So it’s not like Kodansha is ignoring us or doesn’t see the comments. It’s that the work involved is significant and not something that they want to rush into without really looking at the time and art clean up involved. And that’s before any kind of new translation stuff.
Directly tied into the question on printing older titles— Apparently it would be quite hard to reprint Mars due to the condition of the Japanese masters. It’s not impossible. But it’s not just reprinting the old Tokyopop as a 3-in-1 to maintain current quality expectations.
Q: How do you adapt Japanese idioms into English? A: Hire a professional translator. And Japanese knowledge is only one part. You need to be widely read and also a good writer in English. It’s not the words on the page, it’s the intention.
Q: What’s a challenge of licensing older (vintage titles). A: A lot of time it’s a rights issue, as well as how well the masters have been maintained by the Japanese publisher. Often times it’s a lot harder to remaster them, essentially.
A: (Ben) it can seem inevitable when a series gets popular but most things they don’t get a top tier anime out the gate have to be fought for. His example is Princess Jellyfish cause at the time, series with characters in their 20s weren’t selling.
Q: What’s a series or a genre that you’ve had to fight for and then the sales spoke for itself? A: (TJ specifically) Boys Run The Riot. Really awesome comments on having an all trans editorial team on it.
Q: How are the sales on one shots vs ongoing titles? A: It’s hard to build up an audience for one shots so if you like them, it’s important to pick them up, preorder, etc. same for short story anthologies. But it’s harder than ongoing titles due to shelf space.
Q: what gets a print license vs a digital and why are somethings trapped in digital? A: it’s a series by series thing and digital-only titles can get moved to print if they’re popular enough. But it’s a case by case thing. And digital is faster to release.
Witch Hat Atelier is getting a box set with the first 6 manga volumes and art cards.