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Forum - View topicManga Answerman - Why Don't More Manga Publishers Use Kickstarter?
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2693 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I think that's the biggest reason licensing & releasing anime through crowdfunding hasn't really been a thing, either. With manga, you generally only have to deal with the creator of the work, or at least the current publisher in Japan, but with anime it's more likely that you'd have to hope that all of the different companies involved will okay such a non-guarantee of an offer. That's essentially why DMP & Kansai, or even Bento Books for Math Girls, were able to do their campaigns with seemingly no major concessions; they only had to deal with a singular entity, like Tezuka Pro. That's likely why the only anime Kickstarters that have actually been about licensing anime so far have either been for license rescues (see: AnimEigo's output) or at least had some sort of previous streaming offering (see: Skip Beat!), and even then the latter example had an extra wrinkle in the form of a contractually-mandated English dub that had to be made. The Japanese companies that had to all be okay with these ideas likely were willing to let those titles be tried out, simply because they all had proven themselves in one way or another outside of Japan. I'm still curious if we'll ever see an anime that has never been licensed before, or even one that has never even been fansubbed into English before, be given an attempt at crowdfunding, or if that much uncertainty is just too much for everyone involved (both in Japan & abroad). Personally, I'm all for more manga (& anime) Kickstarters, because it's been proven that anime/manga fans are unwilling to use any other site (again, see: Skip Beat!), but I agree with Deb in that they should probably stick with just singular releases from here on out, because doing more than that just brings about too much trouble. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2127 |
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Outside of Kickstarter, I wish there was a way somehow for fan to get remaining volumes of already-licensed titles that were stopped for some reason.
For example, the last volumes of Strawberry 100%, which SJ only published up to vol 14 for with I think 2 more to go? If there was some way to gauge interest in putting out a combined 15-16 edition to complete the story for those of us who already bought the series, even if it's a limited run with the price jacked up a bit to cover a limited printing. Just something would help in those circumstances. |
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DirtyCircle
Posts: 129 |
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A example for Digital Manga that helps show the struggle they (and presumably everyone risks) when running multiple projects and falling behind:
- Started KODOMO NO JIKAN in 2016 with the estimated delivery for all volumes was Oct. '17. - First three volumes are finally published digitally on emanga.com on Aug. 22, 2018 with print unknown. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2693 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Oh, I'm with you on that, but I've long given up on unfinished titles I own, like Bastard!!, Immortal Rain, or Culdcept ever being finished up in English; I've even since bought the rest of the first & last of my picks in Japanese, just so that I can say that I have all of the volumes. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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I’m glad this question was answered because some fans get so belligerent about it. Not everybody is into crowdfunding for a variety of reasons. In fact it's a lot of people. Fans always point to the successes. Yes publishers like DMI has produced or reprinted many books with crowdfunding but, they've also been rejected far more in the process. That should be OK. Honestly, it’s still far too easy to abuse crowdfunding as well so people should be careful. I’m glad more publishers dealing with licensed titles don’t use it. Some of the badly run campaigns give people a very negative impression of the NA industry as a whole. DMI basically went back on or, delivered bad goods for many people in their campaigns without any compensation or, even not saying much usually until backers started asking why something was wrong. This was before DMI hit the current sour notes with multiple projects in the pipeline where they can barely ship and finish books along with continuing to lose licenses. Sasahara may be a Tezuka fan but, I think DMI just tries to use anybody and about anything as much as it can. I’ve had to explain several times to some people DMI doesn’t represent the way the entire English manga publishing industry works. So the trouble there doesn't even just affect one business.
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13626 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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The line between legit production delays and using that card as an excuse to cheat/rip-off backers can be blurred.
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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TBF that is one hell of a risky series to have even seen the light of day, sans any production issues they might have ran into. |
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DirtyCircle
Posts: 129 |
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Which is exactly why I'm shocked that they are finally publishing it online; I'm trying my best not to get my hopes up though. I didn't really want to admit that it was never going to happen but was on my way there. Apparently, the new translation is just the old scanlation translator going through it all over again... and was done more than a year ago. According to the emails, Digital Manga wanted some changes to how the humor translated so they wanted to hire someone else for that. I just thought it was telling with this article about the risks, to mention how one project that I backed had been stalled so badly and couldn't even get to the online published stage for years. In fairness, it's not even the worst case. I know there are other cases of Kickstarter failures out there but this one hit home. I have only one other Kickstarter that I backed that is still questionable, a game, WORLD END ECONOMiCA. The original goal was for the translation to be done by May 2015 and here we are in August 2018 and the last update was in April. The third chapter was supposed to be headed to QA from HD upgrade programming at the end of April with the physical rewards commencing after that but it's been quite except for new projects. It's on Steam but I backed it with the intent of having a physical copy since I've never used Steam. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1770 |
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Not everyone who backed the DMP Kickstarters did so because they wanted the books.
I know several people, myself included, who backed the KnJ project simply because we wanted the artwork from the highest tiers. While getting the books and other tchotchkes from our pledges tiers would be nice, it’s not mandatory and we’re all happy with the artwork we received from DMP. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4467 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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it seems that both yourself & ANN will unfortunately now have to change its info. for some reasons or another, Digital Manga have decided to have the kodomo no jikan manga to be distributed under its project hentai sister brand which doesn't make sense at all considering that its not even an ero series! |
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Brand
 Posts: 1029 |
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Seems like a line up Kodomo no Jikan would fit into. --- Oh, man those DMP Kickstarts... I've backed all the Tezuka ones and yeah it is getting crazy. I'm still waiting on two of their Kickstarters. Wonder 3: Launched March 2017 | Estimated Delivery August 2017 Digital-to-Print Psyche Delico Yaoi Titles: Launched April 2017 | Estimated Delivery October 2017 The Psyche Delico one gets better I backed it only for a copy of Ai no Kusabi 8. Which in one of their last updates they said the original publisher wants them to do the re-release with the 6 volume version of the series. But they don't really say what they are going to do for us backers who only wanted a single volume. Oh, and it may push back the timeline on getting the books out again. >__> I really do think they bit off way more than they could chew. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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Yes. Project-H may be promoting it too and did a giveaway but, it’s under the PeCChi line, likewise sold on the regular eManga site. Emanga have been promoting the release on social media along with being announced via newsletter. I find it funny only for the optics since the company fights back against the “it’s porn” charges that get lobbed at the series. Yet, the ero account is seemingly the most visible about the release and Project-H customers can buy it there also.
Yeah that is not good. Juné wouldn't give any info at all for the longest time about the reprint despite asking so I felt suspicious about it. I find the Ai no Kusabi situation incredibly ironic too because they told people to back the Kickstarter or else it would delay the reprint. It's another example of not doing the proper due diligence to know they needed to do a new edition instead. Honestly I like the Chara edition more, but its a problem when you already have some old volumes. I hope they work out something. |
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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I knew I'd find you here commenting this, and you are right (in most cases). One benefit of Kickstarter for higher tier collectors involves a chance to get really exclusive merchandise--autographs, original drawings, merchandise, meet and greets, etc. at higher pledge levels. If you have the time and capital, it can be an easy and fun way to get some really cool stuff. If other backers don't end up getting their rewards, that is kind of shitty, but higher pledge tiers can still run this risk--I have seen some probably creators produce/ship lower tier rewards first, either intentionally or not, idk. I posted this on another thread, but here is a list of anime related Kickstarters I have backed: UN for unsuccessful/S for successful, and publisher in italics. -Time of EVE: The Movie Blu-ray (S) Pied Piper, Inc. 2,711 backers -Little Witch Academia 2 (S) Studio TRIGGER 7,938 backers -Bubblegum Crisis Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Set (S) Robert J. Woodhead/AnimEgo 2175 backers -9DKP Anime Project (UN) Erick Scarecrow -- -Mai Mai Miracle (S) All the Anime 1,903 backers -Patema Inverted - Ultimate Edition (UK ONLY, S) All the Anime 937 backers -Robotech Academy (UN) Harmony Gold Productions -- -Under the Dog (S) Mentat Studios LLC 12,157 backers -Go! Samurai - an animated short film by Keiichiro Kimura (S) AWESOME JAPAN 358 backers -URBANCE: The Pilot Episode (S) Steambot 3,707 backers -Devil's Legacy : The Animated Series (UN) Phoenix Angels Studios -- -Coluboccoro (S) AWESOME JAPAN 465 backers -Otaku no Video Otaking Edition Subtitled Anime Blu-Ray (S) Robert J. Woodhead/AnimEgo 1,509 backers -Asterion- By director of FMA Brotherhood (UN) Pollux animation -- -Red Ash -Magicicada- bySTUDIO4C (S) comcept USA. LLC 1,869 backers -CHUYA-DEN The Night and Day Chronicles (UN) AWESOME JAPAN -- -ASTERION The Pilot Episode (S/Reboot) Polluc animation 199 backers -The Vision of Escaflowne: A New HD Dub for the Classic Anime (S) Funimation 2,058 backers -Riding Bean High Octane Edition Anime Blu-ray (S) Robert J. Woodhead/AnimEgo 1,752 backers -Skip Beat! Official North American Release (S) Pied Piper Inc. 1,646 backers -MECHA-UDE: Japanese Animation (S) Sae Okamoto with Oort 999 backers -NEKOPARA Anime OVA (S) sekaiproject 9,122 backers -MIND GAME (S) All the Anime 731 backers -Let's Dub ALL of the Aria Anime for Blu-ray! (S) Nozomi Entertainment 2,648 backers -Soloing the full length animated movie, ARAGNE (S) zelicofilm 174 backers -Yasuhiro Irie's Animation Film "Halloween Pajama in Seattle" (UN) Yasuhiro Irie -Blossum Detective Holmes: The Animated Miniseries Project (S) Steve Ahn 2,718 backers -Gunsmith Cats Explosive Edition (S) Robert J. Woodhead/AnimEgo 4,249 backers -Kenichi Sonoda's Bean Bandit New Anime Project (S) Kenichi Sonoda 1,928 backers -Be A Part Of The Grisaia:PHantom Trigger Anime Lauch (Currently Funding) Frontwing Anime Team Edit: Forgive the wall of text,and I am not trying to brag about these, but I am posting this list to give you a rough idea of actually how many anime-related Kickstarters there have been in the last five years, along with backer counts to illustrate the 'exclusivity' of some rewards. There are many detailed problems with this business model--as many of these projects, although funded, have gone radio silent. Both small and large publishers have had great success, and the chance to directly work with and even talk to high profile players and creators within the anime industry is a big draw. Edit 2: 'Kick Heart' (S) Masaaki Yuasa 3,232 backers is agruably the first and one of the most successful projects, but it is not on my initial list because I was only a slacker backer on that project (someone who supported the project after it was funded.) There are indeed manga, video games, and visual novel successes and failures to note. In summary, it still seems to be a popular platform, despite the more negative news in recent months.. |
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Cutiebunny
Posts: 1770 |
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DMP is doing this with Kimagure Orange Road now. They started shipping the physical books for the lowest tiers and have been working their way up. I had them ship the rewards from my tier separately but even despite paying for separate shipping, it took them almost two months to send it. I’ve backed several DMP KS at high levels because of the rewards. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve received the rewards that I wanted, particularly in the case of KOR as Matsumoto is no longer healthy enough to draw. |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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I'm still worried that I'm not going to be getting my KOR books from DMP, even with the "timeline" the gave us.
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