was a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group known for their brand magazines and book labels. These included such well-known magazines as '' Dengeki Daioh'', and '' Dengeki G's Magazine'', along with MediaWorks' main

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

publishing imprint Dengeki Bunko. The company was merged with

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

on April 1, 2008, and became

ASCII Media Works , formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...

. They mainly catered to the Japanese male otaku crowd, covering such topics as

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, light novels,

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, plastic modelling, and

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

s. However, MediaWorks had published three magazines targeted towards females—'' Comic Sylph'', '' Dengeki Girl's Style'', and ''

Character Parfait (lit. "Nintendo Shock") is a Japanese gaming magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). The magazine mainly covers information pertaining Nintendo games and consoles. History and profile The magazine was originally named ' ...

''—but each one was a special edition version of another magazine. MediaWorks ran yearly contests for original novel and manga submissions, such as the light novel Dengeki Novel Prize contest. In addition to publishing printed material, MediaWorks had been involved with the production of other media. They had developed and published visual novels for popular Japanese

media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, o ...

s where many different forms of media are published for a given series. Such well-known series included '' Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl'', '' Shakugan no Shana'', and '' Strawberry Marshmallow''. MediaWorks had 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, Tsuguhiko was the president of Kadokawa's subsidiary 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 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 , MediaWorks launched a series of magazines under the ''Dengeki'' line. These magazines were 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 Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

smuggling and lost his presidency at Kadokawa Shoten, which was soon taken over by Tsuguhiko Kadokawa in addition to his presidency of MediaWorks; MediaWorks was later made a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

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

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, and magazines pertaining to such media. The company was merged with

on April 1, 2008, and became

Magazines published

*''Dengeki Arcade Card Game'' *'' Dengeki Bunko Magazine'' *'' Dengeki Daioh'' *'' Dengeki G's Magazine'' *'' Dengeki Hime'' *'' Dengeki Hobby Magazine'' *''Dengeki Layers'' *'' Dengeki Maoh'' *'' Dengeki Nintendo DS'' *'' Dengeki PlayStation''

Publishing imprints

; Dengeki Bunko : is a

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 is a manga publishing label affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks) and is aimed at a male audience. Aside from the main Dengeki Comics label, there is the related Dengeki Co ...

: is a

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 magazine '' Dengeki Daioh''. ;Dengeki G's Bunko : was a publishing label originally established in 1997 as a

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 : 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

publisher. The label succeeded the previous publishing label Dengeki G's Bunko. ;Sylph Comics :Sylph Comics is a

publishing label aimed at a female audience. The manga that are published under this label were originally serialized in the shōjo magazine '' Comic Sylph''. The first bound volumes were published under this label starting on March 21, 2008.

Contests

; Dengeki Comic Grand Prix :The is an award handed out annually (since 2001) by the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese publisher MediaWorks for original one-shot

. Between the first and fifth contests held, there were two divisions: original, and

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

. 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 Honorable Mentions. ; Dengeki hp Tanpenshōsetsu Shō :The was an award handed out annually between 2000 and 2006 by the

ese publisher MediaWorks for exceptionally written short stories and

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

s. The prize was associated with MediaWorks' now-defunct

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 with the fifth though seven contests by the use of a committee to award the prize. ;Dengeki Taishō :The is an award handed out annually (since 1994) by the Japanese publisher ASCII Media Works with two divisions: the Dengeki Novel Prize for

s under '' Dengeki Bunko'', and the for illustrations. Each division consists of the Grand Prize (one million yen), the Gold Prize (five hundred thousand yen), and the Silver Prize (three hundred thousand yen). The first two rounds also had a

game design Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

division called , and between the third and eleventh rounds there was a

division called .

Video games

MediaWorks had been in the business of developing and producing video games of series that have light novels or manga published by MediaWorks. These games were typically

visual novels A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

, 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 were ported to the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

. Earlier games like '' Emerald Dragon'' and ''Ojōsama Express'' were ported to the PC Engine, Super Famicom,

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...

, 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 produced sound novels playable on the Nintendo DS based from light novels published under MediaWorks' Dengeki Bunko publishing label. These included: '' Allison'', '' Baccano!'', '' Inukami!'', and '' Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu''.

References

External links

Dengeki.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mediaworks (Publisher) ASCII Media Works Book publishing companies in Tokyo Former Kadokawa Corporation subsidiaries Manga distributors Comic book publishing companies of Japan Publishing companies established in 1992 Publishing companies disestablished in 2008 Japanese companies established in 1992 Japanese companies disestablished in 2008