Seven Seas:
Print and Digital
Monthly survey can be found on their Homepage: https://sevenseasentertainment.com/Don't know what to request from Seven Seas? Check here for suggestions: https://pastebin.com/SPc5mB8j
Direct BL publishing links with Gentosha (RuTile), Akaneshinsha (Opera), WWWave (BL Screamo), Suiseisha (GlanzBL), Shodensha (onBLUE), Futabasha.
Have published non-BL from many companies.
Willing to do LN as well as manga, Willing to work with non-Japanese titles.
Claimed to be willing to do 18+, but have not done so yet.
Futekiya:
Digital (Potentially print-on-demand in the future)
"Although we do not formally accept title requests, we actively read and welcome your opinions on Twitter and on contact forms. Please understand that we may not respond to each request individually. Additionally, we sometimes ask on our Community Surveys which titles and genres you would like to see more of so please, keep an eye out"[https://support.futekiya.com/faq/] EDIT - At Fujocon 2021, they provided this contact link to email in requests: [https://support.futekiya.com/contact/]
They often respond to tweets and reply in more detail to polite DMs.
Direct publishing links with Shodensha (OnBLUE), Home-sha, Group-zero, Julian Publishing, Parsola Inc., Thirdline, Charles Comics, and probably others too by now.
Happy to work with Doujinshi Artists (eg. Ayu Yamane, Makuno, mec, Nacolat)
Have released super-light novels
Outsource translations but have their own proofreaders.
Renta:
Digital
Request form: https://www.ebookrenta.com/renta/sc/frm/page/help/en_request.htm
Unclear whether requests are followed up on or not.
Direct publishing links with a LOT of companies, most notably Takeshobo (Qpa magazine and others), Julian Publishing, SHU-CREAM POP, DeNIMO, Junet Co. LTD, HOUBUNSHA, KiR comics, Shodensha (OnBlue), Nihonbungeisha
Not print, but one of the easiest to buy and read from. [*Previously this said their image quality was bad, but they recently added a high quality option to all Manga. Remember to enable it.]
Seem to have picked up a few of DMG's old licenses.
Outsource translations from several companies
SuBLime
Print and Digital
Request form: https://forms.gle/N6p81YBLK3hb6tPk8
Relatively responsive, they do actually listen to what people want (though the buck stops with their picky editor)
With the power of VIZ behind them, they seem happy to work with pretty much any JP company.
seem to prefer series and mangaka which already have hype.
have rescued licenses from dead translations.
Editor can be a bit weird, has been shady with titles, character names and mangaka names, causing some stress to the mangakas they work with.
share staff with Viz
Kuma
Print and Digital
Denpa's BL arm, close links to Fakku.
Mysterious. Don't have a proper website.
Extremely slow release cycle, very high quality product.
Seem to be picking up things that are popular in the threads, but that's probably a coincidence?
credited with all sorts of releases on MangaUpdates, but only post about their LGBT manga on twitter.
https://twitter.com/kumapub
Fantagraphics:
If you don't want a Hagio Moto manga translated by Rachel Thorn, don't bother asking them.
VERY slow release cycle. Probably don't take requests anyway.
The best quality printed manga you will ever find in English.
Rotten Blossoms
very new doujinshi localization company
responsive on social media
digital with plans for physical but also sell goods through yaoicrate
sell pdfs through their own website, also on Fakku
Irodori Sakura
Digital
Focus on doujinshi/independent comics, they do both 18+ (uncensored and sold on Fakku.) and all audiences (sold on their own platform and Amazon Kindle/Comixology).
Very responsive to requests, have done surveys in the past and are active on social media.
Run by dread pirate On Takahashi.
Kodansha
Print and Digital
Only work with Kodansha titles (It's in the name)
Have a suggestion form.
Outsource translations
Chaleuria
focused on Chinese BL/danmei novels
welcome recommendations over social media https://mobile.twitter.com/chaleuria/status/1280903451715661824
[*TO DO: Who are they though? Are they still active?]
Yaoicat/Mangacat
Digital
seem to be trying something like DMG where they license things and get fans to do the translations?
May actually be the newest cover for DMG/DMI/DMP/DMWTFBBQ?
A bit dodgy on what licenses they are pursuing (Claimed on myreadingmanga to have Love Nest in the works. They did not.)
Mostly seem to host Julian Publishing titles with a couple of originals. Also have had to take down manga they were not hosting legally before.
[*COMPLETE: talk with people who are translating for them about workflow and whether they get paid. The answer is "kind of," see the bottom of this paste for irrelevant details.]
One Peace Books
Print and Digital
Open to Requests! [http://www.onepeacebooks.com/contact.html]
Very small indie company, also publish from English to Japanese
Only seem to have done I Hear the Sunspot
Yen Press
Print and Digital
Graphic novel imprint of major western publishing house Hachette
Partnership with Square Enix and Kadokawa, though Square are publishing their own now.
Have licensed some manhua in the past
No obvious way to request
Square Enix
Publishing their own BL now
Good for them
Tokyopop
Print and Digital
Weird history where they almost died and are kind of having a revival. LOVExLOVE line is for their Romance, BL, and GL.
Connections with Gentosha, Mag Garden, Printemps Shuppan
No obvious way to request
June
Print and Digital
Very shady past, have fallen down on kickstarters recently. A few have recently been fulfilled, but years late.
Highly active and responsive on social media, but seen as untrustworthy
They will probably respond to your request if you @ them on twitter, but it's unclear whether they're even licensing anything now.
Were partnered with DMG/DMI/DMP/DMWTFBBQ at one point. No idea now.
[*TO DO: DM and email for more details]
CoolMic
Digital (Potential print partnership with Seven Seas?)
Seem to mainly work off their publishing links rather than taking suggestions
Owned by WWWave, put out pretty much every Glanz BL title and a lot of BL Screamo. Mostly smut.
Convert traditional manga to a webtoon format.
Outsource translations with little editing.
Media-do
Print and Digital
Absolutely huge digital licensing and distribution company, covers a huge part of the ebook trade in Japan and is expanding heavily in the West.
No evidence suggests that it is possible to request from them, probably work more off sales data and statistics.
Direct BL publishing links with Printemps Shuppan (Canna), MediBang, TORICO Co. LTD
Have published non-BL from various places. Of highest interest is Akita Shoten (Kachi Comi).
Seem to have picked up several of DMG's old licenses
MediBang/Julian Publishing
no quality control
you can read their work fucking everywhere
what the fuck
Rotten Blossoms
a few doujin comics and one subtitled BLCD
sell through Fakku and DLsite
partnered with YaoiCrate, very small company
Misc. Japanese companies self-translating:
several are moving into this territory
kodansha is the most prominent
you probably can't request from these
Boring shit about yaoicat:
Translators are not directly paid for their work. A portion of a subscriber's monthly fee is allocated to each manga that subscriber views. Translators get 20% of that portion. The more manga a subscriber reads, the less goes to individual translators or mangakas. This has led translators to encourage viewers to ONLY read their own translated titles so their own portion of money gets bigger.
This is unusual and different to most digital models, which pay workers flat rates on commission and pay the Japanese licensees percentages based on views/coins/tickets/whatever.
This isn't relevant to licensing though, why are you reading this
NON-ENGLISH COMPANIES
Under Construction
French:
Hana Collection
TAIFU Comics
Akata
German:
Tokyopop
Hayabusa
Kaze Manga
Netcomics
Bruno Gmuender (dead?)
Italian:
Edizioni BD
Magic Press
Star Comics
Spanish:
Tomodomo
Ivrea
Editorial Norma
Panini
Ediciones Fujur
Portuguese:
NewPOP
Draco (Original Manga)