Forum - View topicNEWS: Fred Schodt on Osamu Tezuka coming in September
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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If he's got time to publish the book, maybe that means that Phoenix is done. But I still want a date for volume 12. I think the reason Viz has been putting wider gaps between the dates for the last 3 volumes is they don't want to compete with Vertical.
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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It's not like you can any of Phoenix releases on the shelfs anyways....I always have to buy them online from Rightstuf and most of the time it's back order at their stores. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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What are you talking about, they've been releasing Phoenix like clockwork. And the only people who actually buy it are going to buy it even if there are other Tezuka titles on the shelf. But great to hear that Schodt has a new book. Hopefully it will get him the recognition he deserves... |
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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Kagemusha:
Yeah, but volume 11 has been dated for September, which makes me wonder if they'll get volume 12 out by the end of the year. |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Clock work? It only seems like clockwork now.
Let me see, wasn't there almost a year lag behind. The last vol. was 5. Vol. 6 didn't come out until last year. No thanks to the lag in getting the books released when they were supposed to and not have to wait 6 weeks because of backorders, I find that a far cry from clockwork. We just ordered 6-10 and of course vol. 7 is late. I call this very poor on Viz's part. Nobody should have to wait almost a full year for the rest of the series. And even if there is a reason for the delay, nobody should have to wait so long when it's even when it's supposed to be available. So no credit from me on that part. Volume 11 won't be out until 'September', but that still leaves vol. 12 slated for who knows when. Since it hasn't even been announced. Hell, I've been wracking my brain hoping that there actually will be 12 books like there is supposed to be. 
As for the new book by 'Fred Schodt' I look forward to reading that. I'll be making it a recommendation for our collection. Chances are the book is probably closer to being finished than anything else. Compete with 'Vertical'? I say, just get the rest of the damn books out! Please! 
As you can see I hate late releases. And I hate companies that take their time releasing anything. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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Chrno: At the time, Schodt only translated the first five books. So I'm guessing he spent another year trying to catch up with the last 7.
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Chrno2
Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Ok, that makes sense. As long as I know there IS a reason. But the good thing is and what makes me pleased, is that they didn't stop publishing it. 
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Raz_G
Posts: 72 Location: Israel |
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Personally, I think it's great news. It was Schodt's "Manga! Manga!" that made me fall in love with manga, and later anime, all those (seven) years ago, and put me on the academic track of researching the subject since.
I've been waiting for Schodt to write a new book on Manga since reading "Dreamland Japan". A Tezuka biography written by him sounds just amazing. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Since Sun's going to apparently be three books (I've had no prior knowledge on it beforehand), and that would leave them with the last third hanging on an incredibly long series... I don't think that Viz is quite that bad. They're gonna put it out, though I'm mystified as to what it's a five month wait between volumes ten and eleven (not to mention it's gonna be hard to read between them due to the time duration). |
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Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Wow, September? That is pretty damn long. To be honest I'm suprised they haven't been releasing it a bit slower since it isn't a big seller (then again, these are the people who put Vagabond on a monthly schedule) but the time increase is very weird.
Where did you get the date though? |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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See here. Unless Sun part two is, like, five hundred pages compared to three hundred pages in part one, I don't really have any idea as to why a longer period between releases would occur. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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Again, Vertical's releasing Tezuka's Apollo's Song in-between Phoenix 10 and 11, so I'm guessing Viz doesn't want to compete.
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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As much as I love and appreciate Fred Schodt's efforts at raising awareness of Osamu Tezuka's work among English readers, I really have to wonder who in the world is actually BUYING this stuff. It sure as heck isn't anime fans. I don't think I've ever gone to a convention or anime club meeting and actually seen someone purchasing or reading Tezuka manga, and that's over the course of a little over ten years. The people who normally read manga are not the people reading Tezuka.
Especially not Phoenix, which was his crowning achievement. As one of what I can only assume is about...five people in the country who has all ten English-language volumes of Phoenix released to date, I must lament its near-total lack of availability. I recommend the series very highly to my listeners and to people I meet, and time and time again I get met with this response: "I'd love to read it, but I can't find it anywhere." Ignore the fact that each story is standalone. Most people, when they want to start reading a new manga series they've never heard of before, will not start with Volume 10. In fact, they won't even pick up Volume 10 out of curiosity should they come across it in a store. No, they'll start with Volume 1 or they'll not start with anything. Surely Viz of all entities must be aware of this, yet to the best of my knowledge, Volume 1 of Phoenix is out of print. I can't walk into any bookstore or comicbook shop and find it. Online stores such as Amazon or Right Stuf don't have it either. People are not selling it on eBay. Dealers at anime conventions don't carry Phoenix (or really, anything by Tezuka) save for random volumes in the $3 or $5 bin that they're desperately trying to get rid of. There aren't even scanlations (or even straight-up scans) for the series. So do tell me: how in the world are people supposed to discover this series if they don't already know about it? It's bad enough when I walk into stores and see that the only volume they have of a title I'm somewhat curious about is Volume 9 or something. Common sense dictates that publishers print (and stores stock) more copies of the first few volumes than the later ones, right? Yet in the entire state of Florida, I think there is one place I could count on to reliably have Phoenix in stock (except for Volume 1), which was also the only place I really could ever find the hardcover editions of Buddha. That store is 300 miles away from me, so I don't exactly go there often. Even later volumes such as Volume 7 were completely impossible for me to find; a listener from NYC had to mail me a copy they managed to find. If a tiny manga publisher like Vertical Inc can manage to keep their Tezuka/Takemiya manga titles in print and stocked in stores (well, relatively speaking) and still be in business, then surely a company like Viz with the colossal might of Shogakukan/Shueisha behind them can afford to print up a couple hundred volumes of Phoenix every month or so without any worries of going out of business should nobody buy them. Go to Viz Media's website right now. Click on their online store. Now type Phoenix and see what happens. You will only get two results: the Ranma 1/2 box set and Phoenix Volume 7, which is part 1 of a two-part story. No other volumes of Phoenix are available directly from Viz, as store entries for them do not even exist. It is out of stock. It's a similar situation for Adolf as well as...well, just about the entire Viz Editor's Choice/Signature lineup. I'm glad that Fred's writing this book, and I look forward to reading it, providing I can actually find a copy of it once it's released. But I get the feeling I'll be pretty solitary on that one. |
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Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Do you really think the few hardcore fans who are already buying what is considered the best manga Tezuka ever produced are going to suddenly stop because Vertical is releasing one of his smut projects? Even if AS was going to cut into Phoenix's sales Viz has never had the insight to do this kind of thing in the past. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15573 |
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Anime World Order:
I wouldn't dismiss anime fans entirely. The recent adaptation of Metropolis and remake of Astroboy(plus the Treasure game) probably brought in some newcomers into the fold for the manga counter-parts. Anyway, I'd imagine whoever was buying Adolf and Black Jack when they were first published here would also be the ones buying Phoenix. Hell, I'm more surprised that Banana Fish made it to the end, since it's too trashy for American shoujo fans and is too emotional for the seinen fans. Plus I'd imagine the old-school Astroboy fans who were there since the show aired in the U.S. helped support the manga release. And of course, Buddha is a nice cross-over, since people know who he was, even if they barely know about Kimba.
They were showing a clip of the recent Astroboy before Tokyo Godfathers at BAAF '03, and a sizeable amount of the audience applauded.
I'd imagine the people who normally read comics are the people who read Tezuka, since you see more of his stuff in those stores than at B+N/Borders.
I was bitching to Patrick about having to order it from Amazon, but it appears that's the future for a number of titles, since I had trouble even finding the latest Eternal Sabbath. Gluts suck, I guess.
My feeling is that Viz wants to make its money back by printing a short run of the series. Furthermore, depending on how Vertical's own Tezuka titles sell, Viz will probably re-release Phoenix under a cheaper price comparable to the graphic novels at Dark Horse, and possibly piggy-back Phoenix off of Buddha and Kirihito. At least that's the scenario I'd imagine from them.
The only thing the hardcover version of Buddha has going for it are those nifty pics of Buddha in different phases of his life on the back of the spines. I was really disappointed that the series was flipped, since they were supposed to win an Eisner for Best Translation, and it's the same presentation from DH and Viz. I even asked Viz why they didn't try to push Phoenix for an Eisner, and they told me that they were aiming for a more general audience than Vertical.
I'm actually wondering about that. The stuff Viz and DH printed at least have ties to anime shows, while the stuff Vertical prints is larger in size and-outside of Japan-more obscure. Assuming Vertical can get some really sweet deals from TezukaPro, there's still the issue of cost and distribution for those behemoths. And they even allow for larger pre-order discounts than Viz does with Phoenix, which makes you wonder how they stay in the black.
To be honest, I'd prefer if Adolf was re-printed right-to-left, since I wasn't fond of the original editions. Anyway, I'd imagine Adolf is OOP, due to its last few chapters, and how they would be misconstrued in regard to our current problems in the Middle East. I'm sure that another manga publisher could simply buy it off of Viz, but I'd believe that they wouldn't want to deal with possible repercussions from certain activist groups for the same reason Manga didn't want to release the subbed version of Angel Cop, and Geneon pushed back a certain Lupin episode. (Although I always believed the latter situation was clearly an over-reaction, since that episode was done in the vein of WB cartoons which lampooned the Nazis.) Now what bothers me is that no one wants to bring back Black Jack. Kagemusha:
Those things cost more money than the average manga, and since Vertical's books have a higher page count, the Tezuka readers would be more willing to buy them over Phoenix.
If, "in the past", you're referring to Vertical's release of Buddha, I wouldn't be surprised if that partly contributed to the year-long delay of the more recent volumes. While the hardcovers cost more money, they had better distribution, and more recognition than Phoenix. |
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