Finder Series

For other uses of "finder", see Finder.
Finder Series

First volume of Finder as released by Libre in Japan on March 31, 2007
ファインダーシリーズ
(Faindā Shirīzu)
Genre Drama, Romance, Yaoi
Manga
Written by Yamane Ayano
Published by Biblos, Libre
English publisher
Demographic Josei
Magazine Be x Boy Gold
Original run 2002 – present
Volumes 10
Original video animation
Studio ANiMix Project
Released February 29, 2012 – present
Runtime 38 minutes
Episodes 2 + Special

Finder Series (Japanese: ファインダーシリーズ Hepburn: Faindā Shirīzu) is a yaoi manga written and illustrated by Yamane Ayano. As of June 2012 (in Japan); 8 volumes have been released, as well as an Anime OVA adaptation, 2 drama CDs, a character art book, and many other related goods.

Plot

Twenty-three-year-old Akihito Takaba (高羽 秋仁 Takaba Akihito) is a young freelance photographer who takes pride in his work and seeks to get a major "scoop". After he takes photographs of the business dealings of crime lord Ryuichi Asami (麻見 隆一 Asami Ryūichi), Asami kidnaps and rapes him, beginning a relationship between them as they find themselves continually drawn to one another. Liu Fei Long (劉飛龍 Ryū Feiron, Chinese: Liú Fēilóng), a rival Chinese boss who blames Asami for his father's death, takes an interest in Takaba, as well, seeking a way to get revenge.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Yamane Ayano, Finder Series was originally serialized in Japan's Be x Boy GOLD and B-Boy Zips manga anthologies. The individual chapters were collected and published in tankōbon volumes; by Biblos, from 2002 until 2005, when the company went out of business. In 2007, Libre picked up the series, reprinting the first three volumes before continuing its release.

In 2007, Biblos licensed the series for English language release to Central Park Media, which began publishing the series under its Be Beautiful Manga imprint.[3] In 2006, Biblos filed for bankruptcy and some of its properties were acquired by Libre Publishing. Libre later accused Central Park Media of infringing on its copyright of the transferred Biblos properties, stating that all foreign license holders needed to negotiate new licenses with Libre as those Biblos had sold ended with the company's bankruptcy.[4] In a letter posted to its website, it asked readers not to purchase any Be Beautiful releases, calling them "illegal".[5] John O'Donnell, then manager of Central Park Media refused Libre's claims and felt that Biblo's original license agreements were still valid.[6] In 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy and its assets, including licenses, were liquidated. Finder Series was not listed among the assets, indicating Central Park Media no longer held the license.[7]

In March 2010, Digital Manga Publishing announced that it had acquired the English license to the Finder Series[8] and published under their yaoi-oriented line, Juné.[9][10] Volume 3 of the DMP edition was #4 on the New York Times bestseller list for manga the week of May 1, 2011.[11] The series was licensed in Germany by Tokyopop Germany, which has published 6 volumes of the series as of December 2011.[12][13] Finder Series has been released in several other languages too, including Chinese, Korean, French, Polish and Italian.[14][15]

On June 18, 2016, Digital Media announced that its licensing agreement with Libre Publishing was going to terminate at the end of the month. Thus, all of Libre's titles, including the "Finder Series," were no longer going to be published with Digital Media Publishing. Digital Media president Hikaru Sasahara said the company was "stunned" at Libre's decision, and called the move "unjust." In response, while Libre expressed surprise at Digital Media's decision, they noted that the agreement had been "terminated some time ago under just cause due to a breach of contract." It was announced on July 7, 2016 that Viz Media had acquired the licensing arrangements to publish the series under its Boys Love label "SuBLime." Since Volume 8 was released in Japan in May 2016, SubLime stated that they would publish Volume 8 first by March 2017, and then republish the first seven volumes every other month beginning in May 2017.[1][2][16][17]

Volume list

No.TitleJapanese releaseNorth American release
1Target in the Finder (Be Beautiful edition), Target in the Viewfinder (Juné edition), Finder Deluxe Edition: Target in Sight (SuBLime edition)
ファインダーの標的		March 10, 2002 (Biblos)
March 31, 2007 (Libre)
ISBN 4-8352-1319-X
ISBN 978-4-86263-152-7		Aug 30, 2005 (Be Beautiful edition)
Sep 8, 2010 (Juné edition)
June 17, 2017 (SuBLime edition)
ISBN 978-1933440002 (Be Beautiful edition)
ISBN 978-1569701867 (Juné edition)
ISBN 978-1421593050 (SuBLime edition)
  • "Target in the Finder"
  • "Fixer"
  • "Holding onto the Everlasting Night"
2Cage in the Finder (Be Beautiful edition), Cage in the Viewfinder (Juné edition), Finder Deluxe Edition: Caught in a Cage (SuBLime edition)
ファインダーの檻		May 10, 2004 (Biblos)
May 1, 2007 (Libre)
ISBN 4-8352-1590-7
ISBN 978-4-86263-171-8		Nov 30, 2005 (Be Beautiful edition)
Nov 17, 2010 (Juné edition)
August 8, 2017 (SuBLime edition)
ISBN 978-1933440019 (Be Beautiful edition)
ISBN 978-1569701874 (Juné edition)
ISBN 978-1421593067 (SuBLime edition)
  • "Body Chase"
  • "Flower in the High Loft"
3One Wing in the Finder (Be Beautiful edition), One Wing in the Viewfinder (Juné edition)
ファインダーの隻翼		November 11, 2005 (Biblos)
June 1, 2007 (Libre)
ISBN 4-8352-1821-3
ISBN 978-4-86263-192-3		Apr 3, 2007 (Be Beautiful edition)
February 23, 2011 (Juné edition)
ISBN 978-1933440231 (Be Beautiful edition)
ISBN 978-1569701881 (Juné edition)
  • "Naked Truth"
4Prisoner in the Viewfinder
ファインダーの虜囚		June 8, 2007 (Libre)
ISBN 978-4-86263-197-8		July 23, 2011 (Juné edition)
ISBN 978-1569701898 (Juné edition)
    5Truth in the Viewfinder
    ファインダーの真実    		June 10, 2009 (Libre)
    ISBN 978-4-86263-606-5    		November 6, 2011 (Juné edition)
    ISBN 978-1569701904 (Juné edition)
      6Passion Within The Viewfinder
      ファインダーの熱情      		April 9, 2011 (Libre)
      ISBN 978-4-86263-943-1      		June 27, 2012 [18] (Juné edition)
      ISBN 978-1569702734 (Juné edition)
        7Desire In The Viewfinder
        ファインダーの渇望        		April 10, 2014 (Libre)
        ISBN 9784799714935        		November 26, 2014 [19] (Juné edition)
        ISBN 9781569703335 (Juné edition)
          8Finder Deluxe Edition: Secret Vow
          ファインダーの密約          		May 5, 2016 (Libre)
          ISBN 9784799729281          		March 14, 2017 (SuBLime)
          ISBN 9781421593128

            Other media

            Anime

            A special anime adaptation of 'Target in the Finder' (ファインダーの標的) was recently released by ANiMix Project on February 29, 2012 - starring Japanese voice actors Tetsuya Kakihara as Akihito, Takaya Kuroda as Asami, and Nobuo Tobita as Feilong.[20] It is not really a fully animated animation, as the animation was limited to only the character's mouth, eyes, and some important body movements of the scenes. A special Cast Talk CD was included in First Press edition.

            Drama CDs

            Others

            A character book was released December 18, 2007 that included a pull-out poster.[23]

            Reception

            In May 2009, Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons labeled the first volume of Finder as "harmful to young persons", which results in the first volume of the series being "restricted to people of legal age only. It is also prohibited to show incriminated content as teasers, trailers or in any other advertising context." In response, Tokyopop Germany removed the information about the first volume from its website, but continued to list the other three volumes it had already published.[24][25]

            In Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson gave the series a rating of 3½ out of four stars, stating that the series is "written in an appropriately dark and brooding fashion" due to its use of "graphic sex and S&M", and praised the art as "coolly attractive".[26]

            Volume 7 of the series ranked #1 on the New York Times Manga Bestseller List.[27]

            References

            1. 1 2 "Viz's SuBLime License Rescues Finder Boys-Love Manga". Anime News Network. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
            2. 1 2 "Libre Ends Publishing Agreement With Digital Manga, Inc.". Anime News Network. 2016-06-18. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
            3. ↑ "Be Beautiful Releases Ayano Yamane's Finder Series". Anime News Network. December 20, 2004. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            4. ↑ Cha, Kai-Ming; Reid, Calvin (March 29, 2007). "Japanese Publisher Claims CPM Infringes". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            5. ↑ "Central Park Media社からの翻訳出版について" (in Japanese and English). Libre Publishing. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            6. ↑ "CPM Speaks on Manga License Dispute with Libre". Anime News Network. December 9, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            7. ↑ "Central Park Media's Licenses Offered by Liquidator". Anime News Network. June 8, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            8. ↑ "Digital Manga Publishing & Libre Shuppan Proudly Announce the Licensing of the Finder Series by Ayano Yamane". Anime News Network. 2010-03-11. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
            9. ↑ "June to release Ayano Yamane's Finder Series!". Digital Manga Inc. Blog. March 11, 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
            10. ↑ "DMP Adds Ayano Yamane's Finder, Kazuma Kodaka's Kizuna". Anime News Network. March 11, 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
            11. ↑ "Best Sellers > Manga". New York Times. 2011-05-01. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
            12. ↑ "Finder". Tokyopop Germany. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            13. ↑ "Finder, Band 6 - Leidenschaft (Sonderausgabe)". Tokyopop Germany. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
            14. ↑ "Finder Series - Manga in other languages". Retrieved 10 June 2012.
            15. ↑ "Finder tom 1: Na celowniku". Tanuki.pl (in Polish). May 7, 2015. ISSN 1898-8296. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
            16. ↑ "Libre Publishing Ends Publishing Agreement With Digital Manga, Inc.". Anime News Network. 2016-06-18. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
            17. ↑ "Libre Publishing Comments on Termination of Agreement With Digital Manga Inc.". Anime News Network. 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
            18. ↑ "Vol. 6 - Passion Within The Viewfinder". Digital Media. Retrieved June 7, 2012.
            19. ↑ "Vol. 7 - Desire In The Viewfinder". Digital Media. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
            20. ↑ "ANiMiXプロジェクト 「ファインダーの標的」DVD" (in Japanese). Movic & Libre Publishing. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
            21. ↑ "Cue Egg Label Fukkokuban Drama CD Finder no Hyoteki" (in Japanese). Neowing. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            22. ↑ "All About Yamane Ayano- Drama CD: Finder no Sekiyoku" (in Japanese). Libre Publishing. Retrieved March 13, 2009.
            23. ↑ ファインダーの標的キャラクターズブック (in Japanese). Be Boy. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            24. ↑ "Germany Restricts Yamane's Finder Manga as "Harmful"". Anime News Network. May 29, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            25. ↑ "Bundesprüfstelle - information in english" (in German and English). Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
            26. ↑ Thompson, Jason (October 9, 2007). Manga: The Complete Guide. New York, New York: Del Rey. p. 425. ISBN 978-0-345-48590-8. OCLC 85833345.
            27. ↑ Taylor, Ihsan. "Best Sellers - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
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