Yuri Week: Interview with Seven Seas on STRAWBERRY

[Floating_Sakura]

How can we skip yuri week with the biggest Yuri headline that came out in the last few months? Manga Jouhou interviews Adam Arnold from Seven Seas Entertainment on their upcoming Yuri imprint.

MJ: Can you tell us briefly about the yuri line that you guys announced a [few] months ago?

AA: Seven Seas’ “Strawberry” line of yuri manga focuses on manga titles with prominent relationships involving two girls. Yuri segment of manga is one that has been severely neglected in the North American manga market, so Seven Seas is filling that niche in a time when fans have been clamoring for it. We’re going to be releasing a wide range of titles in a number of genres from comedy to drama to horror, so there should be something there for everyone.

Since the "yuri" genre is still relatively new to the North American audience, can you tell us what the term "yuri" means to Seven Seas?

AA: Yuri, to us, means any title that has girl-girl relationships. We’re sticking more to the shoujo-ai and light yuri range of titles as we don’t have any plans to release anything outright explicit or pornographic.

MJ: The new Seven Seas yuri line is labeled "Strawberry;" can you tell us how you came up with the name?

AA: Um... girls like strawberries...?

But seriously, it was really the first and only idea we had. We wanted to use a strawberry as the logo for the imprint because it was just very iconic and would be easy to see on bookshelves. Strawberries seem cute, but there’s also something a little naughty about them. Calling the line “Strawberry” just seemed to fit.

MJ: Traditionally, the yuri genre is aimed at the female audience, but that seem to be slowly changing with titles like Kashimashi being serialized in Dengeki Daioh, Tetragrammaton Labyrinth being printed in Comic Gum and Strawberry Panic being printed in Dengeki G, etc. Who are the targeted audiences for Seven Seas' Strawberry line, in terms of age and gender?

Unlike yaoi, yuri titles have a very wide appeal and less of a stigma associated with them. Since the series themselves are very character driven, we actually see our Strawberry titles appealing to both males and females from teens on up. Strawberry Panic will likely appeal to people that like harem titles, Saigo no Seifuku will appeal to fans of shoujo romance titles like Kare Kano, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is right at home with the Hellsing and Chrono Crusade crowd.

MJ: It seems that most, if not all, of Seven Seas yuri titles right now are male-oriented. Is there any chance that the more traditional yuri titles, which are more female-oriented, will be part of the Strawberry line?

AA: I think Saigo no Seifuku is one that will really appeal to women right away because of its focus on various relationships. But yes, we have a number of yuri titles that we’ll be announcing in the coming months that will appeal to a large segment of both male and female readers.

MJ: Why did Seven Seas decide to leave Kashimashi out of the Strawberry imprint?

AA: While Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ has a lot of yuri elements in it, we felt that the series had the chance to really appeal to a wider audience of manga fans because it’s just a really fun story with gender-bending antics, shoujo-style love triangles and wacky aliens. It’s really a gateway title for people to get them to try a yuri-flavored title without jumping into the deep end right away.

MJ: Saigo no Seifuku seems to be a completely different type of yuri, as far as I can tell. Since it's a very cute romance with almost no fanservice (unlike Kashimashi, Strawberry Panic or Tetragrammaton Labyrinth), I was wondering how it fit into the rest of your yuri
line?

AA: The way I look at it is that Strawberry Panic and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth are two of the titles that are going to get people interested in our Strawberry line, but Saigo no Seifuku is one of the ones that is going to keep people coming back. It’s also a title that doesn’t focus solely on yuri. Since its focus is on relationships, it presents all kinds. So there will really be something in that book for everyone. And the art style is something you don’t see that often. It’s like a cute and unique blend of Alien 9 and Saikano in terms of its look.

MJ: Unlike most manga, where the series are grouped into targeted audience through magazines, the yuri series are usually scattered around a number of different magazines. What criteria does Seven Seas use in picking out their yuri titles?

AA: It has a lot to do with the relationships presented in the titles themselves. It takes a lot of research to find out if a certain title has yuri in it or if the book is classified by fans as being yuri. We scour bookstores, the Internet, and everywhere in between finding these titles for us.

MJ: I recall that the format of the Light Novel imprint will be different than the manga imprint now. Will the Strawberry line look different than the other manga printed?

AA: This is something we haven’t completely settled on yet. Right now, it’s looking like we’re going to do some titles like Tetragrammaton Labyrinth in their original oversized format, and others like Strawberry Panic will be kept in their smaller tankouban size. We’re still working out a solution on this, so stay tuned.

MJ: Is there anything else you wish to add?

AA: We have two more licensed yuri manga and two yuri novels which we’ll be announcing sometime in early 2007. We also have a bunch more yuri titles on the way, and are hoping to grow our Strawberry line and spread the popularity of yuri as much as possible in the new year. Should be fun!