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chefneer wrote:

It was announced at the time of the shutdown that TP's North American licenses would revert immediately to the rights holders. The fact that he still has a license for Hetalia 3 makes one wonder how many others he's clutching in his sweaty little hands, though.

I am weary of Stu Levy.

I want more of Aria, FMP, and Gosick and it looks like he may be in the way.

Again, assumes facts not in evidence. We executed a new Agreement for this property that involves all three parties.

Last edited by chefneer on Wed May 02, 2012 5:54 pm; edited 2 times in total

OK, then. If I'm reading Shawn's comments correctly, it appears that while Levy has been helpful in getting this idea off the ground, any profit he realizes from it will not be great, as he no longer posesses licensing/publishing rights to these properties. That should soothe a lot of people who have little use for Stu Levy, myself included. However, the translations that will be used for these releases of Hetalia 1-3 were produced by Tokyopop, and Tokyopop is entitled to compensation for them. I'm guessing that, if this effort is successful, there will likely be some new licensing activity for other titles.

As far as POD goes, I have no issues with it at all. I haven't used POD a lot, so far, but my experience with it has been more than satisfactory. Quality has been excellent. Shawn has indicated that they will be using heavier paper, which is worth a higher price in its own right.

I feel better about this now. The Hetalia anime is OK, but it's not one of my favorites, and I had no plans to read the manga. Having said that, I think this is a worthwhile effort and deserves support, so I'm going to think about reconsidering.

One question though, I've not been able to find a suggestion form on the TRSI website - is there a preferred method of requesting particular titles?

Agent355 wrote:

It seems to me that they're also sowing false hope amongst fans, because if anyone thinks this will lead to more volumes of Hetalia being released...well, I highly doubt it. Hetalia 3 was ready to go, but all the subsequent volumes will require them to hire translators, editors, graphic designers for the covers, etc, and I just don't see that happening. Not for Hetalia or any other title.

It is true that Hetalia #3 was pretty much ready to go at the time of Tokyopop's shutdown. Hetalia volume 4 was not even published in Japan at that time.

Should the product perform I see no reason why the author and publisher wouldn't want to work with us to complete the series. However, the focus at present is on Volume 3.

Last edited by machetecat on Wed May 02, 2012 4:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

shawnek wrote:

We executed a new Agreement for this property that involves all three parties.

It's the fact that all 3 parties had to be involved that is making people weary.

From the point of view of a fan, not a company in this deal or someone in the know, the mentioning of Tokyopop involving ANY manga release is going to raise major flags. "If Tokyopop gave up the license for the series, then why the hell are they involved with this new release???" Is something fans are going to ask. Stu had been talking about an on-demand version of vol 3 a few months after Tokyopop was supposed to be closed down, so to see this actually happening is causing some fandom distress. I mean, even though your name is in the title of the article, it's the mere mentioning of Tokyopop's involvement that made me see red and want to punch a wall. That's just how badly TP has burned their bridges with a great deal of fandom.

So truly, if this is mostly about Righstuf trying to start this on-demand service, then I'm totally on board. I've been buying stuff from you guys for over a decade, and anything you all are doing to get more stuff to the U.S. is awesome, but also understand I've been burned WAY too many times before by Stu to ever trust anything with his or Tokyopop's name attached to it anymore.

sailorneorune wrote:

*puts on jaded fan hat*

No Stu-free Guarantee*, no buy.

Seriously, the print quality of the first two volumes I bought of Hetalia was crap, and I don't expect future printings of this spoiler[cash grab] reprint to be any better. If I decide to rejoin the Hetalia fandom, I will be buying the anime instead.

*Guarantee void in Tennessee.

I think you'll be very happy with the print quality of these books. All of the manga fans here at the office were, and have asked us to get every tankobon ever printed and put them into the POD program so they can buy them.

I'm sorry you feel this is a "cash grab." Our position is that manga fans really have been screwed over because the reprints of their series are often delayed or not happening because the number of books necessary to print on a standard press is so high. This means that volumes in a series can go out of print at any time and then you're down to secondary market sources in order to finish your set. We have spent a great deal of time and effort to get this program set up in order to see if we can provide a solution to that problem.

momomochi wrote:

I'm in agreement with "not giving Stu Levy" money. However I really would like to own volume 3....But 15 dollars with most likely a shipping fee for a manga is pretty steep. Even if I do want volume 3 what's the proof that the quality and translation won't be absolute crap? Do they even have the funding to do this? I would think printing so many thousands of copies would cost quite a lot of money...Unless rightstuff is helping them with that?

Volume 3 will be initially printed with color pages, and then after that we'll revert to black and white only in our POD program. Our POD press doesn't do color pages so we are running a separate initial print run for Volume 3 in order to include them.

We are also offering a discount on this volume if you preorder. You can get free shipping if you buy other items at the same time, or the media shipping is pretty cheap if you don't want anything else.

I think that people will be very happy with the quality of these books.

Sunday Silence wrote:

momomochi wrote:

I'm in agreement with "not giving Stu Levy" money. However I really would like to own volume 3....But 15 dollars with most likely a shipping fee for a manga is pretty steep. Even if I do want volume 3 what's the proof that the quality and translation won't be absolute crap? Do they even have the funding to do this? I would think printing so many thousands of copies would cost quite a lot of money...Unless rightstuff is helping them with that?

I think we need to assemble as fans and tell Right Stuf that we won't support this release until we get reassurances that Stu Levy is not profiting off of this and his associations are absolutely nil.

Because we are utilizing previously created material, there has to be involvement. I wouldn't let someone else replicate DVDs that have our logo on them and sell them, for example.

Hey shawn, is there a way we can suggest you series that we want you to take in consideration? One of my biggest concern is Fruit Basket. A beautiful manga series, that needs to stay in the manga industry. The fact that some volumes are impossible to find without them being $100+ and used -cough1,13,16,18,21-COUGH- is making me panic. Can you also try to finish V.B. Rose? I believe there's only a few volumes left, and i doubt someone would pick it up. Maid-sama, Gakuen Alice are series that have chances of already being picked up, but I'm worried most for V.B. Rose. Please, if you continue on with this - can you please consider some Shoujo series >.<

Mizuki-Takashima wrote:

So only the "initial print run" of this will feature an 8-page color insert, and the rest will be in black and white...? Its bad enough that this will probably get printed onto toilet paper anyway, but...that's just not fair.

I don't want Stu to get my money. It feels like I'm paying someone just do unspeakable things to my back side Sad

Yet I love Hetalia so much, and I even have volumes 1 & 2 in English...and what about volume 4 when it comes out- assuming it does??

I just...really wish he'd let go of the license, and just give it to Yen Press.

The initial press run will include the color pages. Once that press run is exhausted, we will move this to the POD press and the formerly color pages will still be included, but they will be in black and white.

Imperialkat wrote:

So... people want Hetalia v. 3, but many are refusing to support Stu Levy. But for Rightstuf/Nozomi this is clearly an experiment that, if successful, could lead to them putting out more of the stuff that fans clamor for *coughFutureDiary11cough*. Failure would hurt Levy (and TokyoPop and Nozomi) but could also lead to TokyoPop's remaining licenses being either set free for rescue or drug down (again) into the abyss of licensing hell.

I'm sorry, but the release of previous licenses and this pilot program have nothing to do with one another.

Shenl742 wrote:

I'm not a fan of Hetalia and I really don't care if Levy killed someone's symbolic kitten...

...but nonetheless, I think this POD venture is very worthwhile, and lord knows there are many manga which I'd rather pay $15 for then $100.

So Shawn, if this ends up succeeding, is there any interest in speaking with other existing manga publishers who have stuff way out of print?

I certainly hope so. It will depend on various factors, but if we can make this work I would love to expand the program further. Feel free to tell vendors to contact us to get their titles added. Smile

chefneer wrote:

OK, then. If I'm reading Shawn's comments correctly, it appears that while Levy has been helpful in getting this idea off the ground, any profit he realizes from it will not be great, as he no longer posesses licensing/publishing rights to these properties.

...

However, the translations that will be used for these releases of Hetalia 1-3 were produced by Tokyopop, and Tokyopop is entitled to compensation for them.

Which still will find it's way into Stu Levy's pocket. Which is still not acceptable.

Quote:

I'm guessing that, if this effort is successful, there will likely be some new licensing activity for other titles.

I wish them the best, but given the title they chose to launch it off.....better not count your chickens before they hatch.

yotsubafanfan wrote:

I really want vollume 3 of Hetalia, I just don't want Tokyo Pop's release, they should be giving up the lisence soon so maybe I'll wait because I don't want to give anymore money to that Weasel Stu Levey. Also I bought the first 2 vollumes and the quality was crap! Mad

Er.. if you want to wait, that's your decision, but this title is not going to magically go somewhere else. If it was, do you think I would be investing time and money to print it? Smile

I think that the quality of the printing we're doing is excellent. I saw today that the on-hand stock of 1 and 2 we had is already sold through (more are on the way already), so I am guessing those buyers will chime in and provide feedback of what they think of the quality.

shawnek wrote:

yotsubafanfan wrote:

I really want vollume 3 of Hetalia, I just don't want Tokyo Pop's release, they should be giving up the lisence soon so maybe I'll wait because I don't want to give anymore money to that Weasel Stu Levey. Also I bought the first 2 vollumes and the quality was crap! Mad

Er.. if you want to wait, that's your decision, but this title is not going to magically go somewhere else. If it was, do you think I would be investing time and money to print it? Smile

I think that the quality of the printing we're doing is excellent. I saw today that the on-hand stock of 1 and 2 we had is already sold through (more are on the way already), so I am guessing those buyers will chime in and provide feedback of what they think of the quality.

That's not the point here. We want it to succeed. We just don't want any profits to go to Mr. Levy is all. Wink

Sunday Silence wrote:

shawnek wrote:

st_owly wrote:

I'm never giving Stu Levy another penny of my money. I don't think Hetalia is worth $15.99 a volume anyway.

Your money is going to Gentosha and to the author.

Not 100% convinced. In another posting, you say:

shawnek wrote:

While I understand that you are unhappy with Stu, frankly, he has been helpful to us in facilitating getting this property back into circulation. We are utilizing Tokyopop's materials here, and therefore I have to get clearance from them to do so.

He still has his hands in the whole deal. Considering how many bridges this guy has burnt, unless he is permanently cut-off from the whole project, your not gonna get the maximum amount of sales possible.

No one is making you buy these books. If you are unhappy that we had to get the materials from Tokyopop, there's very little that I can do about that. My goal is to get the books into print. If I was to get other Tokyopop books back into print, I'd be in the same scenario. Having the items not in print at all seems to me to be the alternative, and that's what I'm trying to resolve.

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