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barbapapa wrote:

Reliak wrote:

dmanjdb wrote:

I remember some years ago VIZ were selling manga in a typical comic book format for $4 and Graphic Novels for $20. Then Tokyopop came and brought the actual manga format and made millions and made Viz looked tired.

And now Viz not only followed Tokyopop trail but they improve the format with Shonen Jump titles, SJA, Shojo Beat and tons of quality manga.

And now is Tokyopop that looks tired.

And a prediction. I see Viz going strong in 2006 with Monster, Golgo 13, ROD and more SJ & SB. Tokyopop needs to wake up now.

The problem with Tokyopop is that they're spending so much $$$ on Amerimanga, and picking up a lot of the less well known Japanese titles. They still have Fruits Basket, but they're slowing the release of that down (volume 12 in December, volume 13 in April).

Tokyopop has become a bit of a trashy publisher imo, when I look at the stuff they license... Quantity over quality; Im really quite hesitant to keep buying stuff from them tho there are about 1 out of 10 titles that are really worth purchasing.
To see some genuinely good titles suffering from this; at the pace that Beck is being released, 1 every 4 months... come on...

I agree. At some point I've had to seriously ponder on it before I'll buy a TokyoPop manga, which is rare now. Viz has yet to disappoint me with anything I get from them.

The only title I have from that list is Hot Gimmick volume 10, my favorite manga series to date. I don't see why anyone is surprised about that. Hot Gimmick is one of their most popular shoujo titles. It also seems to be one of the titles to bring them into the shoujo market.

Viz is so-so with speed. Some of their titles, like Hot Gimmick, are being moved back to only coming out every 5 months. Some come out within a month of the last one.

Overall, Viz has won me over. I'm amazed by the fact they've dominated the market like this.