Sometimes I think the folks at Vertical, Inc. like to chum the waters with outrageous soundbites.

In a recent interview with Newsarama, Yani Mentzas, Vertical’s Editorial Director and Executive Vice President, offered this totally fantastic description of Keiko Takemiya’s contribution to the history of manga:

Like Tezuka, the manga god, Takemiya isn’t just a great artist but a foundational one. Just as Tezuka invented manga as we know it, Takemiya invented shojo manga as we know it, together with a handful of other talented women. We’ve just started publishing To Terra…, and this fall we’ll follow up with Andromeda Stories. Both are Sci-Fi tales that appeared in an all-star comics ‘zine that was concurrently serializing Tezuka’s Phoenix. I particularly admire these two Takemiya masterpieces because they successfully fuse the shojo manga style with a shonen manga plot. If the word “shemale” didn’t mean something else, you might call me a shemale-manga lover.

Given the androgynous beauty of the To Terra… cast, perhaps “shemale” isn’t far off the mark.

Want to know more about the manga that inspired Mentzas’ “shemale” comment? Then check out this recent Publisher’s Weekly article about To Terra… or read these glowing reviews:

Comicsnob
Entertainment Weekly
Flipped!
MangaCast
Mangamaniacafe
The Overlooked Manga Festival
Shuchaku East

Volume 2 of To Terra… arrives in stores in April.