Forum - View topicNEWS: Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō Manga Ends in July
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2686 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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So Volume 16 will likely wind up being the last one, which is what I was expecting for a while. I'm pretty sure that Saintia Sho has been bombing hard for Seven Seas (unfortunately), so I guess they'll be happy to know that they'll only have three more volumes left to go before never touching anything bearing Masami Kurumada's name ever again. Shame, too, because the manga is really good, especially once it gets past the "It's the start of the OG series, so the spin-off can't really do too much" phase.
Meanwhile, I find it amusing that a spin-off manga sharing the name of one of Kurumada's shortest works (Silent Knight Sho) winds up being the same length as one of his longer works (B't X). |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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A pretty good manga that deserved a much better anime adaptation. Really, the only good thing of what we got with that anime was the soundtrack.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2686 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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And I wouldn't be surprised if the anime's poor reception wound up hurting the manga's sales over here, which Seven Seas obviously didn't want. The anime had already been announced prior to Seven Seas' announcing that it had licensed the manga, so there's no doubt hopes were pinned on the anime encouraging sales. While things may be a bit better on the anime front, the "Kurumada Curse" is still strong when it comes to manga, even 18 years later. |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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The first, most glaring mistake they did for the anime was not adapting Chimaki Kuori's beautiful art as TMS did with The Lost Canvas using the mang'as original art or at least getting it close to the manga's, and tried instead emulating Shingo Araki's art from the original anime, which, honestly, this story specifically didn't need. The other thing was trying to compress the story in ways that showed glaringly and made it look choppy, underdeveloped and forgettable, like how new characters' came out of nowhere and by the next scene they were already acquainted, and how they were from beat to beat throughout the story, amking the plot a fast-paced mess devoid of drama or development.
I'm sorry, but that "curse" thing sound dumb as hell. What the hell is a "Kurumada Curse"??? |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2686 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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It's a personal thing I bring up (partially) sarcastically, because literally almost every single thing related to Masami Kurumada has done remarkably poorly when released in "North of Mexico" (because Seiya is actually pretty popular south of the US & Canada), for a variety of reasons, starting all the way back in 2003, when DiC debuted the first episode of its Knights of the Zodiac on Cartoon Network, and it's been pretty much true all the way with manga. Viz's release of Saint Seiya? Forced to maintain DiC's KotZ namings, associating it with a failed show that no one watched. While Viz did eventually release all of the manga, it's a notorious bomb for them. To this day, Viz hasn't tried bringing over anything else by Kurumada. TokyoPop's release of B't X? An attempt to leech off of DiC's KotZ, so it obviously sold even worse. I literally had company reps tell me that "only 8 people" bought it while they were releasing it, & were betting on whether it'd actually get finished. The final volume did eventually come out, and was one of TokoyPop's final releases before it went silent for a long time, but only after a two-year hiatus. I wouldn't be surprised if they only finished it because I kept asking about about on their forums. Seven Seas' release of Saintia Sho? While there's obviously no word on how the sales are, I think it says a lot that the color splash page that starts every volume stopped being printed in color with Volume 9's release, which is an obvious indication that Seven Seas is trying to save as much money as they can while still supporting it until the end. I don't expect Seven Seas to ever touch anything related to Kurumada or Saint Seiya after finishing this manga. It was pretty true for anime as well for a good while (DiC's KotZ, which in turn screwed over ADV's release of the original version, Illumitoon's botched B't X release, Cinedigm's lackluster release of the Sanctuary Chapter), though that has seen better days over time via simulcasts, Netflix offering the OG anime completely with a new dub, Discotek releasing the 80s movies & Lost Canvas, & Anime Midstream's complete B't X release). However, even that has had its moments of trouble, like when the head of Discotek literally telling me that both the Seiya movies & Lost Canvas bombed hard originally. The BD re-release for the movies is literally a last-gasp-chance (the people who work with Discotek, including Justin Sevakis, have essentially all but stated as such), and if that doesn't do well enough, then I guarantee that Discotek will likely never try anything from Kurumada ever again. Yes, it's a little facetious to say that anything Masami Kurumada in "North of Mexico" is "cursed", but it's not as though they've had the easiest time coming over, either. For a good period of time, it did feel as though his stuff was "cursed", and for manga it still kind of feels like it. |
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cyberdraco
Posts: 643 |
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The anime was good and thats a hill I'm dying on. |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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That's a pretty dumb hill to die on, but oh well 
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gold12
Posts: 25 |
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In Japan Masami Kurumada has always sold a lot with his manga. For example Ring ni Kakero and Saint Seiya are among the 100 best-selling manga in the history of manga. Kuori's Saintia Sho has the problem that in Japan it sells very little, it is not a competitive manga, and in fact even the anime will certainly not have a second season. The same problem is Okada's Episode G which sells very little in Japan. Okada and Kuori are mangakas who have no commercial luck. |
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gold12
Posts: 25 |
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There will be no new adaptation of Saintia Sho, and there will never be a third season of the Lost Canvas anime, as their DVDs and Blu-rays have gone awful in Japan. The only thing we'll have in a year or two will be a live action movie based on the popular S. S. manga by M. K. |
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gold12
Posts: 25 |
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There is no Kurumada curse. Also because in Japan Otoko Zaka and Saint Seiya Next Dimension, which are the two Kurumada manga he is currently working on, are selling well. Volume 13 of Saint Seiya Next Dimension entered the top 10 of the best sellers in the first week. 
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SparkTFS
Posts: 32 |
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Too bad the Saintia Shô anime ended up like "that", because I think with the proper push the manga could have been more popular, and maybe even attract a public of its own.
Well, let's hope that this situation changes someday for Saint Seiya. Maybe with a proper remake of the classic anime, or a good anime adaptation of Next Dimension. Or even that live-action, I hope it end up being a nice rendition of the series. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2686 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Of course there isn't, in Japan. And while it's not a literal thing that actually exists, I explained just a few posts above how it sometimes felt like there was one in the US & Canada, i.e. "North of Mexico", because of all the various hurdles, problems, & poor efforts his works have have had in the past (nearly) 20 years of them receiving English release, so thank you for just ignoring literally everything I had posted earlier, instead of (I don't know) giving a proper counterpoint against it. Yes, Masami Kurumada does well in Japan. Yes, Masami Kurumada does well in Europe, Asia, South America, & Central America (including Mexico). However, Masami Kurumada has had a long track record in the US & Canada of either selling poorly (despite being given good treatment) or being released in a very poor fashion, with only a small handful of exceptions. That's where the idea of a "Kurumada Curse" comes from, that it just feels like anything by the man (either directly or simply associated with him) just can't catch a break "North of Mexico", no matter how much various companies try, especially when it comes to either manga or a physical anime release. You can't just ignore that & act like it's just "normal". |
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gold12
Posts: 25 |
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For example, the CG series Knights of the Zodiac was among Netflix's 10 most viewed animated series in its period. The old Saint Seiya series was also dubbed into English in full by Netflix because it had good views in America. Videogames and action figures based on MK's Saint Seiya have been doing well all over the world and even in America. For Saintia Sho its big problem is that it's not a popular series, the manga sells little, and the anime has gone bad and now they close everything. |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3115 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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I'm not counting on it, especially after the guy who headed most of those recent adaptations stepped down from his Chairman position last year. |
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