ADV to cut manga selection?

[Debitt]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA511173.html?display=breaking&industryID=23587&industry=Comics/Graphic+Novels%22

ADV is refocusing its manga publishing on "winners," Oarr says, and will publish about 50 titles in 2005, down from as many 80 books last year.

Raise your hand if anyone saw this coming from ADV *puts hand up* All I have to say if they get rid of Tactics or Matantei Loki Ragnarok, I'll physically harm someone.

[Arnobius]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA511173.html?display=breaking&industryID=23587&industry=Comics/Graphic+Novels%22


Raise your hand if anyone saw this coming from ADV *puts hand up* All I have to say if they get rid of Tactics or Matantei Loki Ragnarok, I'll physically harm someone.

I wonder if it's the manhwa they're dropping. Still waiting for volume 2 of 50 Rules for Teenagers and Love or Money

[Ashley]

I'm a little saddened. I liked the prospect of having tons of new titles I have never heard of. Do I buy them? Not really....Preatear is one of the one off the beaten path mangas I've ever bought, and I usually stick with authors or stories I know. But I still think it's a nice gesture, to go beyond the Viz and Tokyopop fodder. Maybe they'll cut the hentai?

[Arnobius]

I'm a little saddened. I liked the prospect of having tons of new titles I have never heard of. Do I buy them? Not really....Preatear is one of the one off the beaten path mangas I've ever bought, and I usually stick with authors or stories I know. But I still think it's a nice gesture, to go beyond the Viz and Tokyopop fodder. Maybe they'll cut the hentai?

Does ADV do hentai manga? I knew some of their stuff was rated 17+ but didn't know they did the hard stuff under their main label...

[Kawaiikneko]

do you think they'll give away the licenses for the manga they drop? it wouldn't really be fair for the people that do like those certain titles.

[AngelSakura]

Dunno. I liked the Cromartie High manga, as well as Tactics, so I hope they don't drop those, though.

[Arnobius]

do you think they'll give away the licenses for the manga they drop? it wouldn't really be fair for the people that do like those certain titles.

Usually no, though if the rights lapse it's probably not worth reacquisition. Many companies sit on manga rights they have no intention of finishing. Case in point, Viz and Urusei Yatsura. They did a small portion of the manga in the early 90's, then discontinued it. Now for the rest, you have to go online to find fanscans of the rest of the volumes (which were done poorly).

Dunno. I liked the Cromartie High manga, as well as Tactics, so I hope they don't drop those, though.

I dont think they'll drop Cromartie, as they have the manga and anime promoted quite heavily

[Debitt]

Usually no, though if the rights lapse it's probably not worth reacquisition. Many companies sit on manga rights they have no intention of finishing. Case in point, Viz and Urusei Yatsura. They did a small portion of the manga in the early 90's, then discontinued it. Now for the rest, you have to go online to find fanscans of the rest of the volumes (which were done poorly).

AH, you're scaring me now~~ T_T; I really hope the fact that they decided to put FIVE MONTHS between the releases of Tactics vol. 1 and Tactics vol. 2 isn't an indication that it's "unpopular." (unpopular my butt, Tactics sells VERY fast at the Japanese bookstores I go to. T_T)

EDIT: I'm very tempted to write a letter to ADV and tell them there's a very large "we hate ADV" movement forming within the Tactics/MaLoki fandom. >_>

[Hitokiri]

"winners"? What do they mean by that?

[Debitt]

Easy. Manga that sells a lot and makes ADV a lot of money.

[Arnobius]

Easy. Manga that sells a lot and makes ADV a lot of money.

It's a business. Nobody wants to publish something to lose money.

[Debitt]

I realize that. >_> What really gets me is that it seems like they really didn't think about what they were getting themselves into, snapping up the licensing rights to all sorts of series left and right. And now that they're dropping a good number of those series after releasing 1 or 2 books...well, it's really annoying and incredibly disappointing to fans. If they had been a little more farsighted, maybe they wouldn't have gotten themselves into this mess in the first place.

Not only that, it seems like they had an idea from the get-go that some series weren't "winners" in their eyes. I know a lot of people like ADV because they're much more careful with their translations and their editing than TokyoPop is - however, a lot of the newer, more obscure series they've started putting out (Tactics being the prime example in my mind) seem to be very sloppily translated and edited. Message to ADV: Don't pick and choose. Give the same treatment to every manga you release. If you don't think a series is going to do well out here, then don't license it.

[Indigo_Eyes]

I also second the hope that they don't cut 50 Rules for Teenagers; I also read Love or Money, but I'm pretty certain that Tokyopop does that title.
The saddest thing about it is the people who lost their jobs from the cut, IMO. We should pray that they find other jobs.
I wonder if they'll continue to do More Starlight to your Heart-I haven't read it yet, but it looks good.

[Arnobius]

I realize that. >_> What really gets me is that it seems like they really didn't think about what they were getting themselves into, snapping up the licensing rights to all sorts of series left and right. And now that they're dropping a good number of those series after releasing 1 or 2 books...well, it's really annoying and incredibly disappointing to fans. If they had been a little more farsighted, maybe they wouldn't have gotten themselves into this mess in the first place.

Not only that, it seems like they had an idea from the get-go that some series weren't "winners" in their eyes. I know a lot of people like ADV because they're much more careful with their translations and their editing than TokyoPop is - however, a lot of the newer, more obscure series they've started putting out (Tactics being the prime example in my mind) seem to be very sloppily translated and edited. Message to ADV: Don't pick and choose. Give the same treatment to every manga you release. If you don't think a series is going to do well out here, then don't license it.

Good point but unfortunately, I think it's more speculation and trying to predict trends. The big stuff isn't cheap, so if they can score on an unknown, they do well, and if not...

(BTW ADV isn't good with translation either. Azumanga Daioh had so many flaws (anime and manga) and westernizations. I'll have to dig out my original Japanese volumes sometime for an example. And don't get me started on how bad Negima was handled )

[Debitt]

(BTW ADV isn't good with translation either. Azumanga Daioh had so many flaws (anime and manga) and westernizations. I'll have to dig out my original Japanese volumes sometime for an example. And don't get me started on how bad Negima was handled )

Stupid ADV. I didn't like the westernizations in Azumanga Daioh AT ALL, but I don't own the Japanese versions, so I wasn't aware of the translation issues. Eeeew. >_>;

[Arnobius]

[quote="Kokoro Daisuke"]:eh: Stupid ADV. I didn't like the westernizations in Azumanga Daioh AT ALL, but I don't own the Japanese versions, so I wasn't aware of the translation issues. Eeeew. >_>]
Several. Even in the anime, For example, when they go to Okinawa there are a few things ADV either didn't get or chose not to translate.

It involves Tomo and Yomi in the gift shop, and Tomo keeps on repeating words (chinsuko and ukoncha) until Yomi tells her to shut up. The joke is Tomo is deliberately putting empahis on certain part of the words to give them a childish crude connotation in Japanese. To say more might earn the wrath of a Mod though.

Most manga are done bad though. When I started collecting the JP versions of Love Hina and Negima, it was interesting to see how much less crudity is in the Japanese dialogue wise...

Wow. Just hit 1000 posts in five months five days.

[Debitt]

Congrats!

I'm really disappointed with how a lot of translations throw in a good deal of swearing, just for the heck of it. ><; It was horrifying to see them start dropping the f-bomb in Saiyuki and Gravitation.

And personally...>_> I don't see why people prefer ADV over TokyoPop. TokyoPop is a lot more organized with their release dates (heck, ADV hasn't updated their manga release dates since LAST YEAR) and they seem a lot more customer friendly. Their translations aren't accurate all the time, and their editing can be downright laughable at times (i.e. Draqueen randomly morphing into "Dragqueen" in one volume of Dragon Knights) but either you a) don't notice the mistakes or b) can pick up the Japanese version and read it for yourself if you have an issue with the translation.

=/ I also find ADV incredibly...stupid. As you've probably picked up on already. Sometimes their lack of basic common sense is astounding. (example? they only licensed the LAST half of the MaLoki manga. --;;; )

[MasterDias]

I've read several volumes of Chrono Crusade. I didn't notice any grammatical errors but can't comment on translation issues. It seemed good enough.

Most Americans are not going to understand Japanese cultural jokes and such, however, so I would let those translations slide at least a little bit. Such things are a pain to translate for a different culture than was originally intended...
That doesn't excuse a truely sloppy translation, but it does need to be taken into account.

=/ I also find ADV incredibly...stupid. As you've probably picked up on already. Sometimes their lack of basic common sense is astounding. (example? they only licensed the LAST half of the MaLoki manga. --;;; )

I don't think that was entirely ADV's fault. You see, here is what I gathered. The first parts of several of their manga, at least Matentai Loki and Peacemaker, were originally serialized in Enix's Shonen Gangan. However, they switched publishers sometime during serialization to Mag Garden. Hence, the name changes.
I believe Square-Enix was being very stingy with their licenses until their big title(read: Full Metal Alchemist) was licensed. So that may be why ADV could not get the first parts of said manga.

I do agree that, despite their big success with anime, the people in charge of their manga devision lack common sense. Flooding the market with titles is not a very good strategy...
That's something that Tokyopop learned...

[Debitt]

I thought that with MaLoki, it was because of the change in publishers as well. But MagGarden is also releasing the first part of the series (the white covers are Matantei Loki, and the black covers are Matantei Loki Ragnarok). =/ MagGarden's been putting the books out for a while now, too. At least a year now, but probably more than that, since the entire first series had been released under MagGarden by June of last year.

Whether they had access to the license or not, it was still a really dumb move. Sure the hardcore fans would understand what was going on, but what about everyone else? >_> Especially since they released the manga before the anime. At least after people have seen the anime, the 2nd part of the manga would make much more sense.