Forum - View topicOtakon 2014 - Vertical Inc.
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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I'm hoping that they're still working on bringing over another Gundam manga/novel. I know it was mentioned on ANNcast, and I hope that either party hasn't decided not to do it; Their release of Gundam: The Origin is fantastic.
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Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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So, K-ON! has finally gained sentience? And it's male! 
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cayohern
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Did they announce when the next giant collection of AoT will be released?
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1359 |
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W-e-l-l.... watching Paprika this weekend reminded me that Satoshi Kon's films all use music by Susumu Hirasawa. Yui and Ui Hirasawa are presumably no relation. Nor is Mio Akiyama likely related to Katsuhiko Akiyama, who played bass for Hirasawa's band P-model. Nor is Tsumugi Kotobuki likely related to Hikaru Kotobuki, P-Model's keyboardist. (P-Model's drummer is named Sadatoshi Tainaka. Any guesses what Ritsuko's last name is?) |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Ed Chavez also said something slightly ominous about a future announcement regarding the future of the company. I don't recall his exact words, but I think that it was something like 'there will be changes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing'. He also talked about changing the popular conception of what a 'Vertical title' is. (Tonari no Seki-kun was cited as an example of being atypical of the company) It was all very general, but I get the impression that there's an imperative, be it from above or within, to improve the company's sales. That has me a little worried as I'm very happy with what constitutes as 'Vertical title' now, but I can't begrudge them trying to be more viable and I doubt that they'll be reduced to publishing all Queen's Blade all of the time or something. They've had good news lately from the very high preorders for the Attack on Titan: Before the Fall novel, which promises the best sales that they've done since they published The Ring back in the early aughts.
He also mentioned two things during the questions and answers section that I found particularly interesting: 1. They will not publish any more of Drops of God because the Japanese have told them to stop. Vertical wanted to publish more, but series was not selling nearly as well as the creators, who are very popular and successful in Japan, expected, so they have mandated that publication end as a matter of pride. He also mentioned that Vertical was forced to publish Drops of God. 2. Sales for Twin Spica were so weak and declined so precipitously that only 1,500 copies each were printed of the last three volumes. He presented the explanation of the process last year too, but I think that it was slightly different and I love hearing about the details of these processes. Differences in practice and expectation between Japan and the United States seem to drive a lot of the difficulties In particular, Japanese authors are paid for copes printed, where as American authors are paid for copies sold, which creates very different marketing dynamics. Japanese publishers also think that the idea of anime driving manga sales, rather than vice versa, is too crazy to accept. |
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Ali07
Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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@Surrender Artist - hmm, that has me a little worried too. I hope that this doesn't mean the end of seeing stuff like Tonari no Seki-kun (a title I plan on buying).
As for Drops of God, I'm not too surprised that the title hasn't sold as well as the Japanese would've liked. Personally, I don't see what the draw to that series would be. |
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dm
Subscriber Posts: 1359 |
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Surely you misunderstood? Did he say why publishers do spend money turning manga into anime, then? Sales of licensed products? Prestige? Interesting about the sales/print-run numbers for creator royalties. |
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Surrender Artist
Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I should perhaps clarify that my understanding was thatTonari no Seki-kun was meant to be changing the concept of what a 'Vertical title' is, so you might have reason to be looking up.
I don't get it either, especially given how long it is. The series has reportedly been a great success in France. It reminded me of when Sam Pinansky mentioned on ANNCast that is the AnimeSols releases didn't sell, rather than reduce the prices as far as necessary to get people to buy them, they would pull them from the market because to the Japanese it would be worse to have Black Jack selling at bottom-dollar prices than sitting unsold in a vault.
Mr. Chavez said that whenever he would try to tell the Japanese about the popularity of an anime in the United States in favor of publishing some manga there, the Japanese would look at him as though they had no idea what he was talking about. Perhaps I should have put it not so much in terms of sales, but more generally the idea is that in Japan, manga very much leads the way, but in the United States, anime has the leading part. Later that day, Ben Applegate mentioned during the Kodansha Comics panel that his boss had pushed hard for Attack on Titan, believing that it would be a big deal, but it actually had negative sales until the anime became available, which spectacularly reversed its fortunes. |
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Ali07
Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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The AoT anime must've done something wonderful for the fan base to have grown the way it has. I tried it out, but it just never clicked with me, so was done after 8 episodes.
Volume 1 of the manga has hit 60 weeks in the NYT best seller list. And, most weeks, it isn't the only AoT title/volume in there.
Ah, I obviously misinterpreted your post.
My assumption would be that the Japanese my see discounted prices as tarnishing the brand?
Over the time I've begun to delve into the manga/anime world, I've noticed some business practices that I find strange. The one that is strangest, to me, is what you've touched upon. The Japanese, seemingly, either don't care about overseas markets or just don't know the differences between Japan and other markets. My impression is that they don't seem to want to accommodate other markets in any way, shape or form. I've no idea why that'd be the case, as I would assume that the US and some parts of Europe are places where some good revenue streams could see an increase if they were to cater to them a bit more. |
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osakaedo
Posts: 66 |
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Wrong publisher. That's Kodansha. But it is due out in 2015. |
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osakaedo
Posts: 66 |
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Greater potential for merchandising. Additional revenue stream, through selling the rights and royalties. |
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osakaedo
Posts: 66 |
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Oh they do... But not the ones that burn them. The way Japan treats France with all their merch rights and promotional materials (many things we aren't permitted to do or are overpriced for us); Taiwan gets manga licenses within weeks of the Japanese magazine release; Korea has had some crazy eBook rights long before it was a thing in the US. But in the US so many companies went under. Even the large ones were not safe. That happens in other regions but failing in this market is really tough for some people. (Also doesn't help that for the longest time, and still true in some ways, the gatekeepers - licensing directors, sales directors, buyers, execs - from many US companies have not changed. So if bridges are burned, they might stay that way.) |
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Ali07
Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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All things I didn't know. My impression is based on how they deal with the west, which usually means how things go in the US...as whatever happens there (or doesn't happen) impacts Australia. Whatever the US (or UK) don't get their hands on his very little chance of seeing release in Australia. And, I can understand how the failures in the US could bring about such treatment. Thing is, to me, doesn't seem like those in Japan look at what they could do differently to accommodate the US more. Of course, this is just me assuming the US is a big market for them. |
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