The Eastern Edge

Hi

Something will change let's just hang in there (finger crossed haha)

I think there are readers out there who can't afford to buy the manga and they alredy read the scans... but still it's 20th and Pluto AT THE SAME TIME! people should really buy it, maybe someone should buy like 100 and then give them away hahaha

till next post...

-Santi-

Even though I've read the mangas scanned, someday I will buy all of the series and their volumes to support my favorite manga-ka. And I'll also be very proud to have these mangas in my bookshelf. :D

That little bit right after the ranking ↑143 (225) illustrates that 20th Century Boys gained 143 ranks, having been ranked at #225 the previous week, and similarly Pluto rose 182 ranks.

The titles are on the move. And in the proper direction.

Last weeks rankings are running late (I'm working on them *right now*, at least when I'm not wasting time) but we should be able to see how these titles did tomorrow morning. Numbers for week ending 8 March should post on Tues. or Wed.

If you like, I can take a minute to graph them for you. But not right now -- must finish data entry.

Matt Blind,

I hope the upward trend continues at somewhere near the same pace.
I'll be sure to keep an eye on your sight for the latest stats.
If there is a dramatic change it would be really cool to see it on a graph if you have the time and don't mind the bother. I understand that real life limits what we can or will end up doing with hobbies like blogging on comics, though :)

Thanks for your comment, and thanks for always putting together the awesome stats and providing commentary & insights.

Cheers.

Santi,

I'm still believing!

By the way, I am really enjoying Heroes.
And, now that I'm over the initial shock of the ultra-fake looking Tokyo and bad Japanese, I'm starting to like Hiro, too.


E,

Cool. Please support your favorites so we can continue to get future titles, like Billy Bat, released too!
Cheers.

No pretty graphs, yet, but I compiled some numbers out of six weeks worth of spreadsheets over on the 'bomber:

http://www.rocketbomber.com/2009/03/07/application-and-practice-yes-i-can-do-more-than-post-long-lists-of-titles#vizsig

Hopefully this covers your questions/concerns, and I also go into a bit on how 'the best is yet to come' -- we're only at the start of this story and it'll be months yet.

current rankings (as of last Sunday)
20th Century Boys vol 1: #66, up 16 ranks.
Pluto vol 1: #87, up 18 ranks.

Well I don't think Monster sold very well in the USA.

But fact is the USA is bizarre great titles don't sell.
And a lot of really great stuff is never translated.

Some of the stuff that is released and they want people to pay what $9.99 msrp for are really bad series that should have never crossed the Pacific to begin with.

And there is so few Seinen series released and look at the shonen titles released mostly new stuff or fairly new not really great stuff and hardly any classics.Although a few classics are being released but some are edited like the Dragon Ball manga.
There is more mediocre and bad manga in the USA than really great or even good stuff.
How many crappy romance mangas need to come out?
Viz has one absolute classic with Maison Ikkoku and half the volumes are out of print.
Which brings up another point Viz and out of print volumes Viz really seems to be the one having problems with it.
And why bring some many poor romance titles over?
Instead of just bringing another classic like Kimagure Orange Road first?
Why some many new and poor shonen fight series before great ones in the 80s and 90s?

Viz is now releasing Big Editions of some mangas 3 volumes in 1 they probably should just do that to begin with people might buy more manga if there getting more and its easier to see if you like a series too.

Monster volume 18 didn't even say oh hey two other Urasawa series are coming out in February.


Also personally I'd much rather have had Yawara or Happy get a USA release than Pluto.

And anime forget about it my passion or any care died many years ago.
All that comes out is new stuff or lame horrible stuff which is new as well.

And about fansubbers are they doing forgotten classics?
No just new stuff as well.
Fansub groups originally subbed really great animes old and new not just new stuff.


I don't buy anime anymore since there is nothing worth buying.
And I buy very little manga.

But I think of all the mangas I'd like to read if they were ever translated.

Only other complaint is the USA manga books could use better binding Japanese volumes are so much higher quality in that regard or unless they were to be like the Phoenix volumes those are sturdy books but there also big.

Matt Blind,

Thank you very much!
I'm looking forward to seeing how things will play out over the next few months.

Cheers.

------------------------------

Mangafan,

You're right that many good titles don't sell well and even more are never even translated.

I wonder why certain licensing decisions are made, too. I suspect that since Japanese comics for older fans haven't sold well so far, companies don't want to risk licensing older titles for mass consumption either.
If Monster didn’t sell well, it would probably be hard to justify licensing older titles that are less known to non-Japanese readers. I'm just speculating, though.

I like the Viz Big label. I think it's a great idea. I just wish that size was the standard. There's no reason to made comics so small. The US and Canada are not like Japan and comics don't have to be small and convenient to carry to read on the train and fit on your tiny book shelf in your tiny apartment.

Comics need to be a size that does the work justice, and because it's a visual medium they should be big so we can see the damn art! They also need good writers. I won't mention titles or who published them, but I've seen some pretty poor translations and some even worse writing over the years. That will kill even the best comics.
They are at the mercy of their translators and adaptors sometimes.

You're also right that Japanese books tend to be better quality, both binding and paper. But there is a sad underlying reason for that.
Japan has traditionally has been able to buy raw materials cheap. For example, they used to clear-cut (without replanting) massive areas of forest in foreign countries, complete with a sweet discount from the governments of those countries who were eager for the export cash grab.

When I first went to Japan I was shocked at how cheap paper was compared to Canada, especially since we have all the damn trees! Then I learned about international trade...

I think it's fairly common knowledge that a lot of countries are guilty of whoring their raw materials to super-rich Japan of the 80's, just the same as many are selling their souls to deal with booming China now.

But that's another topic, isn't it?

Amway, I hope that the market will mature in the next five to ten years and all those problems will solve themselves. We'll see.

Thanks for your comments.

"And there is so few Seinen series released"

Even fewer josei series get released.

Urasawa's works are incredible, but even if you want to make a whole collection as a hardcore fan of Naoki Urasawa, if you live in a country where manga is not selled (as in my case - Bulgaria), you can only rely on amazon.com. And the other pain is that you have to wait awfully for the delivery to arrive.

Not to mention that if i ever want to buy things like the Pluto special edition books, I'll have to move to Japan, which will cost me alot.

Keep the information coming, you're the only source for me. Thanks!

-Yancho