Ask John: Why Do Titles Not Ideal for American Release Get Licensed?

Question:
I recently read that the manga Yakitate!! Japan was being licensed. I have read the manga and I know that most of the jokes don’t translate well into English. Why is it that manga and anime like this with jokes that wouldn’t make sense to people who don’t know or understand Japanese get licensed? And how likely are they going to try to make up their own jokes that are probably not as funny or try to explain them.

Answer:
There are many different reasons for why particular manga and anime get licensed for American release. Those include several simple and relatively self-explanatory reasons such as: the distributor likes it, it was available cheap, and the distributor recognizes a consumer demand for it. I suspect that the reason which is applicable in this case is the material being tremendously successful in Japan and an assumption that the material can achieve similar success in America.

Reportedly Viz Media will release Hashiguchi Takashi’s Yakitate Japan manga series in America. Since the series is published in Japan by Shogakukan, it’s not so much a case of Viz having licensed the series as it’s a case of Shogakukan simply deciding to publish the series in America through its American subsidiary. It’s not uncommon for publishers and distributors to assume that something tremendously popular in Japan may have a universal appeal that will make it equally successful in America. Sometimes this logic works; sometimes it doesn’t. Dragonball and Pokemon have been massively successful in Japan and have achieved tremendous success in America. One Piece and Detective Conan are tremendously successful in Japan but haven’t really caught on in America. My guess is that Shogakukan and Viz may not have thought very much about how suitable the Yakitate Japan manga is for American release. It’s a major hit franchise in Japan. Shogakukan and Viz may be betting that it’ll also become a major hit in America.

I can’t predict what Viz will do with Yakitate Japan or how they will decide to localize it. But I can make some general predictions based on decisions that Viz has made in the past. Viz has never been hesitant to censor or alter manga for American release, although I’m not aware of Viz having ever published a book quite as heavily censored as CMX’s release of Tenjho Tenge, or as loosely translated as TOKYOPOP’s Battle Vixens. But a title that’s a big in Japan as Yakitate Japan is virtually obligated to be likewise targeted at the mainstream American market, so it’s almost to be expected that Viz will probably localize the Yakitate Japan manga in whichever way they believe will make it most appealing to mainstream American consumers who enjoy manga but probably don’t know anything about Japanese society or culture.

On a side note, I want to emphasize that I don’t object to any anime or manga coming to America because I believe that any anime or manga can be interesting or entertaining for English speaking readers if it’s considerately translated and localized. I don’t object to very Japanese oriented works being released in America; I object to translators, publishers, and distributors who try to make uniquely Japanese works less Japanese in order to sell additional copies at the expense of providing a faithful version of the creator’s original artwork.