| According to Publishers Weekly, VIZ Media has laid off about 40% of their employees, 55 people at San Fransisco Headquarters and 5 in New York office, which has been closed down. The percentage of the cut down of VIZ Media staff surpasses the shrinkage of the US manga market. Anime!Anime! inferred VIZ Media's pessimistic prospect for the industry. Sources: Publishers Weekly, Anime!Anime! Related topic: Manga Sales In North America Continue To Decline |
| Uh oh. This doesn't look well. VIZ, being one of the guys who're making the industry blossom in trouble? This is pretty bad. |
| This is unfortunate. VIZ was a decent company. |
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| I hope those who got laid off can find another job soon. :x |
| yay for scanlations? |
| I'm surprised Viz is even doing that badly! Since they're the type of company that's usually hush-hush and have most of the popular shonen and shoujo titles, you would figure they would be doing okay, but I guess not. I read from someone on the ANN forums about this article that there were some recent signs of Viz cutting budgets like how their Shonen Jump magazine is cut back by about 50 pages than the usual 400 and how release dates for certain titles like Gintama and Hoshi Engi. Though what really surprises me is the fact Viz Media had a New York branch at all! That being said, if even Viz is hit hard in the market, then I guess it's to be expected that the anime industry just isn't doing so hot in general. Anime as a medium is hardly appealing to the mainstreams eyes, thus not a lot of people know anime exist, much less where to buy it. And it doesn't help that as vast as the anime fandom is, it is divided into so many different factions where only a handful of those people genuinely care to buy DVDs and manga. |
HypeathonMay 12, 2010 1:21 AM
| wait a tick.... how is the manga market going down? i keep seeing more and more series coming out at borders. chrimany i hope they dont just up and stop publishing some series right in the middle of them..... |
ff_rubberducky said: wait a tick.... how is the manga market going down? i keep seeing more and more series coming out at borders. I'm just taking a swing at this since I'm not totally sure, but my guess it's a lot of supplies, but not enough demand. So more manga is filling the shelves, but not enough people are out to buy them I guess. |
| 40% is allot of %. that's like... almost half ya know? |
| They should have never released so many Naruto volumes so quickly. Since they caught up, they have no more cash cows of that caliber to generate dough. |
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chinlamp said: Hypeathon said: ff_rubberducky said: wait a tick.... how is the manga market going down? i keep seeing more and more series coming out at borders. I'm just taking a swing at this since I'm not totally sure, but my guess it's a lot of supplies, but not enough demand. So more manga is filling the shelves, but not enough people are out to buy them I guess. Yeah, the reason this happened is cos of assholes like this: Tamako said: yay for scanlations? Who believe that scanlations are a good thing. I may read manga online, but every series I have that's been put into English, I've bought. That's not what I meant at all. It was meant to be ironic. What I meant is that I believe scanlations are mainly the reason for these people losing their jobs. Most people would'nt pay for something they've already read or could get free online. There are problably lots of people that buy their manga like you and me, but it is obviously not enough. And because you have bought all the manga you have ever read online, doesn't mean everybody else does? |
BellusMay 12, 2010 2:10 AM
| I'm not a big manga reader so i don't own much manga. however i do have avast anime collection. not bootleg but actual official releases. you are right though people are less likely to to buy if they can get it for free. hell this year i have not bough much of anything. however when i have a little extra cash i make sure to buy something. it sucks though to see companies struggle. especially big ones, that's when you know the otaku community is in trouble |
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| yeah that really sucks, but like some of you said people won't buy something they can get for fee online. I guess another reason is the price markup for anime dvds. I know thats what is stopping right now to buy some. I rather get a $40-50 3 disk box set instead of 6-9 volumes at $20 each. I know they can make more money that way, but man..thats too expenisive. |
| THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT FOR NOT HAVING A JOB AND PIRATING YOUR ANIME AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY YOU WORTHLESS HOMELESS BUMS. |
 Old avatar and sig retired for now. |
| I'm certain this won't be the last time it happens. |
| suck news, VIZ help me to buy some titles which not licensed yet in my country. well their price is like 4x than price on my country, yet i still buy it, not like i buy manga to "read it" anyway. but what a irony, the majority of the US fandom maybe doesn't think like me. |
fertygoMay 12, 2010 4:08 AM
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| shit bad news |
DragoZERO said: They should focus on quality, maybe more people would buy their stuff. It's wrong when scanlations are higher quality, not just the editing but the translation too (Naruto, doppelganger instead of shadow clone? Come on!). I think that argument overall varies when you compare the quality of scanlations to the quality of printed manga. Visually, printed manga can often have better quality than scanlations since some scanlations would have the toning faded, some would have hatch lines seem pixelated, and others would look like as if the pages were straight out of a scanner. Some scalations can barely even match that of digital pages of amnag uploaded in certain companies websites. Besides, I think some people personally prefer printed work over digital work regardless of how much better the quality of the latter is. Editing and translation wise, I'll admit certain terms and ways characters would talk can vary compared to scanlations, which can turn some people off. That aside, I think the problem with a company doing any translations, or even subtitling or dubbing is that it's impossible to please everyone in the anime fandom because you can only please so many factions at once, who have their own preferences. Also when you say "more people would buy their stuff," do you refer to the anime fans that have yet to buy their stuff? I ask because I think that in itself is a problem since because of the factions factor, only a small set of anime fans choose to care to buy mangaand there just aren't enough eyeballs outside of the fandom where anyone in the mainstream would buy manga. That might be part of the problem since comics in general are somewhat niche in terms of the number of people who still buy them and the fact they're a luxury product (I assume some are/were raised to have to throw out their comics growing up) and manga being technically foreign comics makes it even all that much more of a niche luxury product. |
HypeathonMay 12, 2010 7:53 AM
| Awww I liked VIZ.. to bad it coudln't happen to a different, horrible, company.. |
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| oh dear, I've been putting off buying a lot of manga, been waiting till a few chapters are out, but i had best get to it now before its all gone. |
Tamako said: For some reason I could imagine hearing one of the laid off workers already saying: "yay for scanlations!" in the most sarcastic way possible.yay for scanlations? |
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| Wooooow the anime/manga industry is suffering a lot lately... |
| Peh, so assholes that stay at home are the reasons for this and downloading every available scanlated manga out on the internet :P |
| yeah, definitely scanlations are responsible, the current economic situation has nothing with this. *should i mention this was sarcasm? noooo idea* |
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| I would never support an NA license holder of an anime. All anime I own is straight from Japan and I would never want it any other way. |
| Is this hurting AMERICAN anime companies, or does it also hurt Japan too? |
| I'm sad...yet a bit happy...Sucks for the layoffs and probably a shortage of manga for fans to buy and support. However I've never bought manga and Viz always pisses me off with its licensing though I still half support their efforts. Same goes for Funimation and Crunchyroll. Even if I could get access to half the manga I read I'd still never pay. I buy so much stuff that I just don't have the money for it. Got a lot of hobbies and college. |
| alot of this does have to do with scanlations it makes it easy for people to read series for free which then means not buying them later which is why I dont read manga that has been licensed online Or anime for that matter |
| I'm also not concerned. Other hobbies of mine have suffered under the economic crisis and business is still continuing as normal. Though I was very troubled when broccoli books shut down. I have a bookshelf full of unfinished works and faint hope of someone else picking them up. |
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GarLogan78 said: Is this hurting AMERICAN anime companies, or does it also hurt Japan too? Hmmmmm, ....well from what I hear, a bit of whatever money made by an American company based on the anime/manga title is somehow sent to Japan, so I'm assuming Japan is affected somewhat. Though it's not as if we aren't hearing decrease in sales from Viz. We've only heard layoffs, so I'm not really sure how that really affects any Japanese companies associated with Viz, like Shokakugan Shuiesha. |
divito said: I would never support an NA license holder of an anime. All anime I own is straight from Japan and I would never want it any other way. Well, unlike you, some people can't read Japanese but still want to buy manga to support the industry. I hope the sales pick up for the sake of those individuals. |
| I didn't agree with some of the things Viz did, but it is quite shocking to see a company I thought was as sound as Viz lay off so many workers. |
| It'll be a shame if a lot of their newer titles do get canceled. I read Maoh 1 today, and I 100% plan on collecting that for some Code Geass-esque goodness. Eye techniques/mind control isn't exactly new, but the ventriloquism power of the lead does add a new twist to it. I've also read half of Dorohedoro 1 - one of Viz's releases that are bigger in size and have slick covers - and that seems different enough to be worth collecting, too. Where as, say, ADV released as much junk as they could on DVD, Viz actually seem to be releasing lots of quality manga titles all at once. I plan on having a look at Jormungand(sp?) and Children of the Sea sooner or later, and I'm betting there are other quality titles they've released/will release that are worth a look. I'm impressed by how Viz offer inexpensive releases and more expensive, excellent value for money releases, depending on the title. There's not much difference when buying from UK import stores--most of Black Lagoon costing as much as the Maoh releases--but I still like the idea of them trying hard to sell their products both to cheapskates and collectors; the type easily impressed by shiny covers and bigger panels. I'll cry myself to sleep if they stop releasing Ikigami--one of the best manga titles my eyes have glanced over. And they'd better not drop Black Lagoon now that I own seven volumes (the eighth is en route)! The releases are the most sexy ever, and I actually like Black Lagoon more in manga form because all the silly battle poses/slaughtering bits aren't as painful without motion. |
DragoZERO said: Haha. I wouldn't have bought the manga I have now if scanlations were not invented. Think about that one. :D This is a valid point. I'm the same way; I won't buy before I try, and at most bookstores around here, manga is sold sealed up in plastic. GarLogan78 said: Is this hurting AMERICAN anime companies, or does it also hurt Japan too? I have heard it said that the current trend towards moe and the (not so current trend) of putting ecchi and fanservice in everything is because the only people who actually BUY anime, in Japan or otherwise, are otaku. Hence the reason why panty shots etc are often blurred out in the broadcast version and visible on the DVD. |
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