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NEWS: Seven Seas Launches Website




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ACDragonMaster



Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 405
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:58 pm Reply with quote
Well, the story ideas look okay, but it seriously bothers me that the samples they have on the site so far indicate that this stuff is being written in a right to left format. Now, I have no problem with and even prefer this when the original manga is written in Japanese, but that's because it's natively written that way. For something written originally in English, by an American author, there's no point and it's generally quite absurd.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 3:38 pm Reply with quote
ACDragonMaster wrote:
Well, the story ideas look okay, but it seriously bothers me that the samples they have on the site so far indicate that this stuff is being written in a right to left format. Now, I have no problem with and even prefer this when the original manga is written in Japanese, but that's because it's natively written that way. For something written originally in English, by an American author, there's no point and it's generally quite absurd.


Read the press release a little more carefully. They're doing it this way for two reasons:

1. Anime and manga fans like reading stuff right to left. They're used to it. They buy manga like that. It works for them.

2. They're planning on reverse-importing this stuff to Japan. Having it read right to left makes it easier to import it there and anime fans here don't suffer since they're used to right to left anyway.

See? Everyone wins.
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ACDragonMaster



Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 405
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:34 pm Reply with quote
Unless I'm completely missing something, I honestly can't find that stated anywhere on their site.

But my issue with it is this- English is naturally read and written left to right. This is why manga used to be flipped when imported here from Japan. Companies have recently changed to releasing it unflipped, because of many fans wanting it in its original form, and it's generally well-known enough now that people won't be turned off immediately by the site of a book that reads "backwards". But, this doesn't change the fact that for something written originally in English, left to right is the natural format.

And aren't Korean comics are published in a left to right format? And they've probably been influenced by Japan much more and longer than the US...
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:49 pm Reply with quote
ACDragonMaster wrote:
Unless I'm completely missing something, I honestly can't find that stated anywhere on their site.

But my issue with it is this- English is naturally read and written left to right. This is why manga used to be flipped when imported here from Japan. Companies have recently changed to releasing it unflipped, because of many fans wanting it in its original form, and it's generally well-known enough now that people won't be turned off immediately by the site of a book that reads "backwards". But, this doesn't change the fact that for something written originally in English, left to right is the natural format.

And aren't Korean comics are published in a left to right format? And they've probably been influenced by Japan much more and longer than the US...


http://www.gomanga.com/news/press_002.html
From that press release the impression I get is exactly what Zac said. They're getting ready to distro it world wide, and the manga industry is biggest in Japan.

Korean manwha has been around longer, and they do traditionally read left to right. I never got the impression that they were ever concerned with exportation, especially with Japan.

Anyway, I don't see why world manga choosing to keep it with the original manga format bugs you so much. People, especially artist, will do what they want, especially if it's to retain a certian style.

Heck, speaking of artist perception, making a viewer of your art do what you want is a goal of your work. Someone viewing art from a western background grew up with reading left to right. They're used to looking at something from left to right, and this goes with images, and well, everything, and because of this setting up compositions with your art can get extremly annoying if you keep this in mind. You can if you wanted to consider their keeping the right to left format as an attempt by the artist to get their western viewer subconciously out of the norm, and to break that annoying habit. Course the Japanese wouldn't be so lucky to have this happen with them, but they're already used to looking at plenty of western things a western way.

Don't mind my little sort of off topic rant there too much. Just learned a lot about how people view art in school, and it's been on my mind a lot.
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