Sakura Press () was a Russian licensor and publisher of

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 ...

with headquarters in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. The company was established in 2003. It was headed by

general director A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

Sergei Kharlamov. According to their official website, it was the first Russian company who started to publish manga (''

Ranma ½ is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from August 1987 to March 1996, with the chapters collected in 38 volumes by Shogakukan. The story revolves a ...

''). The first two volumes of ''Ranma ½'' were released in April 2005. Sakura Press reversed the pages (so called " flopping") in all releases, for which it was criticized by

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...

. It stopped publishing manga and updating their site in 2011 and became officially defunct in 2016.

Licenses

*''

Battle Royale Battle Royale may refer to: * Battle royale, or battle royal, a fight among many combatants ** Battle royal (professional wrestling) Fiction and literature * Battle royale genre, a narrative genre of films, manga, anime and visual novels inspire ...

'' *''

Chrono Crusade , originally known in Japan (due to a typo) as ''Chrno Crusade'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama. It was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's ''Monthly Comic Dragon'' from 1998 to 2003 and later in ''Monthly Dr ...

'' *''

Fushigi Yūgi Fushigi is Japanese for " mystery" or " secret" and may also refer to: * Fushigi (Helix), episode of the US TV series * Fushigi, an online retailer of 'magic gravity' balls for use in contact juggling *, Japanese voice actress * '' Fushigi Yûgi ...

'' *''

Ai Yori Aoshi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kou Fumizuki. The manga was serialized in Hakusensha's manga magazine '' Young Animal'' magazine from 1998 to 2005 and the chapters collected into 17 volumes. It is a love story b ...

'' *''

Gunslinger Girl ''Gunslinger Girl'' (stylized in small caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yu Aida. It was serialized in '' Dengeki Daioh'' magazine from May 2002 to September 2012. Its chapters were collected in 15 ''tankōbon'' v ...

Other publications

''anime*magazine''

''anime*magazine'' (abbreviated as ''am'') was a bi-monthly anime and manga news and reviews magazine, published between May 2003 and July 2004. It started as a collaboration project between Sakura Press and the authors of

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the comput ...

Animemaniacs Magazine Online
' (currently known as ''AniMag'' or ''AnimeMagazine Online''). Firstly it was all

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

, later became coloured and accompanied with CD. ''anime*magazine'' featured review sections of anime, manga, and

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, news, interviews and articles about

Japanese culture Japanese culture has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world. Since the Jomon period, ancestral ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. It was closed in 2004 when the main sponsors, including

MC Entertainment MC Entertainment was a Russian distributor of anime and films from Japan, United States, Germany, Great Britain, China, Thailand and South Korea. The company, headed by Dmitry Fedotkin, was founded in 2000. As of 2007, it is the largest anime comp ...

, switched to the rival magazine '' AnimeGid''.

References

External links

* {{in lang, ru Manga distributors Companies based in Moscow Defunct companies of Russia Publishing companies established in 2003 Comic book publishing companies of Russia Publishing companies disestablished in 2016 Russian companies established in 2003 2016 disestablishments in Russia