What’s the deal, Kodansha?

October 27, 2009 in Manga Minutiae | 22 comments

I’d been avoiding reviews of the new reprint of Ghost in the Shell from Kodansha.  I’ve heard the rumors, but I wanted to wait until I got my hands on it before I said anything.  Well, now I have it.

So, what was the point, Kodansha?

What’s the point of giving us a GitS that is nearly identical to the first edition released by Dark Horse so many moons ago?  Why is it flipped, and missing pages (which Dark Horse restored in later editions)?  I love the work Frederick Schodt and Toren Smith had done with GitS, but do you really think this is what the current market of manga readers expect from you?  This would be the fourth copy I own of the first GitS (well, 5th since I accidentally purchased 2 copies of your edition.)  Do you believe I bought this release because I just had to have GitS with a matte interior finish?

What’s your master plan, Kodansha?  Why was it necessary to take this license away from Dark Horse, if you’re not doing a different treatment of the book?  It couldn’t have been because you felt Dark Horse wasn’t promoting the property, because I haven’t seen any marketing efforts from you.  I can’t even find your URL in this book.

Why are you here, Kodansha?  Is it really all about cashing in on a couple of movies?  If that’s the case, you’re about nine months too early.  Are the only books you’ll be releasing those with forthcoming Hollywood adaptations?  Can we expect Sailor Moon to be released in Tokyopop’s two-page magazine spread format, when Joss Whedon finally decides to make that movie, starring Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, and every other teen starlet from Nick who hasn’t had a scandal?  Yes, I’m starting a rumor.

Seriously, WTF, Kodansha?

But thanks for Akira.  Man, I haven’t read this in a while.

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Coincidentally, ANN has a brief but insightful interview with Frederick Schodt about the state of the industry.

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According to Anime News Network, Japanese companies are set to take an even tougher stance on illicit online trading of content.  Composed of 23 companies and 31 organizations across the fields of entertainment and technology, the Content Overseas Distribution Association will combat online sharing of anime via software that will automatically search for unauthorized videos (and presumably music, books, and games in the future) on the net.  Threat of this program becoming sentient in a sea of information notwithstanding, any such anti-piracy effort must have legal weight behind it to succeed, which in turn requires cooperative governments and the ability to carry out lawsuits in a cost-effective (maybe even profitable?) manner.  This is why I’m skeptical of the overall effectiveness of focusing on mainland China first, where copyright laws are openly flaunted without repercussion, and legal relief is difficult to obtain without deft handling of oft-corrupt local government officials.  How does the old adage go… litigation begins at home?

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The latest Flipped column offers some recommendations on horror manga, while AnimeOnDVD lists a few more contemporary selections.  It’s really too bad that few manga of traditional Japanese ghost stories, drawn by practically anonymous freelancers, are known outside of Japan.  Those are the ones I’d really like to see…

  1. Thomas on October 27, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Seriously!? The new version of Ghost in the Shell is matte, flipped and censored? Did they retranslate it with netspeak as well? Why is it that the Japanese companies can’t seem to market their own properties at all. Criminy.

    Reply

    1. Simon on October 27, 2009 at 4:48 pm

      Just to be clear, anyone who hasn’t read Ghost in the Shell *should* pick up this book. The original translation is still fantastic, the re-paneling done by Studio Proteus is flawless, and the one missing scene is really minor. The book is actually larger and thicker than the Dark Horse versions. The interior paper is perfectly fine, and some people probably prefer matte over glossy for manga.

      That said, I’m coming at this from the perspective of someone who owns previous editions of the book, and had very high hopes for Kodansha when their entry into the North American market was rumored. For me, this purchase was utterly pointless. Kodansha, in their own minds, is no doubt aiming this at the masses of new readers they hope the movie would generate. But I think they are misreading the market, particularly on the issue of flipping. The idea that people can’t get used to reading from right to left should be banished along with the myth that digital will never replace print because people hate reading on monitors. The young and the tech savvy – the very same audience for a movie like GitS – are much more adaptable than the fuddy-duddies realize.

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      1. Thomas on October 27, 2009 at 6:28 pm

        Unfortunately, I only have the 1995 version and was hoping for an authentic unaltered version, and giving some cash to a new presence on the US scene was a plus. Maybe they’ll make the money back on Western comic book fans who hate lesbians, but I’m not sure.

        Ghost in the Shell seems to be the kind of series people would have already made up their mind on. It, Akira, and Urotsukidoji essentially defined what anime is/was for the early ’90s. Torpedo breasted stripper kills a lot of people and has incomprehensible philosophical debates in a sci-fi Japan. Anyone who doesn’t grok it already is going to be a hard sell, I’d imagine. A new property like Chi’s Sweet Home seems to be a gamble worth taking: it might actually sell beyond the otaku set. Not so sure with Ghost or Sailor Moon.

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      2. Rob on October 28, 2009 at 9:05 am

        Hmm.. I forgot what version of GitS I have. I assume the restored. I’ll wait. On reading right to left, it is getting bad now reading web comics or my western comics. I keeping reading the panels right to left and wondering why they don’t make sense.

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  2. Masamonkey on October 27, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    The GitS issue is reversed for me, I didn’t have a copy of GitS before, but I’m pretty happy with this 7×10. Akira though, I’ve replaced each volume of that a few times and I really wasn’t impressed enough with this new edition to replace my Dark Horse hardcover.

    Reply

  6. Matt Blind on October 28, 2009 at 8:41 am

    My Theory: Kodansha is using these two series as seed capital — yeah, sure, they’ve set up the company with $2 Million and all that from last year’s press release — but I think they’re banking on sales of multiple volumes of Akira and GitS (as noted, they haven’t really changed a thing from the [earliest] Dark Horse editions of these books, in effect getting the translation and formatting for *free*) to get things rolling. Past the cost of printing, and since they aren’t spending any money on marketing, a web site, conventions and other fan outreach, or even free review copies for bloggers to generate a little internet buzz — since they have few other costs it’s all money in the bank.

    They could be planning to use the profits to launch the *real* US publishing company later. Or it could be a cash grab. Or they are being Kodansha and keeping all options open, not committing to anything, until the economy and manga market improve.

    I just don’t know. And I think I might pop a blood vessel if I think about Kodansha and their plans too much

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    1. Simon on October 28, 2009 at 8:59 am

      The complete lack of marketing irks me. Like I said, if they’re just hoping to ride the trickle of GitS movie news, I think they’re a tad early. The only people who care right now are those who know the book already.

      Man, I feel even worse for Dark Horse now. =(

      Reply

      1. Masamonkey on October 28, 2009 at 4:06 pm

        Don’t feel too bad, they wouldn’t get that Mike Richardson foreword by shitting all over Dark Horse. In fact, do you know who handled the printing? I’d actually be surprised if it didn’t go through DH in some capacity.

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  7. Sesho on October 28, 2009 at 4:46 pm

    I totally agree with everything you said about GITS. I only have one copy, the “pre-restored” version from Dark Horse, which I bought used. My whole issue with this and the Akira books is that they’re just too damned expensive. I don’t usually pay $20-30 for PAPERBACK

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    1. Simon on October 29, 2009 at 4:12 am

      Hey now, there are other publishers releasing paperbacks at $20… ;)

      Had I never read GitS before, I would think the price point on this is quite fair. This edition is oversized, larger than Dark Horse’s release, and it’s hefty. It’s worth it, just like Berserk is worth $14. And in all honesty, despite my bitching, I’ll still get GitS 2 from Kodansha when it comes out. But I hope they make some changes…

      Reply

  8. Spica on October 28, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    I have both the DH original Graphic Novel, a few of the 1st ed pamphlet style comics (all of GITS 2 and 1.5 in pamphlet form), and a Japanese bilingual edition I bought before DH released the restored edition. I’ve been considering whether to purchase the DH 2nd edition for some time. I guess I should probably do so soon, before it becomes impossible to find.

    Reply

  9. Randall Fitzgerald on October 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    I would recommend that the Japanese look at what happened to, well, the two case studies I’d take from this sort of action. The first being the war on drugs. It’s a pretty easy leap to make.

    Then take the RIAA. A company based in the country they’re trying to stop filesharing. Their success… almost nil? A couple of lawsuits against dead old women and single moms in middle America.

    I vote no. But hey, they can waste their money all they like I suppose. I mean, why put it into making higher quality product when you could sue people you aren’t making money off of for taking imaginary money that you weren’t going to make in the first place?

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    1. Simon on October 29, 2009 at 4:10 am

      You know I love you man, but come on now…

      That’s like saying “Hey, let’s get rid of all the security guards and cashiers and trust that people will do the right thing!” Fighting piracy is part of the business for those that can afford it.

      Do you honestly believe that the music industry losing half of its revenue in less than a decade and the rise of broadband internet to be a coincidence?

      The war on drugs, if anything, backs the “scarcity” model of business.

      The RIAA went after random, anonymous users. Do you think that’s going to be the case with anime? Unlike the RIAA, Japanese companies have been very selective about the cases they pursue in their home country, and they’ve been winning them. Apples and oranges.

      You could say that anti-piracy measures taken up til now have been flawed, and I’d agree with you. But to say that it no negative effect, or that copyright holders shouldn’t protect their own property? That’s silly.

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      1. Randall Fitzgerald on October 29, 2009 at 6:10 am

        The way I see it, companies have neglected their core audience and their preferred methods of media consumption. With the RIAA, they decided to try to stop the march forward of technology rather than getting in on the ground floor. Now they sort of have to take whatever iTunes will give them. But that’ll change one day too.

        As I read it, they formed this coalition to go after international groups. The reason the RIAA ran into so many problems is the privacy protections. And trying to get past those as an international group looking to sue international citizens for copyright infringement. Though I can see why they might have thought things would go well after Singapore.

        As for my point about the war on drugs, look how much money it took to keep them that scarce. And even then it’s hard to argue that the war on drugs has been terribly successful. Haha.

        God damnit, don’t make me think about stuff, Simon. You never reply more than once anyway. Especially with a new post up.

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        1. Simon on October 29, 2009 at 6:36 am

          >The way I see it, companies have neglected their core audience and their preferred methods of media consumption.

          In the overall picture, the “preferred methods” argument has very little to do with piracy. If that were true, iTunes should have wiped out casual piracy, but it hasn’t. We keep making a big deal out of digital sales, but the truth on the ground right now is that e-music sales is less than 10% of music industry revenue, which has tanked overall.

          If anime companies weren’t making things people want to watch, why would there be 60+ million downloads of it every month?

          >The reason the RIAA ran into so many problems is the privacy protections

          That, and they chose to focus on the wrong people.

          But they have one major court victory in the US. And most of the time, people choose to settle instead of go to trial with them. So it is quite possible we may be underestimating their success, even if they aren’t necessarily “winning the war,” so to speak.

          >look how much money it took to keep them that scarce.

          Yeah, but the cartels aren’t the ones spending that money…

          >You never reply more than once anyway

          I have nothing to do. Windows 7 upgrade of my main computer has taken 26 hours and counting.

          Reply

          1. Masamonkey on October 29, 2009 at 4:02 pm

            The 14 – 24 demographic has traditionally been lucrative due to their disposable income, but that disposable income was always coming out of someone else’s pocket; the truth is, those younger markets have always been getting things for free and now they’ve just cut out the middleman. As long as a music company is throwing their weight behind Hanna Montana or some American Idol Flavor of the Month or a movie producer wants to update a gen x property for a current 14 – 24 market, they’re trying to sell to a demographic with zero interest in buying anything and never has. Meanwhile, the recent Beatles box set stuffed with material that has been widely available for eons isn’t tacking any shelves down any time soon. The quality of content arguments come down to my continually asking media providers, please, give me product I, an adult, can give two shits about so I can buy it, but they insist, instead, on telling me Paris Hilton can sing because they want 16 year-olds to not buy their shit.

            Quick note on the War on Drugs: Complete failure -if- the idea were to stop drugs, but a complete success in terms of real politik. Look how tough it is recently for South Americans to scratch together anything resembling true sovereignty and some pretty broad and direct lines can be connected to the war on ‘drugs.’

  11. Inkwell on November 2, 2009 at 1:09 pm

    When I saw that the Kodansha edition was nearly identical to the Dark Horse edition I actually did a little dance. In the manga section at Borders. The point may be: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

    What pages are missing, by the way? If it’s the lesbian scene, that means I can give a copy to my mother-in-law. Or to my library.

    Reply

    1. Simon on November 2, 2009 at 6:03 pm

      “If it’s not broken, why take it away from Dark Horse?” is the way I look at it.

      As for the missing pages, it’s quite trivial, but again it just made little sense to take them out because Dark Horse’s later editions *did* contain them. And the book still contains nudity…

      Unless your library is a school library, I’m sure the lesbian scene wouldn’t give them any pause at all.

      Reply