Ask John: What Happened to the Riot, Eat-Man & Striker Manga?

Question:
I was wondering what ever happened to the manga series Riot by Satoshi Shiki? In the US the graphic novels only go to two volumns and then end, leaving you totally hanging right in the middle of the series. I really enjoyed the first two books and I was wondering if there were any more and where to get them? The same situation came up for Eat-Man and Striker. What happened to them?

Answer:
Manga is not my forte, so hopefully what I state here is all correct. As far as I can tell, Satoshi Shiki’s Riot manga series only had two volumes published in Japan in 1993 and 1994. The series was then apparently revived in 1998 with a second, 3 volume manga series titled “Riot of the World.”

While Viz only published two volumes of Eat-Man manga in America, in Japan the series lasted through 19 volumes, concluding in September 2003.

Likewise, Viz published 3 volumes of Spriggan manga in English under the title “Striker,” but the complete series ran through 11 volumes in Japan, plus a continuing series of novels that’s presently up to 13 books.

Unfortunately, Viz LLC is known for prioritizing manga that sell well. While it’s commendable that Viz has been willing to experiment with localizing many different manga for English speaking readers since the company’s debut in the late 1980s, Viz has also been known for its habit of dropping titles that don’t perform well, frequently before translating the entire series into English. After it was initially canceled, fan demand revived the English language translation of the Urusei Yatsura manga for a short time, before Viz canceled it again. I’m sorry to say, though, that the odds of Viz re-starting translated publication of the Spriggan, Eat-Man or Riot manga series seem pretty unlikely.

As always, AnimeNation can accept special order requests for virtually any books that are still in print in Japan.