Forum - View topicNEWS: PW: Viz Media Lays Off Up to 60, Closes NY Branch
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animalcalls
 Posts: 42 |
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It was only a matter of time, I suppose.
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Yeah, that really doesn't sound good. VIZ has always been the powerhouse of the industry, with the popular Jump series. Seeing them lay off a chunk of their work force is disheartening, and puts things into perspective.
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The Mad Manga Massacre
Posts: 1166 |
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This is sad for all those who lost their jobs...
 However, I have been having a sneaking suspicion they were not doing as well financially. Shonen Jump is 50 pages less than it previously was and the release dates between volumes has been cut back for various titles (Gin Tama, Hoshin Engi). I wonder how this will effect their current titles (i.e. will any be dropped?) and how this will effect their Shonen Jump and Sigikki manga anthologies. I hope this doesn't mean they will drop any of their current titles, they have many quality ones.
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Kit-Tsukasa
Posts: 930 |
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I think the issue is that some manga titles are starting to come out faster than Viz releases the chapters in Shounen Jump, which results in a less incentive for us consumers to actually pick up these title. I mean, logically speaking, why bother picking up the magazine when the whole volume will come out shortly after? It's not like Japan where things generally get published once a month and the volumes follow essentially 3-6 months after... |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6202 Location: Houston, TX |
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did i miss something? I was of the mind that Viz was doing quite well for themselves.
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Youkai Warrior
 Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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No, not Viz Media too. It seems like several companies are struggling.
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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It's another indication that the anime and manga industries in the US probably haven't bottomed out.... YET.
I remember back in the day when I was a huge fan of Viz. This was back about 15-16 years ago when there was a reason to be excited. Lately... I feel they're a bit too focused on Shonen Jump/action titles and have lost quite a bit of their old core audience. Bleach and Naruto just haven't been as big as Dragon Ball was (circa 8 years ago). (Maybe I'm just NOT seeing what's so thoughtful about the head-butting shows. To me, they're about as thoughtful as reality TV or professional wrestling.) Heck, nothing's been as big as Dragon Ball was, period! Getting back to old Viz... In spite of the usual complaints about licenses taken with translations (Japanese jokes and cultural idioms just don't translate well into English, period), there was a competency and generally broader selection of material than you find today from Viz. That also was very true with their older anime releases. Excepting the seasons-long Takahashi TV shows, what video rights, if any, does Viz retain to shows, movies, and OVAs that were released before 2002? Seems like they let all the rights to that old (and sometimes far more interesting) stuff lapse. It's ridiculous how expensive those DVDs have gotten on the used market! |
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 3950 |
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well ****
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domino
 Posts: 373 |
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I guess all published materials are in trouble. I think the industry is about to go through a messy and long and confusing shift into digital content distribution...
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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(Sorry for the double-post in advance!) I really don't get the feeling that manga sales in the US are doing that well, period. We're finally starting to see manga sections get slashed in larger bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble. (Borders almost doesn't count at this point in time. I seriously think that chain is living on borrowed time. I'll be surprised if Borders lasts past another 3 years...) It's a variety of things leading to manga's decline in the US --- a) it's the economy, stupid; b) companies overestimated BOTH the spending power AND attention span of teenagers; c) the manga explosion was destined to be a short fad like most things teenagers get involved with; d) there are other things people feel their money is better spent on like videogames; e) the availability of translated manga online from extra-legal websites f) it's the economy again, stupid... AND g) manga is niche like anime and is just too different for many people to get into it; accept it, the homecourt media is generally going to be more popular than the foreign/imported media... Like I said in my previous post, I think Viz also has themselves to blame for being a bit single-minded with the Shonen Action titles and I'm not so sure that any of these shows have been near as popular as previous Viz releases were. (Then again, this IS Viz we're talking about. They've never struck as being as ambitious as ADV was or as boisterous as the other licensing companies. They're very, very conservative and were among the first companies to cancel anime series DVD releases in mid-production WITHOUT A WORD to consumers when it was obvious the series-in-question weren't selling. Maddening, but that's their business M.O.) The only people who know for sure are the people who have final sales figures at Viz. I'm still of the opinion that more recent Shonen titles and anime haven't been near as popular as shows a few years ago were. Cartoon Network/Adult Swim isn't even showing the latest Naruto series and the ratings for Bleach and other "new" anime on CN have been abyssmal... |
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njprogfan
 Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 1160 Location: A River Named Toms |
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I'm a bit shocked
 . But I agree with some that they rely too much on their Jump titles. Although I should have seen this coming after they dropped Shojo Beat and dropped the page count on Jump. I'm just hopeing that don't cancel Kurohime or Strawberry 100%.
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Jaymie
Posts: 915 |
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I blame television networks for cutting back on Anime, which initiates a lot of future manga buyers, and Viz for investing too much in Shonen Jump and not enough in other titles.
They need to understand that the old ten year-old Narutard bubble has burst. Naruto and Bleach are nowhere near as popular as they used to be, and right now the only dedicated manga buyers are teenage girls and adult males. Viz needs to shape up and modernize to make it through these Anime/Manga Dark Ages. Cutting back release dates is always helpful, but they need to stop licensing crap and start going for things with large pre-installed fanbases. Yen Press knew what they were doing when they nabbed Black Butler. Also, they need to lower prices. Seriously. Tokyopop's low prices is what set it apart from Viz a decade ago, and Tokyopop's game-changing strategy propelled it to the top for a few good years. Of course, Tokyopop saturated everything, and they reaped the benefits, just as Viz is right now. Viz evaded its fate for a little while, but now it's time for them to shape up. By the way, DO NOT USE TISSUE PAPER LIKE TOKYOPOP DID. |
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luisedgarf
Posts: 656 Location: Guadalajara, Mexico |
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Maybe they have not- so- good translators, but any joke can be translated if you use your imagination carefully, but saying that cultural jokes can't be translated sounds too arrogant coming from many Anime hardcore fans. That's the reason why I stopped to watch the same amount of anime like in past years. |
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atunderdogk
 Posts: 74 |
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I was just wondering the other day where the second box set of Monster had been. I knew it was already dubbed since it was on Syfy but I guess this explains it. This is disheartening. But I guess the slow lack of releases they've put out recently is an indication that they weren't doing so well.
This says Viz Media though so doesn't that mean that it's just their anime thats primarily affected and not so much the manga? |
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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I could post a very eloquent and intelligent response to this bit of news, but I'm going to instead share the first two words that came to my mind when I heard this tidbit:
Oh. S**t.
Now even Viz is falling victim to the waning anime and manga industry? These are bad times indeed; I hope 4Kids' new initiative will spark a second wave of newbie anime fandom, or else the industry we care so much about will fall like a sack of bricks. |
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