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Hey, Answerman! [2006-04-21]

Wow. Brilliant post, jamesjmiller. Great points. I won't elaborate more, since I already made several posts in this thread detailing my stance on this, but I agree with everything you said (and I love how you said it).

And if anyone knows what characters these kids are idolizing to become lazy and antisocial, please let me know. He didn't.

Okay, then what characters?

People into anime are fans. And people that like it as a fad may be part of a generation, but only briefly. That MAY be what he sees, but it still holds no particular relevence on their behavior or how they enjoy anime.

But there is one thing important to consider. In the "old days" people did have to interect and swap anime. And now they don't. But that's exactly it. In the "new days" it is less needed to swap with one another, so it is less needed to deal with "ugly" people in the first place.

Because I'm in a wacky mood, I'll play along.

Seriously, the whole “anime characters are a bad influence” thing was a moot point to begin with, so why bother elaborating? In the first place, I think the fans that actually idolize anime characters are in the minority.

Jason, I like the cut of your jib. You also win because you touch upon one of my favorite points: "There is no substitute for good parenting."

I will admit that I was brought in as part of the Pokémon generation (even though I was in 7th grade at the time) so I've had some time to watch the otaku culture emerge. It might be because I'm old and jaded, but I concur that what this latest group to be a little hard to swallow. Granted some adults aren't much better, but still.

Man I could go on for hours about this. No time though.

Right, the problem is, everyone saying "well I don't see how sex and violence are an issue..." is basing that on pure speculation.

Berserk is basically a boutique title; you can't get it in a lot of major bookstores because it's been yanked thanks to the excessive violence and nudity.

It hits once every three months and isn't exactly burning up the charts; calling Berserk a 'popular' title is kind of a misnomer. It has its fans and it sells just well enough to keep coming out but that's basically it.

Golgo 13 isn't one tenth as violent or sexual as Gantz is. I have all.. what, 15 or so volumes of the Gantz manga and it's overloaded with extremely graphic deaths and too many sex scenes to count. Hell, the chapter stop splash pages are racier than anything you'd see in Golgo 13. The best comparison is Berserk, and from what I understand - from what many manga company employees have told me - is that more than a few publishers took a look at Berserk's numbers and decided that taking a financial risk with extremely gory or sex-filled manga (that you may not even be able to get on the shelves in the first place) might not really be worth it in the long run. Plus, Gantz is a fairly expensive license; obviously the price might not warrant the potential sales in the US, based on existing data.

Again, you have to look at the market. While it's true that Gantz has a sho at being picked up here, the market conditions right now aren't really in its favor. I wouldn't be shocked if someone like Dark Horse licensed the title this year sometime, but again, I wouldn't hold my breath either.

I think Dark Horse seems like the most likely company to acquire Gantz (aside from Viz, as I think Gantz was published by their affiliated publisher) as they already have a lot of adult titles and are releasing Berserk.

(Also depends on WHICH particular harem titles, with how well "Love Hina" did, I find no shock in "Negima" being a no-brainer for licensing)

About gantz topic, one thing I think Viz is not going to take a chance with Gantz is because of the excessive violent and sex. Viz might have done so in the past with title like Dance Till Tomorrow or Bakune Young, but that was back then when you can find these title in comic book store only.

But a title with such excessive violence and sex would also mean more risk--backlash from parents/community, not being sold in bookstore, more marketing and so on. Are the risk worth the sale to Viz.

I suspect a majority of manga only sell enought to just 'keep coming out.' While the manga market seems to have exploded, most titles aren't going to make a huge profit.

I mention the shrinkwrap because that in and of itself would likely reduce sales as it reduces the number of people who will flip through it and decide to buy it. Which is, according to some speculation, why CMX decided to severely edit Tenjho Tenge.

Read my post earlier on why dark horse isn't gonna pick up Gantz. I seen the comment about DH picking up gantz being mention a lot, but I doubt DH is going after violent and sexual title because of berserk.

They just re-released Crying Freeman...

Quote:

I mention the shrinkwrap because that in and of itself would likely reduce sales as it reduces the number of people who will flip through it and decide to buy it. Which is, according to some speculation, why CMX decided to severely edit Tenjho Tenge.

CMX screwed with Tenjho Tenge, because they thought they could make a seinen title crossover with shojo readers. I'd say the closest that's going to happen is with Bleach and Recca.

That's beause of Dark Horse LOVES Koike and they have a close relationship. Why do you think they're also releasing Path of the Assassin and Lady Snowblood as well?

DH license a lot of seinen manga with violence but gantz was one of the title that Carl Horn didn't seem like he was interested in licensing.