Ask John: Why Haven’t More Raijin Manga Been Re-released?
|Question:
Why aren’t there more Gutsoon/Raijin license-rescues? Yes, the U.S. magazine bombed, but new companies are taking a chance on the Hokuto No Ken shows and 80’s movie, FUNimation took a chance on the Baki show, and Tokyopop took a chance on the Mammotte Shugogetten manga. Those seem to be doing well enough for their respective owners, so why aren’t we getting Souten No Ken now that there’s an anime tie-in which would help sell the manga? [The fact that Universal hasn’t released the anime here, even though it has the home video rights in Japan, is another thing which bugs me.] Inubaka seems to be doing OK for Viz, so Bow Wow Wata seems like a shoe-in for acquisition.
City Hunter was admittedly mismanaged. Raijin should’ve cross-promoted it with ADV and FOX, since those latter companies had the anime and live-action movie. Viz decided to give Slam Dunk another whirl here, but doesn’t want to touch Moufflon, even though it seems to fit in with many of the other action manga they’ve picked up in recent years (Gimmick!, Black Lagoon, Dogs). Dark Horse/DMP would also seem to be a good place for it, considering the company’s success with Gunsmith Cats, Hellsing, and Trigun.
Answer:
So called “license rescues” of manga titles do occur. Series including Lone Wolf & Cub, Akira, Masaomi Kanzaki’s Street Fighter II, Silent Mobius, and Azumanga Daioh, just to name a few, have been re-released by new domestic publishers. Even two of the titles initially translated within Raijin Comics – Mammotte Shugogetten & Slam Dunk – have been more recently distributed by new distributors. But since the American fan community hears a little less discussion about movements within the domestic manga licensing business than the anime side of the industry, manga licensing remains a bit more mysterious. I’m not privy to the internal business decisions of the manga publishing industry, so I can only speculate. First we have to consider the possibility that certain former Raijin Comics titles are simply unavailable for new American distribution. Excluding that possibility, we can examine possible related circumstances.
Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon tops the list of manga once available domestically but now inexplicably unavailable. With the growing number of American female manga consumers, I can only guess that the Sailor Moon manga isn’t presently available in America because it’s not available as a potential American license. Similarly, certain manga series formerly published by Raijin Comics may be also “off the table” for new American licensing, for reasons known only to their Japanese owners. If we set aside this possibility, we can speculate on a variety of reasons why other Raijin Comics titles haven’t been “license rescued.”
I own and have read every issue of Raijin Comics cover-to-cover (well, excepting issue 45 which got lost in the mail on its way to me), so I’m familiar with the dozen titles it carried. I’ll start with the easier titles to address. K2: Climbers Saga was a short two chapter story, so its lack of an American re-publication is understandable. Revenge of Mouflon has nice art and an interesting story, but takes much to long to get exciting. Comparing it to Slam Dunk is inappropriate because Slam Dunk is a sports manga and one of Japan’s most beloved of all manga series while Mouflon is a little known suspense thriller. The Keiji and Nemuri Kyoshiro samurai serials aren’t compelling. While neither of them are bad, neither of them are especially memorable, either. First President Of Japan is an intriguing political drama, but the failure of Viz Media’s publication of Kaiji Kawaguchi’s Eagle demonstrates that American readers aren’t interested in political drama manga. And I’ve previously discussed why Tsukasa Hojo’s City Hunter has little American market potential.
While I like Hokuto no Ken, I’ve long thought that Souten no Ken is ridiculous and dumb. I recognize its attempt to be satirically ultra-macho. I just don’t think it succeeds. While Hokuto no Ken can stand in America on its violence and nostalgic feelings, Souten no Ken has neither the frequent, excessive action nor an established, mainstream American audience. I suspect that explains why the manga hasn’t been re-licensed and why the TV anime adaptation remains unavailable in America. Like Souten no Ken, Bomber Girl and Grappler Baki are titles that appeal primarily to young adult men. Media Blasters canceling its entire line of violent and sexual seinen manga several years ago demonstrates that very few titles in the style of Souten no Ken, Bomber Girl, and Grappler Baki reach an American consumer audience large enough to financially sustain their English language release. Bow Wow Wata does seem to be a series thematically and stylistically similar to other American releases. I can only guess that, like other former Gutsoon licenses, it’s simply one of countless potential manga titles awaiting American publication.
From a domestic publisher’s perspective, licensing a title that already has a partial English translation may be somewhat more cost-effective than a title that needs to be translated from scratch. But a title that’s already been released in America once has a proven market potential while titles that haven’t previously reached America have an unknown, and therefore potentially much greater, market potential. With the sheer number of manga series available in Japan it’s natural that only a small fraction of them will ever reach America. Domestic publishers that don’t feel a strong desire to publish a certain title may want to experiment with new series rather than titles that have already demonstrated their American success – or lack thereof. Furthermore, the dozen titles published in Raijin Comics were ones selected by a Japanese publisher for exposure to American readers. Viz and Tokyopop have already seemingly acquired the titles they wanted from Raijin’s catalog. So without a Japanese publisher again encouraging the American publication of these titles, they’re simply not getting the attention of domestic publishers.
Article revised May 20, 2009
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“Mountain Climbers Saga was a single chapter story, so its lack of an American re-publication is understandable.”
I could swear there were more chapters, but I imagine that one didn’t get saved, because no one does extreme sports anymore nowadays.
“Revenge of Mouflon has nice art and an interesting story, but takes much to long to get exciting.”
The same can be said about Monster, though.
“Also note that while AnimEigo has retained its distribution rights to many of its live action samurai movies, it hasn’t renewed its Nemuri Kyoshiro movie rights,”
Actually, Animeigo just announced a DVD release for some of them. http://www.kungfucinema.com/animeigo-re-releasing-sleepy-eyes-of-death-7367
“First President Of Japan is an intriguing political drama, but the failure of Viz Media’s publication of Kaiji Kawaguchi’s Eagle demonstrates that American readers aren’t interested in political drama manga.”
Well, that’s not technically true. I mean, The West Wing had a good run. So I’m guessing First Prez didn’t succeed, because American fans are more interested in Japan’s feudal government than the parliamentary one.
And yeah, I know you brought up Keiji, which would contradict this argument; but I think that did poorly, because it didn’t exactly describe the guy’s rank; and American fans dig those long-winded descriptive Japanese titles.
As for City Hunter, I disagree about it not being as quirky as Trigun, but it probably lacks the flash of the latter series. Also, the fact that FUNi did in fact license some old Toei shows does indicate a market for older anime.
In addition, Slam Dunk and Parasyte are only slightly more recent manga than CH; so age shouldn’t be as much of a factor as previously believed. So I’m guessing the length is what keeps that sucker from getting a second shot. But the only thing they gotta do to sell the manga a second time is mention “the manga which inspired the Jackie Chan movie” on the cover.
“I’ve long thought that Souten no Ken is ridiculous and dumb. I recognize its attempt to be satirically ultra-macho. I just don’t think it succeeds.”
Yeah, actually a female reader on the Raijin boards said she actually thought the Hokuto No Ken Kenshiro is hotter than the Souten No Ken Kenshiro. Go fig. But I think Souten No Ken has the advantage of newer art, and the ability to cash in on Kung Fu Hustle, since the manga takes place in a similar time and in similar settings as the Stephen Chow movie.
“Souten no Ken has neither the frequent, excessive action”
That didn’t stop people from liking Bayformers. ^_-
“I suspect that explains why the manga hasn’t been re-licensed and why the TV anime adaptation remains unavailable in America.”
“Like Souten no Ken, Bomber Girl and Grappler Baki are titles that appeal primarily to young adult men.”
But Baki did well enough for FUNimation, even though the OVA probably only did ok for CPM. I could understand Bomber Girl doing horribly, but then Ikki Tousen has an audience, so you never know.
“Media Blasters canceling its entire line of violent and sexual seinen manga several years ago demonstrates that very few titles in the style of Souten no Ken, Bomber Girl, and Grappler Baki reach an American consumer audience large enough to financially sustain their English language release.”
But MB’s seinen stuff was mostly bottom-of-the-barrel crap, not anything with crossover appeal.
Also, I have to add that there’s no proof that sports manga actually do well here. So I think the only reason Viz took a chance on SD was because of the Vagabond connection.
Indeed, I forgot that AnimEigo had announced DVD release plans for Nemuri Kyoshiro movies, so I’ve removed the sentence, “Also note that while AnimEigo has retained its distribution rights to many of its live action samurai movies, it hasn’t renewed its Nemuri Kyoshiro movie rights, nor has any other domestic distributor picked up the series.”
Furthermore, GATS, you’re correct. The “Climber’s Saga” story was 2 chapters, not 1. I’ve corrected that also.
I would love to see more Ryoichi Ikegami released in the U.S. His collabarations with Sho Fumimura (Buronson) have been classics. Only two of thier collaborations have been imported to the U.S: Sanctuary (a very great manga series) and Strain. They worked on two yet to be imported, if ever, manga called Heat (i would really love to read this) and Lord which was thier last work together in 2004. I really wish more companies would step up to the plate and start translating and importing these books to an overseas market. There is alot of untapped great books out there that we’d love to read.