×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
House of 1000 Manga - Five Amazing Untranslated Manga


Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
bobob101



Joined: 28 Jun 2013
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:27 am Reply with quote
Its because there are these untranslated treasures out there that scanlators still have a purpose. What publisher has the ca-hones to publish Mad Bull 34 (comics one might have). Who will bring out Ran and the Grey World around Her (it would make a great pack in with the Ancient Magus Bride, get on it seven seas!). There are hundreds of chapters of Baki the Grappler just waiting to be punched through peoples skulls. Plus, whenever I go to Kinokuniya I see mountains of untranslated stuff that I want to read.
Biorg Trinity, Kurosagi, Usogui, Worst, Crows, etc etc. The list is truly endless.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:44 am Reply with quote
I can´t even find solid information on Twinkle and i only know of Yuko Tsuno form the rather mediocre Secret Comics Japan but i can recommend the other 3 also.
My biggest regret is that nothing by Kouji Mori ever crossed the border as he is even a consultant on Berserk and especially his Suicide Island is top of the line. Motoka Murakami is the runner up with his Jin being a rare 10/10.

I noticed over the years that way more manga come out in Germany than in America even if our country only has 1/3 of the population. The books are way cheaper too and only France and maybe Italy get more. Go team Bratwurst and Sauerkraut!
Less anime comes out over here then in the US but that isn´t a problem as 99% of new releases get translated one way or the other. A lot of obscure OVA´s as the 90s version of Wolf Guy got subs recently too so the medium of anime is as international as it gets thanks to piracy/fans.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
justsomeaccount



Joined: 24 Oct 2014
Posts: 471
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:00 am Reply with quote
Silver Spoon is not in America? So weird, even in Spain it is! (not selling very well, but it is. In Japan each new volume is in the top 5 though) At least there's an anime to watch the basic core thematic elements of the show, great manga.
It seems to be some differences about the works that come to Europe and U.S. (although in Europe it depends of the country and language of course, I think France is the most potent about manga).

The other mangas I didn't read them though and they all look interesting, especially the ones in your 2009 post, the ones that call my attention the most being "The Short Manga" and Moto Mogio's stuff. In terms of mangas I would love to see licensed somewhere (aside of Punpun, but that's very known), are:

All Rounder Meguru (Hiroki Endou): MMA based manga (masculine and feminine). It's not only super realistic in its portrayal, but also very dynamic and hooking to watch, I never thought drawn fights based on grapples could be so exciting.

Teppu (Oota Morae): Another MMA based manga (only feminine). This isn't as realistic (but still more than it seems to) but it's more interesting from a character view, especially since the main character is the physically talented cynical harsh girl who just want to learn to beat the shit out the air-headed optimist pure effort little girl in her own game, instead of the opposite. It takes so many interesting takes that most of the time I feel awkward and concerned during the fights and results instead of excited, but in a good way, it's such a weird feeling!

Leviathan (Eiji Othsuka, Yu Kinutani): Yes, the writer of MPD Psycho, but this instead of psychological terror is pure PURE surrealism, it beats Franken Fran in terms of weirdness (also, just as gross). To sum it up, the main character was a member of the ONU in a mission taken as disappeared, who, when he returns to Tokyo, he is basically a body collage of the other members who travelled with him, and meets with old friends and resolves paranormal cases. And from there, goblins that get stuck in people's heads, Galileo and Nietzsche walking through there, men split up in two with different side of the brain, parasytes that change of body by attracting the next host to eat the other's brain with a spoon...... and that's not even 5% of the freaking weirdness this throws at your face, not even the weirdest. And aside of that it has surprisingly good drawing, likeable characters and odd polytical themes inside the craziness.

Yokohama Shopping (Hitoshi Ashinano): A pretty good "Mono no aware" slice of life manga in a post-apocaliptic world where sea's level slowly increases and mankind has decided to live simpler calm lifes and enjoying their transient pacific lifes, from the point of view of a cheerful android. The author knows how to capture the beauty of the nature, world and the "moments" in general.

Buraiden Gai (Nobuyuki Fukumoto): About a troubled teenager involved in a conspiracy accussed of a murder he didn't do. Kaiji and Akagi's author made this and it basically compresses all his strenghts and flaws, from the fantastic themes about human value and nature, independency, etc. combined with incredibly hooking, tense, smart and psychological traps and misteries..... buuuut also his suuupeeer slooooow pacing and weak drawing (and this doesn't have an animated form that makes it more visually appealing). But it's really worth it, I wish this was made into a movie.

I.S.: Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei (Chiyo Rokuhana): A shoujo about intersexual people, mainly focused about Haru since they were born and the difficulties of growing up in a binary-gendered society for both their identity, physical health and social and romantic relations with other people. Aside of being very interesting in all these issues it's also super likeable and funny, and while it's a little stretched it doesn't lose focus on what it's about.

Kisshou Tenyo (Akimi Yoshida): A 1983 manga about a misterious girl who comes into town and she and other students are involved in family conspiracies to domain to the other. Pretty drawing for its time, psychologically tense and taking some fascinating twists that you'd expect, being overall very gray and harshly criticizing a lot of the Japan's family system and misoginy.


Last edited by justsomeaccount on Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:01 pm; edited 5 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bj_waters



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 234
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:03 am Reply with quote
I would kill for Silver Spoon on my shelf. And given that it's being published in the Weekly Shonen Sunday, that means Viz Media is pretty much the only company that can license and publish it in America (I'm assuming). I would have figured that being the same mangaka as FMA would make it an obvious choice, but clearly, after some big awards and two anime series, that is not the case.

The only thing I can think of is that Viz is thinking a slice-of-life series at an agricultural school would be too much work for a niche genre (the scanlators have gone to some pretty good lengths to get all the agricultural details). I'm sure the fact that Moyasimon didn't do well either isn't helping (despite my wanted to read more of it!).

Of course, with the prevalence of digital manga, there's a chance it could be released on a digital platform, but I prefer to buy my manga in print. I can only hope that as all mediums of entertainment abandon physical releases that there will still be a "print-on-demand" model for manga companies that can allow us old-school collectors to get our physical manga fix.

bobob101 wrote:
There are hundreds of chapters of Baki the Grappler just waiting to be punched through peoples skulls.


I discovered Baki the Grappler through picking up some old Raijin Comics collections (who remembers those?), and would certainly love to have my brains punched out with more of that series (as well as some of the others in that collection!). The anime was interesting, but it probably didn't do the manga justice.

EDIT:

justsomeaccount wrote:

Teppu (Oota Morae)


FREAKIN' TEPPU! I would totally buy that as well. SO COMPELLING.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
DontmesswithKarma



Joined: 07 May 2015
Posts: 491
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:15 am Reply with quote
The biggest tragedy of a mangaka's series not ever being published in english is the works of Mori Kouji.
I think the main reason for this are his themes. Suicide Island deals with suicide and how disgusting human beings are.
Destruction and Revolution which is about terrorism and the mind of a terrorist. And Holyland deals with suicide, bullying and the sorts.
These are not themes that are new to manga, but they are done like Miura's Berserk. There extremely psychological and at points twisted. The difference however, is they are so psychological and twisted not one of them has an adaptation of any sorts, which makes english publishers run away from the risk of publishing his works even more.

I seriously hope one day Vertical, or Viz will publish his works, since they are all on the level of Berserk. And I am not exaggerating. You can draw so many comparisons to Miura's works.

For example the art is really detailed, dark and gritty. His stories are dark, twisted and gruesome, etc.
The only real difference between them is the fact that Mori Kouji's works are really realistic. Oh and how he has 2 weekly series running at once and has not yet taken a hiatus.

If by some miracle his works ever get an anime adaptation we may see his works come over here. But I think with the amount of censoring the studios would have to do, or how much they would have to change the script to make it the least bit suitable for TV, i dont think it would be worth it.

Whatever the case may be, I highly suggest reading Mori Kouji's works. Especially Holyland. Even though you will have no choice but to read them illegally, I'm afraid if you don't, there is a very high possibility you will never ever experience his works.


Last edited by DontmesswithKarma on Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 646
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:17 am Reply with quote
Another here who would love, love, love to have English-translated Silver Spoon volumes on their manga shelves.

We Are the Beatles, too! I remember requesting that in at least one Vertical licensing survey, but I'm not really sure it's their style of manga.

It's interesting going through your old wishlists and seeing what was eventually translated (I never could've foreseen Doraemon or GeGeGe no Kitaro being officially released in English). Also, I had no idea that the Galaxy Express 999 manga Viz published back in the day wasn't the original, but I only ever read snippets of it in Animerica Extra.

Finally, seeing Domu and A, A' mentioned in one of those posts made me pine even more for reprints of those (especially Domu).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
rabrek



Joined: 06 Apr 2009
Posts: 188
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:46 am Reply with quote
I would pay dearly to have a good English run of Homunculus on my shelf. Guess I should just order the Japanese releases, and put them next to my set of Shin Angyou Onshi (aka Shin amhaengosa). SAO is my holy grail of manga that hasn't been released in English.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
StrangeIslands





PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:51 am Reply with quote
It truly is a shame that great titles like these that could be something great in terms of sales & really make anime/manga better get blind-sighted & ignored by the stupid ignorant teenage anime fans of America or pathetic otaku Weeaboos, who happen to have such narrow-minded tastes in anime/manga that all we get now is fan service, moe.

Anything besides that has to be extremely successful in the mainstream to be even considered for an North America release (Like DBZ, Attack On Titan). Now I like Attack on Titan, but it seems that only titles like these actually get a response from the companies when fans say "Please License This". Anything else is simply acknowledged then ignored.

It truly is sad when the industry is so messed up & catering to the wrong crowd that we can't even have nice things as much as we could.


Last edited by StrangeIslands on Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:57 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:54 am Reply with quote
love some of these nods and ones mentioned here in the forum. Id like Boys on the run to get a shot as i was reading it but the guy who was scanlating it seems to have died or something so i had to stop Sad
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
StrangeIslands





PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 11:56 am Reply with quote
RAmmsoldat wrote:
love some of these nods and ones mentioned here in the forum. Id like Boys on the run to get a shot as i was reading it but the guy who was scanlating it seems to have died or something so i had to stop Sad


Scanlations are the last hope to get anything good to come out without industry interference/demands/arrogance. Sad
Back to top
GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:04 pm Reply with quote
EDIT: Just noticed that I made a few mistakes in my post.

Nice column. I guess Viz is too scared that Silver Spoon wouldn't be a success. I generally assumed that slapping "FROM THE CREATOR OF FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST" on the cover would help move copies, but I suppose the FMA crowd might not appreciate this. Maybe it's also been a while since the great big wave of Fullmetal mania?

Quote:
His manga Voyuers Inc. (Shin Voyuer in Japan) remains, to my knowledge, the only series Viz canceled for being too gross. The first volume was tolerable, then they got to the storyline about the cockroach rape fetishist…


I must read this. I'll probably have that same taste in my mouth that I did when I finished Ichi the Killer, but I don't care.

bj_waters wrote:
I discovered Baki the Grappler through picking up some old Raijin Comics collections (who remembers those?), and would certainly love to have my brains punched out with more of that series (as well as some of the others in that collection!). The anime was interesting, but it probably didn't do the manga justice.


You have no idea. The anime looks stagnant when compared to the manga.

I'm also glad to see Teppu getting so many mentions. That manga's fantastic.


Last edited by GVman on Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DontmesswithKarma



Joined: 07 May 2015
Posts: 491
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:11 pm Reply with quote
StrangeIslands wrote:
RAmmsoldat wrote:
love some of these nods and ones mentioned here in the forum. Id like Boys on the run to get a shot as i was reading it but the guy who was scanlating it seems to have died or something so i had to stop Sad


Scanlations are the last hope to get anything good to come out without industry interference/demands/arrogance. Sad


I remember having an heated discussion with Vertical about scanlations(yes the vertical) and how publishers rely on the popularity gained from scanlations. Then the day after they posted a survey about what fans want them to publish. I just wonder how many of the recommendations were from people who read scanlations.

Personally, I agree wholeheartedly that without scanlations the release of manga wouldn't know where to go. That's the good thing with Tokyopop, they didn't care about risks. Now its all about "oh the series you want isn't popular? sorry ahhh no not happening". Show us that ye take risks and i'd support ye more. I have more japanese volumes than english volumes at home because all they seem to publish here are the quote on quote "best titles".

I've been reading scanlations and supporting the industry (buying Holyland as i read scanlations) and i've found the best titles are the ones publishers won't even touch because there's too much "risk".

I wonder what happened to the saying, "you'll never know unless you try"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
duckdealer



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:11 pm Reply with quote
Teppu and All Rounder Meguru would be ones I would definitely buy all the volumes for. The UFC needs to set up a manga publishing division. Very Happy But my biggest wish would be for an english release of my second favorite manga, Oyasumi Punpun.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 602
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Glad to see other people reading Baki, Teppu, Holyland and so on. As for Leviathan, the last time I tried to read it, I barely understood a lick of it. The art is excellent and made me a fan of Yu Kinutani (also love his art for Devilman: the Amon Saga too).

Here's just a few of the stuff I would like to see licensed:

1) Innocent, by Shinichi Sakamoto : a fictional account of the real-life French executioner Charles-Henri Sanson and his family. It's worth reading for the art alone, IMO, the artwork is some of the best I've ever seen in a manga, period. Doesn't skimp out on the details of executions either, it's absolutely brutal. Check out his other work Kokou no Hito as well.

2) March Comes in like a Lion, by Chica Umino: a really touching manga about a troubled teen shogi player who lives by himself and his relationships with those around him. Won several awards in Japan. Fun fact: Umino hangs out with Mori Kouji and Kentaro Miura.

3) Octave, by Haru Akiyama: angsty manga about a girl who's a former female idol group member meeting and falling in love with a woman who's a songwriter and composer and is also a former group member. Doesn't sugercoat their relationship and their grievances/flaws at all. Also has a good dose of social commentary.

4) Otogi Matsuri, by Junya Inoue: a manga about a high school boy who breaks a shrine, accidentally makes a pact with one of the Four Gods, Suzaku and ends up having to fight a demonic clan in order to save his small town (with some help from others of course). This manga was licensed by CPM, who I think released the first 3 volumes before it went under and nobody's legally picked it up for an English translation since.

This manga pretty much had two things that I like: (Japanese) mythology and action. It has great art, it's pretty quick-paced and really gory. The battles are high stake: characters make tremendous sacrifices just to be able to wield their weapons, let alone fight the monsters and civilians tragically get caught in their battle. For fans of Cave's shooting games, Junya Inoue incorporates elements from ESP Ra.De and Guwange (as well as other references) into Otogi as well. His other work Btooom got licensed, and I'm hoping his new work, La Vie En Doll, gets licensed eventually too.

5) Finally, Eko Eko Azarak, by Shinichi Koga: old 70s horror manga about a young witch. Makes Sabrina the Teenage Witch look like a pastry chef. Usually follows this formula: kids mess with the main character/other kids, main character uses witchcraft to mess with them back, usually fatally. 3 of Eko's live action movies were licensed under a compilation, but the manga hasn't even been scanlated. Too old and repetitive for some, but I enjoy it. Would never get licensed but it's fun to dream lol.

Honourable mentions: Tough and Green Blood.


Last edited by Souther on Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:34 pm Reply with quote
I would love to have Silver Spoon on my shelf. This is why I hate monopolies. Vertical would do an amazing job with it but they can't have it even though it seems Viz don't want it Rolling Eyes
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group