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NEWS: Fullmetal Alchemist Manga with Figure




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DragonsRevenge



Joined: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 1150
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:54 am Reply with quote
That's kinda cool. I still want to read the manga.

But just a minor quibble- It's Elric. No K.
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slickwataris



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 1334
Location: Carol Stream, Illinois
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:12 am Reply with quote
This always happens when I decide not to buy a series anymore
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ampersand



Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Posts: 31
Location: Brampton, ON
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:31 am Reply with quote
I wonder if they'll be available here in Canada. I hope so-- don't see why not, but you never know.
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lazuline



Joined: 06 Aug 2005
Posts: 66
Location: Park Slope
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:51 am Reply with quote
...so Viz is trying special editions for translated manga? Its kind of strange that the value of 2 plastic figures justifies a $19.99 price tag... but then again the special editions I've bought in the past were over priced as well (i.e. honey and clover v.8 = $16.00).

questions that need answering: why is translated manga so large? Also, why are there no slip covers? and finally, why is the binding/assembly of the manga of such poor quality?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:26 am Reply with quote
lazuline wrote:
...so Viz is trying special editions for translated manga? Its kind of strange that the value of 2 plastic figures justifies a $19.99 price tag... but then again the special editions I've bought in the past were over priced as well (i.e. honey and clover v.8 = $16.00).

questions that need answering: why is translated manga so large? Also, why are there no slip covers? and finally, why is the binding/assembly of the manga of such poor quality?


Becuase far fewer people buy manga in America than in Japan, so from a publishing standpoint it doesn't make sense to spend the money on slipcovers, because you'd have to jack the price up and you're already dealing with a vastly smaller market. This is America, not Japan, and the market economics are totally different.

Also, the binding on Japanese tankoubon isn't all that great either so I don't know what you're on about there.
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ACDragonMaster



Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 405
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:37 am Reply with quote
Japanese tankoubon may have some pretty cheap binding, but the fact is that I can press my import manga flat against my scanner to scan the whole thing and the binding will come out almost unscathed, while doing the same to the US counterpart is pretty much guarenteed to destroy it.
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hagakure|returns



Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 407
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 2:43 pm Reply with quote
lazuline wrote:
...so Viz is trying special editions for translated manga? Its kind of strange that the value of 2 plastic figures justifies a $19.99 price tag... but then again the special editions I've bought in the past were over priced as well (i.e. honey and clover v.8 = $16.00).

questions that need answering: why is translated manga so large? Also, why are there no slip covers? and finally, why is the binding/assembly of the manga of such poor quality?


Just to let you know that there will be a regular release at normal 9.99 price point?

Why are the books so large? Because if they were smaller, people would complain that they're too small. Seriously, a lot of the Dr.Master/Comicone book were about japanese size and they didn't sell that great because people didn't like the size.

Slip cover are nice, but arn't necessary. DMP pubilsh all their manga with slip cover and it just add onto the cost. A nice glossy cover will do.

Aside from CMX books, I don't see anything wrong with the binding with the books.

The japanese manga books I own have really cheap paper, so at least the US manga has a bit better quality.
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Emerje



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 7328
Location: Maine
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:48 pm Reply with quote
lazuline wrote:
...so Viz is trying special editions for translated manga? Its kind of strange that the value of 2 plastic figures justifies a $19.99 price tag... but then again the special editions I've bought in the past were over priced as well (i.e. honey and clover v.8 = $16.00).


Actually it's only one figure that is bumping the price up by $10. I don't know what figures they're including with this volume, but if it's the ones I'm thinking of then $10 is about the going price of the figure alone.

It does suck that you have to buy the same volume twice for the two figures, they really should have divided them between two volumes. Hopefully the figures themselves are the same as ones available on retail which would be easier to justify.

Emerje
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Andromeda



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 119
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 7:27 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
...so Viz is trying special editions for translated manga? Its kind of strange that the value of 2 plastic figures justifies a $19.99 price tag... but then again the special editions I've bought in the past were over priced as well (i.e. honey and clover v.8 = $16.00).


Considering that I've paid $16 FOR a figure before (well, I WAS, but then stuff came up and I didn't get it... lovely figure, though. Still want it. It was a Misato Katsuragi figure... dang, does Gainax do good figures), without a manga volume, this is still appealing to me.

However, I do think that considering that the trade paperbacks for manga are usually cheaply-constructed, with no color (obviously), and tend to have few if any extra features... $16 is indeed kind of pricey. That's one thing to thank Tokyopop for: IIRC, they were the first to have $10 books, which lead to everybody else dropping their prices a little as well, and now we have Viz producing some of their line at $7.95 a piece (and I notice the rest of their manga now going for around $10) instead of $16. The result? More people buying more manga, which makes them think, I'm guessing "Hey! Cheap prices DO work! Let's keep them!".

Of course, this, though, is just another way to milk more money out of fans who like to collect stuff. Laughing

I'd probably buy it, if I don't already have the figure. There are several places now that are taking comic book donations for the hurricane victims (scroll down on this thread, jgreen mentions it towards the bottom). So if you've bought/ordered one copy already but want the copy with a figure, you could always donate one of the copies. Smile

But aside from that... ugh. What figure is it that's being released with it? I've looked, and I can't find a picture. I do have an Edward Elric figure already, so I would be concerned that I might be buying the same figure twice for no reason (yeah, I know, odd considering what I just said, but like I said, you can donate manga. I think of manga as entertainment and good-quality figures as art pieces... also, manga is much easier to unload extra copies of Smile ).


-Andromeda
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