| Maybe it's because 14 dollars for a black and white comic book is regoddamndiculous. |
❝goodbyes are always hard, no matter how you might try to make them easier.❞ |
Yowane said: Maybe it's because 14 dollars for a black and white comic book is regoddamndiculous. Okay I have to ask, not that I'm deliberately trying to sound annoying, but did you actually read post # 69, or at the very least read page 4 of this thread, before posting your comment? I mean, really, did you? Not trying to sound mean, I swear! I'm just growing a little frusturated that everyone keeps saying the same thing and I'm just wondering what's up. |
| I feel rather disturbed at the amount of people who said: "I read online." Solely with the mindset that they will never buy manga. Which is what I sense through most of this thread. That's just my thoughts on the matter. |
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Yup said: I feel rather disturbed at the amount of people who said: "I read online." Solely with the mindset that they will never buy manga. Which is what I sense through most of this thread. That's just my thoughts on the matter. Lets see. Guide to reading manga through legit means. 1. Get a Job too pay for over priced manga. 2. Manage to enjoy the hack job translations. 3. Give up hope on ever reading really good lesser known/ controversial manga that never gets picked up. 4. Search like mad for out of print manga that will probably cost more. 5. Wait forever for releases and deal with licensing bullshit and litigation. 6. If all else fails pay for classes to learn Japanese and order online. Fuck it, I rather just read Scanlations. |
JigeroApr 18, 2010 2:43 AM
| It doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it doesn't laugh or cry..... All it does from dusk till dawn is make the soldiers die. |
| Jigero covered it excellently, but I can't stop laughing at this point; Yup said: Yes, in order to be a proper manga fan, I should devote several YEARS to learning a new language, and then pay outrageous sums of money for manga shipped from overseas or specialty stores. Sounds like a GREAT business model. I can't imagine why more people don't do this. |
| Meh, this isn't anything new. It was already dropping in sales from online scans AGES ago. I have some manga of my own. Even completed series. Fact of the matter is I stopped buying some simply because I don't want to keep waiting for new chapters and volumes to come out in another decade or two. That or I stopped reading the series altogether that I bought. Another thing is, I usually read online the series I can never seem to find around here, or ones that just never get published in English. And don't start with the whole 'buy online' shit. It could cost even more that way sometimes. |
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infinite_zero said: With the cost of Manga in NA, not surprising. Totally agree. The cost of manga in Sweden is about less than half of the cost in USA, and the cost of manga in Thailand is around 10 times less. |
| Its sad to see manga popularity decreasing, but there are a lot of good reasons for it. And its a tough economy right now. And as previous stated before by a few others, I think the core of the problem is too many people not understanding what manga is, and automatically thinking that anime is supierior to it. |
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H3ctor said: Oh and for anyone hating on online scanlations, bear mind that scanners have typed things like "go out and buy the hard copy to support the mangaka" or if "thanks for reading. Please buy the volumes if you liked what you read". I can't tell how you many times I've seen that. lol, yeah, because that really has an effect on things. People are either going to buy or not buy based on their own opinions and situation, not because a page in their free scans tell them so. Being exposed to the manga at least is more likely to have an effect on someone willing to spend money. |
| It's to be expected, why pay for manga when you can read them on the net? It's the same reason why "video rental stores" are slowly fading out. People would much rather order movies from home, than actually go out and rent one from a retailer. The internet is a double edged sword really. |
| hahaha it's hilarious too see that there are people who think that scanlations are the main and probably only reason for the decline of manga sales. also i agree with everything Jigero said. and btw i wonder how many manga got licensed after they 1st became popular thanks to the scanlations? (it's rhetorical question) |
ZeroApr 18, 2010 12:08 PM
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| I never said it was a perfect system for everyone. I'm just listing alternatives so that people can buy manga. It's better than never paying for manga and laughing at the guy who says you should support the people who make it to some extent. =.= |
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Yup said: I never said it was a perfect system for everyone. I'm just listing alternatives so that people can buy manga. It's better than never paying for manga and laughing at the guy who says you should support the people who make it to some extent. =.= Personally speaking, while getting a job or learning Japanese do technically count as alternatives, that probrably serves as a separate problem. Though I won't go into much detail about that, but I will agree that it's all about finding ways to support manga sales. Which I think is another reason why there's a lack of a "collector mentality." With some fans (not all, but some), there's more of a "entitlement issue." It's all about wanting to find the perfect translations, the perfect number of pages per volume, the perfect paper material, the perfect retail price, the perfect quality, etc., etc., etc.. The companies could pour all sorts of thought into how to release a manga title while being hyper-aware of what the fans want and the fans themselves still wouldn't be satisfied! I can sort of understand a sense of demand for good quality out of a company, but it doesn't really help to support the industry in anyway (especially if as a fan, you have every intention of giving a shit) if people are going to always point out every reason to not support the products these companies hand out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that even defeat the purpose of informing people the status of sales in the industry through these articles if fans are going to just throw a sense of entitlement and not give a shit? |
| People keep parroting the same wrong explanations, no matter how many times they're shown to be incorrect. "The economy" doesn't make any sense, since US graphic novels (comics), which cost just as much as manga, have INCREASED their sales in the same time period that manga has declined. "Scanlations" also can't be the reason, considering that scanlations have been widespread since at least 2005, and yet, manga sales INCREASED from 2005 to 2008. The only difference between scanlations now and 5 years ago is that more niche, relatively lesser known manga are being translated...stuff that the companies don't localize and distribute in the North American market, anyways. Of course, I fully expect to read some variation of "the economy" or "scanlations" in the majority of posts from here on, too. |
| not surprising indeed |
| The existence of scanlations are not at fault here. I think most people will agree that reading a tankobon is much more gratifying than reading from some computer screen. and every fan will buy books for that reason. If anything, the scanlations will widen the fanbase. I think the biggest problem is the pricing. The recent increase in price will lead to people investing their limited amount of spending money in other products. the same money can be used for books, comics, dvd's, cd's, games and a lot of other things. and with the current prices, other products are more interesting. ofcourse the real problem will be the vicious circle. higher prices -> less buyers -> smaller prints -> less profit -> higher prices -> ... given the young target audience the prices should be made a lot lower, to have a real manga boom. the japanese publishers are not helping either asking such high license fees. |
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