This is more or less a summary fo why I think (ant the moment) VIZ and other aren't going as well as they could.


1-nice one

But I must insist that scanlations are usually people that really like the series and invest way more time than oficial translators resulting (in most cases) in an undeniably better translation . I mean anyone can use the google translate app to machine translate anything to your native language and after a couple of hours checking the result you can have a decent and polished translation ,that will suit the scanators' "compatriots". 😛

To have a better translation you would have to invest lots of time (and the corresponding money) ,a decent editing team and at least one native translator in each of their respective languages (and a continuous editing even after being published)

It is an investment that VIZ clearly hasn't made and most companies don't make since in their perspective as a company it is not too "cost-efficient" .

In the end a company in the country of origin (of the translation) sings a contract (or not) after doing the necessary investment (usually with favourable terms if the translation is exported to another country).

(In my perspective some chinese mahwa multinationals are are a good examples of skipping mediators and exporting "overseas" their content even hiring the ex-scanators )



This is not happening it is obvious that times change but the part of the "cake" taken by asian "comics" (is that what you refer as the east?) is microscopic . The marvel cinematic universe is a good (MCU) example of this (just look at their benefits)

It is undeniable that piracy has given a blow to the traditional entertainment (in some cases fatal) but it is slowly recovering (or adapting) .I but it is way more difficult finding the latest "The Beginning After the End" web novel chapter than any well known asian web novel.

The comic (not just the American ones) have adapted to formats similar to : korean web-toons,meme sites ...

This might be a bit off topic but the MCU is a good example of how "western" media adapts to times and has already overcome these new times.In their case they gave priority to fan-service (in their way: racial inclusion,strong female characters... ) rather than quality .

To conclude in some way , I would like the highlight how in particular the manga/anime is adapting too slow to these changes due to it being (in my perspective) too rigid and not too relatable outside Japan (echi..doesn't sit too well outside) .

It's in no way "microscopic". Manga has been destroying the sale of American comics, and has been for several years


You mean becoming a success by opening to empty theaters? If you're going to talk about how "It's more than just comic sales", let's look at the highest grossing media franchises in the world, the first one is Pokemon. The second one is Hello Kitty. And, if you're going to throw up the fact that neither of those were "really" manga, just look at the fact that Anpanman and Shounen Jump still beat out the MCU (With the former having never left the country).


The only "fatal blow" that piracy has dealt is companies becoming paranoid and treating everyone like a criminal because of how greedy they are.


One, the most "adaptation" that American comics have undergone is selling their releases online. Two, webtoons are not a good example of who to be following. Going by the Gook who occasionally shitposts about the political opera that is Worst Korea, one of his repeated topics is talking about how absolutely hates webtoons because of how it was an active campaign to destroy the physical Manhwa industry that led to their rise (With none of it being natural in any way). That's coupled with the fact that looking at any drawing can get you on the country's sex offender, with a good amount of the webtoon websites getting off because the people in charge are the same groups who screwed up the country in the first place and trying to make everything an exclusive community that they can control.


You mean having their entire film series completely change in tone, direction, and attitude immediately after Age of Ultron and Ant-Man to where each new entry is worse than the previous one beginning with Civil War? Although, honestly, the MCU hasn't been good since 2008. Or, are you talking about them cancelling their hit TV series that turned into complete jokes?


OKAY NOW I'M ANGRY! Why the fuck do you people act like there hasn't been a "diversity" in characters prior to the past decade of material? You've had BLACK character for decades, you've had AMERICAN INDIAN characters for decades, you've had FEMALE characters for decades. You want me to make up a quick list? Okay, here's a few: Shadowman, Turok, Spawn, She-Hulk, Hawk and Dove, Blade, Witchblade, Apache Chief, Raven, Cyborg, Firestar, Static Shock, The Runaways. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO PROVE? You've HAD diversity in comics for decades. A lot of these comics were SUCCESSFUL for decades. The only difference NOW is that you idiots keep screeching "That's not good enough", and you're even admitting that these companies should compromise on quality in order to be progressive, which they are and it's killing them. And, before you come back with , "Well, film audiences can't handle a minority on screen" please explain to me the success of the Blade films? Or Alien? Or Resident Evil? Or The Equalizer? Or Tomb Raider? or Terminator? Or Rush Hour? Or La Femme Nikita? or Mulan? "But what about minority writers?" Romancing the Stone. "But, what about on TV?" Samurai Jack, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Alias. "But, those are offensive." My Little Pony then.

The point I'm trying to make is that NONE of this big heaping pile of steaming bullshit is fanservice. It's TOKENISM and I thought you people were against that.


Then you can fuck right off. If you cannot relate to people outside of your special little circle and want everyone to conform to you, then I have news for you: you are the definition of a psychopath.

When initially writing this post, I never wanted to be hash, and I didn't plan to be hash. However seeing where you're coming from has resulted in me getting this harsh to get my point across. You want to know what the problem is with Western media, it's people like you. People who want to destroy any form of free thought because it might offend someone. People who destroy thriving cultures because "we must accept everyone". People like you who will die in the name of "tolerance" when everyone else just sees you as the useful idiot to push their agenda because they say the right things. If you are a genuinely nice person and just repeating what you're told, the only form of advise I can offer you is to tell you to pull the chute and get out now. Where you're heading is not pretty.

________________

You guys seemed to have already made up your minds about all of this, despite not having much knowledge as to how the sausage is made nor having your claims backed by anything, really. Sounds like the type of rhetoric you'd find from anti-vaxxers, but hey, y'all do you.

________________
-GGpX

I run Illuminati-Manga. You're welcome.

Can't speak for VIZ or how the OPM releases compare, but since it has derailed to a general "official vs scanlations"...

Of course scanlations can be better than official translations, there's no reason they can't be. That said, a lot of scanlations are not as good as people think they are. If a release has flawless English, people will believe that the translation must be flawless as well, but that's not always the case.

The first part of what I said si more or less how the industry of magazines /books/comics... work with translation taking out some technical stuff (I tried not to put any opinion there).

(the rest doesn't have as much to do with the topic, it is just some sources and quotes)

Then next most multinationals are quite opaque in their management so usually the 'numbers' are estimations and what they have to (and want to) make public.It cost me quite a while to find data of Japanese companies (since they don't publish their benefits).And since a company's benefits aren't necessarily their revenue from merchandise and products or a saga of movies.But:

And just so you know in my country (Spain) media doesn't give a dam about anime and stuff (they do fight their own invisible enemies just as Transdude1996 does) ,actually I got introduced to anime though public TV. 🙄

I completely forgot that Viz does Urasawa manga. The ones for Master Keaton and Monster are crazy good. I honestly can´t name a better translater/localizer than Viz if they really go for it.
The best English language manga releases I ever read were done by Viz now that I think about it and they do all sorts of fringe releases. Those are the ones that win the Eisners and so on.
To call them the Shounen Jump company is simply laughable. A recent manga they did to prove my point: Ningen Shikkaku (ITOU Junji).

There are publishers like Vertical that can really do wonders with translations but there is a reason why Viz won so many awards. They know how to release stuff and Viz caters to a diverse market. Having all the good licenses helps of course.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 6:18 am, May 1 2020

________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Meanwhile...


And...


And...


And, if you question any of this, you are a menace to the public who need to be reported to the police.

________________