such well-known series include Kashimashi, Shakugan no Shana, and Strawberry Marshmallow. MediaWorks has also been involved in the production of anime television and original video animation series.

History

In 1992, Kadokawa Shoten's president Haruki Kadokawa was devoting himself to the movie business, and his younger brother and vice-president of the company, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa was in charge of magazines the company published. At the same time, Tsugukiko was the president of Kadokawa's subsidary Kadokawa Media Office which was in charge of publishing video game magazines like Comptiq, and manga magazines targeted towards the male otaku crowd in Japan along centered around "media-mix" Japanese series where many different forms of media are published for a given series. Citing differences in the interests of business direction, Tsuguhiko resigned from Kadokawa Shoten to start MediaWorks on October 15 1992 with a large contingent from Kadokawa Shoten employees joining him.

In 1993, due to an influence from the Tokyo Shock Boys, known in Japan as the Dengeki Network (電撃ネットワーク, Dengeki Network^?), MediaWorks launched a series of magazines under the Dengeki line. These magazines where taken from previous publications that Kadokawa Media Office had published. The new magazines were named Dengeki Super Famicom (from Kadokawa's former magazine Marushō Super Famicom), Dengeki PC Engine (from Kadokawa's former magazine Marushō PC Engine), Dengeki Comic Gao! (from Kadokawa's former magazine Comic Comp), the now-defunct Dengeki Oh (taken from Comptiq), and the now-defunct Dengeki Megadrive (originally a special edition of Dengeki PC Engine). Also in 1993, Haruki Kadokawa was arrested for cocaine smuggling and lost his presidency at Kadokawa Shoten which was soon taken over by Tsuguhiko Kadokawa by holding president positions for both Kadokawa Shoten and MediaWorks; incidentally, MediaWorks was later made a subsidary of Kadokawa Shoten in 2002. MediaWorks became a member of Kadokawa Group Holdings, and after Enterbrain became a member of the same group, Enterbrain's Famitsu line and MediaWorks' Dengeki line started to compete against each other, especially in terms of presenting information pertaining to bishōjo games. By 2001, MediaWorks specialized in publishing light novels, manga, video games, and magazines pertaining to such media. The company is planned to be merged with ASCII on April 1 2008; the name after the merger will be ASCII MediaWorks.^[1]

Cover of the October 2007 issue of Dengeki Comic Gao! featuring Nia from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Magazines published

Main article: List of magazines published by MediaWorks

Publishing labels

Dengeki Bunko

Dengeki Bunko (電撃文庫, Dengeki Bunko^?) is is a light novel label aimed at a male audience established in June 1993. The editors in charge of this label have a reputation for welcoming new authors, and hold a yearly contest, the Dengeki Novel Prize, to discover new talent. The eighth volume of Kino's Journey, originally published in October 2006, was Dengeki Bunko's one-thousandth published novel. In April 2007, three movies based on separate light novel series published by Dengeki Bunko were produced; the three titles were Kino's Journey, Shakugan no Shana, and Inukami!.

Dengeki Comics

Dengeki Comics (電撃コミックス, Dengeki Komikkusu^?) is a manga publishing label aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Comics EX label which publishes a lesser number of manga volumes. A large amount of the manga published under Dengeki Comics was originally serialized in the seinen magazine Dengeki Daioh.

Dengeki G's Bunko

Dengeki G's Bunko (電撃G's文庫, Dengeki G's Bunko^?) was a publishing label originally established in 1997 as a light novel label aimed at a male audience — the light novels were based on bishōjo games. The label was run by three men: Mizuhito Akiyama, Hideyuki Kurata, and Masanori Date. As of 2003, the label has been suspended and has been succeeded by Dengeki Game Bunko.

Dengeki Game Bunko

Dengeki Game Bunko (電撃ゲーム文庫, Dengeki Gēmu Bunko^?) is a publishing label established in 1994 when it was originally related with tabletop role-playing games. The label stopped production in September 1997 but was later restarted in December 1999 as a computer game and light novel publisher. The label succeeded the previous publishing label Dengeki G's Bunko.

Sylph Comics

Sylph Comics is a manga publishing label aimed at a female audience. The manga that will be published under this label were originally serialized in the shōjo magazine Comic Sylph. The first bound volumes will be published under this label on March 21 2008.

Contests

Dengeki Comic Grand Prix

The Dengeki Comic Grand Prix (電撃コミックグランプリ, Dengeki Komikku Guran Puri^?) is is an award handed out annually (since 2001) by the Japanese publisher MediaWorks for original one-shot manga. Between the first and fifth contests held, there were two divisions: original, and anthology. This was changed from the sixth contest on to a Daioh/Gao! division which covers seinen manga, and a Sylph division which covers shōjo manga. There are four types of prizes given out each contest: the Grand Prix Prize (one-million yen), the Semi-Grand Prix Prize (five-hundred-thousand yen), the Excellence Prize (two-hundred-thousand yen), and the Honorable Mention (one-hundred-thousand yen). There was also once a Dengeki Moeoh Grand Prize division which was held twice with a Grand Prize and Honerable Mentions.^[2]

Dengeki hp Novella Prize

The Dengeki hp Novella Prize (電撃hp短編小説賞, Dengeki hp Tanpenshōsetsu Shō^?) is an award handed out annually (since 2000) by the Japanese publisher MediaWorks for exceptionally written short stories and novellas. The prize is associated with MediaWorks' light novel magazine Dengeki hp. Between the first and fourth contests held, the editorial department of MediaWorks' included the narrowed-down novellas in an issue of Dengeki hp, and the winner was decided from a reader-participation voting poll. This was changed from the fifth contest on by the use of a committee to award the prize.

Dengeki Novel Prize

The Dengeki Novel Prize (電撃小説大賞, Dengeki Shōsetsu Taishō^?) is an award handed out annually (since 1994) by the Japanese publisher MediaWorks for their Dengeki Bunko light novel label. The contest has discovered many popular and successful light novelists, like Kouhei Kadono and Yashichiro Takahashi. Originally called the Dengeki Game Novel Prize, the name was changed in 2003. The Dengeki Novel Prize consists of the Grand Prize (one million yen), the Gold Prize (five hundred thousand yen), and the Silver Prize (three hundred thousand yen). There is also an illustration division. There are over two-thousand submissions annually, and it is considered the largest prize for light novels.^[3]

Video games

MediaWorks has been in the business of developing and producing video games of series that have light novels or manga published by MediaWorks. These games are typically visual novels, a genre of adventure games, but some have also been sound novels, which has less attributes of an adventure game than a normal visual novel. The video games produced are ported to the PlayStation 2 or Nintendo DS. Earlier games like Emerald Dragon and Ojōsama Express were ported to the PC Engine, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation. Other games, like those based on the Shakugan no Shana series, were ported to both the PS2 and DS. A section of MediaWorks known as DS Dengeki Bunko produces sound novels playable on the Nintendo DS based from light novels published under MediaWorks' Dengeki Bunko publishing label. These includes: Allison, Baccano!, Inukami!, and Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu.^[4]

Video games produced

References

External links

• MediaWorks' official website (Japanese)
• Dengeki Online (Japanese)
• Dengeki Net (Japanese)
• MediaWorks (publisher) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia