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HOMEWORK: How Has Manga Changed?

Topic started by gia on May 3, 2009. Last post by lanaswift 4 years ago.
Post by gia (3,032 posts) See mini bio Level 13
What changes have you noticed in manga releases over the last year and a half? Have YOUR manga-buying habits changed?
Posted 4 years ago
Post by Schwindelmagier (314 posts) See mini bio Level 6
Well, this is something that Viz has done with the Naruto manga for quite some time now. Kind of irritates me but they've edited alot of the content to make it I guess more "kid friendly" or whatever. Examples are: absolutely no swearing whatsoever, even when it looks like that character wants to so badly (Hidan in volumes 35-37) and taking out cigarettes from the equation and there was this one scene which was like a yaoi/yuri sort of thing I suppose..THAT I can understand being edited sure, but taking out all the "bad language" to make it more appropriate is pointless considering all of the more graphic content was left in. I could be completely off base with my opinion that's fine I'm just telling it how I see it. I still did buy the volumes of Naruto to add to my collection, but what I forementioned above left me a little irritated.


Edited 4 years ago
Post by lanaswift (636 posts) See mini bio Level 4
There actually isn't REALLY such a thing as "swear words" in Japanese anyway, just really impolite forms of speech. So it's hard to say that they've actually "cut out swearing." But I get what you mean.

...But as you say, VIZ has done it for some time now, and plenty of companies before them, so it's not really something that's "changed."

I feel like there are less manga series to get excited about. It's sort of like we've mostly caught up and are releasing series that are big in Japan (even if we might be behind them in specific chapters/volumes), and now we're waiting with them for the next big breakout thing. Which might explain declining sales.

I mean, think about it...20 years ago, even 10 years ago there were still plenty of majorly popular series that hadn't been licensed. There aren't a lot of those now...and those that are there probably CAN'T be licensed or they already would have. But so, that means that 10 years ago, maybe a quarter or even half of new licensing announcements were ZOMG BIG DEAL kind of things. Now the new licenses are so new they haven't necessarily had time to build up audiences in Japan, which means more risk for the companies that license them and less interest from buyers, unless the series significantly breaks out.

I think that plays a part. I think it's true for the anime world as well.
Posted 4 years ago
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