Forum - View topicDel Rey's manga is ...fuzzy...
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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I'm sure I'm not the only person who's noticed this, but hasn't Dey Rey's new manga been awfully fuzzy in print quality? When The Wallflower came out, I was so excited--then I left Borders in disgust when I saw the print quality was very poor. I vowed not to buy any titles from them from that day on if the images were poor.
Well, I just got pushed off the deep end today.  I was browsing new arrivals, and was about to buy XXXholic vol. 4. So far, Dey Rey has kept this manga's images crisp. I'm so glad I took a peek before I purchased it: XXXholic Vol. 4 has now joined the the ugly ranks of The Wallflower and Othello. I can only assume Tsubasa will meet the same fate.  All I can say now is that I put it back on the shelf...
Sorry if I sound anal... Del Rey really looked like a promising manga company for a while... |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I don't think you sound that anal. I've noticed from the beginning Del Rey didn't really use the blackest of the black ink for their releases. Instead of getted nice solid blacks, we got greys on the pages. The fuzzy-ness could be thanks to the lack of solid black ink. It's reminding me more and more of manga phonebook quality ink than actual volume/tankubon quality ink.
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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Actually, I think they're printing with a lower DPI than they should. Which brings the question: Who's monitoring the final product?
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Haru to Ashura
 Posts: 617 Location: Termina |
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If you're buying stuff right off the press out of bookstores, the initial printings might have errors, but the store will sell them anyway. Tokyopop used to have this problem a lot. I noticed when I flipped through The Wallflower v2. a couple months ago in a Barnes and Noble, that the quality was indeed fuzzy. Btut a few months later I got my hands on a better copy.
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quincyarcher
 Posts: 164 Location: Age of Paranoia |
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But what really bugs me is that they're selling a substandard product for such an inflated price(well, compared to most every other state-side publisher). DMP makes special efforts with their products, so I don't mind paying an extra couple bucks, but this is hardly fair. |
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Aromatic Grass
 Posts: 2424 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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I really think that Del Rey has the best quality manga out there (compared to TOKYOPOP and VIZ, etc.). I don't think I pick up the books right away, so I guess I've never seen this "fuzziness".
I like the paper, though. Nice, feely paper. 
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Del Rey does indeed have poor quality paper, but most companies aren't all that great either. Tokyopop has improved over the last year, but Viz's overall quality has gone down the drain. Putting most of their manga aside a volume of Vagabond (one of the few things they kept in the old format) will show just how far the quality has dropped: in addition to being bigger (which isn't really a big deal), Vagabond has exellent paper and ink. What really pisses me off is a volume of Vagabond doesn't cost a cent more than any other titles (excluding the Shonen Jump ones) Viz puts out.
I've talked to some people who wonder if paper and ink really make a diffrence, but I strongly believe that they do. I buy both the comicbooks and the higher quality TPBs of "Blade of the Immortal" and Oh My Goddess!" (when it was still a comic), and it's shocking to see how much better the TPB art looks, mostly because of better paper and ink. Of course I wouldn't want to buy everything with glossy paper, as it would be too expensive, but Viz is clearly still making a substancial profit off Vagabond even with the higher printing costs. So why nothing else? I've heard people speculate that Vagabond's audience would be angered at the move to cheaper quality matterial because they're usually people who are used to Viz's older, higher quality products, while most of the shoenen/shojo readers haven't seen the higher quality manga. I don't know if I fully buy that argument, but it may have some truth to it. I don't expect every company to adopt Vagabond as the standard, and I wouldn't want to pay more money for better paper for most manga (most of it doesn't have art that I love), but I think that there is room for improvement, especially with companys like Del Rey or ADV. |
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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You found a better copy?! Wow, my luck must suck then... I've been to 3 different Borders and a B&N, and all the new Del Rey manga releases are still fuzzy. I don't think it's a printing error, though. How could 3 different manga series have the same problem with print quality, while the lettering is crisp and clear? 
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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I have never had any issue with Del Rey's ink quality or paper quality.
All of my books have been crisp and well bound. Some people must have rotten luck. |
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cboudreau
 Posts: 69 Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada |
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I've checked out some Del Rey books and would agree the art looks "fuzzy" for lack of a better word. Another company that suffers from this same afflication is CPM Manga. Their Manhwa line of books doesn't quite suffer the same degree as their main line though. Dark Angel and Nadesico are good examples of the poor production quality from CPM Manga.
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Asano Rain
 Posts: 56 Location: SoCal |
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I don't know what's the deal with xxxHOLIC being fuzzy, but I know that for Othello and The Wallflower, Del Rey was just scanning the original Japanese tankoubon into their computers, editing, and printing them at a larger size (hence the fuzziness) because they couldn't get their hands on the original manga prints from the Japanese publication companies.
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s_j
Posts: 162 |
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Can't say for certain without having seen the book in question...but fuzziness is not necessarily indicative of ink, paper, or even print quality, but rather how the pages were digitally edited. Most likely the pages were processed in 300+ dpi greyscale instead of 1200+ bitmap. Both ways have their own advantages, but bitmaps produce the sharpest lines and minimal moire. The line fuzziness in prints from greyscale files are from the printer converting the greys to bitmap screens.
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Aromatic Grass
Posts: 2424 Location: Raleigh, NC |
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Actually, I recently bought Negima! Vol. 5 the day it came out (according to the guy at Suncoast), and I didn't have any problems with this so-called "fuzziness" at all. Besides, I would rather complain about how VIZ cuts out parts of the pictures (possibly by accident and not noticing) when they fill in English sound-effects. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Notice this too on Xxxholic vol 4.
In my opinion, paper quality is very imporant. If they use white paper, I'm fine, but brownish recycle paper are crap. I was flipping through a japanese anthology and it looks like crap. Japanese GN don't compare to the one printed in the U.S., but for the price we pay, I was expecting good clean white paper. Also wassup with Negima. They said they would fix the Southern master thing by volume 5 and it's still thurrr. |
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biolizard_alpha
Posts: 184 |
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They're getting a brand new translator for volume 6. Some woman who worked on Ranma 1/2 or something. |
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