Forum - View topicManga Answerman - Why Isn't My Favorite Manga Licensed In America?
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Яeverse
 Posts: 1147 Location: Indianapolis |
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Why might a creator not want it in English?
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2305 Location: In front of my computer |
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Ah, unlicensed manga... the bane of existence for many fans, including myself. XP There's a couple of series myself I keep hoping will get picked up, but seem to fall into one of more of the factors on this list. Such as Glass Mask (too long, too old, too niche), SLH: Stray Love Hearts! (Actually not sure on this one; seems like a few of Aya Shouto's works already licensed do really well for both Viz and Yen Press, so guessing it's something in relation to either the author or the company that has published the series?), and The Sleepy Residents of Birdcage Manor (Granted, I also think there's a light novel connected to this one, so maybe one can't be licensed without the other?).
There's also titles that have been picked up but have either been discontinued, the license was either rescinded or expired, or the company went under. Such as Butterfly (Picked up by Tokyopop; one volume was released and the 2nd one went up for pre-orders, but then Tokyopop went under and the 2nd volume and the rest of the series was cancelled as a result), Translucent (From Dark Horse. First three volumes were released, but the remaining two were never released; not even sure if they still have the license for the series), and Nanaka 6/17 (Studio Ironcat had the rights to it, but went under before any volumes could be released). Even though publishers took the risk on these titles before, I have a feeling that they now also fall under the same pitfalls as the titles listed above and I may never see them in English. |
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 859 Location: Latin America |
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Personal choices, risk of offending people, actions that their characters make may be misunderstood... Best example I know of is Nakamura Hikaru and Saint Young Men. |
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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I'll be the first to mention the mystery that is Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, given that it's been released in many other overseas territories, is quite inoffensive, and already has a devoted fanbase... Perhaps it's more niche than I think, but if Mushishi and Saturn Apartments could get full releases, what makes YKK such a risky bet?
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#885456
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YKK is my favorite manga and it would be a dream to have it over here in the west. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2702 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Another reason Deb didn't bring up is a similarly simple one: How did the creator's works do last time?
If a release does well, then the publisher will be more willing to publish more of that person's works. For example, I'd imagine that the reason why Viz published something like Waq Waq by Ryu Fujisaki was because Hoshin Engi, which Viz published first, had really good sales at the beginning. Similarly, Viz likely decided to fully release Slam Dunk because Vagabond was doing well enough. While it is slightly surprising that Viz is giving Urusei Yatsura another chance (this is apparently a third try, at that), Rumiko Takahashi has generally proven to be a good seller for Viz, so they're willing to take that risk now. In the opposite, though, you have someone like Masami Kurumada, who had two companies give (more or less) simultaneous releases of two of his works, Saint Seiya (Viz) & B't X (TokyoPop), only for both of them to bomb extremely hard. It took eight years before another publisher, Seven Seas, would be willing to give Kurumada another chance, and even then it's not even a manga that Kurumada himself drew (Saintia Sho). Sure, Viz did re-release Seiya digitally, but that was simply repurposing existing work into a new form, so it likely cost them very little to do it. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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I’m going to take a little issue with the wording here. It’s not just stories where behaviour of the characters can be considered mutual or romanticized but, depictions of abuse too. Getting permission to censor for content that poses either social or legal issues, while not something I see as much, is still a publishing strategy some use as well. In fact with certain genres it’s been more likely for pages to be left out or, dialogue and panel alterations to take place instead of avoidance in licensing something. As for a title I would like to see licensed but is difficult: Takemiya’s Song of the Wind and the Trees is a series that has a bunch of things working against it for example being old, long, Shogakukan and having sensitive content. |
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Merxamers
 Posts: 720 |
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I've pretty much come to accept that some of my favorite manga have a long shot, at best, of ever being available officially in english. While stuff like Angel Densetsu or Majiin Tantei Neugami Neuro have an extreme outside chance due to the other works of the managaka that have sold well (Claymore, Assassination Classroom), i have no optimism at all for The World God Only Knows (too long, too japanese), World Embryo (too old, too unknown), or Binbougami Gah! (too long, too japanese, anime probably didn't do that well here).
The good news is, though, tons of NEW manga are getting licensed all the time now. Demon Slayer (aka Kimetsu no Yaiba), To Your Eternity, even weird stuff like Cells At Work or Delicious in Dungeon; seems like odds are that if it's new and halfway decent, we'll get it in english. |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 711 |
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Some of my most-wanted manga licenses fall into multiple categories ^^; For instance, I would love to see print releases of Touch and Yawara!, but they're old, long, and fall into the marginally popular "sports" genre!
Another reason is that they might be unhappy enough with a certain work that they refuse to allow new printings of them. I've heard that this is why most of Katsuhiro Otomo's non-Akira work hasn't been licensed, or reprinted in the case of Domu and others that had previously been translated.
Yep, and there's so much that it's hard to keep up at times. However, I also love this trend of classic manga license announcements; this past Comic-Con was a great one for me in that respect. It gives me hope for more in the future, even if the classics getting picked up aren't long series. |
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Nonaka Machine Gun B
 Posts: 825 |
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So what you're saying is:
Viz or Dark Horse need to bothered about ZETMAN and Ninku. Kodansha needs to be bothered about Konjiki no Gash!!. Yen Press needs to be bothered about Desert Punk/Sunabozu. Gotcha. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2702 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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This is the exact reason why You're Under Arrest has only ever been given a partial release over here, and only form the later part of the series. Dark Horse has admitted that Kousuke Fujishima is personally embarrassed by his early days, feeling that his drawing wasn't good enough, so he refuses to let YUA be released in full outside of Japan (or at least in America). Until the past few years, Riyoko Ikeda was apparently another in the "Won't allow it" category, hence why it took so long for Rose of Versailles to come over, even in anime form. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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A couple recent examples: - To Love Ru and To Love Ru Darkness by Seven Seas instead of Viz (subsidiary of Shueisha) - Prison School by Yen Press instead of Kodansha US. When they were asked on their english blog a couple years ago about Prison School, they incredulously replied that such content would never make over in the US, stating no one wanted to pick it up because of content. Even Kodansha US is releasing more "riskier" titles now. I wonder if the same representative is eating crow now. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2487 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I think the other thing that I came to realize is that there’s just so damn much of it being made. For a while when I had access to Kinokuniya SF, I would buy some of the phone book-sized manga anthologies (usually Dengeki Daioh, Dengeki G’s Comic, and Comic Alive!) and each of these is running about 30 titles at any one time. Multiply that by the number of anthologies out there, and it becomes obvious there are hundreds if not thousands of currently-active titles, and even more when you realize that web comics are very much a thing. And for any one of those anthologies, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of its titles have been licensed in the West.
I think it’s not surprising then that there is simply more manga being produced in Japan than the English-reading audience could possibly supply a viable market for. As that audience grows, we’ll likely get more. Though I still fill out those surveys every month and nothing I want ever gets picked up, with the exception of the rather obvious Bloom Into You. |
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sourpatchthekid
Posts: 71 |
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http://kodanshacomics.tumblr.com/post/56624711764/any-chance-of-seeing-yokohama-kaidashi-kikō-in-a |
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NobodysDawn
Posts: 58 |
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One I’ve always wondered about was why Snow White With the Red Hair was never licenseed. Not because I think it’s the best manga ever; it just surprises me. It had an anime adaptation that did reasonably well, and that particular Brand of romance typically gets released.
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