I don't really mind unless the manga has been fully released in Japan. Like it kind of bothers me that Fruits Basket is fully released in Japan, and they're still releasing one volume every 3 or 4 months here. A series like that is already popular, so TokyoPop has got to know that it's going to sell. =\

The thing that bothers me the most about licensed manga is the prices. $10 a volume is a bit much. That's the primary reason why I don't buy a lot of it. =\ It's a little inconvenient for me to read series online, but I'm not going to spend $200 on a 20 volume series. It's just not worth it, no matter how much I love the series. If the price for a volume of manga was cut to $5, give or take a couple dollars, I might buy more of it. I kind of understand why it would be more expensive though. In Japan, the people that get the money from selling the manga are the publishing company, the mangaka, and the bookstore. In other countries, the people that get the money from selling the manga are the Japanese publishing company, the mangaka, the bookstore, and the company that publishes, translates, & edits the manga here. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to buy a lot of licensed manga. And I'm the consumer here, so the publishing companies in America have got to work out some other way to sell manga for less.

Well maybe it's not for me to tell, but the stuff we get from the scanlation teams even if it's for free it's in a lot better quality than the stuff we have to pay for. In most cases typesetting and redrawing is off and sometimes it may be considered awful. Sometimes they just don't redraw at all leaving the Japanese text and putting English one next to it. Also translators don't care about the readers like in the scanlation teams (lack of additional notes and Americanisation of the dialogues that my change the entire part of the storyline). That way it's just annoying that even if we pay we may get a crap and the manga we get for free is in superb quality. It just goes against the rule: "you get what you paid for"...

Really sad, especially for ADV and TokyoPop, some of their work are just crap.

...

Well, it depends on the series. Usually they're a bit slower simply because the licensing only comes after the manga is already successful, but it's better to have a hard copy anyway.

I think it's a bit unfair to make a generalization stating that scanlations are inherently of superior quality, and simply untrue as well. For some series, depending on the company and editors, there are differences, but a lot of the time the licensed version is perfectly accurate (or at least as accurate as the scanlations) and of higher quality (as in resolution) than any scanlation group that uses magazine scans. Some companies (most notably Del Rey) actually put in large translation notes sections as well.

I'm also not a huge fan of the price hike, but it's really not that bad. Most manga costs 430-500 yen a volume in Japan (or at least those are the prices of the ones sitting on my bookshelf), which is a good 3-6$ less than the licensed equivalent. If you take into account the translating, editing, and licensing costs it's almost validated in my mind. However if that really bothers you there are plenty of websites and the like you can use to get manga at a discount.

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Quote from Marcos

Well maybe it's not for me to tell, but the stuff we get from the scanlation teams even if it's for free it's in a lot better quality than the stuff we have to pay for. In most cases typesetting and redrawing is off and sometimes it may be considered awful. Sometimes they just don't redraw at all leaving the Japanese text and putting English one next to it. Also translators don't care about the readers like in the scanlation teams (lack of additional notes and Americanisation of the dialogues that my change the entire part of the storyline). That way it's just annoying that even if we pay we may get a crap and the manga we get for free is in superb quality. It just goes against the rule: "you get what you paid for"...

Really sad, especially for ADV and TokyoPop, some of their work are just crap.

Right, I second that statement. It's also one of my main reasons why I don't buy many manga... sighs It's really a shame. I mean, the whole artwork's ruined if they just go ahead and "fix" up the translation or do a horrible job at the editing. I'm not as eager as to pay (so much) for that kind of crap.

Quote from Marcos

Well maybe it's not for me to tell, but the stuff we get from the scanlation teams even if it's for free it's in a lot better quality than the stuff we have to pay for. In most cases typesetting and redrawing is off and sometimes it may be considered awful. Sometimes they just don't redraw at all leaving the Japanese text and putting English one next to it. Also translators don't care about the readers like in the scanlation teams (lack of additional notes and Americanisation of the dialogues that my change the entire part of the storyline). That way it's just annoying that even if we pay we may get a crap and the manga we get for free is in superb quality. It just goes against the rule: "you get what you paid for"...

Really sad, especially for ADV and TokyoPop, some of their work are just crap.

Ever consider that maybe some companies don't want to draw over the effect text because they feel it interferes with the original art?
There are fans that don't like it when the effect text is redrawn in English too.

Also there are English licensing companies that do have additional notes like and maintain Japanese honorifics.
An example would be Go! Comi.
Just adding a bit to what Cresshinibon said and I also agree with everything he just said in his post above.

Not all manga releases are slow. Right now, it's a long wait for licensed volumes of Ouran Koukou Host Club... but Viz caught up to the Japanese releases at one point (I think Viz's volume 10 had been released before volume 11 came out in Japan? Something like that). It's no wonder the releases are so slow if they don't actually have anything new to release.

It probably seems like licensed manga comes out at a slower pace because chapters aren't released individually on a schedule and then compiled into a volume later, as they are in Japan. Many of us are used to reading a single chapter every month or so rather than a few chapters every three or four months. Since that's not how things are done in other countries (well, if you ignore the monthly magazines)...

The main problem I have with the prices of licensed manga is that in Canada, they still haven't adjusted the prices to fit the dollar's value yet. We have had to pay $16 for a volume (from Del Ray, anyway), and it's really frustrating. I'd love to pay $8, but I can't, because prices haven't adjusted yet. So seriously, Americans... stop complaining. When manga prices everywhere outside Japan are equal and much higher than the original, then complain all you want.

Quote from LawX

Ever consider that maybe some companies don't want to draw over the effect text because they feel it interferes with the original art?
There are fans that don't like it when the effect text is redrawn in English too.

Yes I considered it, cause I didn't talk about japanese sfx, but only about the part of actual dialogue (or narration text) that is put on the page without the bubble and rather leaving it as it is without redrawing (just writing the english text next to it) interferes with the original image and make it look like a crap. (check out Full Metal Panic offbubble text and you'll see my point)

Quote from LawX

Also there are English licensing companies that do have additional notes like and maintain Japanese honorifics.
An example would be Go! Comi.
Just adding a bit to what Cresshinibon said and I also agree with everything he just said in his post above.

I know but most companies don't do that. And of course I also agree to what Cresshinibon said, it's just that being a student of computer graphics made me too sensitive to the actual errors that are made by the editors...it's kinda weird, I know but that's what it's like...

...

Same here everybody, the way everything here is crapped up (both anime and manga) stops me from buying anything. If the companies just translated to English in the best way possible because we all know that all languages are hard to completely translate, and just left little footnotes about cultural differences and the boom bang pow sounds at the bottom of the page, I'd buy, and yeah prices are a whole other story. If you all remember, a character in Full Metal Alchemist was hanging off a rock carved into a cross but here in America they changed it to a large slab of rock instead. What really gets to me here is that, people complain about the stupidest things...and this has happened a lot.

Quote from Marcos

Yes I considered it, cause I didn't talk about japanese sfx, but only about the part of actual dialogue (or narration text) that is put on the page without the bubble and rather leaving it as it is without redrawing (just writing the english text next to it) interferes with the original image and make it look like a crap. (check out Full Metal Panic offbubble text and you'll see my point)

Ah! I thought you were talking about sfx as well. Anyway, I know what you mean. That also bugs me too.

Quote from Digital-Eon

The main problem I have with the prices of licensed manga is that in Canada, they still haven't adjusted the prices to fit the dollar's value yet. We have had to pay $16 for a volume (from Del Ray, anyway), and it's really frustrating. I'd love to pay $8, but I can't, because prices haven't adjusted yet. So seriously, Americans... stop complaining. When manga prices everywhere outside Japan are equal and much higher than the original, then complain all you want.

Actually.. I was under the impression that most manga/anime oriented stores have already adjusted their prices to fit the dollar's value(the 2 in my area have)... Although I don't think the larger, book stores have..

I'm perfectly fine with licensed manga... Alot of shojo manga, seem to have a release span of 3-5 months which I'm really content with, In all truth, I believe it's faster than the average scanslator's speed and I do know what it's like. If either Viz or Tokyopop sped up their release rate, I'd probably be broke right now.. 🤢

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In Brasil the biggest publisher normally breaks the chapeter in two and the release period variates from 15 days to 2 months... so it takes quite a whille...

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I've read online and even in the editor's notes in some manga, i.e. Dark Horse, and Del Rey. The reason you have to pay more for their books is due to paper stock and ink. The paper stock used in manga in america is better than what they use in Japan. Its also bigger. If anyone remembers those old Oh My Goddess books that were printed on that white, awesome paper stock. Whereas in Japan, manga is printed on what is basically newspaper stock. HK bootlegs are printed on even cheaper paper, so the price is lower. Anyway, that's my two cents.

Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

I think the idea for paying per chapter to read online is a bad idea, i mean the only reason i actually buy manga is to have a hard copy, so if i had to pay to read it online i would just read scanlations all the time as its the same thing, and free.

Also i dont think its too expensive, i mean 10bucks a volume (if you buy online it can be found for about 8 something). Look at other popular things in the US. CD's are running about 15 dollars a CD now and they dont even go through translating or any of that. DVD's are just starting to become way to expensive. So compared to other stuff manga is pretty cheap especially since it has to go through translating and stuff like that.

And if you do really think it is too expensive wait for sales. That one site just had 75% off and right now discountanimedvd.com is having 35% off tokyopop manga, making it 6.50 a volume.

Didn't read through all the posts, but really, it's only slow because we don't get the weekly/monthly magazines like they do in Japan.

Without that weekly/monthly dose, the 2-6 month gaps can really take its toll on people and the product.

$10 per volume is a good price already, it's $1 per chapter which I wouldn't mind for the actual copy in my hands.

Solution?
Start getting these manga over at the weekly/monthly pace at subsciption price, I know I'd end up subscribing to a bunch of them if they did that for North America and catch up to the Japanese pace, heck I'll end up buying more volumes too if they include the proper bonuses from the Japanese volumes...

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Quote from Marcos

Well maybe it's not for me to tell, but the stuff we get from the scanlation teams even if it's for free it's in a lot better quality than the stuff we have to pay for. In most cases typesetting and redrawing is off and sometimes it may be considered awful. Sometimes they just don't redraw at all leaving the Japanese text and putting English one next to it. Also translators don't care about the readers like in the scanlation teams (lack of additional notes and Americanisation of the dialogues that my change the entire part of the storyline). That way it's just annoying that even if we pay we may get a crap and the manga we get for free is in superb quality. It just goes against the rule: "you get what you paid for"...

Really sad, especially for ADV and TokyoPop, some of their work are just crap.

I disagree.

Not everyone who reads manga is a hard-core Japanese fanboy / weeaboo / etc. Manga here has to be translated so that it is understandable to the average American teen. Seeing stuff like "T/L Note" explaining EVERYTHING would be annoying.

I bought SA volume 2 a few months ago. I noticed in one part where it was supposed to say "Itadakimasu", they just changed that to "I'm going to eat it" or some shit like that. It sounds weird out of context, but it didn't fuck up anything.

Believe it or not, most Americans don't give a flying fudge about wtf itadakimasu means. Translator notes are therefore stupid. Most people that read scanlations are the ones that have more knowledge in Jap culture, thus translatior notes I guess are more suitable.
Overall, VIZ, Tokyopop etc Americanize their mangas. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

Del Rey does put TL notes and I think Go Comi does too. I never read them because I don't care. Waste of ink IMO. Only ones I read are School Rumble's.