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NEWS: PW: Viz Media Lays Off Up to 60, Closes NY Branch

It was only a matter of time, I suppose.

...Unless some of them are the people behind the decision to censor a significant percentage of Viz's output (though it's highly unlikely). Phoquem, phoquem, the lot of 'em. They're the reason why I've kept boycotting the company, even after Trish Ledoux left. That's why they're short of one small sliver of their money. Maybe some other slivers as well because some others feel the same way; can't say for sure.

eyevocal wrote:

...Unless some of them are the people behind the decision to censor a significant percentage of Viz's output (though it's highly unlikely). Phoquem, phoquem, the lot of 'em. They're the reason why I've kept boycotting the company, even after Trish Ledoux left. That's why they're short of one small sliver of their money. Maybe some other slivers as well because some others feel the same way; can't say for sure.

Just to let you know, there really aren't a lot of things being censored anymore. A few years ago the censorship policy seemed to have changed, so very few things are censored. And even so, it's rare that things that are censored hugely impact the story. Often I think it's a small safety net to protect the company from angry, raging parents or people who think it attacks their religious beliefs.

Dragynstorm wrote:

Just to let you know, there really aren't a lot of things being censored anymore. A few years ago the censorship policy seemed to have changed, so very few things are censored. And even so, it's rare that things that are censored hugely impact the story. Often I think it's a small safety net to protect the company from angry, raging parents or people who think it attacks their religious beliefs.

Nothing should be censored at all. Those "angry, raging parents" should be told in no uncertain terms that they themselves are the parents of their precious little crotchfruit--not the media--so they themselves should do the jobs they took on when they decided to breed. The people who think that their religions are being attacked should also be told to bugger off. If their faith is so tentative that it can be rocked by a bleepin' Japanese comic book, then their minds should change, not the publishers'.

e/v.

For all we know, the IKKI and Signature series could be some of the more reliable sources of income, because they don't depend on money from fickle teenagers.

Every year, retailer Brian Hibbs does an exhaustive analysis of bookstore sales of graphic novels, using Bookscan’s cumulative sales information for the last week of the year. Bookscan doesn’t cover every bookstore, and sometimes things get misclassified, but overall it seems to be a pretty good snapshot. But here’s the thing: Not one of the Viz Signature books shows up in the list of the top 750 sellers of 2009. Not one. You know what sells really well? Naruto and Vampire Knight, of course, and Death Note still shows up near the top despite the fact that the series ended a couple of years ago. What is sort of surprising if you only read blogs is that the Pokemon and Legend of Zelda manga also do very well, better than most of Viz’s other books. But Pluto, Ooku, Oishinbo, even Nana (not a Signature title but one that is hugely popular in the blogospheres) are all absent from the list. The picture may be different in comics stores, but that’s a niche market, especially for manga. If these books aren’t selling well in retail bookstores, then Viz has a problem.

This is actually a fairly common situation in publishing—everyone knows that your blockbuster best-sellers, the ones sold in airports and Wal-Mart, support your more literary, less bankable titles—and I doubt that Viz will stop publishing these series they are so obviously invested in. I’m just sayin’.

Tamaria wrote:

For all we know, the IKKI and Signature series could be some of the more reliable sources of income, because they don't depend on money from fickle teenagers.

Actually, after reading today's Mangablog MangaBlog that unfortunately doesn't appear to be the situation. It's the franchise series and stuff aimed at those "fickle" teenagers that are doing better overall. Probably because most people outgrow manga once they are out of their teen years.

I really hope this isn't as bad as it seems, because Viz Media and Funimation may be the only companies in the United States of America that license anime and usually give the licensed series English audio tracks.

Geneon is gone, like ADV and Central Park media, Bang Zoom is likely stop dubbing anime all together, possibily and Bandai and Media Blasters typically license anime subtitle only these days. Same with Sentai, save a couple of titles.

eyevocal wrote:

Nothing should be censored at all. Those "angry, raging parents" should be told in no uncertain terms that they themselves are the parents of their precious little crotchfruit--not the media--so they themselves should do the jobs they took on when they decided to breed. The people who think that their religions are being attacked should also be told to bugger off. If their faith is so tentative that it can be rocked by a bleepin' Japanese comic book, then their minds should change, not the publishers'.

Oh, I agree, nothing should be censored. However, Viz is a business and sometimes changes have to made in order to sell books. Children can't have "real" jobs, so in order for them to be able to buy manga, they usually have to get money from their parents (be it gift or allowance or what-not) or have the parents buy it for them. That said, if a parent doesn't like the content/cover/color of the spine, there's a possibility that they will not buy the book or let their child buy the book. Personally, I think it's dumb, but I'm not a parent. They're probably just "protecting" their child from the "dangers" of pantsless little boys and bare breasts. Viz knows this, so they are simply protecting their sales.

Yeah--protecting them from people like me who want to read unmolested stories. Hence, my money goes elsewhere. Why don't they just license series they don't have to screw with to avoid the wrath of the masses of the asses who like feeding carpet-bagging litigation crocodiles and paralytically fear having to talk honestly with their own children? Phoquin' duh!

I agree it's concerning but on the bright side, it seems like Section 23 is going to start dubbing a lot more in the future. They're dubbing Guin Saga and going back to dub some of their older releases that we're sub only.

Uh, it's not like every single series that Viz puts out is edited. AFAIK, only a few shonen and kids manga have been censored, and even so it's been pretty minor stuff.