Forum - View topicNEWS: Kodansha Temporarily Suspends Vinland Saga Manga in US
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mdo7
 Posts: 6262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Yes it's unfortunate, but don't forget this is Japan. They can do whatever they want no matter how much complaint and criticism we give them. |
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RAmmsoldat
 Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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Right I've now got 4&5 on order using my christmas money, i can now go about pursuing the hundreds of other manga volumes i want while i wait for kodansha to do whatever it is they plan on doing.
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nargun
Posts: 925 |
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> What went wrong was that nobody wants to buy it!
Well, we don't know that. There are other possibilities. But... well, I don't want to buy it. I'm not saying that those who do enjoy it are wrong to do so or that the work is terrible and should be banned, but... well. I read -- bought -- volume one, didn't enjoy it, and decided not to buy volume two, because I figured the chances that it would become a work I'd enjoy were not outstanding. [why didn't I like it? I didn't like the way the work handled sexual themes: I couldn't see any, at all. Violence galore, but neither romance nor rape. Which kind of detracted from the mature packaging, made it feel a bit puerile, more ultra-violent-shounen than seinen-properly-so-called. On a more technical level I felt... "viewpoint" doesn't work the same way with comics as it does with text novels, but "what exactly is the art depicting, what should we the readers understand it being mediated by" is still a real question, and I don't think the creator had a firm understanding on what what they were depicting reflected. Neither of these are fatal problems, but they were enough that I didn't want to spend money -- money I'm not shy about spending on comics -- on them. More to the point here, I'd be surprised if I were the only person to think this.] |
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Bonham
 Posts: 419 Location: NYC |
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I think there is validity to the criticism, and I've seen a couple others over the years express something similar. The shonen-masquerading-as-seinen, that is. This is one of the instances where I can agree, but not to the title's detriment. It's not like a Black Lagoon, Ajin, and countless others whose maturity label is based solely on a magazine's publication (and possibly other factors, like violence, etc.). Vinland Saga (and Yukimura's Planetes) reminds me a lot of Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist,* where the focus is strictly concerned with a slow-build and understanding of the various characters, and a stripped-down examinations of both heady and simple themes. It's about following key characters as they move and learn about the world they're in, rather than various world-building and pacing issues plaguing the story, or the plot being just some dumb, by the book b-movie/John Woo rip-off. Also, it's been a while since I read the first volume, but I remember distinct moments where you'd have actual instances and references and rape and abuse to go along with the violence and pillaging. It's just not something explicitly shown, never mind lingered on. I can see an argument for portraying those elements, but too often manga is really immature about those subjects, so I think of it as less of an issue. As for romance, it definitely happens. Anyone familiar with Thorfinn's life can guarantee this, and there are other examples of it leading up to where I stopped following scans (which is right around where Kodansha USA's release is, iirc). There is also a greater "point" to it all, but it's something barely alluded to in Kodansha's first volume. Whether all that's enough to sell you on it, I dunno, but I'd say it's definitely worth a shot... unless Kodansha USA really does come out and say it's cancelled. At that point, fudge it. *Of course, whether you enjoy FMA is another issue! Even if I think it and Vinland Saga are far from masterpieces, they're easily two of the more enjoyable titles out there, and I'll take them 10 times of 10 over these other "shonen-posing-as-seinen" titles. |
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RAmmsoldat
Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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Well im not of the opinion that sexual content = mature but I can see how you'd be surprised there's nothing, i mean the story is about viking raiders after all.
Cant please everyone though, people in the Ubel blatt review thread complained of the opposite. They said that the manga threw in the sex just because it was trying hard to look mature |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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I thought the exact thing when I read this article. If Yukimura drew a few more "gratuitous" rape scenes when the Vikings pillaged towns or made Askeladd a sexy moe battle genius (with glasses?), perhaps it would have done better on the American market. Nargun I think you're right on the mark when you said that volume 1 felt like an ultra-violent shonen. It does. Thorfinn starts out as a young, "invincible" boy on a quest for revenge. But the beauty of the story is how it quickly morphs into something else. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say that Thorfinn and Canute (who is an awesome character you'll meet in book 2) both have their world shatter and the remainder of the story is about how they pick up and try to reassemble the pieces. The shonen-styled beginning is there to contrast what happens later on in the story. |
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noblesse oblige
 Posts: 280 Location: Florida |
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I think the best way to show support for Vinland is to go ahead and order all the volumes up to 5 for those of you that haven't, and maybe write an email to Kodansha or even Mr. Yukimura himself if you can write kanji. We still don't know what the ultimate fate of the title will be, and even if it is canceled eventually, the first five volumes are definitely something worth reading. You could even argue that Vinland is a complete story where the farming arc begins. So I hope that the people who are enjoying reading this series won't stop collecting the volumes just because of this announcement.
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RAmmsoldat
Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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I think im in the minority of people that didn't hate the farming arc, its a major down shift in action but considering the name of the series you'd have to be expecting the ultimate goal of it to be getting to america rather than "epic battles".
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I was also surprised at the lack of sex in Vinland Saga (I've read volumes 1-3), considering its subject matter, but I figure the story is from Thorfinn's perspective, and besides being young, immature and obsessed with revenge, he is actively trying to keep himself apart from the group of Vikings he's with, which includes avoiding "communal entertainment" like, y'know, gang rape. And frankly, I don't want to read a manga about gang rape, so it's a relief.
OTOH, there are comments in the dialogue and enough references to infer that the other Vikings have sex via rape and seduction, etc. There's also a definite hint of romance in the flashbacks about Thorfinn's parents. So it's not as if the author is unable to write about sex or romance, he just didn't find it necessary in the first arc of the story, and wanted to avoid gratuitous sexual violence, which I can appreciate. Another reason why I'm glad it's fairly realistic historical fiction without outright fantastical elements (or gratuitous sex) is that my father read the first few volumes and actually enjoyed them! I love it when I can get my dad to enjoy something I like--he's not a scifi or fantasy fan and doesn't really get most anime, manga or graphic novels. Realistic historical fiction with strong plot and character elements are a great general audience draw (my dad thinks A Bride's Story is boring and I can't say I blame him). I really want to get volume 5 now, if only to encourage Kodansha Comics to keep going. I want to read the rest of this story, and I'd love more seinen/josei historical fiction in English to read and share with family and friends. |
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CallumKeyblade
Posts: 536 |
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They've said on tumblr that they hope to be able to say more next week so hopefully we will get a better idea of the situation then.
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Butterflea
Posts: 6 |
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Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and rightstuf are all showing a release date of Sept. 01, 2015 (with preorders) for Vinland Saga vol. 6. For volume 7, B&N and Amazon are showing a release date of December 01, 2015 (with preorders). Rejoice if so.
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lys
 Posts: 1010 Location: mitten-state |
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Butterflea, yes, Kodansha has confirmed that books 6-7 are scheduled to be published this year (this will bring us through the original v14, so the next omnibus would have to wait until v16 is published in Japan anyway).
They did suggest that future volumes will depend on those volumes continuing to sell as well as the earlier ones, so hopefully fans keep supporting the series :) I've subscribed to the series through my local comic shop! |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Locking due to necroposting.
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