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ANNCast - Lea Halalea

He was his own person and very much the type that walked to the beat of his own drum... That is something to be admired not disrespected!

GeorgeC wrote:

He was his own person and very much the type that walked to the beat of his own drum... That is something to be admired not disrespected!

'

Oh, no--make no mistake! I don't judge people on their philosophies! I respect a person that can stick to their guns! It's like what GATSU says: he came off as more than a bit resentful later on.

I can imagine why: after all of the effort he put into Proteus, Tokyopop came around and just demonstrated how his level of care and effort was "unnecessary" in the face of "authenticity".

Levitz9 wrote:

GeorgeC wrote: He was his own person and very much the type that walked to the beat of his own drum... That is something to be admired not disrespected! ' Oh, no--make no mistake! I don't judge people on their philosophies! I respect a person that can stick to their guns! It's like what GATSU says: he came off as more than a bit resentful later on. I can imagine why: after all of the effort he put into Proteus, Tokyopop came around and just demonstrated how his level of care and effort was "unnecessary" in the face of "authenticity".

If fans wanted authenticity they should have bought the japanese manga versions directly. Can't get more authentic than that.

I know I'll get a lot of flak for saying this, but I hate reading translated manga the japanese way. And the reason I hate it is because english/spanish/french/italian/german are all languages that are written and read left to right. Why do you think books are made to be read from left to right in the americas and Europe ?
Reading a translated manga right to left is like asking a japanese to read a translated european comic left to right. It is an unnecessary burden.

The flow of reading is determined by the way the language flows.
Toren Smith understood this, hence why he always translated japanese manga for a western audience. We naturally read from left to right. I remember enjoying reading appleseed the western way, and nausicaa the western way and akira the western way. Fans who wouldn't recognise a professional looking product standing right in front of them decided that "purity" was the way to go and professional translatation/adaptation and layout be damned.

I know I'll get a lot of flak for saying this, but I hate reading translated manga the japanese way. And the reason I hate it is because english/spanish/french/italian/german are all languages that are written and read left to right. Why do you think books are made to be read from left to right in the americas and Europe ?
Reading a translated manga right to left is like asking a japanese to read a translated european comic left to right. It is an unnecessary burden.

Well, there's already a small ongoing [url=/2013/04/29/manga-critic-calls-for-revolution-wants-japanese-comics-to-read-from-left-to-right/]debate in Japan[/url]:

• Known for his outspoken apprehensions about the future of the manga industry, Takekuma feels the best way to boost overseas sales is not by focusing on preexisting hard-core fans, but instead by creating works that are appealing and accessible to ordinary readers who aren’t necessarily Japanophiles. To that end, he has been pushing for a shift to laying out panels for reading from left to right, even in their Japanese-language versions. Takekuma points out that English and Chinese, the two most-used languages on the planet, are commonly read from left to right.
  
  Of course, after decades and decades of right-to-left layouts, not everyone is onboard. Takekuma decries how many manga producers have become set in their ways, resting on their laurels while clinging to what he says is the false belief that manga is so superior to other forms of comics that new readers abroad will put in the time to remap their reading patterns. “I’d go so far as to say the industry is being insanely short-sighted,” he remarks.
  
  On the other side of the debate is manga critic Go Ito, whose rebuttal is that there’s nothing wrong with simply laying out English versions of manga by using a mirror-image of the original artwork. Ito holds that the best way to promote manga abroad is by focusing on quality translations. As for being short-sighted, he says the label is more appropriate for Takekuma, as the right-to-left layout simplifies the process of producing renditions of manga in Arabic, which is read in that direction.
  
  Also participating in the discussion were manga artists Kota Hiroano, whose title Hellsing scored a major hit with fans in the English-reading world, and Masami Yuki, of Patlabor and Birdy the Mighty fame. Yuki feels that Takekuma may have a point, but Hirano takes issue with Takekuma’s assertation that artists should be able to immediately break from years of ingrained artistic philosophy, saying that the left-to-right advocate is acting like a mad scientist from one of Yuki’s sci-fi manga.
  

Yes, clearly it's the panel layout that keeps manga niche in America. I mean, just look at all the comic books that sell millions of cop-oh wait. Or maybe it has to do with America not being a comic culture like Japan is. Expecting Japanese sales for a comic in America is a pipedream. The culture is just too different. Calling for some huge renovation of the industry is just stupid and just likely to cause it to crash and burn.

It's true. Things don't change at all. Fans of all things will forever be horrible. *le sigh*

Not all fans true, but far too many.

The year I worked for Gainax, Toren and I often butted heads. We were both stressed out by Gainax failing at every turn to make a go of General Products USA.
Toren and I became better friends years after Gainax, and eventually I worked regularly for him. He took care of the people he cared about. He advanced me the pay for several issues of lettering to help me make a down payment on a house and buy a washing machine. He sent my daughter funny pictures. When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he sent me all the books on the subject he found helpful. (Toren was diagnosed with bipolar disorder some time before I was diagnosed in January 2007.)

The state manga in the US fell into because of Tokyopop cheapening the market left Toren in despair. Objectively, TPop books looked like shit (although some were blessed with good writers willing to work for rates that impoverished the people like me who'd helped grow the market). The standards for manga were lowered, and TPop flooding the market (and idiot retailers buying it) crippled the market for a while. It's still not what it was.

I missed a lot of Toren's rants on Livejournal, and I don't care to read them now. I always wanted manga unflopped (even though I made good money retouching flopped manga!), but I felt as Toren did that good localization in writing and retouch was a must.

Toren was not an easy person to know, but he was, in the end, a really good guy.