New UK manga publisher arrives; Naruto and Bleach lined up

I've spent years trying to get later volumes of series like Bleach, Naruto, Inu Yasha and the like into the local Borders. The response had office send down is always along the lines of "its the US buyers, we cant do anything", short of ordering it ourselves as a store (which we have done with some titles, such as Marvels House Of M event), but the store then takes a hit as we don't get as good a margin when they are brought that way.
I really this will bring these titles to a wider audience. Now if only we could get in Full Metal Alchemist...
 
I like the sound of Bleach manga in Ireland! I wonder if they'll be releaseing the Fullmetal Alchemist manga over here, considering ViZ Media handle it in the US?
 
Paul said:
WTFDaveMustaine said:
Paul said:
More anime fans buy online, but more anime is bought offline.
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Figures! I demand figures and all kinds of crazy graphs and ****!
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I'm going off what I've been told by industry reps, what I've read online and what I know through working with websites all day, every day. If you honestly want an answer, then e-mail a company like MVM or ADV, I'm sure they'll be happy to let you know (without providing strict sales figures).

The general jist of this whole debate is simple. More people buy manga in shops than they do online. Therefore, getting more manga in shops is a good thing for the UK industry. More manga, more fans, more money. Times one thousand. That's basically the bottom line of what I'm saying in this thread.
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As is often said by the anime distributors, their customers, first and foremost, are not anime fans but the stores themselves. The main reason we are seeing boxed sets coming to the fore this year is because the distributors finally managed to persuade the shops that they are worthwhile to stock. Without that commitment they were never a viable commodity. The other thing you have to remember with online shopping is that it requires a credit of debit card at 90% of shops and at all shops outside of the UK. That discounts most people under the age of 18 (or 16 maybe) since they probably couldn't get a card or access to one.

The other side, as Paul states, is that internet shopping does not have the same spontinuity of retail shopping. I don't find myself browsing online and suddenly make snap decisions on something I passed by as I might in a shop.
 
About time. I've seen Bleach and Naruto in quite a few bookshops already but it's nice to have an official UK release, and thankfully it's not by Gollancz. By the sounds of it Bleach and Naruto aren't the only titles they're planning on bringing out, these two titles are merely the ones highlighted by the author of the article.

As for Gollancz, I did start buying their release of Kenshin, when it caught up to the volumes I already owned, but I switched back to buying the Viz release about a month ago. Something's seriously up with the Manga division at Gollancz. They've only released two books since November and they've been constantly delaying their releases since last summer, and the three month break they took doesn't seem to have fixed things.

I notice that Gollancz have titles solicited for October on their website, so they may still be allowed to continue publishing what they've got, but don't expect to see any new titles from them.
 
This kind of worries me, I hope that we don't get the censored version of Naruto with the crapy translation. A while back I bought the American volume 1 and I was shocked by how bad it was translated and by the mild censorship, I just hope that at least we get lucky and get the original Japanese version of the manga. I'm looking forward for Bleach, I'm a fan and can't wait for the DVD's either I also hope they make it to UK.
 
KonohaDeathGod said:
This kind of worries me, I hope that we don't get the censored version of Naruto with the crapy translation. A while back I bought the American volume 1 and I was shocked by how bad it was translated and by the mild censorship, I just hope that at least we get lucky and get the original Japanese version of the manga. I'm looking forward for Bleach, I'm a fan and can't wait for the DVD's either I also hope they make it to UK.
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These will be reprints of the US distribution of the manga for the UK rather than a new translation. If you can happily read Japanese and prefer that then I suggest you buy the Japanese manga. If you are referring to scanlations then I would take with a pinch of salt the accuracy of the fan translations since ofttimes they are laced with a great deal more profanity (both fansubs and scanlations) than was actually contained in the original work. (There are far fewer profanities in Japanese than in English yet many seem fixated on translating something that is relatively mild into something far more base than was originally intended.)
 
You know what? As long as they don't print the Shonen Jump version (Which had Naruto swearing for no intemeatant reason what so ever) I don't care.
 
I'm not talking about text censorship (I know that scanlations and fansubs sometimes are exagerated, I read them), I'm talking about the artwork, there's this part where in a flashback Naruto was showing both his middle fingers and in the American version the fingers were cut out.
About the translation I'm talking about the names of their ninjusto, Naruto's ''Kage Bunshin no Jutso/Shadow Clone Jutso'' was traslated into ''Art Of The Dopleganger'', even some of the other moves had weird names and I found that quite annoying.[/quote]
 
I'll be happy as long as they realise we Brits can take abit more naughty gestures than the American market! ^_~ There's no need to sex up any work, and no need to overly censor either.

And more UK publishers = more manga available in UK = MOAR IS GOOD
 
Hopefully we won't have to wait for all tankobons to be released if so that means we have to be trailing behind America who are trailing behind Japan.

Meh. i hate this.

But good news for UK Manga, i don't know if i already commented on this thread.
 
KonohaDeathGod said:
I'm not talking about text censorship (I know that scanlations and fansubs sometimes are exagerated, I read them), I'm talking about the artwork, there's this part where in a flashback Naruto was showing both his middle fingers and in the American version the fingers were cut out.
About the translation I'm talking about the names of their ninjusto, Naruto's ''Kage Bunshin no Jutso/Shadow Clone Jutso'' was traslated into ''Art Of The Dopleganger'', even some of the other moves had weird names and I found that quite annoying.
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[/quote]Huh...I happen to have the first shonen jump it was in and the double duece is still there. Of course, it's the version that has Narto's random screaming as versious illitarations of "Crap", the said double dusce sence having "Up your's Master Iurka" and Naruto calling Mizuki a "Big dick".
 
September? I really want Bleach and Naruto now. But atleast they are doing something.

I just hope that they release more than just that. Like the whole of the remaining Shonen Jump range. But thats just wishful thinking.
 
I was looking around the publisher's website and found entries for Naruto, Bleach and Shaman King. There were also a few others but the names have escaped me.

The list has three volumes of each being released in September at £6.
 
Semajer said:
I was looking around the publisher's website and found entries for Naruto, Bleach and Shaman King. There were also a few others but the names have escaped me.

The list has three volumes of each being released in September at £6.
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I put a list about that on this forum to save you having to look again:

http://www.eyeonanimeforum.s2.bizhat.co ... ic412.html

Death Note starts in October. There's been a lot of hype about that series so I might have to investigate...
 
To be honest, I don't have high hopes for this. All the bookstores I used to see manga in have pretty much dried up (or were never as filled as Neo likes to think all bookstores are in the first place).

All I see of Tokyopop nowdays is Star Trek and Labyrinth graphic novels...no manga.

I've never really seen much of Gollancz (which I found to be poor quality anyway) or Tanoshimi and the rest to be honest.

Manga shelf space in high street bookstores is already very limited and overcrowded...I don't have great hopes for another dozen or so series being pumped out and being in high supply.

Really, it makes no difference to me if it takes off. I'm sure it's great for the industry and all, but I'm up to date with Shaman King, and only a couple of volumes behind with Naruto and Bleach. I get the Viz versions online, and I'll carry on...it's not like the prices for the UK releases are gonna be any better either.


I'm honestly surprised so many people are excited about this...I really thought it was the majority who bought manga stuff online. :/
 
Manga is cheaper online, about £4 -5, really is quite good, not as good as Japanese Raw prices but still alls fair, Why can't shops just start buying in the American ones more so, I only see Waterstones do that. All Manga distributer's need to do is print on a UK price as well as an American one and Canadian one.
 
Aaron said:
I'm honestly surprised so many people are excited about this...I really thought it was the majority who bought manga stuff online. :/
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No. That is a common misconception since most manga and anime is bought off the shelf in stores. Not every person subscribes to the internet shopping scene and internet shopping in itself is not good for impulse purchases. When you are looking for something online you generally know exactly what you are looking for and go for it without even realising there is anything out there that you may like. When you are in a shop, looking through the (for instance) sci-fi/fantasy section where most of the manga and graphic novels are usually situated near, you are more liable to have a look even if you didn't know what they were.
Jayme said:
Manga is cheaper online, about £4 -5, really is quite good, not as good as Japanese Raw prices but still alls fair, Why can't shops just start buying in the American ones more so, I only see Waterstones do that. All Manga distributer's need to do is print on a UK price as well as an American one and Canadian one.
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Most of the manga available in Waterstones is published in the UK by Tokyopop UK, Gollancz and Tanoshimi. I have seen very little manga published in the US in Waterstones. Places like Forbidden Planet and Travelling Man are the places where you would usually expect to find imported US manga. The reason why it is good to see manga on shelves in mainstream bookstores like WH Smiths and Waterstones is the increase in product visibility to an audience who may be unaware or only a passing awareness of the medium. This is ultimately where the growth of the industry is going to stem from and it is always encouraging to see the amount of acceptance increase in such places.
 
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