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New Poll - Cheaper Paper

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8:11 am, Mar 25 2012
Posts: 97


I would start buying manga if it was that cheap (but I voted for "I would buy significantly more volumes", since there isn't that option). You really have no idea how much it costs in my country... I've seen manga volumes costing about 14€ each (without shipping! The shipping would be about 4€), specially if they are recent. And you wonder why they are that expensive? It's simple. Japan -> USA -> Europe -> and then my country. I've been trying to get all the volumes of a manga that I love, but... 9€ each volume and 4€ just for the shipping... I don't have that much to spare. So yeah. If it was about 4€-5€ each volume, I wouldn't mind buying them. I've thought of buying them on Amazon (UK), but it's still expensive... Way too expensive... And I can't trust mangas bought in second hand. I want them in mint condition.

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8:45 am, Mar 25 2012
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My problem with paper manga isn't the price or the quality of paper. I resent poor translations and censorship that often occurs in licenced titles. They can print them on old newspaper and sell them for one dollar for all I care. Any book that gets censored is just expensive toilet paper to me.

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9:01 am, Mar 25 2012
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My purchases of manga increased exponentially when I moved to Japan and manga became insanely cheap. Even a brand new volume is less than half the cost it would be for an older volume in England, and when I go to a used book store I can buy 3 volumes for 100 yen.

The other up-side is that the manga is in it's original format. I really really hate it when English translations censor the art or completely erradicate all references to Japanese culture. Some things can not be translated and to try detracts from their meaning. The scanlators address this issue far better by simply adding a explanatory note and leaving everything else in tact.

I would buy more English manga if it was both cheaper and more faithful to the original Japanese. I understand that not all manga is censored, but the desire to completely Anglophy (is that even a word?) a manga is present in pretty much every translation I've come across, which is ridculous because I have yet to meet a single manga lover who didn't know about the honorifics system in Japanese, and other common cultural references persistent in most manga.



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9:51 am, Mar 25 2012
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isn't this almost the same as that other thread "if price wasn't an issue"

'cos it sounds about the same none


If it was cheaper i would still have some problems since there is not much market for manga in my country, it would be easier to bought it online tough,

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9:51 am, Mar 25 2012
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I agree with the two above me, Drunkguy & Cuthien. For me, it comes down to the quality of the translation & its faithfulness to the original work. As an example, I could not continue Battle Royale because Tokyo Pop had butchered it so much, the manga (if it can still be called that) became unrecognizable to me (think of an old man's idea of American teen slang put in every sentence; yeah, that bad).

I am forced to quote someone by saying, 'Don't be smart; just translate.'

Apparently, companies do this Westernization in order to attract 'new blood,' but what they don't realize is that they are repulsing some of the existing fan base. Just look at what happened to Tokyo Pop, who had to close down; Viz should learn from their mistakes.

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1:18 pm, Mar 25 2012
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I'd only buy a bit more. I haven't purcahsed manga in well over a year and the only tiles I have an interested in buying are Gunslinger Girl (which hasn't come out in the US in years), Ichigo 100% (which I think got dropped), and Nana (which is on hiatus). I own volumes of all of those (18 of Nana, 10 of Ichigo 100%, and all of the post anime season 2 GG that is available in the US) and would be buying solely to complete something that I set out to do back when I was really into manga.

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2:18 pm, Mar 25 2012
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I don't have the space, and it's not like what I would buy is in english anyway.

Post #542007 - Reply to (#541950) by CuthienSilmeriel
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3:29 pm, Mar 25 2012
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Quote from CuthienSilmeriel
My purchases of manga increased exponentially when I moved to Japan and manga became insanely cheap. Even a brand new volume is less than half the cost it would be for an older volume in England, and when I go to a used book store I can buy 3 volumes for 100 yen.

The other up-side is that the mang ...


Think about it from a linguistic perspective. What's important to the translator is the texture of the prose- they want the feel in English to match the feel in Japanese. And by and large, with the official translations (and not scanlations) the consensus is that they do a good job. We both read in Japanese- you know what I'm talking about. Literal translations do not adequately reflect the connotations and tone of the text. Maybe the commercial editors go a little over the top with some of the cultural aspects- changing the food they're eating, for instance- but it makes a degree of logical sense and probably does a better overall job of translating the atmosphere as well as the literal meaning

@Drunkguy: I'm not sure where you're finding censorship, these days. Those boats have long sailed- heck, with Murakami Haruki and Natsuo Kirino as the most popular translated Japanese writers, American audiences expect a certain level of explicit content. There are, however, a fair number of scanlations that artificially inject profanities on a more or less regular basis...

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Post #542040 - Reply to (#541825) by WShin
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6:40 pm, Mar 25 2012
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All the professional translators, adapters, letterers, and editors I know in the manga industry are huge fans of the stuff (and that includes myself). That argument in your second paragraph comes across as pretty silly and ignorant.

Post #542049 - Reply to (#542007) by Crenshinibon
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7:54 pm, Mar 25 2012
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Define "these days." If you are talking about titles released last year or this year, I have no idea though I cannot imagine the publishers have done a complete 180 and given up on censorship. I know I've given up on keeping track. If you are talking about examples you can find on the market, here's a not so short list I found a while ago.

http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=65197&pa ge=31

Now, I can forgive a little extraneous profanity in scanlations. It isn't as if that is exclusive to scanlations anyway. I can even forgive scrubbing profanity from titles as is the case with those who pander to kids and soccer moms. It is when publishers edits/deletes panels, pages and chapters or alters dialogue to avoid controversial topics like rape, religion and racism that I get on my soapbox and curse the publishers and their mothers.

Nudity, violence and other politically incorrect content will always have publishers running to cover their collective asses. The problem is that at best, this causes delays in releases that are often already many months if not years old in Japan and scanlation circles. At worst, it is ham fisted butchering in a format that can ill afford such nonsense in the face of digital media.

Last edited by drunkguy at 9:02 pm, Mar 25 2012

Post #542050 - Reply to (#541914) by whatnot
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7:58 pm, Mar 25 2012
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If you can afford it, a tablet or an e-reader that uses android makes for a great manga reader.

Post #542065 - Reply to (#542049) by drunkguy
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9:01 pm, Mar 25 2012
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Quote from drunkguy
Define "these days." If you are talking about titles released last year or this year, I have no idea though I cannot imagine the publishers have done a complete 180 and given up on censorship. If you are talking about examples you can find on the market, here's a not so short list.

http ...


This, to me, is making mountains out of molehills. Heck, one of those instances was requested by the artist in question.

While I can understand why you might be upset, some minor cropping that doesn't affect the plot really isn't the end of days for the industry. This pops up whenever translated media is brought to a new market, and often for good reason. Different countries have different marketing standards. The average consumer really doesn't give a damn, and it's not really censorship in the sense of the destruction of free speech- I'd bet good money 90% or more of those authors were in favor if it would increase sales.

Controversial subject matter sells, anyway. Most of the changes are either related to legality (child pornography) or because, exactly as you reference, the manga in question is a shounen title with nudity, and they can't market nudity to kids.

Not all, but most instances. Really not something to react at that level about.

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Post #542078 - Reply to (#541786) by melon-ramune-freak
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10:33 pm, Mar 25 2012
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The main reason I want to buy my favorite manga is that I want to keep them, have a copy for re-reading because I love them so much. When I buy them, I rarely think about wanting to support the mangaka. Guess I'm not a good fan huh.

Post #542083 - Reply to (#542065) by Crenshinibon
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10:41 pm, Mar 25 2012
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I'll concede censorship isn't at the top of most reader's radar (though I hope SOPA, PIPA and ACTA are still in people's memory). Consumers are more worried about the many other glaring issues with printed manga such as availability, rising costs, delayed release time and an unfortunate risk of cancellation anyway. Compared to those fatal flaws, censoring out crosses in Full Metal Alchemist, hiding Goku's shame or removing hypodermic needles from Gash's head in Gash Bell could be seen as minor issues.

I take author compliance though with a grain of salt. If you told them that they could make twice as much money by cutting half the material out, I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of them would be in favor of it. We don't live in Japan anyway. As the thread said, the authors allowed publishers to censor their works for financial purposes, not artistic purposes.

Licensed publishers are stuck in an untenable position. They have to censor to avoid antagonizing parents but censorship is just one more reason why they are losing customers to scanlations. I can empathize with them to an extant but that does not mean I will buy their crap, especially when the scanlators have a better product.

Post #542144 - Reply to (#542083) by drunkguy
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6:35 am, Mar 26 2012
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Quote from drunkguy
I'll concede censorship isn't at the top of most reader's radar (though I hope SOPA, PIPA and ACTA are still in people's memory). Consumers are more worried about the many other glaring issues with printed manga such as availability, rising costs, delayed release time and an unfortunate risk of can ...


Again, I understand your position, but I don't agree with that last line. The scanlator translations are unequivocally inferior, and occasionally border on gross inaccuracy, which to me suggests a vastly inferior product more often than not.

But then, I can just go read it in Japanese, so for me, it's a non issue.

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