Thoughts on The Crater Publishing

I had no idea until very recently that Kansai Club Publishing’s effort to Kickstarter publish an English book edition of Tezuka’s manga The Crater had engendered such a vehement frustration from supporters. Time has slipped by me, so I didn’t even realize that the book is actually now 10 months overdue. The publisher, Andrew Nevo, just sent out a new e-mail update begging for patience because, evidently, angry Kickstarter patrons have been complaining to the Better Business Bureau and directly to Tezuka Pro. The talkback on the Kickstarter page is filled with complaints that Nevo has not responded to inquiries and despite occasionally issuing production status updates, hasn’t produced a single photograph or piece of hard evidence that the manuscript or printer’s proofs actually exist as he claims that they do. I’m not arguing that disgruntled fans and supporters are being unreasonable. A lengthy lack of update or personal responses, and an ongoing absence of convincing evidence that this project is actually in the works are legitimate reasons for outrage.

However, personally, I’m willing to trust that this guy legitimately is publishing a book and is stuck in a mire of Japanese delays and approvals as he claims to be. I distinctly recall the frustration that the AN Entertainment staff had to put up with when we waited a year, and even had personal meetings with Bandai Visual staff members, just to be able to sign a licensing contract for the domestic rights to Haré+Guu. That’s literally waiting a year just for Bandai to work out its own internal conflicts between the show’s producers to even be able to offer North American distribution rights to us, not including the months we’d need to spend on translation, packaging, replicating, and distribution. So I know first-hand how long production delays and the Japanese approval process can take, and I sympathize with Kansai Club Publishing. Andrew promises, “All that we can do at this point is to make sure that our books come out perfectly and meet all of your expectations.” I have faith that someone devoted enough to vintage manga to dig up and attempt to translate obscure Tezuka manga means well, and I do expect that I, like all of the other 1,104 backers, will eventually get an archival-worthy English translated manga volume.

I just wanted to say that I trust and sympathize with Kansai Club Publishing. Having worked on three domestic translation licenses myself, I know what a headache licensing and translating is for a newcomer to the industry, especially one without established Japanese contacts.

Ganbare! Kansai Club Publishing.