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NEWS: Kodansha Temporarily Suspends Vinland Saga Manga in US

Boycotting is the opposite of what should be done, you should be doubling your efforts to buy up anything you feel worthwhile because although a lot of these publishers are fans of manga they are running a business and im a bit sick of hearing "oh that series is longer than 10 volumes so its too risky", "we'd have to shrink wrap that and that costs extra and profits are already thin" and "SPORTS STORY!? ROFL"

don't get me wrong,personally i'm very dissapointed by this news,but the people of kodansha comics really respect their fanbase even with titles that are selling beneath expectations they tend to find middle ground to keep everyone happy,since it happened in the past with animal land from makoto raiku & cage of eden by yoshinobu yamada.

hence i'm asking to give kodansha comics a little more than the benefit of the doubt.

Ginrai1984 wrote:

don't get me wrong,personally i'm very dissapointed by this news,but the people of kodansha comics really respect their fanbase even with titles that are selling beneath expectations they tend to find middle ground to keep everyone happy,since it happened in the past with animal land from makoto raiku & cage of eden by yoshinobu yamada. hence i'm asking to give kodansha comics a little more than the benefit of the doubt.

Cage of Eden has always been released once every three months, as has Missions of Love. Their release dates aren't to do with sales. Animal Land is though; however that never received a "temporary suspension" and was just moved to a once every six months release.

The only other title to ever receive a "temporary suspension" is Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei which is still on "temporary suspension" years later. This is why the news doesn't exaxtly fill me with confidence for Vinland Saga's future.

about cage of eden being released in a 3-month per volume from the get go,you're wrong about that,there was a small hicup between volume 5&6 in which a 3-month release was present,but they actually permantly switched to a 3 month per volume shedule from volume 9.

also the switch in publication rate was a result from dissapointing sales,since it was confirmed through a intern working for kodansha comics in that period,here on the ANN forums.

(i'll try and find the message,and post the link afterwards if i can)

RAmmsoldat wrote:

Boycotting is the opposite of what should be done, you should be doubling your efforts to buy up anything you feel worthwhile because although a lot of these publishers are fans of manga they are running a business and im a bit sick of hearing "oh that series is longer than 10 volumes so its too risky", "we'd have to shrink wrap that and that costs extra and profits are already thin" and "SPORTS STORY!? ROFL"

I'm not exactly boycotting them; I just want to know what went wrong with Vinland Saga and what they plan to do in future so it won't happen again. Until they give some sort of explanation, it's hard to want to pick up more and more series from them. It just feels like they've tried to keep the suspension of Vinland Saga hidden for as long as possible which doesn't strike me as the way they should have gone about it. They still haven't made an actual post about it on Twitter/their website; just a couple of replies that very few people would see unless they're actively looking.

I really wish people would buy this manga along with Drops of God which was a manga that Vertical cut short, but it is phenomenal, and I encourage people to support the one too since they were saying if people started buying more of the volumes they would bridge the gap from that special New World volume that jumps ahead.

Of the titles I am actually getting I have been expecting an announcement on either Wandering Son or Bride's Story any month now.

Just a quick point... We did not cut Drops of God. That is on the authors themselves. They are not giving us permission to do more.

We've said this repeatedly but that series sold quite well for a company like Vertical. Maybe the authors didn't feel that way, which is partially why don't have the rights to do more.

Just you know I replied to Kodansha Comics on twitter yesterday and they said theres nothing that they can discuss right now. But they are hoping it can offer more details in the new year.

Just a quick point... We did not cut Drops of God. That is on the authors themselves. They are not giving us permission to do more.

We've said this repeatedly but that series sold quite well for a company like Vertical. Maybe the authors didn't feel that way, which is partially why don't have the rights to do more.