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Author Topic: Manga in US mainstream?  (Read 4761 times)
mark_engels
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« on: February 01, 2005, 06:55:27 pm »

Looks like that day is rapidly approaching.  (Adcock...special mention of Fruits Basket in the link below.)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1548&ncid=1548&e=2&u=/afp/20050131/lf_afp/afplifestyleusjapan_050131160526

Which, I believe, is a good thing.  Of course, I have quite a bit of material in my in-basket.  With all this material I've all but given up on being able to watch all of it during my lifetime.  :)

For anime, I am looking forward to watching:

Inu-Yasha (just picked up the 1st season box set)

Nadesico (borrowed from a friend)

BGC 2040 (also from a friend...watched original c. 1989 in college on a fourth-generation fansub...)

Escaflowne (watched some back in the day, looking forward to seeing it all now.)


Just finished the Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars manga.  Great stuff, highly recommended.  I wish Ono has illustrated the third book like he did the first two, however.  Just my preference.  I liked the way Ono drew Lafiel in a way that could appear hardened or softened as the situation predicated.

Managed to burn through Trigun Maximum's three volumes all in one go this weekend after collecting dust on my bookshelf for nearly six months.

And I'm keeping up on Battle Angel Alita Last Order.

Hey, Adcock...the next Oh My Goddess TP is due out this month, right?

--me

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smkviper
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« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2005, 11:27:39 am »

Actually, the next OMG manga is already out, though I'm having a bear of a time finding it. Ended up ordering it online because my local bookstores seem to be behind in stocking manga (even though their manga section is 3 - 4 times as big as their comic section now). The only problem with it is that this is the last one that DH will be making flipped. From now on, all the OMG manga will be un-flipped, and divided up the same way as the Japanese manga. They will also not be replacing sound-effect artwork anymore and will be alternating re-releasing old books in the new format, and new books every 2-3 months. I like the faster release schedule, but the other changes irk me since it seems like DH is going for the "cheap" route with less work involved.

Other manga I've enjoyed includes El-Hazard (of course), Gunsmith Cats, Video Girl Ai, and Full Metal Panic.

Escaflowne and BGC 2040 are both good anime ;D (I do want to see the original BGC sometime, but since it was never finished I keep putting it off for other series)
« Last Edit: February 02, 2005, 11:28:37 am by smkviper » Logged

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mark_engels
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« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2005, 05:56:40 pm »

Actually, this trend began with the Blood of the Immortal manga.  The author simply refused to permit his work to be "flipped."  But it wasn't until Viz started releasing the Evangelion manga in "special collectors edition" non-flipped format that the style really took off.  It's more of a sign of the times, not really being "cheap."  That's what the consumer market is buying these days because that's what the manga looked like when it was created.

I rather like the un-flipped manga myself.  It's how it was intended to appear in Japan, which I rather enjoy.  The art is original and non-touched.

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Spanner
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« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2005, 09:32:29 am »

The only thing that bugs me about "un-flipped" manga is the fact that often the sound effects are also untouched in those instances. Now, while I might be able to understand how people would feel that altering the sound effects might be seen as "spoiling" the author's art (since sound effects are often done in a very artistic style), the fact remains that if I can't understand them, I'm missing out on a significant part of the story.

Take, for instance, a creeking door sound effect. If a character suddenly looks shocked in a panel, and he looks shocked because he heard the creek of a door opening, it's going to take me a couple of panels (or even longer, if there's a scene change there!) to figure out why he's suddenly shocked, whereas a Japanese reader would pick up on that right off the bat. The rhythm of the story is completely thrown off.

Having an index of sound effect translations at the end of the book is a joke (Excel Saga is an example of this). Having translations located underneath the panel where the sound effects occur is an acceptable solution, but often space constraints are an issue. I feel the most love, though, when the artwork is retouched to replace the Japanese sound effects with English sound effects drawn in a similar style. Is this a betrayal of artistic integrity? Possibly. But I don't particularly care, since it looks and reads better than any of the alternatives, and goes the farthest in promoting the authors original intent.
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smkviper
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« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2005, 11:56:54 am »

Here here spanner!

And the only reason I said the un-flipped manga seemed "cheap" was because DH has been flipping all of the OMG manga and replacing japanese sound effects since book 1. When the suddenly decided to "un-flip" the manga and not translate sound effects, it seems to me that they are simply trying to take the "faster-cheaper" route, which is highly disapprove of.

Of course this is all moot until I actually see the new manga format. But my argument still stands. Not to mention that I am still a bit peeved that I will have to re-buy the entire OMG manga series if I want them to look unified on my book shelf (same with Video Girl Ai). Almost enough to make a guy scream "money scam!" ;D

Oh, and a close second to outright replacing the japanese sound effects with english ones is putting small translations right next to the sound effect text in the panel . The times I've seen it done that way seem to work well, except that it obscures artwork a bit. If you're looking for an example, I think the Figure 17 manga uses this style of sound effect translation.

As for putting translations in the back of the book, well, why don't they just save themselves some time, print the manga in japanese, and put the translations in the back of the book? Would destroy the feel of the manga just as well. :P
« Last Edit: February 07, 2005, 11:59:10 am by smkviper » Logged

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« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2005, 08:36:03 pm »

The un-retouched sound effects are kinda funny..... Occasionally I'll have an incident like you mentioned; there's a sound that's essential to feeling the tension of the scene but you don't know what it is! I've read enough manga though, that it usually isn't a problem. "Oh look, someone's running. It must be 'tup-tup-tup.'" Or, "They're just staring at each other. Must be 'Hooooooooooooooo.'" In all fairness, it is a good excuse to learn some basic kana. It's not like they're not going to reoccur frequently. ^^; It's funny though, I'm reading Cheeky Angel now and it's unflopped yet they retouched the sound effects. Some of the decisions manga publishers make baffle me, especially Tokyopop. With Initial D, they left it unflopped and didn't retouch the FX. Yet they gave most of the chara western names! Seems like all manga I read these days is unflopped. Except for the occasional title that was published a couple years ago. Or the occasional title that Tokyopop makes a half-hearted attempt at making "more accesable" (read: more american) like Miracle Girls. *SHRUGGAGE*

At any rate, as I mentioned earlier I'm reading Cheeky Angel right now. Also, Keroro Gunsou (Sgt. Frog) and Saint Tail.
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