Forum - View topicNEWS: Manga Publisher Viz Hiring Editors, Managers, More
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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Wow. Maybe Viz will hire some COMPETENT employees this time.
They should invest in a customer communication staff member, too. Hopefully this means they've booted out some of their old staff. I'm really hoping this doesn't mean they're looking to expand. If they are expanding, it's probably the wrong move and in a few years when the manga industry turns like the anime industry (if that happens) they will have to downsize. |
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replicancer
Posts: 3 |
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Surely VIZ has some competent employees.
I mean, who would you kick out? |
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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The Shounen Jump and Shoujo Beat editors. Not the magazine, but the tankoubon versions.
Dumbing down for American audiences (which also goes to other countries) is not right, i.e censoring. Especially when the dumbing down is with respect to religion (in one case). I've said time and time again, they need a staff member for continuity, and for public relations. Doing things slap-dash and inconsistently for the majority of titles is enough to put anyone off of a company, especially when that's inside a single series. |
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replicancer
Posts: 3 |
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I don't like the censorship either.
I really don't. But the issue is far more complicated than just your individual desires as consumer. Part of the problem is that what is acceptable in the Japanese demographic is not always acceptable to the U.S. demographic. VIZ wants to sell as much manga as they can. The companies they deal with in the mass market have certain standards. Depictions of crucifixions is one of those very touchy areas. While I'm not personally offended by the depiction of a crucifixion I understand where it would make good business sense to remove it. Erotic depictions of children are another touchy area. As is the case in your beloved Shakugan no Shana–a series that was "ruined" by their censoring of what appears to be an erotic depiction of an underage girl. This kind of depition is more acceptable in the Japanese marketplace than in the U.S. Viz does have errors in their books, sure. But I don't think they are worse than their competitors. I see mistakes in major non-manga publications all the time. It happens. |
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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You're right. But you only have to look at other publishers that cater for the same demographics and you see completely different attitudes towards manga. Even CMX made statements about Tenjho Tenge, and about their future policites. They interacted with the fans, and now they seem to have made a U-Turn, excluding the offending title.
The thing with Viz is, they've hit the mainstream more than most other publishers, although the likes of Del Rey and Tokyopop really aren't that far away, each with titles that sell extremely well, on par or beating Viz. Viz is the one and only publisher that hasn't ever made any attempt what-so-ever to communicate with the fan-base. That's what's missing, and that's what's going wrong. The arguments go backwards and forwards, and whenever Viz are in the news I'll always express my view on the matter, no matter how many times it takes to hopefully get more people to... well, standing up and saying "No" isn't working... so I guess to at least acknowledge that Viz are mainstream, but a minority, in the industry they're in. At least they have started with what looks like different policies with regard to censoring, i.e shrink-wrapping multiple titles and slapping parental guidance notices over the covers. Or maybe that is just a one-off. I would suspect it is, which is a shame. But then again where's Viz to explain their policies? Rolling in money I should expect. NB: With regard to shrink-wrapping, I've read from multiple sources that the practise does no impact sales what-so-ever, that's even from Viz themselves, so there is no excuse. EDIT: Oh, and it all goes down to the age old ethic that you shouldn't license something if you don't think you can release it without censoring it, i.e you don't license something that you know contains x amount of nudity or y amount of violence or z amount of subject that may be controversial when you want to target it at a demographic you don't think it would be suited to. It's like Disney licensing Battle Royale knowing what it's about, and seeing the relationship development side of it, thinking that kids like a story about character development, and start work cutting out everything that they think is unsuitable for 3-7 year olds or whatever the demographic is. Of course that example is utter nonsense and Viz don't go that far by a long shot but the idea is vaguelly the same. Last edited by melonbread on Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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NimbusRain
 Posts: 148 |
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Shonen Jump was so good when it first came out. The articles were about interesting things, like interviews with manga creators and highlights of Jump Festa conventions.
Now, the articles are nothing more than "Hey future soul reapers! Join us and get your Bleach on as we talk about our favorite moments in the Bleach anime!" The page designs don't look as good, the language in the manga is heavily edited (unlike the earlier editions of DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho), and they constantly advertise things in the page margins. I'm really unhappy with the changes they've made in the past few years. Hopefully these openings signal a change in the magazine some time soon. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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Too bad I took the wrong major for a manga job ... that's what I get for picking a "sensible" career 
Last edited by Patachu on Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:28 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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replicancer
Posts: 3 |
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I understand your core belief that censoring the titles is wrong.
I would agree in almost all cases as well. I don't agree that Shakugan no Shana was ruined by their censoring of the non-story pages. Should VIZ not have licensed that property because of that? I'd guess that your answer is "yes." I think the shrink wrap is excellent way to deal with some of this stuff, though. I think they shrinkwrap all of their mature titles. VIZ is the most high profile manga publisher in the U.S. I don't have any concrete examples, but I'm willing to bet that these censorship issues are not initiated internally at VIZ, but are initiated externally in the market place. If I had some concrete examples of retail outlets guiding VIZ's censoring then I would say that those outlets should get the criticism. But I don't have anything specific there. I can see why VIZ would be shy of communicating with fans that relentlessy attack them. I've talked to VIZ editors at conventions and they love talking to the fans. They love manga. They seem to choose their words carefully when it comes to censorship, but I get the impression that it is a little embarassing for them. |
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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Your theory of retailers pushing Viz to censor may indeed be correct. It's actually something I hadn't thought in depth about before. There could be many different reasons, none of which we'll ever really know, and too many of which I'd like to speculate about.
Something I've been planning to do ever since I really started getting into the industry massively, is to contact the likes of Borders (I don't think Barnes and Noble exist in the UK, at least I haven't seen them, so in my case I'd also contact Waterstones and Ottakars) and firstly let them know they are selling a multitude of censored material, which from the views I've read, is something they'd not be very happy with, I mean these stores aren't exactly aimed solely at kids. So when I get around to it I'll be contacting them, and if anything comes of it I'll be explaining my findings. I want to be an optimist about that, but it's kind of hard. If none of this provides any fruit, then I'll have to try something else! Just to reiterate, every single other publisher except Viz has either started out or ended up with good practises and being fan-friendly. So using some logic one would assume that it's something to do with Viz and not the industry. Again, just to say that Viz isn't really that much bigger than the biggest fish in the manga industry sea. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I'd say it depends on the current "corporate culture" at Viz (and in this sense I don't mean "corporate" like say IBM, I just mean the culture of their specific company). I know that 15 years ago they were not fan-focused. At that time Viz was about selling to the maximum number of people, rather than appeasing the "fans". And before people say "isn't that the POINT of a business", it is the difference between say a sports team and a sporting goods store. (ignoring for a moment that sports teams themselves are aiming to "win" as well as anything else) A saavy team owner tries to make moves that make the FANS happy. Obviously the top of that list is winning, so the primary moves (usually, ignoring REALLY crappy teams with horrible budgets) are made with the intent to WIN, but that is done knowing it makes the team more popular (and thus it sells better). But a good owner takes other steps be it in the community or with events or other things to appease the fan base and improve it. A sporting good STORE on the other hand is looking to move product, period. They want to sell as much merchandise as they can. It's irrelevant if you're a fan, or a player, or a coach or just a speculator or whatever, they just want to sell you items. During the US anime bubble, lots of company people were like the stores rather than the teams. For anime, Viz was one of those companies, I don't know if they still are for manga or not. Also tho, as far as titles licensed, isn't Viz now like the US arm of Shogakukan? So... I mean they're pretty much going to HAVE all the Shogakukan titles regardless. It's not so much a matter of choosing those titles as deciding whether or not they're going to get a US release. (that's not to say it's IMPOSSIBLE for someone to pay a mint to get the rights, but realistically that's not going to happen) |
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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I really like that comparison Heero, hits the point right on the head.
Just to note. Dark Horse spent 2 years acquiring Gantz from Shokakugan(?). That's a very rare exception though. |
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Hon'ya-chan
 Posts: 973 |
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Interestingly enough, TOKYOPOP (i.e. on of their peons) hinted on this for Battle Royale. http://messageboard.tokyopop.com/forums/showpost.php?p=69332&postcount=22 |
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