Digital Manga Publishing Goes Digital Only For 6 Months

Ian Wolf

Ian Wolf

Harem King
AUKN Staff
Digital Manga Publishing (DMP) announced yesterday that it is to experiment with going digital only for six months.

Hikaru Sasahara, the company president, announced in a statement published on the company's blog. The statement reads:

Today we would like to announce that effective January 1st 2013, the print editions for our DMP, June Manga, DokiDoki and 801Media imprints will be placed on a temporary hiatus. Please be advised that none of our licenses are cancelled, simply postponed. We will be resuming the distribution of our print editions in June, 2013. This hiatus will allow us to coordinate our production schedule for 2013 and temporarily shift our focus to our digital publications.

I am sure our fans are shocked by this announcement, but I would like to extend my gratitude for their continuing support and patience. In the mean time, if you have any questions, I can be reached at: contact (at) emanga dot com

A guide to the new release schedule was posted in the same blog post.

DMP is noted for publishing titles as diverse as the works of Osamu Tezuka to a large range of yaoi. They also recently experimented with crowdfunding with the release of some of their Tezuka titles such as Barbara, Swallowing the Earth and Unico.
 
Certainly an interesting move. DMP are certainly the most experimental of all the manga publishers at the moment, so maybe this will work.
 
I have a bad feeling about this. Well, a not-so-good feeling. Even though I've been happy to read their stuff digitally, I still prefer to buy good, old-fashioned manga on paper. It's also hard for fans waiting for that final volume of Itazura or The Tyrant to have to wait yet another six months (popular, well-selling series.) I just hope this isn't the beginning of the end...
 
Eventually this will happen anyway. Everyone will have tablets in the future and books will be pretty irrelevant, I've not bought a non-digital book in years, so it'll happen with manga soon enough.
 
Hmm. E-readers require electricity, and eventually wear out / become obsolete and need to be replaced. I feel much more secure with my paper books I can read by the light of a wood fire when civilisation collapses.
 
Lawrence said:
Chibi Yosho said:
Eventually this will happen anyway. Everyone will have tablets in the future and books will be pretty irrelevant, I've not bought a non-digital book in years, so it'll happen with manga soon enough.
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But don't you like the feeling of holding a big hardcover in your hands, knowing it'll be out of print soon enough?
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I've always been more fond of paperbacks anyway! Hardbacks are too heavy and too uncomfortable! But it's probably just personal preference with me, I have no materialistness about me. Never bother with collectors editions, never keep books when I'm done with them. So something as throw-away as digital manga would be right up my ally.
 
I'm perfectly fine with having both media available. Face it - If you're like me and you're a horrible hoarder when it comes to anime/manga, then I think this may be advantageous. I love to read manga in-hand and at any available moment - but I've also got issues with bringing said books with me to somewhere else, getting it screwed up in my bag to work (for example). Plus, I buy manga, and if it's a series that is cancelled half-way through, I'm stuck with the older volumes with no closure...
Now, if I wanted to get a series that wasn't mainstream or "likely" to be popular, I can get a digital version for it for either the PC or (if I ever get one) a tablet, then I can read it and then be done with it. I dont hoard it, I wont be too bothered losing out on a partly done series and I can move on after I had my fix of manga.

But despite all the logical ideals, if you love a series and you're going to re-read it over and over again, then hard copy is the only way for me. Too much to cherish to be thrown away or given away.

So yeah, I'm happy with digital format, but it's not going to be my absolute replacement for my collection. Besides, it helps me get away from looking at a screen for ages.
 
I do not like this news. I like my paper books! DMP are so slow at releasing volumes anyway. Take Lovephobia for example, it's going to take them over 3 years to release a 3 volume series. As for Alice the 101st, I've been waiting so long for volumes 3+ I thought they'd just ditched the series.
 
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