A look at the western end of the manga publishing industry, from both a business and a customer perspective. PATREON: / emberreviews Twitter: / ember_reviews Berserk source: www.crunchyrol...
Seven Seas are probably the most impressive in terms of manga publishing because they almost always manage to get the titles with the strongest niche audiences. Usually if I want to read a more obscure manga they're the ones who have it. Hell, the fact that they got both the Accelerator and Railgun manga even though the main Index manga and light novels are Yen Press is a huge win for them given how devoted that fanbase is.
I totally agree with you on physical > digital manga, and I've been working on getting my own collection started lately. Really cool and informative video, thanks!
When people think ''Western'' i'ts usually referenced towards Anglo countries, the US and UK specifically but also Canada Australia and New Zealand. i know its technically incorrect because Europe as a whole is western but in peoples minds they usually gravitate to English Speaking countries specifically. Viz Yenpress Seven Seas and KC are the biggies in the UK, both the US and UK are considered 1 region when licencing manga is concerned.
What a very lovely video. I've been putting it off along with 6 other videos I opened last week, and this was easily the best one I watched. I actually have very little to say in regards to the content of your video; it was very thorough and with good explanations and names I haven't heard before as more than a casual reader but less than a researching enthusiast. In regards to Seven Seas, you got the genres very right, as is not only reflected in their catalog but also in their monthly surveys where you can suggest manga for them to licence. Lastly, I also really like many of the titles you mentioned as your favourites, so if you haven't read Kakukaku Shikajika (or Blank Canvas as Seven Seas has translated it), then I strongly recommend doing so. They are currently on volume 2, with volume 3 (of 5) beging released soon. I'll be looking forward to more videos!
Great video Ember. The only thing I disagree with you is the new FMA volumes. I actually find them very comfortable to hold but that’s subjective. Plus given how I gave away my older volumes I’ve been collecting the new ones. But other than that this video was great.
I'd say the last notable thing Yen Press did was when they started releasing Kakegurui's manga when Season 1 aired. Which I do think was a smart move considering just how popular S1 was. I mean it was the most watched anime during its season (at least before Made in Abyss really picked up steam) and it was locked in Netflix jail.
With their recent release of another shoujo-ai manga called Still Sick (its super good btw. Fans of Bloom into You will like it), its looking like Tokyopop is going down the LGBT route as well. Vertical's lineup can definitely be described as weird. It seems like they are aiming for the niche artsy titles that other publishers would probably never pickup. They have been on a roll this year with their releases of After the Rain, My Boy, and Go with the Clouds North-by-Northwest. All of which are top tier manga. IMO, Kodansha and Seven Seas are currently the best publishers for their sheer variety and frequent releases, while Yen Press is at the bottom for their all the isekai trash they have consistently been putting out. But eh, they get a pass since they still occasionally pick up gems like Ryoko Kui's (Dungeon Meshi author) Seven Little Sons of the Dragons.
Something kind of random that I find funny about seven seas- they seem pretty lax when it comes to sexual stuff and censorship. They seem more willing to publish ecchi stuff than the others.
I could totally be wrong here, but I know Vertical is an offshoot of Kodansha USA evidenced by how during a variety of Kodansha USA live events and promotions their properties are shown off as well, so unless all the Vertical manga are owned by a Kodansha subsidiary is it possible that Vertical is the Kodansha USA branch that licenses manga not owned by Kodansha?
Typically no. Stuff like VizBigs and the Sailor Moon Eternal edition have flaps built into the cover, but not a proper jacket. The only one I've ever seen is for Junji Ito's Fragments of Horror.
Viz make bank publishing all the major titles from Shueisha and Shogakughan but won't publish anything that isn't new. It also sucks that they don't seem interested in trying to bring back Gintama or Reborn even though I really think those would do well for them now. Also still sucks they haven't bothered bringing over some classics like Kenichi or Kingdom. Still, at least it's good to see them rescue and bring back Fist of the North Star. KodanshaUSA will publish a manga if it has a strong foundation like if its got the potential to be a popular shonen or if ti has a new anime (which I'm 99% certain is the only reason Shaman King got rescued. Without that anime it'd still be out of print. This is my main theory as to why they haven't bothered rescuing Zatch Bell yet. Also anyone else still bothered by the fact they haven't done omnibus releases of Rave Master even though Mashima is like their big Golden Goose. Here's hoping that Mashima Heroes release drums up enough interest finally) Yen Press kinda just publish whatever they can and I hope Plunderer does well enough for them to also publish Heaven's Lost Property. Seven Seas make bank off of publishing manga right after an anime airs when people are likely most interested and usually take the manga Viz don't want like HxEros and Yuuna San Dark Horse get the quality titles but unless its Berserk I don't think they ever reprint them. I had to actually call a Barnes and Noble and ask them to ship me a leftover copy of Blade of the Immortal Omnibus 7 they still had in stock because I couldn't find it online anywhere. Not to mention certain volumes of Drifters are out of print and while the deluxe editions of Hellsing are great it still kinda sucks the original paperbacks are still out of print
They publish plenty of old stuff. They're almost finished with a reprint of 20th Century Boys, they did a reprint of Ranma 1/2 a couple years ago, they just started a reprint of Maison Ikkoku, and they just finished a hardback print of Drifting Classroom, just to name a few. As for Gintama, it's not really a profitable venture right now. The anime has always been infinitely more popular than the manga, and even then the anime hasn't seen more widespread popularity until the past year or so. I haven't even heard someone mention Kenichi in over a year, and Reborn's popularity died off insanely fast after it's anime ended, so those are even less worthy ventures than Gintama, plus they're all insanely long so Viz has to commit to essentially a decade-long investment that most likely won't pay out. Kingdom is really the only big holdout, but again it's insanely long so it's a huge undertaking.
@@emberreviews1364 Yeah, those are all really good points. Admittedly most of what I said was just stuff that bothered me. Especially things like Kenichi which yeah nobody has really talked about in years.
@@upg5147 Its a type of manga made outside of Japan and in English language countries. They are pretty niche but they are also pretty good. Some include: Amazing Agent Luna, Gold Digger, Bizenghast, Re;Play, Next Exit, Brody's ghost and Dark Blood witch I am currently reading. I would suggest giving all of these a try sense most of them can be bought on Amazon or Google shopping.
@@babywolf4238 I sadly don't have any I wanted him to cover. I know there are some but I don't know by name (was hoping this video gave me some). The main one I know is called Apple Black. It runs in a shounen jump like magazine called Saturday FM I think?