Solaris-SVU

Now that we're 4 volumes into the Manga release, I figure it's as good a time as any to open up a thread to talk through whether this story should/will be licensed as Anime.

Yeah, we don't have any *real* feed into their process, but we can still *talk* about it, right?

My take: I think it may get licensed, and will be watching the rags this year to see when news comes out on its licensing and production, then start watching the torrent feeds to see when the translations start to appear. With the success of Fumizuki's 'Ai Yori Ao Shi', there's a demonstrated audience for his work. Besides, the Japanese seem to like the harem comedies, if Tenchi Muyo was any indicator....provided they're done moderately well.

let the conversation begin!!

I agree. It has a good chance to become an anime, and, eventually to be licensed. However, the story is developing relatively slow. Even with all that's been put out so far, I can't imagine there being enough content for much of a series... Not that it's stopped anyone before. Still, I think it's a little early for either anime or licensing, but neither would surprise me.

You have a point...Ai Yori Ao Shi ran 17 volumes, but the Anime only covered some 2/3 of the series. I'd have to go back and check release dates to see how it corresponded with releases of the manga, but I'd suspect the manga was at least 6-8 volumes in (~48-52 chapters) before it went into production.

This was exactly what I wanted, though.....discussion on whether it would happen, and speculation on when. I'm cool if things start slow, or take a little time before we see any developments (on the Anime development side)....just so long as the manga-ka...or the scanlators don't lose interest and move on to other projects. So far, this is still an interesting story, however slow the development....

Another thing to consider, in terms of licensing, is the declining popularity of anime/manga in the west. It's not what it was 5 years ago. That may affect, or delay any licensing.

not nearly enough action to be an anime, dose not mean i dislike the manga, infact i love it but just like some animes are meant to be anime, some mangas are meant to be and remain just manga.

I would much rather not see another ADV-like implosion where tons of series were dropped like a rock in the matter of overnight... leaving people in shambles as to figure out if certain series were licensed or not anymore... I still resent the fact that I lost one series to ADV's manga-whoring-orgy...

over the years, I lost interest in dubbed Anime anyways. *If* this is ever developed for Anime, and *if* it ever gets licensed for American release, I hope it rolls as subbed, not dubbed.

As for ADV, I'm grateful for their work in raising awareness of the Genre and the Product. I just wish so much crap hadn't been brought over along with the good series. I s'pose the argument that Dubbing Actors need work to get paid might sound good as the industry is getting its start but these days fans want *quality*, and that hasn't happened--I've not seen any measurable improvement over the past 10 years, so I don't buy or listen to that drek any more.

Because of the 'bubble' bursting we're almost back in the '90s as far as what's getting out, except that more publishers are aware of Japanese media now, so they license titles as they come out, then........................ you get the picture...

I'm glad that Solaris-SVU is around doing what you do...licensed or not. This way I get to see good stories, that *I* want to see, not what some marketing wizard thinks I want to see.....with a truer translation and not the bowdlerized, sanitized toilet-paper coming out of the big publishers these days,,,

For the record, we don't work on any licensed series (in US). We might work on them when they are not licensed, but we do drop them once we become aware of the change in license status... so "I'm glad that Solaris-SVU is around doing what you do...licensed or not." isn't quite a correct statement to say the least.

I don't indiscriminately hate ADV, I liked how they try to preserve the original cover art (unlike TokyoPop). I am simply angry at the fact that they bit more than they chew and ended up causing this post-bubble in mid-2000 that we are in. One of the side effect ADV brought (and I am talking about manga side only) is that rest of the publishers are cutting down on printing in order to avoid overstock. As result, many of new series/volumes published by other publishers are in short supplies. Last time I checked, Aria v5 is on back-ordered for three months and counting, and Yotsuba&! v6 is pretty much a stuff of urban legend.

They say if you eat pop rocks while reading Yotsuba your eyes will explode.

I really appreciate your work even if you drop any series that get licensed. But I beg you to reconsider. Not all of us are in US and therefore not all of us has the access to good manga if all of them are licensed. And usually not all of those manga will ever be published in my country (Indonesia) for example. Of course we can order them but usually it will take months..

So yeah, it's just my complaints about those manga that got licensed..

There is nothing to reconsider. Technically, even when a manga is not licensed, we are already breaking copyright law. But they usually don't send out C&D because we are, mostly, not encroaching on their turf or hurting their sales. When an American company picks up a series, they intend to release it in english, and having it already available in english will hurt their sales. Thus, they could sue us.

That's not the only reason. When you buy a book from a company that licensed it, a part of that goes back to the author, and you are supporting the industry. This is considered a good thing. While I do feel for those that can't get their hands on it easily, I have no intention of ending up in court over it. We're here to support the industry we love, not damage it.

Buy manga to support your favorite series. I cannot emphasize it more. I've been hearing too many people complaining about how "licensed version" is crap and they prefer the scanlation more... Well, that is partly why licensed publishers aggressively go after scanlators who works on licensed series. Besides, it would be an oxymoron to claim to support their favorite author when all people do is downloading AND seeking after scanlation when the licensed version is available.
I buy my manga (in both original and licensed form). Please spare me of the usual, "but I am a poor student". I am one of them, but save enough for this hobby of mine.

Same here. A large portion my purchases were made back when I was in school and didn't have a job. The method? I reallocated a portion of my food money to pay for it. It sounds like a cliché, but it actually happens.

If your problem is that you live in another country, that's not really a problem at all. Just import. Lots of people do. Hell, I import tons of stuff from Japan despite living in the US, where a lot of the stuff is available domestically. Take advantage of Right Stuf's studio sales (33% off of manga + an extra 10% off of the discounted price if you sign up for their Got Anime? annual membership ~= 40% discount) and their modest (compared to most companies that ship internationally) international shipping charges ($8 flat + $2/item for areas outside the US and Canada) to create large, cost-effective purchases (up to whatever the maximum you can import without paying any sort of import taxes, at least... or as much as you like if you don't care about import taxes... I'm not sure what those are like in your country). That way you'll still be supporting the industry.

Of course, with the weak Indonesian currency, that may still pose a problem. Well, there's always the ever-present "learn Japanese and hunt down raws online" option...

^ great suggestion kamen writer, thanks I'll try it when this series or any favorite series of mine got licensed. Btw it's not actually about the money (at least for me) but the time I have to wait for those volume got shipped here, it can get painfully long (approximately 3 months after I ordered) of course that is if I try to but it from my local book store, haven't really try to buy it myself through online..

And don't you think hunt down raws online also damage the industry?

It does. As has been stated before, scanlating in general is illegal and stealing. But what I was getting at was that, instead of relying on groups that won't scanlate a series because of its licensed status, you could learn the language for yourself since it's not licensed where you live. It's doing about the same damage that scanlation groups do by scanlating an unlicensed series... except it's limited to only one person, so it's actually hurting the industry less. Of course, that's only if you learn the language solely for your own enjoyment instead of making the translation available online.