Forum - View topicVinland Saga Manga's U.S. Release Could End After 7th Volume
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Pokenatic
 Posts: 574 Location: Neo Venezia |
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It's such a shame that we might never get the entirety of Vinland Saga over here. I managed to get lucky and get the first volume for free at a Kodansha panel (incredibly, and sadly, I wasn't anywhere near the first to get a prize and there was only one copy up for grabs to begin with), but I never managed to get around to reading it, even though it was a series that I was interested in.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Not really sure how I can pre-order this, now that Amazon charges me tax and is more expensive more me, I no longer use it since they opened that warehouse in my state.
But, I will certainly buy it when my comic shop gets it in (and they've gotten in 1-6, I have no reason to believe they won't get in 7 too). So, it's not a pre-order, but it's a definite sale, and sometimes that's the best you can manage. I really do wish they had just let Vertical have this one. Their fan base skews more seinen to begin with and I think they just do hardcover editions better. The funny thing is, I think Kodansha only took it because they thought it'd be a big seller. They've made their bed, they should have to lie in it. And use the profits from Attack on Titan to make up the deficit (hell, sales from that series could probably make up the deficit from any other lower selling series for like a decade). I'm also trying to think of what series I collect from Kodansha now. Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches, their worst selling title Animal Land, and there's only three more volumes of it A Silent Voice are the only ones I can think of. And yet, I think they're still technically publishing Animal Land, last Otakon, when I asked about the next volume at their booth, they were genuinely impressed and called me "one of the three people who buy it", lol, and v11 has been delayed from Oct to Dec to now Jan (it's been over a year since v10 came out, and this is a series that's complete at 14 volumes in Japan. But yeah, seeing how only Yamada-kun is ongoing, they'd lose a significant chunk of sales from me (especially when Silent Voice ends, which will be sooner, and Animal Land, which will be later). |
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kanjineogeo
 Posts: 166 Location: Flordia, USA |
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I was hoping it will give another chance by crowdfunding even another publisher looking to pick this up. Sadly, I don't think it will happen. I guess the only way to support the series on future volumes is to import it. Fan translations is the only way to read it if you watch English since Cruncyroll seem to not be interested in picking this up.
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lys
 Posts: 1014 Location: mitten-state |
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classicalzawa (or anyone), does your comic shop offer subscriptions? (pull list might be another term.) I gave mine a list of titles I want to follow (...I'm constantly adding more titles to that list), and they order me a copy of each new volume as it comes out, with a 10% discount as a bonus. For several of the series I follow, I noticed they also started ordering another copy to sell in the shop, so it can help increase sales that way too.
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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My comic shop does do subscriptions, but they also have 50% off sales at least once a month, and my pull list wouldn't count on that. The sale is only on trades and manga and stuff to not affect their individual issue pull list, but as someone who doesn't do individual issues (probably because I am so used to manga, the idea of buying an individual issue for $3-5 seems ridiculous to me), I rely on these sales a lot. I want manga, but I'm also not made of money.
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5912 Location: Virginia, United States |
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A Memory of Light 910 paged large hardcover edition $34.99 Vinland Saga - Book Five 450 paged small hardcover edition $22.99 Vinland Saga is priced just right in comparison.
Sorry, but other than size it looks just like any other hardcover book. Before manga sized books became a thing over here, we got our manga fix from comic book sized manga comics. So I wish that manga was in the comic sized format. Like Adam Warren's Empowered series. Still have my Outlanders, Caravan Kidd, Grey, Drakuun, and Akira manga (and others) in the comic sized format. Was never happy when manga moved to the smaller format used today. |
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merr
Posts: 486 |
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Not in America. Jacketless hardcover books are rare outside the children's department. Maybe they show up in western comic releases; I wouldn't know. They're definitely not something you see with standard fiction/non-fiction releases, though. The standard is a dust jacket with a minimalist case-wrap on the actual book. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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For the record, I preordered volume 7. But this "news" item (is it really news when Kodansha made this condition clear months ago?) Makes me wonder;
1. How are other prestige, adult oriented hardcover manga doing? Yen Press doesn't seem to have trouble selling A Bride's Story, or at least they never threatened the fans with canceling the series altogether. I can't think of any other titles that compare. Gundam has a built in fanbase, as does Tezuka and Mizuki's stuff for adults. Emma has fans from its last publication and its anime. Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto comes to mind, but Viz is never open about what sells and what doesn't (until they suddenly cease publishing a series, anyway) 2. What numbers are they hoping for? Seinen never sold like hotcakes in the North American market. Vertical, Dark Horse and Seven Seas have all been vocal about their struggles selling series like Twin Spica, Eden, and Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. If you're in the manga business, you should know that some series will be tough sells despite their quality, and be prepared for that eventuality. 3. How hard have they been pushing Vinland Saga? I'm very suspicious that neither of the two huge library systems I frequent don't carry it. This is just the type of series that librarians love, and despite not being a predictor of good sales overall, library sales are sales and marketing. |
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smokeyjoey8
 Posts: 89 |
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This isn't so much Kodansha threatening the readers as it is them reminding us about how they do business. They don't license entire runs on titles, at least not unproven and unpopular ones. They license them by arcs. They're doing the same thing with princess jellyfish, and only releasing the first 12 volumes.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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It's really better to buy through a store like a local comic shop anyway when you can, versus Amazon. Kodansha might be in a better position since they're associated with a bigger US publisher when dealing with Amazon, but amazon REALLY makes it hard for small indie publishers to make any sort of profit on their site. With their fees and percentage cuts on the publisher end, some small manga publishers just break even with books sold on there. But it's Amazon, and if you want to reach a bigger audience... |
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skafreak51
 Posts: 212 |
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Please, Ben, do your best
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5912 Location: Virginia, United States |
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The hardcovers for Adam Warren's Empowered Deluxe Editions are sans dust jacket. They also retail for $59.99. Though you are right some of the Marvel graphic novel hardcovers have dust jackets, some don't. I just don't buy the argument that no dust jacket equals English Lit text book. The Vinland Saga hardcovers are covered in art from the series. There is no mistaking them for school text books, unless you are studying Viking 101. Also, school and college text books these days come in all sizes and shapes. |
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taster of pork
 Posts: 595 Location: My House |
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Seriously???????
  Vinland Saga is one of the few mangas being released right now that I really like.
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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Ugh, I just bought and read the first volume too. I hate it when this happens. Anyway, I'll definitely show my support for the series and hopefully, the sales will be enough. I'm also somebody who likes the 2 in 1 format. $20 for around 450 pages, with hardcover binding is a pretty sweet deal. It's a shame that Kodansha USA's attempts to publish more seinen titles isn't working out. Or at least for Vinland Saga.
Yep. Vinland Saga doesn't exactly appeal to the most popular anime trends at the moment, which makes marketing it tricky. Furthermore, I remember Vertical saying that historical manga in general do not sell well, not surprisingly, Vertical's Wolfsmund is also one of their worse selling titles.
Agreed. I don't really see Kodansha's tweet as being shady or disingenous either, if it doesn't sell, then there's not much they can do. |
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jonip
Posts: 7 |
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That's a bad news.
I don't like to be threatened so for me it gets even harder to buy next volume of Vinland Saga after this announcement of Kodansha. In my case the next volume would be the third book but when there is these uncertainties up in the air it could be that I spend my money in some other great series. I know that this is not going to help the Vinland Saga's situation but I just don't like this kind of 'honesty'. Vinland Saga is the only series I'm collecting from Kodansha but they are planned to release Leiji Matsumoto's Gueen Emeraldas in two hard cover volumes. After announcing of Matsumoto's series I raised hopes for to get the English version of Galaxy Express 999 but now I have to say that afraid to buy it from them even if it would come some day. |
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