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NEWS: Crunchyroll Manga Adds Princess Jellyfish, Takahashi-san Is Listening, Scum's Wish, Sweetness


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The Mad Manga Massacre



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:28 pm Reply with quote
I am indescribably excited about Princess Jellyfish!
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
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Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:49 pm Reply with quote
The Mad Manga Massacre wrote:
I am indescribably excited about Princess Jellyfish!

YAAAAAAAAAAS
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 598
Location: J-Novel Club
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:56 pm Reply with quote
I'm... actually not very excited to hear this. Seven Seas has reported that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer sales were definitely negatively affected by CR's digital acquisition and distribution of the manga. Princess Jellyfish is a rare case of an ongoing, long-running series getting licensed, so, if it doesn't perform well, that could spell disaster for people hoping other long-running series get localized.

For that matter, there *are* tons of other long-running series that haven't gotten any English-language prospects yet, why can't they go after some of those instead of possibly sabotaging Princess Jellyfish's physical release? I mean, by the time the first omnibus comes out, CR will have probably caught up to the Japanese chapters already, and the content of the first omnibus will have been available on CR for 7 months already.
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Buzz201



Joined: 21 Jun 2015
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:08 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
I'm... actually not very excited to hear this. Seven Seas has reported that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer sales were definitely negatively affected by CR's digital acquisition and distribution of the manga. Princess Jellyfish is a rare case of an ongoing, long-running series getting licensed, so, if it doesn't perform well, that could spell disaster for people hoping other long-running series get localized.

For that matter, there *are* tons of other long-running series that haven't gotten any English-language prospects yet, why can't they go after some of those instead of possibly sabotaging Princess Jellyfish's physical release? I mean, by the time the first omnibus comes out, CR will have probably caught up to the Japanese chapters already, and the content of the first omnibus will have been available on CR for 7 months already.


Kodansha has licensed manga to Crunchyroll before, IIRC they were one of the first publishers to go for it, I think they know what to expect with regards to how it will affect sales.

Also, some of the Kodansha titles have only a limited number of chapters available, and some have a full archive available so they'll probably have compared the two release strategies and come up with something that works in everybody's best interests.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:25 pm Reply with quote
Buzz201 wrote:
Kodansha has licensed manga to Crunchyroll before, IIRC they were one of the first publishers to go for it, I think they know what to expect with regards to how it will affect sales.

Hm, I suppose Attack on Titan's domination of NYT manga best sellers while being in the same situation is worth keeping in mind, though AoT in general is an exception rather than proof of concept.
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garlogan78



Joined: 01 Mar 2014
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:27 pm Reply with quote
There goes the chance of people buying physical copies.
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Buzz201



Joined: 21 Jun 2015
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:34 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
Hm, I suppose Attack on Titan's domination of NYT manga best sellers while being in the same situation is worth keeping in mind, though AoT in general is an exception rather than proof of concept.


There's other less popular Kodansha stuff on CR too. My point was Kodansha aren't new to this, the fact they have agreed to licence it to CR and do a physical release, suggests they're perfectly comfortable with the lost sales, or CR are paying them enough to cover it.

Kodansha are still doing paperbacks of The Seven Deadly Sins, despite the most recent volume of that not making the NYT Bestseller list (as far as I could tell) and the full archive being available on CR. So I wouldn't neccesarily panic about them dropping the physical release and going CR-only too much just yet.
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ScruffyKiwi



Joined: 25 Oct 2010
Posts: 672
Location: New Zealand
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:59 pm Reply with quote
garlogan78 wrote:
There goes the chance of people buying physical copies.


Why? I would suggest the very opposite. Having the manga somewhere to read allows people to get a taste of the manga and then they will buy the physical copy. Crunchyroll streaming anime doesn't stop people buying DVD's!

I'm pumped at getting the read both Skum's wish and Princess Jellyfish, especially Skum's wish which is very twisted!

EDIT: Just to add to that point, Square Enix has had experience in publishing web only mags that then get physical release (eg Gangan Online), and it certainly works for them.
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 8:02 pm Reply with quote
I'm not afraid that they'll stop releasing physical copies, I was rather hoping that Princess Jellyfish physicals would do extremely well and convince more companies to pick up long-running series. Digital availability is going to hinder that.
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ScruffyKiwi



Joined: 25 Oct 2010
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:19 pm Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:
I'm not afraid that they'll stop releasing physical copies, I was rather hoping that Princess Jellyfish physicals would do extremely well and convince more companies to pick up long-running series. Digital availability is going to hinder that.


Again why? What evidence do you have for that? How many people who buy a manga buy it blind?

I'm not a huge manga buyer (I own all of Gunslinger Girls plus all of the currently published Sunshine Sketch) but I'm a big anime buyer. For me there is a big difference between a show I will watch and think is enjoyable, and one I like enough to buy and re-watch and lend out to friends. I'm sure it's the same with manga. There are plenty of places to read manga casually. Heck even our public library had a reasonable collection. But to own a series requires more than just 'liking' it.


Last edited by ScruffyKiwi on Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:32 pm; edited 2 times in total
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InuNaruPokeAlchemist



Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Posts: 406
PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:30 pm Reply with quote
Joe Mello wrote:
The Mad Manga Massacre wrote:
I am indescribably excited about Princess Jellyfish!

YAAAAAAAAAAS


All aboard the Princess Jellyfish hypetrain! Very Happy
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myskaros



Joined: 13 Jun 2011
Posts: 598
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:00 pm Reply with quote
ScruffyKiwi wrote:
Again why? What evidence do you have for that? How many people who buy a manga buy it blind?

I'm not a huge manga buyer (I own all of Gunslinger Girls plus all of the currently published Sunshine Sketch) but I'm a big anime buyer. For me there is a big difference between a show I will watch and think is enjoyable, and one I like enough to buy and re-watch and lend out to friends. I'm sure it's the same with manga. There are plenty of places to read manga casually. Heck even our public library had a reasonable collection. But to own a series requires more than just 'liking' it.

Seven Seas has all but flat out said that CR's digital distribution of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer has negatively affected its physical sales.

Personally, I have definitely not purchased various movies/TV shows because I know I can just watch them on Netflix. Even with that said, I also know that, among my peers, I am one of the only people who does go out and buy physical media, most of them prefer using streaming services or e-books. So, for them, having it available digital means they will avoid buying it physical.

Anyway, we're talking about businesses, here. Regardless of what else they may want or try to do, they are always aware of their bottom line. There's already a low chance of a long series being picked up by any company because of all the inherent risks. However, it's a lot easier to justify taking those risks if a given company can point to an existing long-running series that has been performing well.
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Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:11 am Reply with quote
myskaros wrote:

Seven Seas has all but flat out said that CR's digital distribution of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer has negatively affected its physical sales.


They've said the same about Arpeggio, too. But on the other hand, Vertical has said that Ajin's doing well, and Kodansha went ahead and picked up Yamada and the Seven Witches and A Silent Voice after they'd been on CR for a good long time, and Yen just picked up Magatsuki, so the Seven Seas experience doesn't appear to be universal.

I've gone both ways with Crunchyroll. I canceled my preorder of Ajin after sampling the series on CR and deciding it's not to my taste, and I didn't bother getting Yamada because it's not something I'm ever going to reread, but I liked [i]Biscuit Hammer[/i] and A Silent Voice so much that I'm collecting the physical copies, and I'd do the same if anyone picked up Inside Mari.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 5:16 am Reply with quote
garlogan78 wrote:
There goes the chance of people buying physical copies.

Eh, I wasn't going to anyway. Its dwindling release schedule, coupled with the other series the mangaka is, seemingly, paying more attention to...made me make this decision.

Takahashi-san is Listening is the pick of the bunch for me, based on the synopsis alone. Laughing
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GSam



Joined: 22 Jul 2013
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:09 am Reply with quote
The response from most of the publishing companies is usually that the digital side hasn't really affected physical sales and they're often two different populations. It's probably not true all the time, but it hasn't stopped physical releases from a number of companies. If Biscuit Hammer was affected, I wouldn't be terribly surprised but at the same time, I wouldn't suddenly go blaming CR.

Fan scanlations have been circling for a long time and I'm sure a sizable proportion of prospective buyers were fans who probably wanted a physical copy. But it's these empty promises that mislead publishers into titles that don't sell terribly well and no doubt it's a finnicky market. I doubt these are the people interested in CR either. I think maybe they underestimated the general market and regular populace interest. But it's all just me speculating.

Curious as to the addition of Princess Jellyfish. Well known and established series. Will probably bring in quite a few people.

I think people have to understand that the shift to digital is not just here, but Japan as well (finally). Like it or not.
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