Forum - View topicHouse of 1000 Manga - Five Amazing Untranslated Manga
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bobob101
 Posts: 201 |
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Its because there are these untranslated treasures out there that scanlators still have a purpose. What publisher has the ca-hones to publish Mad Bull 34 (comics one might have). Who will bring out Ran and the Grey World around Her (it would make a great pack in with the Ancient Magus Bride, get on it seven seas!). There are hundreds of chapters of Baki the Grappler just waiting to be punched through peoples skulls. Plus, whenever I go to Kinokuniya I see mountains of untranslated stuff that I want to read.
Biorg Trinity, Kurosagi, Usogui, Worst, Crows, etc etc. The list is truly endless. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2613 Location: Germany |
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I can´t even find solid information on Twinkle and i only know of Yuko Tsuno form the rather mediocre Secret Comics Japan but i can recommend the other 3 also.
My biggest regret is that nothing by Kouji Mori ever crossed the border as he is even a consultant on Berserk and especially his Suicide Island is top of the line. Motoka Murakami is the runner up with his Jin being a rare 10/10. I noticed over the years that way more manga come out in Germany than in America even if our country only has 1/3 of the population. The books are way cheaper too and only France and maybe Italy get more. Go team Bratwurst and Sauerkraut! Less anime comes out over here then in the US but that isn´t a problem as 99% of new releases get translated one way or the other. A lot of obscure OVA´s as the 90s version of Wolf Guy got subs recently too so the medium of anime is as international as it gets thanks to piracy/fans. |
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justsomeaccount
 Posts: 471 |
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Silver Spoon is not in America? So weird, even in Spain it is! (not selling very well, but it is. In Japan each new volume is in the top 5 though) At least there's an anime to watch the basic core thematic elements of the show, great manga.
It seems to be some differences about the works that come to Europe and U.S. (although in Europe it depends of the country and language of course, I think France is the most potent about manga). The other mangas I didn't read them though and they all look interesting, especially the ones in your 2009 post, the ones that call my attention the most being "The Short Manga" and Moto Mogio's stuff. In terms of mangas I would love to see licensed somewhere (aside of Punpun, but that's very known), are: All Rounder Meguru (Hiroki Endou): MMA based manga (masculine and feminine). It's not only super realistic in its portrayal, but also very dynamic and hooking to watch, I never thought drawn fights based on grapples could be so exciting. Teppu (Oota Morae): Another MMA based manga (only feminine). This isn't as realistic (but still more than it seems to) but it's more interesting from a character view, especially since the main character is the physically talented cynical harsh girl who just want to learn to beat the shit out the air-headed optimist pure effort little girl in her own game, instead of the opposite. It takes so many interesting takes that most of the time I feel awkward and concerned during the fights and results instead of excited, but in a good way, it's such a weird feeling! Leviathan (Eiji Othsuka, Yu Kinutani): Yes, the writer of MPD Psycho, but this instead of psychological terror is pure PURE surrealism, it beats Franken Fran in terms of weirdness (also, just as gross). To sum it up, the main character was a member of the ONU in a mission taken as disappeared, who, when he returns to Tokyo, he is basically a body collage of the other members who travelled with him, and meets with old friends and resolves paranormal cases. And from there, goblins that get stuck in people's heads, Galileo and Nietzsche walking through there, men split up in two with different side of the brain, parasytes that change of body by attracting the next host to eat the other's brain with a spoon...... and that's not even 5% of the freaking weirdness this throws at your face, not even the weirdest. And aside of that it has surprisingly good drawing, likeable characters and odd polytical themes inside the craziness. Yokohama Shopping (Hitoshi Ashinano): A pretty good "Mono no aware" slice of life manga in a post-apocaliptic world where sea's level slowly increases and mankind has decided to live simpler calm lifes and enjoying their transient pacific lifes, from the point of view of a cheerful android. The author knows how to capture the beauty of the nature, world and the "moments" in general. Buraiden Gai (Nobuyuki Fukumoto): About a troubled teenager involved in a conspiracy accussed of a murder he didn't do. Kaiji and Akagi's author made this and it basically compresses all his strenghts and flaws, from the fantastic themes about human value and nature, independency, etc. combined with incredibly hooking, tense, smart and psychological traps and misteries..... buuuut also his suuupeeer slooooow pacing and weak drawing (and this doesn't have an animated form that makes it more visually appealing). But it's really worth it, I wish this was made into a movie. I.S.: Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei (Chiyo Rokuhana): A shoujo about intersexual people, mainly focused about Haru since they were born and the difficulties of growing up in a binary-gendered society for both their identity, physical health and social and romantic relations with other people. Aside of being very interesting in all these issues it's also super likeable and funny, and while it's a little stretched it doesn't lose focus on what it's about. Kisshou Tenyo (Akimi Yoshida): A 1983 manga about a misterious girl who comes into town and she and other students are involved in family conspiracies to domain to the other. Pretty drawing for its time, psychologically tense and taking some fascinating twists that you'd expect, being overall very gray and harshly criticizing a lot of the Japan's family system and misoginy. Last edited by justsomeaccount on Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:01 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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bj_waters
 Posts: 234 |
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I would kill for Silver Spoon on my shelf. And given that it's being published in the Weekly Shonen Sunday, that means Viz Media is pretty much the only company that can license and publish it in America (I'm assuming). I would have figured that being the same mangaka as FMA would make it an obvious choice, but clearly, after some big awards and two anime series, that is not the case.
The only thing I can think of is that Viz is thinking a slice-of-life series at an agricultural school would be too much work for a niche genre (the scanlators have gone to some pretty good lengths to get all the agricultural details). I'm sure the fact that Moyasimon didn't do well either isn't helping (despite my wanted to read more of it!). Of course, with the prevalence of digital manga, there's a chance it could be released on a digital platform, but I prefer to buy my manga in print. I can only hope that as all mediums of entertainment abandon physical releases that there will still be a "print-on-demand" model for manga companies that can allow us old-school collectors to get our physical manga fix.
I discovered Baki the Grappler through picking up some old Raijin Comics collections (who remembers those?), and would certainly love to have my brains punched out with more of that series (as well as some of the others in that collection!). The anime was interesting, but it probably didn't do the manga justice. EDIT:
FREAKIN' TEPPU! I would totally buy that as well. SO COMPELLING. |
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DontmesswithKarma
Posts: 491 |
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The biggest tragedy of a mangaka's series not ever being published in english is the works of Mori Kouji.
I think the main reason for this are his themes. Suicide Island deals with suicide and how disgusting human beings are. Destruction and Revolution which is about terrorism and the mind of a terrorist. And Holyland deals with suicide, bullying and the sorts. These are not themes that are new to manga, but they are done like Miura's Berserk. There extremely psychological and at points twisted. The difference however, is they are so psychological and twisted not one of them has an adaptation of any sorts, which makes english publishers run away from the risk of publishing his works even more. I seriously hope one day Vertical, or Viz will publish his works, since they are all on the level of Berserk. And I am not exaggerating. You can draw so many comparisons to Miura's works. For example the art is really detailed, dark and gritty. His stories are dark, twisted and gruesome, etc. The only real difference between them is the fact that Mori Kouji's works are really realistic. Oh and how he has 2 weekly series running at once and has not yet taken a hiatus. If by some miracle his works ever get an anime adaptation we may see his works come over here. But I think with the amount of censoring the studios would have to do, or how much they would have to change the script to make it the least bit suitable for TV, i dont think it would be worth it. Whatever the case may be, I highly suggest reading Mori Kouji's works. Especially Holyland. Even though you will have no choice but to read them illegally, I'm afraid if you don't, there is a very high possibility you will never ever experience his works. Last edited by DontmesswithKarma on Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 711 |
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Another here who would love, love, love to have English-translated Silver Spoon volumes on their manga shelves.
We Are the Beatles, too! I remember requesting that in at least one Vertical licensing survey, but I'm not really sure it's their style of manga. It's interesting going through your old wishlists and seeing what was eventually translated (I never could've foreseen Doraemon or GeGeGe no Kitaro being officially released in English). Also, I had no idea that the Galaxy Express 999 manga Viz published back in the day wasn't the original, but I only ever read snippets of it in Animerica Extra. Finally, seeing Domu and A, A' mentioned in one of those posts made me pine even more for reprints of those (especially Domu). |
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rabrek
 Posts: 188 |
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I would pay dearly to have a good English run of Homunculus on my shelf. Guess I should just order the Japanese releases, and put them next to my set of Shin Angyou Onshi (aka Shin amhaengosa). SAO is my holy grail of manga that hasn't been released in English.
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StrangeIslands
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It truly is a shame that great titles like these that could be something great in terms of sales & really make anime/manga better get blind-sighted & ignored by the stupid ignorant teenage anime fans of America or pathetic otaku Weeaboos, who happen to have such narrow-minded tastes in anime/manga that all we get now is fan service, moe.
Anything besides that has to be extremely successful in the mainstream to be even considered for an North America release (Like DBZ, Attack On Titan). Now I like Attack on Titan, but it seems that only titles like these actually get a response from the companies when fans say "Please License This". Anything else is simply acknowledged then ignored. It truly is sad when the industry is so messed up & catering to the wrong crowd that we can't even have nice things as much as we could. Last edited by StrangeIslands on Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:57 am; edited 1 time in total |
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RAmmsoldat
 Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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love some of these nods and ones mentioned here in the forum. Id like Boys on the run to get a shot as i was reading it but the guy who was scanlating it seems to have died or something so i had to stop
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StrangeIslands
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Scanlations are the last hope to get anything good to come out without industry interference/demands/arrogance.
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GVman
 Posts: 731 |
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EDIT: Just noticed that I made a few mistakes in my post.
Nice column. I guess Viz is too scared that Silver Spoon wouldn't be a success. I generally assumed that slapping "FROM THE CREATOR OF FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST" on the cover would help move copies, but I suppose the FMA crowd might not appreciate this. Maybe it's also been a while since the great big wave of Fullmetal mania?
I must read this. I'll probably have that same taste in my mouth that I did when I finished Ichi the Killer, but I don't care.
You have no idea. The anime looks stagnant when compared to the manga. I'm also glad to see Teppu getting so many mentions. That manga's fantastic. Last edited by GVman on Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DontmesswithKarma
Posts: 491 |
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I remember having an heated discussion with Vertical about scanlations(yes the vertical) and how publishers rely on the popularity gained from scanlations. Then the day after they posted a survey about what fans want them to publish. I just wonder how many of the recommendations were from people who read scanlations. Personally, I agree wholeheartedly that without scanlations the release of manga wouldn't know where to go. That's the good thing with Tokyopop, they didn't care about risks. Now its all about "oh the series you want isn't popular? sorry ahhh no not happening". Show us that ye take risks and i'd support ye more. I have more japanese volumes than english volumes at home because all they seem to publish here are the quote on quote "best titles". I've been reading scanlations and supporting the industry (buying Holyland as i read scanlations) and i've found the best titles are the ones publishers won't even touch because there's too much "risk". I wonder what happened to the saying, "you'll never know unless you try" |
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duckdealer
Posts: 7 |
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Teppu and All Rounder Meguru would be ones I would definitely buy all the volumes for. The UFC needs to set up a manga publishing division.
 But my biggest wish would be for an english release of my second favorite manga, Oyasumi Punpun.
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Souther
 Posts: 606 |
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Glad to see other people reading Baki, Teppu, Holyland and so on. As for Leviathan, the last time I tried to read it, I barely understood a lick of it. The art is excellent and made me a fan of Yu Kinutani (also love his art for Devilman: the Amon Saga too).
Here's just a few of the stuff I would like to see licensed: 1) Innocent, by Shinichi Sakamoto : a fictional account of the real-life French executioner Charles-Henri Sanson and his family. It's worth reading for the art alone, IMO, the artwork is some of the best I've ever seen in a manga, period. Doesn't skimp out on the details of executions either, it's absolutely brutal. Check out his other work Kokou no Hito as well. 2) March Comes in like a Lion, by Chica Umino: a really touching manga about a troubled teen shogi player who lives by himself and his relationships with those around him. Won several awards in Japan. Fun fact: Umino hangs out with Mori Kouji and Kentaro Miura. 3) Octave, by Haru Akiyama: angsty manga about a girl who's a former female idol group member meeting and falling in love with a woman who's a songwriter and composer and is also a former group member. Doesn't sugercoat their relationship and their grievances/flaws at all. Also has a good dose of social commentary. 4) Otogi Matsuri, by Junya Inoue: a manga about a high school boy who breaks a shrine, accidentally makes a pact with one of the Four Gods, Suzaku and ends up having to fight a demonic clan in order to save his small town (with some help from others of course). This manga was licensed by CPM, who I think released the first 3 volumes before it went under and nobody's legally picked it up for an English translation since. This manga pretty much had two things that I like: (Japanese) mythology and action. It has great art, it's pretty quick-paced and really gory. The battles are high stake: characters make tremendous sacrifices just to be able to wield their weapons, let alone fight the monsters and civilians tragically get caught in their battle. For fans of Cave's shooting games, Junya Inoue incorporates elements from ESP Ra.De and Guwange (as well as other references) into Otogi as well. His other work Btooom got licensed, and I'm hoping his new work, La Vie En Doll, gets licensed eventually too. 5) Finally, Eko Eko Azarak, by Shinichi Koga: old 70s horror manga about a young witch. Makes Sabrina the Teenage Witch look like a pastry chef. Usually follows this formula: kids mess with the main character/other kids, main character uses witchcraft to mess with them back, usually fatally. 3 of Eko's live action movies were licensed under a compilation, but the manga hasn't even been scanlated. Too old and repetitive for some, but I enjoy it. Would never get licensed but it's fun to dream lol. Honourable mentions: Tough and Green Blood. Last edited by Souther on Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I would love to have Silver Spoon on my shelf. This is why I hate monopolies. Vertical would do an amazing job with it but they can't have it even though it seems Viz don't want it
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