Harlequin manga are an interesting hybrid, Japanese manga adaptations of American romance novels, drawn by shoujo manga artists. Dark Horse tried to import them a few years ago, printing the tamer ones in pink ink and the more, ahem, adult ones in purple. Whether it was the colored ink or the lack of an audience, they just didn’t take off. Now Digital is putting them online at their emanga site, alongside their regular library of yaoi.
To be honest, Digital seems like a better fit for this line than the seinen-oriented Dark Horse; their primary product, yaoi manga, has been described as Harlequin romances with two males in the lead. And for those who can get used to reading on screens, web distribution is a logical way to buy romance novels, which fans like to read quickly and in quantity—but generally only once.
Anyway, here’s the PR on the launch as well as info, at the bottom, about a special offer that Digital is running for the next few days in which you get extra points every time you rent or buy a story.
Gardena, CA (December 3, 2009) – Digital Manga Publishing, one of the manga industry’s most unique and creative publishers,is proud to announce their online collaboration in making Harlequin romance manga available online at eManga.com! Harlequin Enterprises Limited (www.eHarlequin.com ) is a global leader in series romance and one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction. Harlequin manga are comic adaptations of Harlequin’s romance novels and are currently digitally distributed by Harlequin and SOFTBANK Creative internationally. Harlequin manga will now be available for rental through eManga’s online manga service, bringing the manga versions of the popular Harlequin romance novels to the US for english readers to enjoy!
Beloved by readers the world over, Harlequin has shipped 5.8 billion novels worldwide since its inception. In 1998, Harlequin Enterprises Limited began licensing their novels to Japanese publishers, culminating in the creation of Harlequin manga, which are drawn by various shojo mangaka, and geared towards teenage and adult women. Now, twenty of these titles will be available through eManga.com for rental alongside Digital Manga’s own rental library. These twenty titles have never before been available in their print manga form in the US, until now.
The first of the Harlequin manga titles available for rental will be: Millionaire Husband written by Leanne Banks and illustrated by Kanako Uesugi, Prisoner Of The Tower written by Gayle Wilson and illustrated by Karin Miyamoto, The Sheikh’s Reluctant Bride written by Teresa Southwick and illustrated by Ayumu Asou, Word Of A Gentleman written by Lyn Stone and illustrated by Tsukiko Kurebayashi, Married Under The Italian Sun by Lucy Gordon and illustrated by Mayu Takayama and Sale Or Return Bride written by Sarah Morgan and illustrated by Kazuto Fujita.
eManga.com streams content through an Adobe Flash player, which allows readers to access their library wherever they have an internet connection. The reader has custom features that include two-page, one-page, panel-by-panel reading, three custom zoom options, a bookmark bad and auto play. The reader is also made to work with different screen sizes to maintain great image quality at any screen size. The standard eManga rental package is $10 for 1000 points, with entire books averaging between 200-300 points. Higher packages come with free bonus points. Points are kept in user’s accounts, allowing for quick and easy rental of titles at anytime, anywhere. For most of the titles on eManga, you also have the option to read the entire book by spending eManga points to “rent” the title for a limited amount of time (currently 72 hours). If you later decide to rent the same title again, it will be automatically upgraded to an “unlimited” rental, which does not have time restrictions.
For more information and to begin reading right away, visit www.emanga.com and click on the Harlequin tab under “publishers”.
Harlequin titles are now available on eManga! And for a limited time only, we’re running a special offer for these Harlequin titles.
When you rent any Harlequin book for 200 points, you will automatically receive a promo code for 50 points. And, when you rent the book again to keep it, you will receive another promo code for 25 points!
These codes will be sent to your email. To use your points, just redeem the code on the eManga website. This code is one-time use, has no expiration date, and is transferable. The points are just like any other points purchased on eManga and are good towards any rental.
This promotion begins at noon (12:00pm PST) on Friday, December 4th, and ends at noon (12:00pm PST) on Wednesday, December 9th.
Enjoy reading the Harlequin books!
[…] sell. Now Digital Manga (which, despite its name, is chiefly a print publisher of yaoi manga) has picked them up and is publishing them on its website, eManga. Digital has a rent-to-own system; it’s about […]