Broccoli USA to shut down?

This can’t wait…

Direct all your eyes to Giapet: she has found information on the Japanese website of Broccoli that their US division is closing down.

This may be a stupid question… what’s going to happen to Broccoli Books?  The manga publisher is a division of Broccoli International USA, although given the propensity of Japanese companies to structure themselves in very complex fashion, this may not necessarily mean an end for Broccoli Books.

Or perhaps that’s just my optimism speaking.

Edit: Looking closer at the PDF, BI USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Broccoli, so I guess there’s no hope of someone else rescuing Broccoli Books, and its yaoi imprint Boysenberry.

Broccoli’s manga list was always rather limited, but in my mind they’re most notable as one of the first post-Tokyopop publishers who demonstrated a complete understanding of print production… the visual fidelity of their books were simply second to none.  And in raising the quality expectations of readers, Broccoli raised the quality of licensed manga across the board.

What a shame.  Best of luck to all the very highly skilled people at Broccoli Books.