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I own a lot of manga. Well, at least a decent amount that’s been building since 2009. I have manga from pretty much every publisher: Vertical, Seven Seas, Viz, Kodansha USA, Gen Manga, Yen Press, and even own some from publishers that shut down (CMX, Tokyopop) or no longer publish manga (Del Rey). So don’t ... Read more

Title: Age Called Blue Genre: Drama, Romance, Yaoi Artist: Est Em Publisher: Tokyo Mangasha (JP), DMG (EN) Translation: DMG Original Release Date: April 4, 2014 Free Preview: >>HERE<< Relationships can be just as painful as they can be beneficial. In Est Em’s one-shot Age Called Blue, we are shown various romantic relationships which all lead to the ... Read more

In last month’s “How Do You Purchase Manga Today?” post, I discussed a little bit about the methods I use to purchase manga post-Borders — in short, mostly Amazon. The price and quick shipping (specifically the Amazon Prime program) are what’s kept me coming back to Amazon. On a whim last month I decided to ... Read more

Ok. That’s it. I’m done. It’s reached the point now where I might as well take the opportunity to spew my garbage in a manner that will hopefully be coherent but probably will have a ton of misfires, but at this point, holding it back sucks. Apologies in advance, since this is most likely more ... Read more

The post All I Can Do Is Laugh At Manga, Please Join Me In Laughing at Manga appeared first on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses.

How manga should be read!…Well maybe There has always been a mystifying aspect when it comes to manga that isn’t usually routine in other industries: people sharing with publishers that they read manga online. The problem? A lot of the titles they’re telling them about aren’t online legally. And despite it being 2014 and information ... Read more

One of my many, many shelves.

I buy a lot of manga. Up to just a few years ago new manga meant a trip to a big box brick and mortar bookstore. With the closure of US-based bookstore chain Borders in 2011, all of that changed.

Prior to its closure, it wouldn’t have been too much of stretch to argue that I did all of my manga shopping at the now defunct US-based bookstore chain Borders (which also included mall bookstore Waldenbooks). Even in my smaller metro area we had four Borders total and about as many Waldenbooks — along with multiple Barnes & Noble (B&N), and multiple Books-A-Million (BAM) — all within a fifteen minute drive. Borders in particular always seemed to have a coupon or a promotion: I remember almost weekly 30% of coupons, and membership cards that rewarded you with copious points and discounts. While there were other brick and mortar bookstores — some still standing in my city today — nothing could beat Borders discounts and selection. Most of my local Borders had an entire wall if not more of manga available, far more than the shelves here and there at other stores. I can’t even say I turned to online retail when a book wasn’t in store; with a $20 yearly membership, ship-to-store was free and quick. With Borders, I never batted an eye at Amazon in most of years of manga shopping.

Fast forward a few years later and my buying habits have shifted completely, to even my surprise. While my intention was to stay mostly with brick and mortar — I tested memberships at both B&N and BAM post-Borders — two things happened at this time: I found the manga blogosphere, and perhaps more importantly, I tested Amazon’s Prime program, which guaranteed a two day shipping turn around. Before I know it, I had a (also now defunct, ironically) Google Reader filled with critics and reviewers who read and reviewed manga all the time, and I could easily flip right onto Amazon and have new manga in 48 hours. Nowadays I don’t even really browse: I know what I want based on blogs and/or any ongoing series that have new volumes. Now at the end of each month I fire up an “advanced” search in the Amazon book section:

Amazon advanced search.

Amazon advanced search isn’t perfect obviously… but it nails most of the manga.

On average, I purchase 6-10 manga a month from Amazon. This doesn’t include any visits to second-hand stores like Half-Price books, the occasional B&N/BAM pick-up, or the more rare eBay grab; all those were things I did prior to purchasing at Amazon. In any given month though, 85%-90% of my manga purchases are coming from Amazon, followed by Half-Price, with Ebay/B&N/BAM less so. Ultimately the pricing and the speed keeps me coming back to Amazon.

Still, I grew up purchasing manga in bookstores, and as a shifting consumer I wonder if I’m part of the reason bookstores are in tough times. Bookstores are still businesses and I’ve taken the majority of my business online. I still spend a ton of time in bookstores — more than the average person I’d bet (at least for the average person that doesn’t drink coffee or sit on his/her computer) — and still purchase (anime) magazines regularly and the occasional non-manga book. It’s still not nearly even enough to call it a sizable chunk of my manga shopping. I’m fine with buying one or two manga in-store, but I plan to go on a manga binge I find myself filling up a digital cart instead. Pre-ordering on a monthly basis online keeps me from making fewer impulse purchases while I’m out and about and, at least where I live, the savings on Amazon can’t be beat. Still, the less bought in bookstores the less stocked in bookstores; the lack of manga in-store post-Borders was my original gripe with brick and mortar. For me there’s an obvious disconnect there: I love bookstores, but do most manga shopping online. I haven’t seemed to rectify that yet, but wonder if the best option is to diversify — some online, some at brick and mortar. Still, even having the option to diverse either way obviously is a privilege: not everyone has brick and mortar stores within a reasonable distance or access to regular internet.

Then there’s also digital manga, which provides yet another way to purchase manga. While my efforts are mainly focused on print, Crunchyroll seems to have begun to hit a sweet spot with its monthly subscription model, and publishers like Viz and Dark Horse have digital options available for many popular series. I especially like the direction Crunchyroll and Viz have gone, but my loyalties lie strongly with print manga. I have bought digital manga from Viz and have a Crunchyroll subscription that includes the manga, but digital has the reverse effect on me: It simply makes me want to own the books in print!

I’m probably not the most “representative” manga consumer; my purchases are heavily based on blogosphere reviews, Twitter, and I’ve also been buying print manga for a stupidly long time. I just never seemed to “grow” out of it, and with no other major money sucking hobbies finances have always allowed for it.  I imagine other, maybe younger fans buy less or based on what their friends recommend etc and may be more representative of a US manga consumer. Overall, I’ve found a system that works for me post-Borders though, and for that I’m glad.

That being said, I’m always up for trying new methods! As an experiment, this month I’ve decided to place all my regular Amazon preorders with Rightstuf; check in with me later this month for a comparison. In the meantime, I’m interested in your system for manga, especially for those outside of the US. Assuming you purchase manga, how and where do you do it? What are your plans now considering what’s been going on with Amazon/Hachette? What influences your purchase choices? Are you a fan of digital? Let me know in the comments!

This past weekend, I changed a little girl’s life… with manga. Well, I think I did.

By that I mean I recommended a lost father manga for his daughter and desperately hoped I didn’t recommend anything offensive or mind-altering to an eight-year old.

This is not a manga to recommend to an 8 year old.

A friend and I were casually browsing the manga section at my local Barnes & Noble this past weekend, taking not so discreet photos of Kodansha’s new Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition (spoiler: it’s colossal) when a lost man asks if we “read a lot of this stuff.” I’m not one to lie so my answer was obvious, and he went on to say he’d just gotten into town and was looking for new books for his manga obsessed daughter. Sounded easy enough; recommendations are immediately limited to whatever is in store.

Then he mentions his daughter is eight years old, which makes me sweat a little.

I’ve never really made manga recommendations before, at least not by having someone come to me and ask, “What manga should I read?” I’ve passed a one off volume here and there to a friend, but nothing beyond that.

So here I am, trying frantically to think of inoffensive manga for an eight year old girl. What sits in front of me is Arina Tanemura’s Phantom Thief Jeanne; I grab that first. The dad takes that, flips through it, and adds it to his stack — a stack that already includes Summer Wars, something he picked himself. I recommended Kamisama Kiss, too. As we try to think of more he picks up a few they’ve read already, and I worry far less (and am surprised far more) when one of them is Haganai. My friend tries recommending Sailor Moon, but is immediately shot down; his daughter is already obsessed with the entire franchise. Excellent!

The father decides to go with both volumes of Summer Wars and the first volume of Phantom Thief Jeanne. He chats with us for a little longer, mentioning that ultimately he winds up reading manga too because his daughter finishes them then asks him questions. Understandably, he’s the cool dad amongst all her friends. Eventually though he gathers his stack and thanks us for our time. I breathe a slight sigh of relief.

The encounter made me wonder about a few things: What manga available today would be considered “good” for kids? Manga Bookshelf has an older and smaller list, including some Western comics, as does About.com, and I do remember a recent Japanese survey on “The Best Manga to Read to Kids.” Still, so much would be dependent on the particular parents or community, and what may sound good to one parent may offend another. In particular, I imagine librarians have to juggle these types of recommendation requests fairly regularly, especially given how popular manga has become with kids over the years. I have a harder time thinking of manga for kids under 11 or so — Yotsuba&!? Cardcaptor Sakura? Swan? I didn’t start reading manga until I was around 12, but recommendations not only have to take into account the parents and community, but also the interest and maturity of the kid. It can be tough to find that safe middle ground, I imagine.

Either way, I actually really enjoyed recommending manga and putting that knowledge to use. I can also only hope to one day have a daughter as interested in manga as that particular little girl!

So what top five manga would you recommend for kids? 

Let’s just say the manga advice series I did has reaped some…benefits. And other stuff that I didn’t expect. Whatever the case, there was an answer in the manga adapter piece that naturally raised an eye:

…and specifically comics-related experience, is going to serve you well. And whatever the industry overall may say about scanlations (and believe me, I could totally rant about aggregator sites all day), that’s not a bad thing to have on your resume, as far as I’m concerned. 

When that was said, I naturally was curious and asked if she was serious about being able to rant about aggregators and scanlations all day. Her response by email:

I would totally be up for a good rant!

So that’s how I have this conversation I did a few weeks ago with Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, the adapter of Loveless and adapter/editor of a few titles on Crunchyroll and former editor at TOKYOPOP, today for your reading or listening pleasure. Have fun!

Before we begin, let’s start in the past: How did you become interested in manga, and how you got into the manga industry?

The short version is I’ve been a comic book fan pretty much my entire life. I’ve read a lot of Asterix and Tintin when I was a kid. I went through a big Marvel Comics phase when I was in late elementary through middle school, and then I’ve also always been interested in Japanese culture for various reasons. When I was in high school that’s when Sailor Moon started airing on Cartoon Network, and suddenly these two interests came together for me, like Japan and then the animation/manga side of things, and I really got hooked.

Because Sailor Moon was my first anime and manga love, I knew about TOKYOPOP from really early in the process and kind of in the back of my head I was always like, “Yeah, wouldn’t it be fun to be a manga editor someday, that would be a cool job!” So I went off to college, double majored in English and Japanese because I liked languages, and the Japanese department was small, I really enjoyed it there. I kind of expected I graduate, go work somewhere for a couple of years, and maybe go to grad school.

By a stroke of fortune, TOKYOPOP happened to be looking for a junior editor, it was the first time they had a junior editor position, and they were specifically looking for someone young, who they could train in the ways of creating original manga specifically. This is 2004, almost exactly 10 years ago at this point. And I had the right skill set for that. I had the Japanese language, I had the English, I done an internship in publishing in New York over a summer, so spring break my senior year in college I flew out to Los Angeles to interview and a couple of weeks later they hired me and almost as soon as I graduated I moved all the way across the country to LA and started a new job.

I was at TOKYOPOP for almost seven years, little over six and a half years, basically until the company shut down so I got laid off in February 2011 and the whole company shutdown two months later. Which was a pretty long haul as far as TOKYOPOP is concerned. It’s a company that always had a high staff turnover rate for various reasons, but it also had a really great gift for attracting interesting and hard-working people, so almost all the people who I know at TOKYOPOP have gone on to do really cool and interesting things, a lot of us are still really good friends with each other, so even though it was, you know, it ended in me getting laid off, it was still a really great experience for me to have and I’m glad I moved to LA, I’m glad I had this opportunity, and I’m glad they gave me that opportunity. I mean, they didn’t know who the hell I was when they hired me as a 21 year old so…to pull myself all the way across the country…I hope they think that decision paid off for them.

So how was it like to work at TOKYOPOP, back when the manga industry was doing pretty well, and then conversely, when the economy started to decline?

You know it’s interesting, because for all the flack TOKYOPOP gets for a lot of things, they were really prescient about where the industry was going. Part of the reason why, and even in 2004 when everybody thought the manga industry was at its peak, and it was, there was a sense internally that things weren’t necessarily gonna last. There’s a variety of reasons why that was the case.

For one, Kodansha had been one of the licensors that TOKYOPOP worked with a lot, from Sailor Moon to Peach Girl to Parasyte, to a lot of CLAMP titles, and Kodansha was moving away from TOKYOPOP and started their relationship with Del Rey, which was a big licensor hit in terms of what titles we had access to, and the philosophy behind trying to do original content was in part because we wanted to have our own titles to replace the licensed stuff coming from Japan, to see if we could get kind of a homegrown manga industry going in the US that would give us access to stuff that people were excited about in the same way they were excited about Sailor Moon or Fruits Basket. It didn’t really work out the way we entirely expected it to, although I’m still really proud of the titles that we did, and, speaking of people who have really been watching the industry, a lot of the artists who worked for TOKYOPOP have also gone on to do really interesting things in their subsequent careers.

So yeah, I think there was a sense of flux right there, in terms of the direction that things were moving in, and this is something I’ll talk about later in this rant, but there’s a lot of great things about being able to work with licensed titles, but there’s a lot of restrictions that come with it as well, and when you are the co-creator or part owners of original content, that means you have a lot more flexibility with what you can do with those titles and that includes, among other things, releasing them digitally, which was something that the Japanese licensors had been really, really, really slow to come around to. I mean any company’s gonna have its ups and downs, particularly a creative company, and one involved in a volatile industry. You know, Stu Levy’s a really big personality, and he and I have always gotten along really well, and his decisions were a big part of why they wanted to hire someone like me, so I’m really grateful for that. But you know, every company has its ups and downs…but I got to work with so many terrific, motivated, smart, and committed people over my time there and I wouldn’t have given that away for the world!

Ok, it’s time. Now you get to rant. Feel free to start wherever you want!

I think the best way to approach this subject is to kind of talk about the history of anime and manga content on the web, and I can track it through some of my own personal experience with that side of things. Like I said earlier, I started as an anime and manga fan with Sailor Moon in 1998, so I was using like, AOL and dial up to get access, and this is back in the days when there were very few anime titles being released in the US and there’s basically no manga. Viz had been doing Ranma ½ and a couple of other things, but you know, TOKYOPOP was just starting to release their magazines and then probably when I was a senior in high school was when they started releasing the bind up versions of Sailor Moon.

Until then the only way you could get that content was through basically illegally trading tapes with other anime and manga fans online. I don’t even remember who I got this from, but there was someone who I found through a network of fans who, I think I paid them like 10 bucks or something, and they emailed me a videotape with 12 episodes of Sailor Moon Stars taped onto it. This was like crappy quality, it’s 12 episodes, I think I asked for the beginning and then the very end of the series, because at the time it was being released on Cartoon Network but they only done the first two seasons, like Sailor Moon S was just getting released as I was heading off to college.

So I knew that there were 5 seasons of content out there and there were a couple of sites where you can find out general episodes and summaries of what was happening, but the only way to actually see them was through these pirated means. It was slow and they were low quality, so anytime you had an opportunity to purchase legitimate content, even though it’s still a VHS tape, like I went out and brought the Sailor Moon S movie when it came out on VHS, and that was just so much better quality than these third or fourth generation fansubs that were going around. It just hasn’t been taped over a zillion times.

And I think part of that kind of barter process was instilled in it, the idea that, “This is not the best way to enjoy this material.” The best way to enjoy it is to purchase a legitimate copy. The fan community was very much driving the other fans and within itself to these legitimate sources when they became available. For whatever reason I don’t remember there being much scanlation going on at the time. I think the resources were still too limited for that to be the case, and then I kind of disappeared into college in the mountains, so I feel like I fell out of what was going on in bookstore culture and I went back in and suddenly there’s this enormous manga section, things have completely changed in that two or three year time. But at the same time I was ahead of my college’s anime society for a couple of years so I was in charge of purchasing, so as more things were starting to become available, and the industry was really starting to grow, we had access to more content that I was able to spend some of the school’s money to purchase that and again, find these legitimate sources to bring the stuff over for my friends and colleagues in college.

At first I really started paying attention to scanlations ironically when I was studying abroad in Japan and at that point I had two and a half years of Japanese language study under my belt so I could kind of read manga relatively competently and I was completely obsessed with Hikaru no Go. I had a boyfriend back in college who wasn’t a Japanese major but he’s the one who actually taught me how to play Go when we first started dating, and so I read this series about this kid who plays Go and I was like, “Oh my god, he would totally love this! But I’m reading it in Japanese, there’s no way for him to read it, I’d really like to share this with him but what can I do?” And a friend of mine told me about this website called Toriyama World, which was a scanlations community that was mostly doing Shonen Jump titles, they were doing Hikaru no Go, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, and Naruto. So I sent my boyfriend these links and he got to read Hikaru no Go at the same time I was reading it. It was really exciting, and it made the long distance thing a lot nicer.

Simultaneously, Toriyama World started fansubbing the Naruto anime as it was coming out. And that was my first exposure to BitTorrent, and boy did that change everything. So instead of crappy third generation fansubs that are passed around on video tapes or like the year before one of my anime society friends found a cash of fansub stuff online and kind of dumped it onto the school network so I spent a couple of days of finals week downloading—

W-Weren’t you supposed to be studying or something? *laughs*

Oh I was totally studying, I was a Japanese major…I was a bad Japanese major, I bet my Sensei’s were all ashamed at me *laughs*. So this was accessing content in completely different ways. We’re talking DVD quality, coming out the same week as the episodes in Japan, with, depending on which group you were talking to, there were varying qualities of translation, but they were generally pretty good.

Skip to two years later, I get hired by TOKYOPOP, two of the founders of Toriyama World are my co-workers oddly enough – it took me a while to figure that out – so there was an obvious connection between scanlations and fansub industry and “legitimate” anime and manga industry. There’s a lot of translators, at least there were, I assume this is still the case that we’re coming out of, the fansub community, there’s a lot of editors who were coming out of the scanlation community.Both editing and translating are kind of apprenticeship positions where you can be a Japanese major and sort of learn the language but the way you get good at sort of the nuance of translating things that are colloquial which is by practice, there’s kind of a learning process. Textbook Japanese and what people use in real life VS Japanese that people use in anime and manga. And you kinda have to practice that and the scanlations and fansub community is one way to get that experience. And there’s definitely a recognition, or certainly a tacit recognition, in the industry, that these people who are really passionate about the media they’re working on, they really care about the quality, so they make good employees.

Fruits Basket had just been licensed, or just started getting released when I started at TOKYOPOP, I think we were on volume 5, and that series had been picked up by TOKYOPOP in part because of an online survey that they run, which asked what titles should we do, and everyone was like you should do Fruits Basket. People wouldn’t have known about Fruits Basket as even an option if it weren’t for things like scanlations and fansubs. It’s very clear that those built a level of awareness for some of these early properties in the marketplace at the time and they still do.

This is why it’s kind of exciting where we are now: Magi shows up on Crunchyroll and it’s a huge hit, people seem really excited about it, so when Viz picks up the manga rights to do a release of that there’s a group of people that are already super into that series and they’re planning to buy that book. It certainly happened with Attack on Titan last year.

So the feedback loop between sort of brand awareness and however you’re getting it, and people purchasing the stuff later, that’s really important and something the industry is very aware of. The problem that you run into – and the animation community has been able to solve this problem thanks to services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu and being able to get these series simulcasted in Japan – that hasn’t really happened quite as much in manga, and there’s a lot of reasons why that’s the case, but it’s incredibility frustrating why this is the case.

The best example I can think of is during my final few years at TOKYOPOP. I was working on a series called Gakuen Alice, which is a long running shoujo series, it ran in Hana to Yume, the same magazine as Fruits Basket. We started it as soon as Fruits Basket finished, and there was a sense in the company that we needed another big hit. Fruits Basket had been an enormous money maker for TOKYOPOP for years and there wasn’t anything that was such a big hit on the horizon for us, and for a lot of other companies as well. We were going to really try and make Gakuen Alice a hit.

And there was a lot of reasons why I didn’t think it wasn’t ever going to be that big a hit, or at least not in the same way: it was a different tone, it’s a different kind of age group, characters are much younger, and the story’s dark but in a different way. But it’s still a really good series, and it’s something that I really enjoyed working on and I’m very proud of, and it sold…not very well at all. Like it didn’t even sell like half of Fruits Basket numbers, it sold like less than a quarter of Fruits Basket numbers, which, whatever, media creations are a tough industry. You can think something can be a hit but it’s not, hits come out of nowhere, we would be completely surprised at what people were picking up on.

The frustrating thing about Gakuen Alice was that at the time – 2010, 2011 – it was the third or fourth most popular series on MangaFox. There were literally millions of people reading that series every month. And not even a fraction of them were actually buying the book. You hear a lot of criticism of “legitimate titles not being as good and the translations are awkward, fansubbers are more authentic, and etc, etc.” Yeah, maybe sometimes, but the scans for Gakuen Alice were terrible. Absoultely awful! Like they were scanning stuff from the Chinese editions and sort of backtracking it into English, everything was awkward, the quality of it was terrible from a visual perspective, and we were working our butts off to make this a really good looking book. So it was incredibly frustrating to see that there was all these people enjoying an inferior and mediocre product and we have something that we really want them to enjoy and get excited about, and they weren’t doing it.

But I don’t think this is really the fault of the fans, or at least not directly, and I don’t think it’s the fault of the companies. I think it’s kind of a larger issue where there’s a disconnect between enjoying content online and realizing where it comes from, and that there’s people who make their livings by creating it, and when you’re enjoying it for free, you’re sort of denying people the ability to make their livings. And obviously with the demise of TOKYOPOP for whatever reason, that denied me the ability to make my living for a while, and I started doing other things instead, and just doing manga as a sideline freelance business.

But for the creators back in Japan, for original creators here — so like I spend a lot of time on Tumblr, and I see this all the time, every single week: there’s some artist who are great fan artists, great original artists, and they post stuff on Tumblr, and then a day later they see their work going around with their name not attached to it anymore. And you’re like “We’ll ok that’s great, the people are still seeing your work and you’re still getting your art out there to the broader world and they’re enjoying it.” But these are people who do this for a living, whether it’s because they’re being paid to or they make money doing commissions, so when you take their name off it and sort of disconnect them from that process, the million people who saw that piece of art, maybe 1% of them would have liked to give that artist $10 for a commission or buy a poster for $20. And they don’t have the ability to do that anymore.

And they will have fights with the people who are taking their name off and it would turn into this weird artistic rights discussion of like, “Yeah you should just appreciate that people are enjoying your stuff.” But it’s like, “I need to buy groceries, you know, this is my job,” and whether people are like, “Oh, artists should just do what they love because they love it.” Well, yeah, hopefully everybody has a job that they enjoy to some extent. But, some of these people have gone to school for this in the same way people go to be a lawyer or a doctor, so you don’t expect a lawyer or a doctor to work for free, why would you expect an artist to work for free? “No, it’s because they’re passionate about their craft!” Well yeah that’s true, but again, somebody’s gotta pay the bills.

So I think that kind of fan feedback that had existed when I was first getting into the fandom and then into the industry has been completely disconnected, both by internet culture in general and by the nature of the aggregator sites, which, they’re not even connected to specific scanlation groups, like the Gakuen Alice chapter – one chapter would be done by one group, one chapter would be done by the next group, there’s group credit there, you would go back to their website and would see that…it becomes this kind of meaningless product that you just blaze through at 100 miles an hour and read 100 chapters of manga over the course of an evening and it kind of goes in one ear and out the other. Manga is designed as a product to be read quickly and to be read in bulk like that. I can see, I’m 100%, as a manga fan, understand why that’s appealing, but the fact that very little of that traces back to an idea of “I love this creator, I love their work, I want to support them,” that’s what I found very frustrating.

And for some people, it’s not even on their radar in some ways. One of the artists that worked for TOKYOPOP, Queenie-Chan — she did a series for us called The Dreaming, and she’s done a lot of manga work in various contexts since then — has been doing a couple of articles recently on what it’s like to be a Western manga creator or non-Japanese creator and she worked in Australia. She talked about doing a presentation to middle school kids and showing them what kind of stuff do you read and what they were into and she mentioned that you could go buy it somewhere, and the kids were like, “You can buy manga?” Like they just had no idea that they could go to the bookstore and buy copies of the stuff that they love.

I read that article. I believe they were in the library for this presentation, right?

Yeah they were in the library, it’s like, “urgghh!” That’s so…urgghhh, I feel so bad for my friends who are working at Viz and Yen Press and stuff and like, “How do you overcome that? How do you kind of deal with that disconnect?”

…Yeah, that’s kind of the bulk of my rant. *laughs* I mean the secondary thing is, and this is another reason why I feel sorry for my friends who are still working on the company side even though I envy their steady paychecks, is the licensors, and the nature of digital publishing in the West. It’s been so difficult to get comics content to a place where you can buy it digitally. And I think that more and more people want to consume things on their computers and they want to read them on any sort of tablet device, but that’s a relatively new thing.

So when I was at TOKYOPOP, ComiXology as a company was just starting out and we were trying to work with that to put some more titles up there, and since then ComiXology’s become huge and recently TOKYOPOP’s managed to put our old original titles on ComiXology, and I know there’s a few other manga publishers who are doing some licensed stuff on there. The Japanese, kind of rightly or wrongly —  it’s not really my place to make a judgment on this, and also I’ve been out of that part of the industry for about three years now, so I’m not as up on this as I used to be — they’re really nervous about digital stuff. They’re really nervous about putting content from different publishers in the same context together. That’s always been an issue, like, back in TOKYOPOP when we had an advertisement, “There’s a bunch of TOKYOPOP series, we want to put them on one page together!” But characters from one company, like characters from Hakusensha and here on the side characters from Kadokawa. Ok, fair enough. But that means when you’re coming up with a way, like what would the Crunchyroll of manga look like, and now there is a Crunchyroll of manga, and there hasn’t been until very recently. Like that was a really difficult thing for the Japanese to come and agree to. JManga tried to do it but they were working with what I would describe as second-tier licensors for the most part, and so the content that they had wasn’t necessarily what people were excited about — although I was excited to be working on Tactics for a while.

But yeah, they were really worried about sort of reverse importation, so like stuff coming out digitally in the US, then people reading it in Japan, and it was very strange at the time. So just trying to get digital rights out of them was like pulling teeth for so long. And that really felt like it held back the industry when it was clear that was the direction things were going in. I don’t really know what flipped the switch and what made that change all of a sudden. Maybe the success of Crunchyroll in general, maybe it’s clear that ComiXology and similar programs is a profit making opportunity and that is something that is working well and so many people want to engage in, but it was so incredibly frustrating as someone working at TOKYOPOP to see the writing on the wall and see that like, there’s so many people who want to consume this stuff online and we are unable to provide that for them.

I mentioned this in the manga adapter interview that a lot of the people in the US publishers know what the problem is, and then convincing the licensors that that’s a problem and that we need to find a solution to it, that’s a whole ‘nother story. So it feels like the people on the US side get the blame for these decisions like “why do you do it this way?” We would if we could! We would love to do that! Write a big email to so and so in Tokyo and tell them that’s the way you want to consume your media because we’ve been telling them that and it hasn’t been moving things forward.

So…yeah….I feel that’s a relatively reasoned rant. Was that sufficiently ranty for you? *laughs*

*laughs* You said all day!

Uh…well I can keep talking! *laughs*

Well ok, I guess a couple of things I can bring up…you made a great distinction about how times have changed, like back then you could put up an online survey and people would actually buy the product, but I think nowadays if you try and do survey, like I know there are people who would want to buy a series called Chihayafuru or another series, but then, there are people who then won’t buy it. Like, what’s going on here?

That’s the really frustrating thing about online polls. They get answered by the people who like answering online polls and they don’t necessarily predict consumer behavior. That’s been one of the frustrating things about the industry, and while I think this is true for about any sort of consumer industry, media in particular, there’s often been a disconnect between people who actively communicate with the company and the general buying public. So if you went by the taste of the manga blogosphere, you’d think we need to be publishing a lot more indie, josei, and seinen manga…and that stuff doesn’t sell.

I mean I love those genres, and I’m kind of indiscriminate in my reading taste, I’ll read almost anything, but yeah, we’ll see how this changes, I always have this kind of belief that the kids who are reading, who are 15 while I was 25, and were kind of getting into anime and manga at the same age that I was when I was getting into it, would kind of blow through shoujo and shounen stuff, and if they continue to be manga readers their taste would mature and they’d start to want stuff that’s a little more complicated, more sophisticated. That’s not to underrate the sophistication of shoujo and shounen, I think there’s some really amazing stuff that happens there, but there’s a difference, and we’re just starting to get to the point of the industry where now those kids are almost 25. They’re where I was when I was working at TOKYOPOP and my tastes started to change. So I’m curious to see how that affects things and if their tastes do start to align more with their age group in some ways.

That’s a difficult thing, you have to always take feedback, online polls, and what the reviewers say with a grain of salt. “Like that’s your opinion, you’re really smart and we respect your opinion, but I think the 10 other thousand people reading this title are reading it for very different reasons than you are. And they’re getting something very different out of it than you are.” And I think that’s okay. We think that’s a need that we need to serve. And just because you love this series doesn’t mean that more than 5 other people are going to love the series. And 5 people are not enough to make a book profitable.

This is the way the publishing industry works in general. What happened during the early days of the manga boom is that everything was a best-seller, everything was selling thousands and thousands of copies, and as we blew through the pre-existing titles that everybody knew and was excited about and started to get to things that were newer, more obscure, or didn’t have the name recognition like a CLAMP, things started to even out and so it resembled more what conventional publishing in the US looks like, where the Dan Brown’s and Stephen King’s, and Fifty Shades of Grey’s of the industry paid for everything else. There are very few things that are popular or super profitable. It’s the few bestsellers that support the rest of the industry. And that’s kind of the way I think things are now. That’s just the way it is. And if you have enough best sellers, and enough stuff that’s doing well, then you can afford to take on stuff that’s a little more different and unusual and a little more risky than to kind of feed that niche but you need to have that core of people buying Naruto & Bleach every month to be able to take that risk as a company.

It’s been interesting, now that I’ve been out of the industry and see it from the outside. to see what people are doing with stuff. Like Yen Press really likes to do these high-end cover editions for stuff, it’s a little more off the beaten path. So like A Bride’s Story, which is a gorgeous book, I don’t know what the sales numbers are for that, but they’ve done a fabulous job with it and it’s not something that I would expect to be a huge best seller, so I hope that they’re making tons and tons of money on it because it’s so great, but I think they’re counterbalancing that by making it a higher end product. It costs a little bit more, so maybe only half as many people would buy that as an average Yen Press title but they can balance out the profitability by making a higher end edition.

I think the companies here are getting creative with how they strategize and manage to kind of put out more unusual content without it making a huge dent in the profitability, but that’s always going to be a tough battle.

How do you think the scanlation system has changed from when you started in the industry to today? When we traded emails you talked about there was a difference from the old system compared to today, so could you elaborate on that?

I’ve never been directly involved in scanlations on the creation side so I may be speaking out of turn on this, but I feel like there’s, as an occasional consumer of scanlations, there’s certain groups that really pride themselves on quality and groups that pride themselves on speed, or function like that’s their goal, to get it out there as quickly as possible. And I think that’s really interesting. And again, the aggregate sites you get a mix of translation and production quality. You can really sort of see that in action, almost on a chapter by chapter basis like, “Oh this translation I understand what’s going on, it’s really clear, it’s catchy and punchy,” a chapter later you’re like, “Ughhh, this barely looks like English! Like did they just run this through Google translate? What the hell is this font that they’re using? Did they even bother retouching this stuff? *laughs* Even the scan quality’s really weird!”

And I feel like back in the day where there’s a higher bar of entry, where it was a little harder to put together a group of people and have access to these resources, it forced people, you know it was only people who were committed to this, and into it, who were going to bother with this stuff, because you have to obtain the volumes from Japan, you’d have to have a pretty good scanner, internet speeds were slower so it takes a longer time to upload images, and sharing back and forth between people is a lot more of a pain in the neck. I think that just slowing down the process a little bit, it would reinforce quality. At the same time…I hope this doesn’t come off as “Oh, everything is terrible now, the internet’s ruined everything—“

Uh-oh! *laughs*

*laughs* No, it has absolutely not! I think the modern age is amazing, the resources available and the fact that so many people all over the world can enjoy this stuff and can get involved in this I think is amazing. So I think that the resources that are available to people now are just—I couldn’t even imagine when I was a teenager. Like there’s just so off the radar of what’s possible. But I guess I want there to be a little more consideration of the process and for people to think a little more critically about what they’re doing, and that it’s not just “this content magically exists and we’re going to magically put it on this site so billions of people can enjoy it, possibly at the expense of the person working very hard to create it,” Because manga creators work hard, that is a thankless job. Unless you’re one of the big ones, you’re not gonna be making a living doing it. I feel that there’s some sort of anarchist corners of the internet that’s like “wrest creativity away from corporate productions,” and you know, ok, whatever, but your average manga creator, these people work themselves to the bone to make this stuff!

I saw the creator of Nura: Rise of The Yokai Clan’s schedule. I went like, “Wait, you only get two hours of sleep on one day?!?”

Yeah, like the people who work on weekly schedules, sure they got like eight assistants working for them but they’re doing 20-30 pages a week, that’s crazy!

In a certain way Bakuman showcased the type of work schedule a mangaka usually goes through.

Right, right. Yeah, say what you want to about corporations, and I’ll be the first to get in line and be like, there’s a lot of nasty things that can be said about some of the corporate domination of media, but at the end of the day the people who suffer when this material’s been pirated are the people who are creating it. And those are the last people who should be suffering. Because you know the great thing about manga is that it’s so creative and inventive and the best stuff out there is really amazing and those people should be profiting from their work.

So I think one of the things I mentioned in the manga adapter email was that I thought that the quality of translators in general was improved. I’d be curious to hear what other people in the industry think about that because I think to some extent it’s part of the generation of people who grew up on this stuff and are coming of age and now they’ve graduated college with their own degrees in Japanese or whatever, and their own ideas on how manga should be read and what’s the best way to do a translation, and I think that’s really cool and interesting. I’d be curious if other people, even anecdotally, share my feelings on that.

Adapters are still a really important part of the process and to some extent it’s because I believe in the process of specialization. I myself feel like I’m the jack of all trades but master of none, so I really respect people who commit themselves to getting really really really good at one part of their craft, whether it’s being an artist, writer, or being a manga adapter and being able to come up with — and I said in my answer that I have a hard time coming up with distinct character voices. I can recognize them when they’re there, but honestly creative writing’s not my specialty, so finding someone who really knows how to make one character’s speech style distinct in English as opposed versus other characters, I think that’s really a great skill.

But I feel like at the same time more and more translators that I work with kind of get that and they know what manga is supposed to look like, sound like and they just have a better instinct about that in some ways? It’s not universally true, like there’s definitely some scripts that I feel like I have to massage a lot more than others, but I don’t know I guess I find that heartening.

The other funny thing about scanlations/fansubs industry going legit is that you have a zillion people who are used to working for free and now there’s some freelance opportunities when you’re like now I can pay them something! You don’t end up getting paid very much, but I think for a lot of people it’s like, “I was doing it before, at least now I’m getting something so it’s gotta be good!” I think that’s really a bit of the problem. Because you compare what people are getting paid for digital content versus what they’re getting paid to work on stuff that’s going into print, and there’s a huge difference.

I mentioned this in the previous interview as well because a lot of this is because I had no idea what the profitably is like in the digital space, and I don’t know if anybody else does either, I’m sure the people inside the company has a better idea than I do, but I still think it’s a new enough part of the industry that I think it remains to be seen how much money you can invest in it and still be profitable. I’m hoping it’s all really successful, and that it continues to grow and thrive, and that everyone gets a pay raise at some point. I think everybody who I’ve worked with really loves what they’re doing and they’ve worked pretty hard and I’d like to see them get compensated for that a little bit better.

One last question: It feels like, for people trying to get into manga,  they’re really unsure of what’s legal and what’s known, so I want to just ask you do you think manga publishers are doing enough to educate people on manga, what goes into making manga, etc? Like a couple of months ago the New York Times did an article where they were listing comic book apps and they listed a manga site app…but it wasn’t a legal one. So it makes you wonder: are manga publishers doing enough to say this is what’s legal, this is what manga is, stuff like that?

That’s a really good question, and I think it ties into something I said before where there is this cultural disconnect between content creation and legal vs illegal or intellectual property rights. In some ways I feel like it’s not just the manga publishers’ job to do that. Like maybe there are ways they could be addressing that a little bit better and be more proactive about that but at the same time I feel like saying that kind of throws anime and manga fans under the bus and it’s definitely not just them. Like anybody who pirates a TV show or downloads a book rather than paying for it and downloads a PDF somewhere, like I think there’s a whole cultural conversation that needs to happen about IP and how the work gets handled. And this is what we’re seeing and that’s kind of a side result of it that happens to be particularly obvious in this particular industry for certain reasons.

I think this is where I’m going to be really off the mark because this was stuff that was going on three years ago and I have no idea how it’s developed internally since then. There was for a time, sort of an attempt, among the US Manga publishers to join up and shut down sites like OneManga and MangaFox that kind of got thwarted for various reasons, partly because we were a US company and some of these hosting sites were hosted in places where the US doesn’t have any sovereignty. If your servers are in Russia, or Sweden, if you’re PirateBay or whatever they were based, there’s only so much you can do under US law to be able to deal with that. And even if you do, it’s super expensive, so if you’re running a business that’s on a tighter profit margin, is it worth spending a million dollars in legal fees to try and prevent that? Maybe? Maybe not? I think that’s a really hard calculus to make. And again, I have no idea where that ended up panning out internally, this is what I recall from three years ago.

That’s another thing, marketing to people in this day and age is really tricky, particularly kind of the younger audiences, kids who are on their cell phones, on the internet all the time, kind of talking to them in more conventional marketing ways, whether it’s like the ads in the back of the books or stuff at conventions, I think it’s really difficult to have that conversation to get people to pay attention to it. So it might be nice if people did more but I’m not sure what that would consist of, other than a larger cultural conversation. Who knows, maybe it’s already being addressed just by the companies trying to provide alternatives in better ways so if people want to read manga digitally now we’re starting to have a lot more viable ways of doing that. I was thinking about this the other day, would it make sense for Viz to advertise on MangaFox?…Maybe?

*laughs*

Like…kind of? Like how much are the Japanese licensors are going to totally flip out if that happens? The idea that Viz is giving money to the people who are stealing from them, allowing this method of stealing from them. Obviously not necessarily Viz, MangaFox only posts things that are not available, etc, but yeah the Japanese licensors are going to be pissed about that. I remember that that was a debate internally at TOKYOPOP at one point, it was like, “Do we try and squash these companies or do we try and advertise on them?” *laughs* Like it’s a weird calculus to have to be making.

And I would say for all the things that are super frustrating about aggregator sites, there is still the awareness factor. There are still ways of providing kind of a preview taste of content and getting people excited about it. Game of Thrones is one of the most pirated shows on TV right now but it’s still a huge hit as far as HBO is concerned. Is the piracy preventing it from being a huge hit or is it helping it because more people are being exposed to it and maybe they’ll later buy the DVDs or merchandise? That’s really one of the more bizarre things about the media landscape right now: does that really help or hurt? I think it hurts more than it helps, but there are cases where you’re really not sure about it. So…I don’t know. I’m glad that’s not my decision!

But I do hope we have that cultural conversation sooner rather than later because that reflects so much of a landscape right now, but yeah I’m not sure that’s Viz’s responsibility to lead the way on that necessarily. Or people are just like, “Oh it’s Viz, they got like tons and tons and billions of dollars because they got Naruto, so we don’t really need to bother giving them our money, they’re already rolling in it.” Yeah, but they’re a publishing company. Publishing companies are never really rolling in it. I think that’s what people need to understand. It’s not like Hollywood where Disney has a gazillion different profit centers and they’re really raking in the cash. Publishing is always a really hit or miss game.

Lillian, thanks for taking the time to do your “Rant”. *laughs*

Thanks for giving me the opportunity!

So not too long ago I checked out Gangsta and decided that I loved it enough to review it. I guess I decided not to finish talking about it though, as I sent in some questions to the editor of Gangsta, Leyla Aker (and yes, that’s Viz’s VP of Publishing), about Vol 1 and some of the reasons this title was licensed.

So in reading Vol 1 of Gangsta, I thought it was kind of unusual to see a character (Nic) that’s deaf in a series, since it’s kind of rare in manga. Were there any particular thought processes on how to best portray him, and how would you describe his actions so far in the series?

To your point, it’s relatively rare to see individuals who are differently abled depicted in popular media, and unfortunately when they are they tend to be fetishized or made into martyr figures. Nic is neither of those things. He’s cranky but good-hearted, a badass who makes bad judgments, a guy who can’t cook and doesn’t drink—in other words, a person, one who just happens to be deaf.

I think the major standout for me is the characters. For you, can you share a particular character you like and why?

It’s hard to choose—there are so many good characters in this series. But for now I’ll say Worick, since he hasn’t been getting much love in the reviews or fan reactions so far. I think the reason is that he’s built this shallow, selfish, frivolous persona as a defense mechanism, and people seem to be mistaking the façade for reality. And the reality is that to a certain extent he’s the moral center of the story.

Can you share some of the reasons Viz decided to license Gangsta?

The aforementioned great characters were a major reason. You can have strong art and the most intricate plotting ever, but if the characters are flat or don’t resonate with readers, it’s hard to call any book truly successful. The diversity is another strength. When’s the last time you saw in any manga (or comic or novel) a cast that includes characters who are young and old, male and female, gay and straight, white, Asian, black, and Latino?

The other major reason? The series is straight-up fun as hell.

When you were assigned to work on this series, can you share a couple of things you kept in mind as you approached the series? (In terms of editing the material, reading the JP version, etc)

On a technical level, one of the first things the letterer for the series (Eric Erbes) and I had to figure out was how to render the distortion in Nic’s verbal speech while keeping the text easily legible. I think the font treatment Eric uses is successful in that regard. Katherine Schilling turned in a strong, accurate translation, so the main thing I was concentrating on while adapting and editing the script was getting the character voices down.

What’s challenged you so far in editing the series?

There’s a good amount of specialized terminology to keep track of. As usual, rendering humor is always a challenge, since jokes that work in Japanese usually don’t in English (and vice versa).

What has surprised you so far in working on Gangsta?

That this is Kohske’s first series. This level of accomplishment for a young mangaka is pretty incredible.

With Vol 2 forthcoming, what should readers expect from that volume, and what should we expect to get out of reading Gangsta?

Spoiler: Nic gets into a fight.

Seriously, though, there’s a lot of great action. The plot starts to get more complex, the story deepens, new characters come on the scene. Lots of good stuff to come.

World Trigger, the sci-fi shounen manga by Daisuke Ashihara, has survived a year, and seems like it’ll keep going a bit further than other recent Shonen Jump titles, especially ones that land in the US version of WSJ.

So let’s ask the question: why?

“It occupies a sci-fi niche that WSJ is otherwise lacking.”

This is one of the sentiments expressed by Hope Donovan, an editor at Viz. World Trigger is a work that’s different from other current shounen titles because of that. But there still are typical shounen trappings that it can’t escape. So why else is this manga lasting this long?

“I think part of the reason for its success is its reliance on standard shounen tropes, yet still maintaining originality”,  says William, a fan of the series. “World Trigger has all of the normal markings: overpowered villains, a weak lead who shows signs of greatness, etc. It also has twists, where normally the weak lead would meet a peer that is far stronger, to play his rival, in World Trigger’s case they are not rivals but friends and comrades from the start. There is a reason they are called tropes, and that is because they often work, you just need to make them work to your advantage and stay original.”

Another thing that keeps World Trigger interesting is its setting, says Tropical Blitz, another fan. “The level of detail that goes into world building and constructing elaborate large scale battle scenarios really fills a niche I don’t think any other manga in WSJ cover, and thus manages to make it a cut above other new manga which only focus on pure battle or fantasy.”

So it seems to have a lot of good elements to attract readers to it every week. That’s why it already has its own club.

Well, “unofficial” club.

Now, it doesn’t always take long for any series to have fans who care about a character or the work itself. But you’d mostly expect that only from the simple fans. How about the persons working on providing it? Yep, the people I spoke to above are members of The Unofficial Osamu Fan Club, which was actually started by the letterer of World Trigger, Annaliese Christman.

This leads to asking one more question: why?

“Because he’s a loser.”

Literally, this is one of the reasons the club got started. But to be more accurate, Annaliese, as she was working on the series, grew to like Osamu Mikumo as a character. Osamu’s a member of Border, an organization created to protect the Earth from Neighbors. He happens to be pretty weak, especially early on when he has to get bailed out by Yuma, who…happens to be a good Neighbor. But as the series progressed, Annaliese began to like Osamu even more. The problem was she felt like there wasn’t a lot of love shown his way. Then one day in November, she received an image from her editor involving Osamu. She proceeded to blow it up to a point where she could put it on her wall, took a picture of it, and sent that to her editor. That was when she said: “I’m now officially the president, the creepy president, of the Osamu fan club!” Her editor’s response? “She thought that was really funny.”

That was when her editor suggested to make T-shirts and stuff. It started to snowball after that.

Needless to say, the unofficial fan club has a good amount of members. That includes the actual author of the manga and his editor, who also received cards that Annaliese took the time to make and print out. “We may be unofficial but the creator and his editor are also members!” So, that would mean they’re legit right? Well, not yet. She doesn’t want to “step” on anyone’s toes she claimed. Or maybe she’s not sure where this club’s gonna go from here. “There’s nothing concrete, but I’d like to do something to kind of bring the members together and not just be random people all over the world who like Osamu. I’m hoping at conventions I’ll meet some people in person.” Otherwise, it’s continuing to send cards to people who like and are interested in World Trigger.

…So how would one get interested in this manga and then in this character?

“If you enjoy other shounen action series you will enjoy this,” says William. “It has detailed and quality art and a story of action and adventure with fun and exciting turns.  The story is fluid, avoiding any long and drawn out battles full of power ups.”

John Bae, also an editor at Viz, gave two different sides on getting into the series. “I think if someone is into crazy alien battles, then it’s an easy sell. For the complicated otaku that likes complicated stuff, World Trigger is the way to go. So many characters with so many different types of roles and weapons = super otaku fangasm.”

Hope ended up with a detailed reason: the characters. “There are a million characters in World Trigger, but Ashihara imbues each with their own individual personality and quirks. In that way, I’d say World Trigger is a lot like Bleach. There are all kind of different hero types, from someone like Yuma who’s superpowered, to someone like Osamu who has strength of conviction, or Kitora who’s talented and proud. And then, there are all types of antagonists, from someone like Midorikawa who’s jealous, to a real rotten guy like the Neighbor Enedora who would rather kill everyone. Plus, Ashihara has invented a fascinating and believable power-up system with the alien technologies of Triggers and Trion.”

Overall though, the best answer came from Zach, another member of the Osamu fan club. And it only makes sense that this would be the reason you should all consider reading World Trigger:

“Osamu.”

It could only end this way, really.

I guess this is the only way to celebrate finishing this project

1) Just in case you might have missed it: in a two month span I ended up talking to people in the manga industry:

• Advice on Manga Lettering, From Manga Letterers
• Advice on Manga Translating, From Manga Translators
• Advice on Manga Editing, From Manga Editors
• Advice on Manga Adapting, From Manga Adapters

This post is to reflect on what I learned from starting this series. It’s broken down into two sections: the part where I got in touch with people and they share their thoughts, and what manga stuff I actually learned from this project. If you guys learned anything, you’ll get your chance to sound off in the comments below.

So, let’s keep going!

What I Learned From Working on The Project

2) I should have gotten in contact with the publishers. As in, when I originally started this project, I had the bright idea of going through most of my manga series in my bookshelf and look at the credits to find any translators, editors, etc. As I’ll explain shortly, it was fraught with problems. So it only makes sense that when I emailed the general email accounts of certain publishers I actually got in touch with people I probably didn’t think I could. I ended up doing that for editors and adapters. Man, now I personally wonder what the hell I was thinking looking at the back of the manga so much? Now maybe I wouldn’t have gotten in contact with everyone, but it sure beats what I was doing.

3) Man it’s hard to find info on these guys. Which, sure, I guess they don’t have to have their own personal website or easy way to contact them. But I was disappointed that I couldn’t find them. When you do a standard search you’ll see the works they’ve worked on, or for other positions you might not. That’s about it. I was fortunate to find a few plus get some help to find some before I got in contact with the publishers.

The only reason I’m disappointed is because they all hold a wealth of information that not a lot of people know about. And hey, if you have any questions about their work on a series and stuff, you can go to them. As long as you’re respectful and ask good questions, they’ll be willing to help and share. Speaking of respectful…

4) They seem pretty respectful and cool overall. Well, as far as I can tell. They could have easily just said no, especially since for some they could reveal something negative about their company. And well, I did get no response from some, and got a response that did imply it might be something negative or can’t be shared due to company policy (and of course got some late!!!). That was few and far between though. Whether it was the two week lead time (For the most part I gave everyone two weeks, but for translation I think I flubbed on that one and set a deadline) or they just had the time to respond, doesn’t matter. They answered it seemingly honestly and with great thought. Though apparently I have to be careful next time:

@OrganizationASG So I was kind of hoping someone would say something outrageous and provocative, but it was all pretty reasonable.

— Ben Applegate (@benapplegate) March 30, 2014

@OrganizationASG I guess Carl Horn came closest with his comments on piracy, but I still agreed with everything he said.

— Ben Applegate (@benapplegate) March 30, 2014

@OrganizationASG Next time I'LL be the troll.

— Ben Applegate (@benapplegate) March 30, 2014

Editors these days have no shame!!!

5) Overall, I wish I asked everyone the same questions. What I mean by that is I wish I had planned the questions a lot better. Initially I did plan on seeing reader response to the letterers post and seeing what would happen there. Let’s just say when C brought up how to get into manga professionally, I didn’t actually consider it. Or maybe I thought I did, but not really. Then of course came the feedback from the letterers themselves, especially to question #3. I axed that question for a reason, though maybe one day I’ll just do a separate post asking these guys their biggest mistakes.

Assuming they won’t charge me millions for even asking.

What I Learned From The Manga Articles 

6) Before that, big thanks to: Annaliese Christman, Abby Lehrke, Sabrina Heep, Melanie, April Brown, Kameron, Allen, Abigail Blackman, Amanda Haley, Simona Stanzani, Adrienne Beck, Alethea & Athena Nibley, Dan Luffey, Lilly Akabe, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, Lindley Warmington, Pancha Diaz, Carl Horn, Ben Applegate, Hope Donovan, Rachelle Donatos Lipp, John Bae, Lianne Sentar, Ysabet MacFarlane, Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, Yoko Tanigaki, & Jane Lui.

If this totally feels like the acknowledgements section of your favorite novel than it totally is and you’ll just have to accept it. Now let’s move on.

7) Clearly, if you want to break into the manga industry, join Digital Manga Guild. It’s pretty clear you can break into the industry with those guys, whether the quality of the work is questionable or not. Even scanlators are welcome! Which isn’t a bad thing for some, but probably a bad thing for others. At least, that’s what I sense. Anyways, if you really want to be a letterer, translator, and editor, go check out the site and go from there.

8) You should also be a letterer. There apparently seems to be a lack of or more of a need for those who would like to letterer in the manga industry. So that might be something to keep in mind, even if it can be boring and stuff. Also, if you want to become a letterer at Yen Press, remember to email them your interest at yenpress at hbgusa dot com.

9) LEARN. JAPANESE. I mean, I already figured that you have to learn Japanese to work in this business, but it’s a requirement to learn some sort of Japanese. Hiragana, Katakana, the language itself, etc, you can’t work here without increasing your skills there.

Ok I say that like it’s morbid and true, but the advice series proved you don’t have to learn it for certain positions. BUT IT’D BE EXTREMELY HELPFUL.

10) Also will help to learn Photoshop and InDesign. This is basically the sentiment I got from every manga advice series. Have multiple skills, find a way to be helpful aside from what you’re supposed to do. This basically speeds things up and makes everything run efficiently. And learning how to use Photoshop and InDesign is a great asset.

11) Oh, and yes, quickness is appreciated. Because you gotta go fast…gotta go fast…brb I’m retiring for even trying to link this here I’m sorry!!!

(But no, seriously, if you’re quick, you get more work.)

11) Japanese publishers are like your parents. I mean, literally. You’re born. You end up getting babied for a while. Then you grow up, and before you know it, you get to set out on your own and make your own decisions. The problem is some parents get attached and want to make sure you’re safe, and before you know it, you get nagged on everything, like how late you’re staying out and them hoping to call you at least every two weeks, and all that great stuff parents can do.

In this case, the JP publishers own the rights to most manga (sometimes it’s the authors). They baby it by marketing it in their own country, and for about a year or so, all is good. Then comes publishers from other countries calling to license the title because it’s either popular or they think it will sell, or in this case, your baby’s all grown up. It’s time for it to set out on its own and do some good.

But unfortunately, just about everything has to be checked. Almost everything. Even the smallest of issues it seems. I’m certain there are great relationships between most of the publishers, so in a sense it’s not nearly as dramatic as I’m making it out to be. But I wonder if there wasn’t so much handholding on certain things would the series come out faster? Would it be more faithful to the original? There are a lot of questions to ask here, but chances are I’d hear that as something under the table.

12) There’s a 3 to 1 ratio of there being fans of manga actually working in the industry. This is merely a guess, and doubly so since I haven’t talked to everyone in the industry, but it’s a safe bet that there are fans of manga actually working on manga. There will always be those who aren’t, but there is. There’s a perception, especially when publishers and the people working with the publisher can be very negative when shouting down scanlations, that they’re not fans or they don’t know how I want it, etc. But they are fans. But they also have to deal with working in a business. And that unfortunately can be the difference between getting a manga licensed and not getting licensed.

13) This can be a full time job it seems. It just depends on how you manage your budget and how much work you get. And it definitely depends on what position since–

14) Adapters/Rewriters are on the outs. Harsh, but yeahhhh, it ain’t looking good for them. I think the only surprise is that Crunchyroll has adapters it seems, but otherwise, you need to be doing more than adapting to work in the manga industry and be able to make money.

15) Still need to brush up on your English. Even when you think you know enough, it can sometimes be best to keep practicing what you already know. *Takes out Strunk’s Elements of Style*

16) How small are these budgets??? There’s a lot of positions in a company, and time is of the essence. But I mean, geez, tempted to ask what’s the average budget for a company. I’ll probably never get an answer to share publicly.

17) Scheduling is very important. I picked up a book called “Earn The Right To Win“, by Tom Coughlin, head coach of the New York Giants. In that book is a lot of things that I wish I had did when I was in school instead of doing it now, from preparing to communication, etc. One section was on scheduling. The biggest thing that he had was scheduling for the short term and for the long term. He’s obsessed with scheduling, but at the same time, it’s a routine, and most importantly, it’s there to keep things sane. There will be days where everything goes as planned but then there are days where it does not. But because there was a schedule in place, whatever interruption happened is taken care of, with little change in time. That’s basically it: you plan ahead to get things done without wasting time.

This is half why manga are licensed, but they don’t come until next year. The distributors need time to prepare, and so does everyone else working in the company. There are also other reasons, but this is the sentiment I got from the advice series.

There’s a lot more that I got out of doing this series than least expected.

18)

Realtalk, @OrganizationASG's manga project interviews are super. I usually don't read aniblogs, but it's exactly the stuff I'm interested in

— FEEL SO MOOOOOOOOOON (@zetsubouzhainu) March 29, 2014

19)

@Kami_nomi @kaitou_ace Didn't know interested letterers could just apply straight to Yen Press! I'm kind of tempted to do it…

— Siliva (@Siliva) March 4, 2014

@Kami_nomi @kaitou_ace Thanks. (: I realize I've become kind of a lettering nerd in the past few years… It'd be a dream to actually do it!

— Siliva (@Siliva) March 4, 2014

20) This project has given me a lot of ideas for the future, in addition to continuing to reinforce some of the ideas I had at the start of year.

But I’m curious what you got out of this series. Did anything surprise you in what was said? Did a specific advice post catch your eye? Well, whatever you got, feel free to share below!

Welcome to the final part in my manga project advice series. In case you missed it, it started with letterers, then translators, and then editors. The plan is to hopefully look back at everything later this week, so for now, let’s focus on manga adapters.

“What is a manga adapter,” you ask? Well, if you take a look at some of your Viz (most likely in the back) or Seven Seas manga (should be in the front), you’ll see in the credits the ones who worked on making the manga able to be read in English. You might see “adaptation” there. But ok, what is a manga adapter? They are the ones who take a translated Japanese script from a translator and make it sound like legible, commonplace words.

You can get a bit more information by reading the manga adapter post I worked on.

Anyways, I was able to talk to three manga adapters working in the industry now. Here’s their answers to my questions: 

How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga adapter?

Lianne Sentar (Alice in the Country of series, Hetalia): In the late 1990s, TOKYOPOP announced that they were going to write a series of kids’ novels based on the Sailor Moon anime, and I wrote a (somewhat confrontational) letter to the company promoting the fanfiction community and how they should “hire one of us.” Maybe because those were different times and Stu Levy loved experimenting, but I was invited to apply and was eventually hired for the job, even though I was still in high school. I loved the gig and constantly pushed for more writing/adaptation work in the company, which eventually led to their rapidly expanding manga department. I was a freelancer, so I started working for other companies as well (DMP and Seven Seas).

Ysabet MacFarlane (A Devil and Her Love Song, Seiho Boys’ High School!, Strobe Edge, Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends): I’d been an anime/manga fan for years before I met Lillian Diaz-Przybyl (then an editor at TOKYOPOP, now an editor and founder at Chromatic Press) online. Getting to know her got me interested in the manga industry beyond the basic “companies produce manga and I give them money”, and eventually I gave her my relevant resume info. Some time after that, TOKYOPOP licensed the first Fruits Basket fan book, and since Lillian both knew that Fruits Basket was my Favorite Manga Ever and was familiar with my writing style and my other qualifications, she arranged for me to do the English adaptation. Paul Morrissey, who edited the fan book, liked my work well enough to put me on Sgt. Frog when he needed a new adapter, and things went from there. That was back in 2006/07, and I’ve been adapting ever since.

Lillian Diaz-Przybyl (Loveless, Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Spirit Circle): I worked as an editor at TOKYOPOP for almost seven years—I did some adaptation both officially and unofficially there (i.e I did a pretty heavy re-write on a couple of titles that were being re-released, but didn’t have an official adaptation credit on them, and then did official rewrites for several series as well). After TP shut down, I picked up a variety of adaptation work through various other sources, thanks to my various friends and connections at other publishers. 

If there was one misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in the industry, what was it?

Lianne: Like a lot of people, when I was young, I thought there was a huge disconnect between industry and fandom–that the industry didn’t “get” us. That’s not true at all. Many, many industry people love fandom and were/are hardcore fans themselves. But there are different things to consider when you’re working on something professionally, and trying to work with fandom is incredibly hard, especially when hateful fans can get really loud. So sometimes editors block out fandom just to stay sane. I hate seeing missed opportunities for industry and fans to work together because of all the animosity.

Ysabet: By the time I started freelancing in the industry, I’d been interested in it for long enough that I was reading any posts or interviews I could find with people who were working in it–mostly editors, but people in other roles, too–so I think I had a reasonably accurate picture of how things worked. The biggest surprise I can think of wasn’t all that big–I’d assumed that there’d be more communication between translators and adapters, but in practice, that turned out to be fairly rare. For the most part, I’ve found that what happens is editors take my questions to the translators (or just take them into account when editing, if they also speak Japanese) and then deal with any resulting changes to the script themselves.

Lillian: I think the biggest misconception that people have is about the relative power of licensors vs. licensees. Publishers here can get a lot of flack for certain decisions that as an insider I know are heavily due to what’s going on in Japan on the licensor side—whether it’s the pace of releases, or creative decisions, there are a lot of things I think fans blame the licensees for that are completely out of the hands of the folks on this side of the Pacific. 

What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when adapting a manga series?

Lianne: Trying to make connections that were vague in the Japanese version. Japanese manga is full of vague references, especially with the way Japanese can be used as a language to dodge specifics. Western comics in English aren’t written like that, so a faithful translation can leave Westerners confused and even frustrated. But “filling in the blanks” in a translation is really hard, even with my background in Japanese and the amount of research I do into a series–you always risk making an assumption that isn’t true. You need to either be a really hardcore fan or have the help of hardcore fans to do this step. The Alice in the Country of… series is so complicated that I’m always emailing the translator (Angela Liu) for help, since she’s also played most of the games, and some stuff in the manga literally makes no sense if you didn’t play the games (which aren’t available in English). I remember an old TOKYOPOP series, Silver Diamond, that employed the help of its fandom and even credited them in the book.

Ysabet: Personally? Sound effects. (Although with some series, writing a script that’s tight enough for the lines to fit reasonably well into small speech balloons runs a close second.) Japanese has sound effects for EVERYTHING. If you’re dealing with something like blushing, you can get away with using “BLUSH”, so that’s not a challenge…but other times you have things like something I came across in A Devil and Her Love Song, which used the paku-paku sound effect for the “sound” of someone silently mouthing words because she had no voice. It’s literally soundless, so there’s no option for using onomatopoeia, and none of the relevant verbs really work well (“mouth” would offer enough possible readings that it risks throwing readers out of the story to figure it out, as well as being clunky)… I imagine you see the problem.

That said, I know some people absolutely love working on sound effects, so mileage definitely varies!

Lillian: I think establishing character voice is one of the hardest things to do for me. There’s a lot of grammatical short-hand for establishing little details about character in Japanese, thanks to the structure of the language, and it’s harder to do so in English without resorting to either slangy vocabulary which can feel really dated really fast, or weird dialects, which are both considered “bad writing” in English, and usually are inappropriate character-wise. My favorite adaptors totally nail this, but it’s something I personally struggle with.

If there is one thing an adapter must keep in mind when looking over a manga, what is it?

Lianne: You have to remember that your adaptation is a single, unique interpretation of the work. In almost all cases, that interpretation should be faithful to the spirit of the original and internally consistent. Once you’ve picked a style (like a character’s speech pattern), and especially if you’ve made some carefully considered changes, you have to stick with them through all volumes, or you’re proving that you’re not thinking about the work as a whole and just making changes when you feel like it. Think long and hard before you finish volume 1. You’re either starting a triumphant trip up a mountain or digging your own grave.

Ysabet: Keeping a constant eye on balancing the flow of the English script with not losing the meaning of the original text. It’s easy to accidentally go too far in one direction or the other. And where that balancing point is varies a bit from adapter to adapter, I imagine. There’s also what I usually explain as a difference between what a character says and what they mean. The most blatant examples of that are probably things like idioms, where what they’re literally saying doesn’t necessarily bear much or any resemblance to what we’re supposed to take away from it, and so the English script will usually substitute in an English idiom that’s roughly equivalent. But there are subtler examples, too. I work on a lot of shoujo manga these days, and it’s not unusual for a male romantic lead to say something that translates fairly literally into English and could easily be rendered into natural-sounding dialogue, but where it’s meant to be appealing or romantic in Japanese, it sounds controlling and off-putting (or outright abusive) in English–which can be a cultural difference, as often as not. So you have to find a balance between what he’s actually saying vs. what he means and/or what the reader/heroine are meant to take from it.

Lillian: Don’t distract the reader, and don’t leave them confused. Your choices should enhance the material, but never get in the way of a smooth, and most importantly FUN reading experience. Don’t let your ego as a writer get in the way of what the original author is trying to say.

If there is one reason why adapters have been used less by manga publishers than in the past, what would it be?

Lianne: Shrinking budgets in a struggling industry, I’m pretty sure. Translators and editors can work harder to cover the rewriter’s job, especially if they’re not trying to do anything ambitious with the script. We can be cut and the book can still go to print. Them’s the breaks.

Ysabet: In some cases I assume it’s editorial/company preference, but I figure it’s generally a financial decision. If a corner has to be cut, we’re the one link in the chain that can be done without, practically speaking. A good adapter will usually make a significant difference in the quality of the final product–the exception being if the translator or editor write as well as an adapter should be able to–but a separate person doing the adaptation isn’t absolutely required the way the translator, letterer, and editor are.

TL;DR: The product can exist without us. It just probably won’t be as good.

As a reader, I can nearly always tell before checking the credits whether an adapter has been involved in a script. There have only been a few times where I assumed an adapter was involved and turned out to be wrong*. That doesn’t mean I think scripts where the translator does the adaptation are necessarily weak; most of them are just fine. But I do see a difference.

*Offhand, the two examples that come to mind are Mai Ihara’s work on Kaze Hikaru and Jonathan Tarbox’s work on Claymore.

Lillian: Hah! That’s easy. MONEY. Most of the freelance work I do these days is for the digital space, where the market has yet to be really established, and so any way to keep costs low is welcome. That said, we’ve got a generation of young people who have grown up on manga and anime even more than I did, so I find the overall quality of your average translation to be a little better than it used to be. There was a general belief at TP that adaptations were compensating for blah translations, and I feel like that is somewhat less the case in the series I’ve been working on lately.

Is becoming a manga adapter a viable career to get into? If so, what would be the best way for one to break into the manga industry?

Lianne: It’s tricky these days, but I think it’s possible. You should have some solid writing or editorial experience in your background, even if it’s for something like a well-maintained review site. Be REALLY familiar with manga. Knowing some Japanese is a plus. Do your research on the companies you want to apply for and politely send them a resume, referencing some stuff they’ve done in the past, why you like it, and why you think you could be an asset to the company, if they’re hiring. Try to meet someone in the industry in a polite, RESPECTFUL way, like asking them questions at a panel at a con or something and then introducing yourself at the end. I think this is true for most industries, but basically–research, build your resume, flatter you desired superiors in a professional way (“I loved the adaptation on [insert manga series] because of [insert quick reason]“), follow up. Be assertive and a little aggressive, but still polite and flattering. DO NOT harass or nag. If you’re trying to break in, these people will need to do you a favor and take a risk on you to give you a job. Make them think you’ll do a good job, be easy to work with, and be fun to have coffee with at the end of the day.

Ysabet: Career? No, I wouldn’t say so. Like Lianne said in your “Do You Know What a Manga Adapter Is?” post, it’s a dying art. (I’d be thrilled if it sticks around, obviously, because I love doing it and because I genuinely feel it results in a better book, but I’m trying for realism here.) I’d be surprised if anyone’s actually making a living at it–maybe it was possible once upon a time, but these days there’s less work going around and it doesn’t pay nearly as well as it apparently used to. I’ve adapted for four publishers over the last seven or eight years (two of which, TOKYOPOP and Del Rey Manga, are no longer with us) and I still work fairly steadily, and I don’t even come close to making a living on adaptation work alone.

If you want to break in as an adapter? Get familiar with the industry. Try to meet people who’re involved in it. Read a lot, and listen to how people talk, since dialogue is the vast majority of what we work on.

Lillian: Full-time? Hell no, it’s not a viable career. The pay is low, the market is fairly small and kind of unstable, and the flow of work is unpredictable. As a sideline that’s fun and nets you some bonus cash? Sure! 

As for breaking in…I dunno. Networking with people already in the industry is the obvious one, but at least my experience lately is that companies are looking for people who can really hit the ground running, so any way you can get editorial experience, and specifically comics-related experience, is going to serve you well. And whatever the industry overall may say about scanlations (and believe me, I could totally rant about aggregator sites all day), that’s not a bad thing to have on your resume, as far as I’m concerned. 

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Lianne: This is a hard industry where you won’t make a lot of money, critics can (rightly) tear you apart, and fans on the Internet may attack you for years because of one line of dialogue you changed, whether it was a mistake or not. Only do it if you love manga. If you love manga, it’s all worth it.

Ysabet: Do it out of love, basically. I consider myself extremely fortunate to still be getting work in the industry, and I hope to keep adapting as long as the work is there and editors want me to do it, but I love manga as a medium, and I love playing with words, and I love the satisfaction when it all comes together. Be prepared for no one to have a clue what you do, both because no one outside of the industry has any idea what the job entails, and because if an adapter–or a translator or editor, if they’re doing the final script–is doing a good job, the work will be invisible. Sure, it’s great if someone reads it and afterwards realizes that they enjoyed the writing, but ultimately my goal is to make readers forget that they’re reading a translated work. The manga should read as if it was originally written in English.

Lillian: While your job shouldn’t be to translate, it never hurts to have some Japanese language skills. That’s been invaluable to my career. Read a lot. Find writers/adaptors whose work you like, and think about what they do that makes their work appealing to you. It’s kind of the same advice I give to anyone interested in a creative career—find work that inspires you, think critically about why, and then apply that to your own work.

As a follow-up to our recent round-up “What Manga Publishers Can Actually License in the US,” I reached out to Abigail Blackman, freelancer at Yen Press, for more insight after Lys pointed out we didn’t cover YP’s guidelines. Hit the jump for her thoughts!

Abigail notes that while there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to manga licensing…

Regarding licensing, there are no firm rules (for anyone, as far as I know) about who can license from whom. Like any business deal, licensing is a matter of negotiation between the two companies. In the cases of Viz and Kodansha, which are managed by a Japanese publisher, they may have restrictions built into their business about where they can get material, but even Viz has licensed Japanese series from companies other than their Japanese owners (Fullmetal Alchemist being the biggest one I can think of)…

…companies tend to go with who they know.

While there’s generally nothing that would prevent a US publisher from pursuing a particular series, you will often see one US company working more closely with a certain few Japanese companies simply because they’ve build stronger business relationships over the years. Even then, it’s no guarantee who will win out when it comes to a series that multiple companies want. (There’s a lot that goes into the negotiations) It’s also true that companies with direct connections, like Shueisha/Shogakukan and Viz or Kodansha (JP) and Kodansha USA, may have priority agreements that affect which series are ultimately available to other US publishers.

Don’t lose hope!

Yen does try to ensure our list has variety with titles like Bunny Drop, A Bride’s Story, light novels, etc., so I wouldn’t say any genre is out of the question.

But, as always, keep your expectations realistic.

But the US manga market is very small compared to Japan and elsewhere, so every publisher has to make careful decisions about which books to publish. A lot of manga readers stop reading comics after college, so it’s harder to make jousei and seinen titles or more “literary” titles successful, which is why you don’t see as many from most publishers. That doesn’t mean niche titles aren’t considered, but their appeal to the US readership has to be carefully weighed.

And there you go! Remember, don’t be afraid to reach out to companies for series you’d love to see published; as long as you do your research, the worst they can say is “no,” and you may learn a little bit more about the ins-and-outs of manga licensing in the meantime.

Since it was not enough to just merely review Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, I decided to also talk with its translator. Adrienne Beck was kind enough to spend some time over the weekend to talk about this food series, how far she’s gotten into it (though there’s one volume out), her take on the fanservice, and what she hopes readers gain out of it.

So I want to know how you were familiar with Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma? Did you check out the manga in JP, was it word of mouth, or did you learn about it when you were assigned to it?

I’m afraid I’m not as up-to-date on Shonen Jump titles as I could be, so I first learned about it when I was assigned to it.

How familiar are you with food manga? Have you read a few, translated a few food manga, etc? 

I have translated a lot of different types of manga so far, but this is the first food manga I have actually translated. I know of Toriko and Iron Wok Jan, but I never got around to reading them. This has been quite a learning experience for me so far. I’m having a blast with it.

Can you share how far have you gotten in translating the manga and how long you usually spend translating it?

I’m not sure I can say exactly how far I am, but I’m getting close to where it is in Japan. Like any of the manga I do, I try to translate 10-15 pages of it every day, depending on what my deadline may be. I think we’re ahead of schedule enough that I’ve had a chance to take my time with it.

What are some of the challenges of translating Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma?

The recipes. Like I mentioned above, this is the first time I’ve done a food manga, so I’m getting an education in culinary terms, both in Japanese and in English! I also have to be sure to be really precise in my language, because I don’t want to accidentally give the wrong directions if somebody is going to try the recipe.

I guess another challenge would be the puns (there are quite a few sneaky ones), but those take some thought no matter what kind of manga it is.

Hmm. So I guess you haven’t tried to execute one of the recipes since there was one in Vol 1 huh? *laughs*

Ha ha! No, not yet. I’m not nearly the cook Soma is! Some of it does look simple enough even for somebody like me, who’s just good enough not to give everybody food-poisoning. And they all look really tasty (and, unfortunately, not very diet friendly!). Each volume I’ve done so far has multiple recipes, so there should be a lot for readers to pick from.

‘dat fanservice…

So, with Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, there’s fanservice. Or, in this case, a lot of moments where it’s implied to be sexual. Was any of it a big deal for you? Or is it tame compared to other manga with ecchi content?

It’s actually very tame compared to some of the other titles I’ve worked on. I know it’s garnered a lot of attention from that first dual-page spread in Volume 1, but that’s really the worst of it.  It tapers off pretty quickly into more quirky and humorous situations than straight-out service-y ones. There is still some sprinkled around here and there, but it’s not nearly as in-your-face. Plus, it’s not all tilted towards guys. There are things for the ladies, as well. *laughs*

For Vol 1, did anything catch you by surprise while you were working on it? In terms of story, characters, etc?

Hmm… It’s hard to say. I’ve done quite a lot of manga, so it’s difficult for one to surprise me nowadays. *laughs* But I guess the characters were a pleasant surprise to me. Each of them feels genuine and likeable very quickly, so it’s easy to get caught up in reading about them. I find myself flipping through and re-reading whole sections of a volume when I only intended to check something quickly for reference.

Talented in one aspect, well apart in another

Final question: If there is one thing a reader should gain after reading Food Wars, what would it be?

Good question! I’d think a reader would come away with a sense that “good” food doesn’t necessarily have to be “fancy” food. You can take a dish — or anything, really — that’s ordinary and, with a little effort and creativity, turn it into something fun and amazing. It’s all up to you and the effort you choose to put into it.

You can check out the first 11 pages of Food Wars, purchase a copy on Viz Manga, or pre-order the print release that comes out in August.

I guess this will never end!…And actually, I don’t mind if it doesn’t! Will always take info from people in the industry anytime, and I will post them. Because hey, people might learn a thing or two. I think.

Anyways, Abigail’s back again. As you might have learned from the lettering post, she also works on the editorial side for Yen Press, so she’s edited manga too. Since her editing credits aren’t listed, she let me know some of the manga she’s worked on, so here you go:

Soul Eater
Umineko
Higurashi
Inu X Boku SS
Triage X
Bloody Cross
A Bride’s Story
Yotsuba
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan

Since she answered the first two questions, you’ll get to read the editorial challenges for an editor from her.

What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when editing a manga series?

One of the biggest challenges in editing manga is addressing culture or language-specific references that just don’t translate well into English. Any of the four-panel books (Sunshine Sketch, Aron’s Absurd Armada, K-ON!) or comedies in particular take a lot of careful thought when we edit them. Yen tries to keep the text as faithful to the original as possible, but when it’s an idiom that doesn’t exist in English, we have to get really creative with wordplay and puns to make it make sense while keeping the meaning faithful to the Japanese. It’s especially hard when the text and the art are part of the joke. We do try to insert translation notes to explain the Japanese for these instances, but we want the reader to enjoy the punchline without having to flip to the back. Sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do…

If there is one thing an editor must keep in mind when looking over a manga, what is it?

Readability. Most of the text in a comic is dialogue, so it’s important that it feels like natural speech, that the flow of a conversation makes sense. Particularly in fantasy series or series where there are passages of explanation, the terminology can sometimes get in the way of what the character really means, even if the translation is technically correct. Thinking of how you would actually talk to or explain something to someone is critical to making the characters come to life and making the read more enjoyable for fans.

What would be the best way for an editor to break into the manga industry?

A lot of editing is being a good writer, being able to make small changes that give the final book polish. I was an English lit major, so I learned a lot about what makes an effective story and good writing there. I also took some publishing and business classes to help me understand how the book business works. If you’re entry-level, being able to write and communicate well is critical–you will learn a lot on the job. It’s also important to have some understanding of InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator. At Yen, we work right in the files that will ultimately go to the printer, and editors frequently have to be able to design extra pages, make ads, clean Japanese out of art, letter books, etc. Again, you will learn a lot on the job, but it’s good to have looked at the program a little bit if possible. And of course, while you don’t have to be an expert in Japanese, it does help to have at least some basic Japanese under your belt.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Read critically. When you’re reading manga or a novel, look at where the dialogue reads well or poorly, look at how the artist uses the comic panels to tell their story, think about what makes a good character and what makes a weak one. An editor’s job is to take a work and smooth out the rough edges to make it really shine and be the best it can be, so developing the ability to zero in on problem areas and recognizing the best parts of a story are key.

Needless to say, after you Google it, you’ll wonder what Project-H was thinking in bringing this title over here.

PROJECT-H PARTNERS WITH IKDINTERNATIONAL TO BRING JUNICHI YAMAKAWA’S MANGA TO NORTH AMERICAN SHORES 

Tuesday [April 1st, 2014]

Gardena, CA, April 01, 2014 – Project-H is excited to announce our partnership with IKDInternational to bring the manga of beloved artist Junichi Yamakawa to North American shores.

Best known worldwide for “Kuso Miso Technique”, Junichi Yamakawa’s popularity experienced a resurgence of popularity after his work resurfaced on the internet in 2003. Kuso Miso technique tells the story of a typical student, Masaki Michishita, as he meets Takakazu Abe, a man who will change his perception of love, lust and the world.

Kuso Miso Technique brings in a different flavor compared to any of Project-H’s past works including, but not limited to: homoerotica, scatology and urination.

More information regarding Kuso Miso Technique can be found here: Wikipedia (NSFW)

Project-H’s President, Hikaru Sasahara commented:

“I am excited at the possibilities this collaboration brings to Project-H. Our goal is to bring new wholesome titles that appeal to everyone and I am pretty sure I’ve made a few people very happy.”

New and Current Project-H fans can look forward to a faithful adaptation of all of Junichi Yamakawa’s short stories on May, 2015.

Project-H, LLC. 

Established in 2011 under Digital Manga Inc.’s hentai imprint, “Project-H Books” was born. After a short while, Project-H Books became its own separate entity, now called Project-H, LLC. With a dedicated fan base exceeding high count numbers every day, Project-H continues to bridge the gap between Japan and the West by boldly licensing, localizing, and distributing Japanese hentai manga in English to audiences everywhere.
http://projecth.xxx/

IKDInternational 

Since May 2013, IKDInternational has held the rights to Yamakawa Junichi’s “Kuso Miso Technique.” IKDInternational has endeavored to spread awareness of Yamakawa Junichi’s manga through various goods and often sold-out events. IKDInternational continues to encourage both new and old fans to continue spreading Yamajun fever worldwide.
http://ikdi.jp/

If you’d like more information about this topic or if you are an established news outlet and would like to receive press releases, please inquire by e-mail to [email protected]

The manga project keeps on going! For a good month we’ve taken a look at people in the manga industry and have asked them for advice on their profession. Letterers was the first entry, followed by translators. Now, it’s time for manga editors!

I don’t doubt any of you know what an editor has to do. However, are you certain you know everything a manga editor has to do? Well, let’s find out! I got in touch with editors from Viz, Digital Manga, Kodansha, and a few others to take part in this. Here’s their answers to my questions:

How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga editor?

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber (Hetalia, Sailor Moon): My major in college required that I do an internship in order to earn my degree, so I applied to internships with Viz and TOKYOPOP after I figured out I wasn’t interested in traditional journalism. I wound up getting the TOKYOPOP one after a bit of pushing. With Viz, I applied to the magazine internship (back when they had print magazines) instead of the editorial internship because I thought the magazine one compliment my studies more. That was a mistake! It’s best to know what you’re really interested in when applying for an internship.

Lindley Warmington (Snow and Kisses, Welcome to Nyan Cafe!): I got the opportunity purely by chance. I knew that DMG had plans to hire scanlators in the near future, and then a friend emailed me when the hiring actually started. I was really excited when I was chosen.

Pancha Diaz (Midnight Secretary, Millenium Snow, Skip Beat!): When I was in grad school a local paper ran an article about Viz. I was already familiar with the company because they published all my favorite manga, but I’d assumed they were located in New York. When I found out they were in San Francisco, I checked the Jobs section of their website on a whim. There was an internship opening, which I applied for immediately. As my internship was winding down, one of the editors quit, and my supervisors asked if I wanted the job. My answer was YES! I worked part-time until I finished my degree, and then became a full-time editor.

Carl Horn (Banana Fish, Oh My Goddess, Neon Genesis Evangelion): My first professional editing job was in 1995 as an assistant editor on the former Viz Media magazine Animerica, which covered anime and manga on a monthly basis. At the time, the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV show was in early production, and I covered its progress for the magazine. In 1997, Viz began to release the Evangelion manga, and my editor-in-chief on Animerica, Trish Ledoux, who also edited manga at Viz, asked me if I would like to try editing Evangelion. That’s how I got started with manga on a professional basis.

Ben Applegate (Attack on Titan, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Unico): I got into editing through journalism, working for English-language media in Korea. On the side, I got started doing manga and light novel translation for Seven Seas and Digital Manga Publishing. I also worked for Digital Manga running their Pop Japan Travel division for a while. So DMP head Hikaru Sasahara already knew me when he gave me my first part-time manga editing gig, running DMP’s Kickstarter campaigns for Osamu Tezuka manga in 2011 and 2012. Later that year, I moved to New York and took a full-time job editing Kodansha Comics manga.

Having an editorial background outside manga definitely helped, I think. Manga editing involves taking on a lot of projects at once on very tight deadlines, so in terms of daily workflow it’s actually closer to journalistic editing than to book editing. My experience copy editing also came in handy, because manga publishers don’t usually invest resources in an actual copy editor, so you’re expected to do both tasks.

Hope Donavan (Kimi ni Todoke, Ranma 1/2, Toriko, Seraph of The End): I got an internship at TOKYOPOP between my junior and senior year of college. TOKYOPOP had an aggressive summer intern program. There were five of us in the editorial department alone, and somewhere around 20 at the company. Probably one of the reasons I got the internship was because I had editorial experience in college – I was the editor of DUIN (the school satire magazine) and the fine arts/literary journal, as well as the school newspaper’s cartoonist.

I kept in contact with a couple of nice editors at TOKYOPOP, Tim Beedle and Paul Morrissey. The next year when I graduated, Tim helped me apply for a copyeditor position that happened to be opening up. I was a copyeditor for a year, then was promoted to junior editor, then editor.

Rachelle Donatos Lipp (DMG Editor): While wandering the internet looking for possible opportunities to enter into the unbelievably tiny manga industry on the west coast of the United States, I came across DigitalMangaGuild.com. It was very easy to join, take the aptitude test, and begin working on assignments. While the pay is minimal, the experience is absolutely invaluable. I feel that Digital Manga Guild is the place where I’ve been able to successfully combine my editing skills with my obsessive love for manga, essentially turning this into a hobby that I now get paid to enjoy.

John Bae (One Punch Man, Nisekoi, Stealth Symphony): Before Viz, I worked as a book editor for 3 years. I also lived in Japan for 3 years. VIZ, to me, was the perfect opportunity to combine the two, so I applied to every editor position they put up, until they hired me!

If there was one misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in the industry, what was it?

Daniella: That everyone would be an anime/manga otaku! I figured that no one would want to work there if they didn’t like anime and manga. But back then I didn’t understand a single thing about how businesses were run, so of course I was a little surprised.

The truth is that everyone on the editorial team was into manga, but everyone else in the company was not necessarily otaku. Some people were geeky for other things though. One of the graphic designers had an awesome collection of Doctor Who toys on his desk.

Lindley: The biggest misconception I had was that this job would be easy. I thought I’d be a good editor because I spotted all sorts of spelling and punctuation errors in published manga all the time; however, the job is so much more than skimming for such minor errors. Editors also have to do a lot of rewriting so that the book makes sense to Western audiences. I spend hours saying the dialog out loud to myself over and over again to make sure everything sounds natural, writing and rewriting the same line thirty times because nothing feels right, or brainstorming ideas for alternate translations back and forth with the translator. None of this work is visible in the published book. A lot of hard work goes into editing, and I never really appreciated it until I was the person doing it.

Pancha: That all the publishers were located in New York!

Carl: The basic principle that defines the English-language manga industry isn’t that you are translating, lettering, and distributing a manga. Those are all necessary and important tasks, but to become part of the actual industry, you also agree to do those tasks with the permission of the original Japanese publisher–just as the original Japanese publisher had to get the permission of the manga creator to first publish their work in Japan.

The Japanese have the right to choose whom they want to work with, and on what terms–and to be in the manga industry means respecting that right. Much of the time, most of the time, you will be able to both work something out together, and it’s on such a basis of mutual respect that manga created for Japan can also be found in stores across North America. I’ve walked through bookstores in the U.S. with visitors from the original Japanese publishers, and it’s a good feeling to show them their manga, and know that we all worked toward this together.

But to be in the industry also means accepting that sometimes it won’t be able to work. There have been times where I’ve asked if we can publish a certain manga in English, and for various reasons either the Japanese publisher or creator will say no. As a fan, I’m certainly disappointed, but, oddly enough, I also feel good as a fan to know their true feelings, and to respect their choice.

Ben: To be totally honest, I didn’t read a whole lot of manga when I first got into freelance manga translation. I was mostly into anime. I’d read a few classics like Ghost in the Shell and Akira, and a few manga in Japanese like GTO and Azumanga Daioh, but mostly the only Japanese books I read were on politics or history. When I did start reading in earnest, in 2009 or so, it was mostly older stuff like Tezuka, Keiko Takemiya, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I also devoured Urasawa’s Monster. In other words, I didn’t have too many preconceived notions going in.

Something that did surprise me was how little artists are paid when they’re just starting out. An artist who doesn’t have a tankobon out is a similar situation to someone trying to break into stand-up comedy. It’s not pretty.

Another thing that surprised me, though it probably shouldn’t have, was approval processes. I knew that Japanese artists retained most of the rights to their work, and that impressed me, but I was shocked at how practically everything, even something that almost anyone would consider trivial, needed to be approved by the Japanese editor or artist. That’s totally different from how most licensing relationships are handled in the U.S., and it can be a major bottleneck. I’ve been very lucky to work with people at Kodansha and Tezuka Pro who are laser-focused on getting books done efficiently and with a high degree of quality.

Hope: I had no idea what to expect. The only job I’d held before was a summer job working concessions at a movie theater. I hoped that I’d be on the cutting edge of a new field (this was 2004-2005 during the height of the manga boom). I thought the industry would continue to move up and up and I could feel like I got in on the ground level. I thought I could witness something that had never been done before. Now that I have more perspective, I realize that industries or interests like this pop up all the time. Just because something’s super popular now doesn’t mean interest in it will last. We’re still figuring out now in 2014 what the future of the manga industry and fandom will look like.

As for actual misconceptions, I guess I thought there’d be more training. But back then, no one knew anything about editing manga – we were all doing it for the first time. So there was a lot of learning on the job. I don’t think I received any formal training.

Another misconception was the idea that all manga is good. When you start getting into anime and manga, it really blows your mind. I had no idea how boring, lackluster and cliché so much manga is. As a copyeditor, forced to read every title going to print in a given month, you get an idea of how really awful a lot of it is. TOKYOPOP licensed a glut of titles, and so a lot of it was not worth your time. VIZ, where I work now, is much more careful about licensing worthwhile titles and it makes a huge difference.

The third was how much is changed for an American release. You take something that is original and complete, break it into tiny pieces, and then reassemble it. It’s painstaking art reconstruction work. At TOKYOPOP I was incensed at the changes – particularly the loss of art at the edge of the pages due to scanning rather than using digital files. There was also the fact that you can’t make a 1:1 translation all the time. You try to be as accurate as possible but sometimes that means staying true to the intent and flavor, not the literal translation.

Rachelle: I cannot say that I have or ever had any misconceptions about the manga industry.  I entered this industry knowing that it would be like any other job: if you want to put out work worthy of praise, then you have to work hard. However, I can say that all too often contributors (everyone, not just editors) demean manga as just some frivolous picture book.  Manga, though short in length and filled with pictures, should still be handled in the same manner that one would handle any other published piece of literature.  You do this for the authors and illustrators who poured their lives into each book, and also for the readers who paid for this piece of fiction.  This line of work is not always an array of fluttering roses and bishounen as many often imagine.

John: Since I wasn’t into manga and anime before working at Viz, I really didn’t have any preconceived notions about it.

What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when editing a manga series?

Daniella: Trying to catch the right tone for the series is probably the hardest for me. The copy-editing, the formatting, and the quality control aspects of the job are all pretty easy, but finding language that fits the book the best is always a challenge.

You have to find the right balance of language befitting a character and the overall tone of the manga. This is less about localization or writing the character like they’re speaking in an accent, and more about making sure a trendy teenager in the 21st Century isn’t speaking like they’re a Victorian aristocrat. Unless the manga tells us that’s their thing.

It’s easier if there’s a re-writer on the manga, though. That way there’s two of us trying to get the language right. However, I don’t always get that privilege!

Lindley: I’ve actually never worked on a series yet. All of my projects so far have been one shots. But my biggest challenge with editing a manga is doing quality control. It’s really easy to focus and actively read when I have to switch between script and raw PDF, but it’s so easy to be swept away by a manga after it’s been lettered. I have to take several breaks while I work and I try to avoid QCing more than one chapter per day in order to avoid zoning off while reading.

Pancha: Almost inevitably a lack of time. We have to wait for contracts to be signed before we request assets, and then wait for assets to arrive, and then the translators and letterers need time to do their jobs. All that completely eats up what might seem like a long lead-time. Then our distributor needs the physical books a certain amount of time before they go on sale so the books can be shipped out, and the printer needs the files a certain amount of time before that so they can fit in the printing queue, and you need to get the files to pre-press before that… Managing your schedule is one of the most important parts of the job, and not to be taken lightly.

Carl: In terms of the industry, scheduling. A volume of manga (tankobon) starts off as something you can buy in Japanese in a Japanese bookstore, but my job is to turn it into something you can buy in English at a North American bookstore. Naturally, your manga is one of only many books in that store, so in order to get it on their shelves, you have to follow certain rules as a publisher–most importantly, setting a date for the book’s release and then making sure you actually do get it to the store that week. If you don’t make it on time, then they have to change their plans just on your account (remember, they don’t have unlimited shelf space–it’s like making a reservation and then not showing up when you said you would), and in some cases they might have the right to cancel their order of your book.

So the biggest challenge is to meet that commitment, which means picking a good future date to release the book. It should be “good” in a number of different ways. First of all, does that date give you enough time to do all the tasks you’ll need on that particular book–acquiring raw files from the publisher, translating, lettering, designing the book, proofing, printing?

Second, beyond that particular book, did you pick a date that will allow you to balance the overall workload at your company? What I mean by that is, Dark Horse releases hundreds of separate books a year, only some of which are manga. An editor can’t produce a volume of manga all by his or herself, but also needs to work with designers, digital art experts, pre-press specialists, etc. All of those people will be working on other projects besides your manga, so you have to take into consideration their work load.

Both external scheduling (getting your finished book to the printers, distributors, and stores) and internal scheduling (getting the book finished) are very important. And of course, most manga series are more than one volume, so at the moment that English vol. 1 finally hits the stores, you may be proofing vol. 2, starting to translate vol. 3, and writing ad copy about vol. 4. In other words, it’s an ever-rolling process. To be in the manga industry means to accept these commitments and stick with them.

Ben: The complex challenges include catching little translation errors, translating puns, and romanizing names written in katakana, but I see stuff like that as puzzles to solve, and I actually really enjoy them. Probably the toughest thing is keeping track of character names and voices. Where a more traditional editing job calls for you to do a few books at a time, a manga editor might be working on four or five different series in a week, all tied to previous and future volumes, which makes it extremely difficult to keep dialog quirks and name spellings in your head. You’ve got to write that stuff down or it’ll slip your mind. To alleviate that, I try to carve out a day or two to edit a single script before it goes to the letterer, which helps me focus a bit more, though I haven’t had time to do that lately.

Hope: Deadlines. Most editors are perfectionists. If we could spend months massaging a script and layout until it sparkled, we would. We’d love to give our translators and letterers all the time in the world. But we are in the business of book production, and you have to churn out a new volume in the series every couple months. The whole business is predicated on you hitting your schedule. Sometimes there are drop-in titles that are an extra rush.

I look at it like a challenge. It’s the work that you can do under tight deadlines and high pressure that counts, not the work you can do under ideal conditions. I think that’s something that’s true for all working people.

Rachelle: The biggest challenge I face every time I edit a manga series is making sure that I’ve not edited away something the author wanted in the story. Essentially, I battle the concept of “lost in translation” often. Nuances that are found in one language do not always translate into English. It’s in these times where an editor’s people skills come in handy; one-on-one with the translator is typically the only way to solve this dilemma.

John: Definitely the sound FX. Japanese uses a lot of onomatopoeia in their language, and, more often than not, there’s no real English-language equivalent. Also, specific references or jokes that involve intimate knowledge with Japanese culture is often hard to get across to foreign audiences.

If there is one thing an editor must keep in mind when looking over a manga, what is it?

Daniella: How the reader would react to reading a manga. Would the way this sentence is written confuse them? Does it flow nicely? Is there some way to make it better? Will the reader notice if we had to retouch the art here or there? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Lindley: Definitely sound effects. They’re really sneaky because I tend to ignore them when I’m reading manga casually. A lot of friends have told me that they have the same habit. Sound effects are just really easy for everyone to overlook, and that leads to things like spelling errors or untranslated sound effects going unnoticed. I’ve had to retrain my mind to pay more attention to sound effects.

Pancha: When we look at a new series to acquire, one of the first questions we ask is “will this sell?” And sometimes even if the series is amazing and one of the best things we’ve read in a while, it will still be too niche or otherwise unlikely to sell. It can be hard to pass on something you love, but we have to keep the realities of the market in mind at all times. We can’t let our fan-selves make all the decisions.

Carl: I think one approach is to not just look at them from the outside, as characters and scenes on a manga page. Imagine an “inside” view instead; see these not as characters and scenes, but as people and moments. From the outside they’re in a “story,” but from the inside they’re in a situation. Maybe sometimes the situation is (just as real life can be) strange, silly, absurd, or even dumb, but as an editor, you should have empathy toward any manga you work on.

Ben: Like with all editing, it’s never just one thing, but there are different things I keep in mind at different points in the process. When I’m editing a script, I’m on the lookout for translation errors, and I rewrite liberally to make the lines read better. When a first pass comes in from the letterer, I’m looking for things that just look bad on the page (i.e., a line that just doesn’t fit into a bubble properly or art problems like bleed), and I’m still rewriting awkward phrases. On the second (and third pass, if there is one), I’m totally focused on eliminating typos, since any major changes that late in the process can introduce errors rather than fixing them. But really, you have to be ready to fix any kind of problem whenever you spot it.

Hope: Keeping fresh eyes for every read is essential. Every time you read a book (I generally read a book seven times throughout production), you have to approach it like it’s the first. You can’t let your eyes glaze over or your mind wander. So having that focus and dedication needed to read fresh is really important.

Rachelle: Readability. Bottom line is that readers fuel the publishing world. Your efforts translate into their enjoyment of the book. Their enjoyment of the book translates into potential profitability. In other words, if the reader enjoys the book then you’re likely going to be busy as additional volumes to that book are licensed for publication.

John: Everything matters! From the dialogue, to the placement of dialogue, to how the FX is placed within the context of the art, etc. Manga editing entails so much more than just looking at a script.

What would be the best way for an editor to break into the manga industry?

Daniella: Get. An. Internship. Manga editors in the states tend to come from very different backgrounds, so the best way to get the skills and training for this very specific job is to be an intern and learn the actual job.

And when you get that internship, make sure they don’t put you in the mail room too often. Push your superiors to teach you what they’re doing! Dazzle them with your passion for the job so that they have no choice but to offer you paid work after your internship ends.

Lindley: Freelance! Freelancing is a great way to get into the manga industry. You can work on your own schedule and often have some control over what titles you want to do. Freelancing also helps you get experience in the field to help make your resume look better and helps you get connections. Most importantly, freelancing will let you find out if this is really the right job for you before you spend a lot of time and effort on getting a full-time position.

Pancha: The manga industry is still pretty small, so the number of editorial jobs is limited. Keep an eye on company job listings so you can jump when an opportunity presents itself. And while you’re waiting, hone the skills that will make you a good editor and acquire all the experience you can, even if it’s with personal projects. The reason I was able to step in when an editorial position opened up is because I had already done other internships, freelance copyediting, and various editorial projects stretching back to high school.

Carl: English skills are important, and I also recommend getting journalism experience. In my case, it was with my high school and college newspapers, but of course there are other venues for journalism online. Why is journalism a good training ground for a manga editor? As a manga editor, your job will be to make sure these manga both a.) communicate well in English, and b.) do so while meeting their scheduling requirements. A journalist who works for a regular newspaper, magazine, site, etc. has to do these same things, so if you can show that kind of experience on your resume, it will demonstrate you understand what’s needed to be in the industry.

By the way, I think this applies whether the kind of journalism you do is specific to Japan or not; in other words, it doesn’t necessarily have to mean getting involved with an anime magazine or newssite. After all, one of your goals in the industry should be to reach people who aren’t currently manga fans, but who might discover or become interested in a manga you happened to edit. When I was working for my school newspapers, the idea was to be able to communicate ideas to everybody reading, not just hardcore fans. Manga in America isn’t like TV or movies, something everyone is into. Only a tiny percentage of Americans read manga on a regular basis. If you want to get into the manga industry, you should want to change that; make more people here fans. We still have a lot of work to do!

Ben: Get a job as an editor. There are fewer and fewer editorial jobs these days, but they’re out there, and it’s still much better to have the résumé of an editor and a passion for manga, as opposed to a résumé full of manga-related jobs that have nothing to do with editing. The exception would be if you came at it through translation, since I do know some editors who broke in because they were excellent translators, even though they lacked editorial experience.

An absolute requirement is that you must study Japanese. In the old days, it was possible to be a manga editor without literacy in Japanese, but today I think that’s just impossible, which is as it should be.

Hope: Demonstrate to a company that you have project management skills along with creative writing skills and a passion for manga. Knowledge of Japanese and art design doesn’t hurt. When companies hire editors, it’s a lot like hiring any other middle manager in any company. So there will generally be job postings online. Keep on top of those. Also, because manga editing is an incredibly specialized field, getting experience in manga editing or editing is good. Find an internship if you can. There are manga publishing houses on both coasts. Keep in mind that you’ll probably have to live in those areas if you want to edit manga.

Rachelle: While felling I’m like reciting some plug on a television show, even though I’m not, I would say that the best way for an editor to break into the manga industry is through a company like Digital Manga Guild. It is the ideal setting for an editor with little to no experience to see firsthand what being a manga editor is all about. Once they’ve gained plenty of experience through a company like Digital Manga Guild, they can then apply to any open job opportunities with verifiable work experience.

John: Obviously, any editor in the U.S. needs to have a strong English-language background. But for manga, intimate knowledge of the language and culture is a definite plus.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Daniella: If you’re determined to be a manga editor, be prepared for three things: That you won’t be working as a manga editor for a company in Japan, that you’ll probably be working as a freelancer, and that you really should learn Japanese.

The first one is obvious: People like to dream big and think they’ll wind up breaking into the industry in Japan. Breaking into the industry in the U.S. is a lot more realistic and doable. Which isn’t to say that you won’t ever make it in Japan, just that there are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Second, be prepared for the hard life of a freelancer because you will be freelancing at some point in your career unless you have the luck of the gods. You will probably need to get other work too, so be prepared to get freelance gigs, part-time jobs, or even full-time jobs that aren’t in anime or manga. There are people out there who translate anime and manga, and hold down full-time jobs as veterinarians. Even I, after a few years of trying to freelance full-time, now work full-time at a travel agency and do freelance manga editing in my spare time.

Lastly, learn Japanese. Learn Photoshop and InDesign so you can letter manga or design the covers. Learn any skill that might make you seem more attractive to employers in the anime and manga industry. You might not be required to have those skills for manga editing, but they might get you a better job or more freelance gigs. With this economy, it’s a good idea to have a wide range of skills no matter what kind of job you pursue.

Lindley: The best thing to do is to learn Japanese and Photoshop. Learning about Japanese history and culture also helps. Knowing Japanese helps with the rewriting process. Also, being able to understand Japanese means that missing lines or sound effects can be quickly added (though I always mark my additions so that the translator can double check the new lines for accuracy when reviewing my changes). A background in Japanese history and culture can also help with rewrites, particularly with lines that have cultural references in them. Knowing Photoshop can help when making requests to the letterer. Knowing the names of the tools or the name of the specific task means that the letterer can jump right in and get started instead of spending a lot of time asking/clarifying questions.

I once worked with a letterer who didn’t speak much English. She couldn’t understand what I was trying to say, so I photoshopped a small part of the page as an example and sent it to her. From that image, she knew exactly what to do and did a great job of it. Also, a lot of full-time editing positions require a background in Photoshop and InDesign, so learning these two programs can help you secure a full-time position. Because an editor’s job takes place between the translator’s job and the letterer’s job, my personal opinion is that the editor should be a jack-of-all-trades of sorts – not necessarily good enough to do the other jobs alone, but at least good enough to help make everyone else’s jobs easier.

Pancha: Get some sort of English degree—Lit, Creative Writing or Journalism are all a good basis for an editor. Learn some Japanese, even if it’s just how to read hiragana and katakana. Even just that much familiarity helps you with missing sound effects and checking that names are spelled correctly. Fluency is a big bonus!

Learn the basics of Photoshop and InDesign. This helps you communicate better with your designer and letterer, and lets you make last minute changes yourself.

Carl: If you really want to become part of the manga industry, it’s also worth considering starting your own small manga publishing business. There’s two reasons for that–one, it would give you an additional option in case you can’t find a place at an existing company, and two, it would mean you yourself are doing something to expand the manga industry.

You don’t necessarily have to go it alone, either–you may have resources you don’t know about. For example, suppose you’re a college or grad student right now. Lots of colleges publish books, and some have even published manga in English. If your university has a publishing division, why not look into it, and see whether you could find a manga that would be a good project for them, perhaps in cooperation with a suitable department at your school–it could be something done for Japanese studies, media studies, literature, or even other areas of study. If the project works out–and even if it doesn’t work out–you’ll be learning things and getting experience that would definitely boost your resume if you wanted to try and work for a manga company later on.

Ben: This is a difficult point to explain, but: Love editing more than you love manga. Don’t get me wrong, I love manga, but if your passion for the material overwhelms your passion for the job, you’re going to make bad decisions and put yourself and your colleagues through unnecessary stress. You must be able to evaluate different parts of your job as an editor first, not a fan. Looking back, I made my worst mistakes because I let my fan excitement overcome my professional judgment. Get your priorities straight, and everything else (healthy workflow, good office politics, communication with freelancers) will fall into place. It won’t be easy, but at least you won’t be making it harder for yourself.

Hope: Stay a fan. It will give you the energy and community you need. Once you start to see manga as a business, even just seeing the nuts and bolts in action, it will disillusion you. But if you can still care about manga as a fan, you’ll feel stronger and be better positioned to make decisions about manga. Once you’re in the industry, you can stay there if you work hard. The question will be, will you want to? Most manga fans drop out in their early 20s. You’ll have to commit to being someone in their 30s, 40s, 50s who passionately cares about manga.

Rachelle: There are three bits of advice that I’d give to anyone seriously interested in becoming a manga editor. Firstly, invest in an extremely comfortable chair because you’ll be spending quite a bit of time in it. Secondly, take breaks. There is nothing more detrimental to your editing capabilities than an overworked mind. Thirdly, feed your love for manga. If you stop reading for enjoyment, then you could lose the connection that you feel to manga. That connection is what led you here seeking advice, and is pushing you towards becoming a manga editor. When that connection is lost, this becomes just another job and the pay at this level isn’t worth your time.

John: Don’t limit yourself to reading just manga. Learn about Japanese culture and language.

ah

Believe it or not, I had actually planned on doing a post like this someday. I had seen searches for legal manga apps in the site stats search engine (because I did this post most likely), but I struggled on how to explain them. That and general laziness. Well, lazy no more. I recently learned that the New York Times did a video promoting comics on the usual mobile platforms (iPhone, iPad, etc), and…they linked to a not so legal site. Since the barest of research was done to find out if the site they linked to was legal or not, I decided I might as well also do the barest of research and list all the legal manga apps I happen to know about. I bet that there are also publishers in other countries who also have legal apps. You can always let me know what they are either by replying in the comments or sending me detailed info by email (organizationasg at gmail dot com).

So, let’s get started!

MangaBox

Name: MangaBox

How can I read it: Can read the first chapters on the website; download it for your iPhone, iPad, Android

Price: Free!

What you need to know: MangaBox titles do have a limit as to how long they’re up, but aside from that, I covered just about everything MangaBox related on Manga Bookshelf — from things I liked and disliked, to my favorite titles. You can also get opinions from Sean and Jason on the app.

Viz Manga

Name: Viz Manga

How can I read it: Can read it on your PC; can download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android

Price: Has free previews; varies from $6.99-10, may be even more.

What you need to know: With me getting an iPhone, I have seen the light…I like reading manga on my phone. I used it to read Deadman Wonderland. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Single page reading is glorious on it. Anyways, I still question the prices of some of these manga, even though I start to wonder if there are reasons for that price tag.

…Nah, I’ll go with it’s still too expensive.

Kodansha Comics

Name: Kodansha Comics

How can I read it: Download to your iPhone, iPad

Price: Has free previews; varies from $4.99 to more.

What you need to know: To be honest, it felt like it hasn’t been updated in a while, but then I see Fairy Tail volumes and I go, “Ok, never mind.” It seems to read well enough, but whether or not you’ll be paying for a title on the app is up to you.

Comixology

“But Justin some of these titles listed aren’t man–”
“Shutup!”

Name: Comixology

How can I read it: Download to your iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire

Price: For manga, expect it to be in the $4.99-$6.99 range. Or more. Or less.

What you need to know: I actually have not used Comixology. Yes, maybe I should finally get to that. After all, publishers like Seven Seas and Digital Manga Publishing are on it, so…

Weekly Shonen Jump

Name: Weekly Shonen Jump

How can I read it: Download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android

Price: You have to get a subscription to WSJ. You can pay .99c a week or subscribe for a whole year for $25.99.

What you need to know: At first, considering I could access my WSJ manga on the Viz Manga app, I wasn’t sure how useful it would be to have a WSJ app. Then I realized it’s slightly easier to get to just my WSJ issues and nothing else, whereas Viz Manga has all of your manga.

At least that’s how I’m selling it until further notice.

Crunchyroll Manga

Name: Crunchyroll Manga

How can I read it: download it to your iPhone, iPad, Android

Price: Free!…for the latest chapter. You have to get a manga membership ($4.99) to access the entire catalog, with no ads.

What you need to know: Finally, the hottest manga reading site on the block, Crunchyroll. They’ve certainly made their presence felt, both in good ways and bad ways. So far the jury is still out on how they are affecting the various manga publishing markets, but there’s no denying they have the structure and titles to keep people reading.

Now I don’t know if this is a comprehensive list, but if nothing else, this is a good way to get started. If you have any issues with any of these apps, feel free to reply below.

Update: 

@Kami_nomi @Izandra nice! There's also the Kindle/Nook/Kobo formatted ebooks @VIZMedia @Vertical_Ed @gomanga @KodanshaUSA do

— André ^_^ (@andrepaploo) March 27, 2014

So right, you can also purchase manga on your Kindle, Nook, and Kobo from Vertical, Kodansha, and Seven Seas from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. You can also acquire titles on eManga’s platform for various devices as well. You will have to do your due diligence and find out what titles you can read on your platform.

Also, you can find manga titles on Amimaru, which is an iPad service.

So, it’s March, almost April. And when you look out at the manga market today, you see all these new manga artists like Hajime Isayama and Kouhei Horikoshi. Wait, Kouhei Horikoshi? Isn’t that the guy who only managed to do two volumes of Weekly Shonen Jump’s Barrage you ask? Why yes it is, but he initially made his chops with a manga that wasn’t released in the US: Oumagadoki Doubutsuen. Whatever the case, his Barrage manga, which started out on the digital WSJ, got published in America, and no matter what you think of it, that’s not bad.

But don’t worry, while we still have some new artists hit American shores, there are also lots of familiar faces, like Rumiko Takahashi working on Rin-ne, that fabled Akira Toriyama who just recently churned out Ginga Patrol Jako, and we continue to get a ton of Moyoco Anno works in English, so while we’ll get our mix of new in the future, we’ll always continue to get a selection of the usual veterans.

So…what about those in between?

Wait, what do I mean by those “in-between?” Well, about a month ago I was looking at my bookshelf and as always, I stare at my incomplete volumes of Mizuki Kawashita’s Strawberry 100%. I don’t have the 4th volume, and that commands a King’s Ransom, for some unknown reason, and Viz Media had the decency to only sell 14 volumes of a 19 volume series. What’s up with that? But that’s not what I’m going for today: Why aren’t any of her works getting to the US? She’s worked on a bunch of series since then. What happened?

Remember Black Cat by Kentaro Yabuki? Well, I do and don’t to a degree, since I never actually completed the series, but I did read a volume or so and I know it’s pretty popular with a couple of manga people. But his last released volume in the states was in 2009. Since then? He’s been stuck in To-Love-Ru hell. And at the rate he’s going, Black Cat just might be his last series in the states.

I like to think I’m a generally curious person, and stuff like this fascinates me. So maybe the two I mentioned above have fanservice reasons as to why their works have yet to be licensed in the states, or maybe it’s quality reasons why they haven’t made it to the US. So…what about Natsuki Takaya? You know, the manga artist who worked on the best selling Fruits Basket? Yeah, her! What happened to her since the last volume of the series was published in 2009? Well, she recently completed Hoshi wa Utau, and now she’s working on Liselotte to Majo no Mori.

So, I’m basically going to investigate. There have been some artists whose works made it over here, then all of a sudden, it stopped, for one reason or another. Why did it stop? What were the concerns of bringing a certain manga over for us to consume? Will these artists eventually have their work published in the states again? Or…just what have they been up to since their last work was published here? That’s what I aim to find out.

And I hope you’ll join me in this little quest as I attempt to highlight these guys each week (or maybe two, we’ll see). Do you guys have any manga artists that came by once or so, but then disappeared? Feel free to let me know of them either by replying below, on Twitter, or by email: organizationasg at gmail dot com. I already have a rolling list of artists to write about, but you can always let me know of any more.

Ever had an unlicensed series that never seems to make it into the latest licensing announcements? Are you dying to see that obscure cat manga translated into English? Our licensing request round-up explores some of things to consider when requesting manga licenses from your favorite US publishers.

So you’ve read a killer blurb about an unlicensed manga that you’d love to see Stateside — what next? You’ll want a to consider a handful of things:

1. How long the series is
2. How old the series is
3. Whether the series has been previously released, and, most importantly,
4. The series’ original Japanese publisher.

First up: the length. Both Kodansha and Vertical have mentioned that the longer a series goes the more of a stretch it is to license. Will fans stay interested in a 20+ volumes long series that will take years and years to release? Volumes 1-3 may be a hit, but what about everything in between? A hugely popular franchise or anime tie in may make the case more compelling for licensing a longer series, but other longer series are riskier than their short and sweet counterparts.

Hand in hand with length is to consider how old a series is. Personally, I’m a big fan of older shoujo, but one has to consider whether this would “hit it off” with newer (and maybe younger) fans who may be used to new art styles, techniques, or story tropes. Then there is also the issue of file quality for other series: older series may not have digital files to work with and as Vertical’s Ed Chavez points out on the Vertical Tumblr: “…good files might be hard to find, turning a simple translation and lettering job into a bit of an archaeological/anthropological project.” Unfortunately older series are a bit harder to sell.

Next you’ll want to do your research: Has your requested series been published before? If it’s complete and easily acquirable, great! Otherwise if your series is OOP or in licensing/release limbo things are tricky. “License rescues” are particularly hard sells. I talked to Yoko Tanigaki of Digital Manga Publishing’s (DMP) sales and distribution manager regarding rescues and her response noted that rescues are “extremely difficult,” that “popularity” is a huge factor, and that there would need to be “serious reasons” to consider a rescue. Not to say that hasn’t been done, but the reasoning would have to be fairly compelling, I would imagine.

But okay! So your series is the perfect length, not too old, and not a license rescue (or if it is, it’s a really compelling case). Now you bombard every manga publisher with your license request, right? No, you shouldn’t! A more targeted approach is better and shows you’ve done a bit of research; not every publisher can license manga from every Japanese publisher! Some US manga publishers are actually subsidiaries/are owned by a Japanese publisher; Kodansha USA is the US branch of Japanese publisher Kodansha, while Viz is owned by Shogakukan and Shueisha. Therefore the most efficient course of action is to find out the original magazine your to-be-licensed series was published in and locate the publisher from there. Once you know that information you can tailor your license request to a specific publisher.

Let’s take the fan-favorite (and fairly obvious)  but still unlicensed manga Princess Jellyfish. While this doesn’t make the length cut at thirteen volumes and it certainly a hard josei sell, as a general example who would you “pitch” this license to? A quick search brings up that the series was published in Kiss, a Japanese magazine published by Kodansha. Therefore Kodansha USA would be my go-to publisher for a license request, (though unfortunately Princess Jellyfish seems unlikely at this point.) Even if you have the right publishers lined up, one also should consider the type of manga a US publisher tends to license. Both Seven Seas and Kodansha have noted a preference for non-explicit/series that don’t need to be shrinkwrapped in store, so series that may require that may be best pitched elsewhere, if possible.

To summarize, below is a handy (but no where near exhaustive) list of some US manga publishers available or unavailable Japanese publishers, relevant links, and licensing preferences.

Viz Media

CAN License From: Shogakukan & Shueisha

Kodansha

CAN License From: Kodansha JP ONLY
Not Preferred: long series (15+ volumes), titles on obscure subjects, series older than early 2000s, graphic violence/sexuality, no light novels

Vertical

CANNOT License From: Shueisha, Shogakukan, Akita Shoten, Gentosha
Not preferred: long series (10+ volumes), series older than 2002, license rescues
Note: Has open licensing surveys/requests regularly.

Seven Seas

CAN License From: ASCII Media Works, Ichijinsha, Kadokawa/Kadokawa Shoten, Media Factory, Shonen Gahosha
CANNOT License From: Hakusensha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, Shueisha, Square Enix, SoftBank, Creative/Flex Comix

Digital Manga

CAN License From: Anywhere, within obvious limits (Kodansha, Shogakukan, Shueisha would go to their respective companies first)
Not preferred: license rescues

Keep in mind that even with a the most well-researched license request, a licensing decision lies with the publisher and the related parties. Some fan favorites still remain unlicensed, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to politely voice your wishes to the publishers. They love manga just as much as you do.

So, are there any series you would love to see licensed or “rescued?” Let us know in the comments!

So, the project continues right along. Two weeks ago I asked a few manga letterers to share their advice on manga lettering. Today, it’s the translators turn! 

I think we all should know the role of a translator, but I bet there’s some stuff behind the scenes (or maybe some translation challenges) you’d like to know. So let’s get to it! I got in contact with translators for companies like Crunchyroll, Seven Seas, and Kodansha USA, so let’s get to it!

How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga translator?

Amanda Haley (Coppelion, Aria The Scarlet Ammo Manga): I was a first-prize winner for the 2012 Manga Translation Battle, which was hosted on JManga. Although JManga shut down shortly after MTB, the series I’d won for ended up being revived on Crunchyroll Manga. I also joined Digital Manga Guild while waiting for those contest results, but MTB was the biggest opportunity for me.

Simona Stanzani (English: Pandemonium ~ Wizard Village, Italy: Air Gear, Bleach, Steel Ball Run, NANA): I started in Italy in 1992, when being a manga translator was a very new job; I got contacted by Kappa Boys, an editing team that was looking for translators for Edizioni Star Comics, the oldest Italian manga publisher in activity at the moment. We were both from Bologna and had acquaintances in common, so it was a pretty natural process.

Adrienne Beck (Kashimashi, The Sacred Blacksmith, Toradora!, Seraph of The End): Many, many moons ago, I worked as a volunteer translator for a video game news website. I would translate Japanese articles on video games so that the newsies could write up an English summary on them. I even wrote a (very) few articles myself. It just so happened that one of the site’s regular readers translated for Tokyopop. When I mentioned that I was hoping to break into manga translation myself, he referred me to his editor. Tokyopop gave me a test volume to work on, and I guess they liked what I sent back, because they kept sending me more and more volumes after that!

Alethea and Athena Nibley (Negima!, Kingdom Hearts, Nabari no Ou, UQ Holder): The short story is we got an internship at Tokyopop and one thing led to another.

The long version is that we had been translating unprofessionally for our friends at college, and one of our roommates told us Tokyopop was having a survey, asking fans what they wanted to see brought to the US. All her friends were asking for one or both of our favorite series (Saiyuki and DN Angel), and we were like, “No! Those are /ours/! They can’t have them!” Plus, we had recently been severely disappointed in the English dub of the Saiyuki anime, so we were really worried about our favorite series being ruined again.

A few seconds later, we thought, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Are they hiring?” So we checked their website, and sure enough, they were looking for interns. We applied, got hired, and one the rest is history.

Dan Luffey (Give My Regards To Black Jack, NOGI, Wife By Arrangement): I did manga translations on my own as practice for many years before I got my first professional work translating manga. I love manga and I love language, so it was always a dream job to me, and I kept searching incessantly until I finally found a good opportunity.

Lilly Akabe (Digital Manga Translator): I have a friend, she translates for a game company in Tokyo. She told me about this publisher, and I interned there for free for 10 months. I was really happy when I finally got the real gig. It didn’t pay much at the time but it was a start and I’ve been translating ever since.

If there was one misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in the industry, what was it?

Amanda: Frankly, the translation rates. I hadn’t asked around about it, since translating still seemed like just a pipe dream anyway, but I’d read some old blog posts from manga translators and thought I knew about what to expect. Well, I thought I’d get a little less than what I’d read about, because of course I was new and those figures were from when the manga industry was at its peak…but I definitely did not realize how much they had dropped. If I’d looked for some more recent interviews and articles I’d've known better. Oops.

Simona: Uh, when we started there wasn’t really an International manga industry so I didn’t have any preconceptions.

One of the things that struck us the most (in many ways) was the length of time necessary for negotiations and the necessity to get basically everything authorized by the licensor – all the bureaucracy makes the production process really time-consuming.

Adrienne: Hmm…I don’t think I had one, really. I didn’t have many preconceived notions of how things might work when I started, so there wasn’t much to surprise me.

Alethea and Athena: Not so much a misconception about the manga industry as about the professional world in general. We kind of had this idea that there was this system in place, or something…it’s kind of an abstract concept, but it’s like when you’re a kid, you think your parents know everything about life. We figured the professionals knew everything about manga. And that’s not to say that we found out they were clueless–far from it. It’s just that, when we got into the manga industry about ten years ago, it was still relatively new, and everyone was still trying to find their way around. At least that’s the impression we get, looking back. It probably didn’t help that there were a lot more editors back then who didn’t know Japanese.

On the other hand, while we had this idea that they had everything figured out, we still had this arrogant sense that they would ruin things without our help. I guess that’s a little typical of fans–like, “Yeah, maybe they love manga, but they don’t love it the way I love it–I’m the only one who can truly understand.”

Dan: My biggest misconception was that everyone involved with manga loved the art form known as manga and wanted to further the medium. This is not the case at all. Even in Japan, many people who are deeply involved in the manga industry view comics as “drivel for children,” or would rather focus on derivative works because it’ll mean a fatter paycheck.

Lilly: Translation is pretty dull. I suppose, it’s just like any other job — I try to enjoy it as much you can. I’ve been doing this for so long, so I’m not sure if I enjoy it…or I just do it because it’s my job. Manga translation is a very limited field. There are lots of translation jobs out there, but manga is very very limited.

What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when translating a manga?

Amanda: Getting through the proofreading/editing stage after that initial rough draft. There are so many little details to get caught up on — a 200-page comic may be fast to read, but there’s a ton of text, and a million choices to make. Some of them don’t matter as much as others (will anyone else even notice some of them?), but you’re still trying to make the product as good as you can. Even sound effects can have multiple translation choices (sound effects are actually more difficult to deal with than you might think; no wonder Tokyopop was leaving them out). Editing is easier when you can step away from the translation and come back at it fresh, so it’s the most challenging when you have a tight deadline.

Simona: Romanization of non-Japanese names, especially made-up names; without the licensor’s instructions it is nearly impossible to guess what’s in the author’s head, and to ask for info you have to go through a lengthy chain:

[translator>editor>licensing department>agent (if applicable)>licensor's licensing department>editorial department>if they have time/can be asked/find the right moment not to hinder the author's work/etc. they'll eventually maybe ask the author>back all the way to the translator again]

That generally is too long for your answer to reach you in time. Many licensors just say “Just write it the way it sounds best in your language” but then, if the name comes out in the manga in roman alphabet written differently how are you going to justify that? Thankfully manga that have an anime version generally come with some official info, but more often than not you have to fend for yourself.

Adrienne: Urf, this is a tough one. I think, more than a general overall challenge to translating, each volume will present you with its own unique and individual challenge. Comedy & gag manga are always difficult, because the jokes are so hard to get right in English. Some manga are just plain wordy, or the author has written (worse yet, handwritten) a lengthy afterword, and the challenge is the sheer amount of material to plow through. And sometimes, it can be as straight-forward as trying to translate a certain character’s accent without resorting to giving them the over-done Southern drawl.

Alethea and Athena: Oh, wow, this one’s tough. I think as far as general challenges, like constant in everything we work on, is the challenge of getting to know the work. Different manga authors have different writing styles, and it takes a little bit of time to acclimatize. It’s kind of an abstract concept, so it’s hard to describe, but it basically involves getting to know how the author uses words.

This also includes getting to know the characters and how they talk, because there’s a lot more to it than, for example, “Oh, this character uses desu and -masu a lot, so I should have them speaking politely.” Some characters (taking this example and running with it) use polite verb conjugations while saying very harsh things, so you have to figure out how to balance it.

Of course, it gets easier as you get more experience with the Japanese language, and even easier if the new series you’re working on is by an author you’ve translated before.

After that, each series presents its own challenges, and figuring out what they are and how to deal with them is part of the familiarization process.

Dan: The biggest challenge for me is figuring out what to do when supplemental information is needed. Sometimes, a manga will assume that readers are aware of parts of Japanese history or folklore that English readers may not be familiar with, which means that some kind of note or explanation is necessary. How much is too much? Too many notes on the side, and it will prevent readers from immersing themselves in the story, but too little and they might miss out on everything that’s happening. This balance of information is something that every translator struggles with, I think.

Lilly: Finding the right “genre” to translate. I love to translate current and modern time romance josei manga, erotica and redicomi manga. I can’t translate historical and horror themed manga. It doesn’t interest me and I can’t concentrate. I don’t want to be picky — because work is work — but some just don’t hold my interest.

If there is one thing translators must do when they’re translating a Japanese title to English, what would it be?

Amanda: Always have characterization, tone, and natural speech in mind. It’s most important to capture the original feel of the manga, the emotions behind it. You have to let yourself be creative about it. Translation is an art.

Simona: Make sure that they have all the info they need before they start. Get your hands on Guidebooks, Official Fanbooks, whatever might carry romanization info and also it’s good to have a general grasp of the story; I always tell my manga translation students to read the whole series — or all the volumes that are out if it’s still on-going — before they start the work.

Adrienne: I would say the biggest thing is to remember that a manga is a story that is meant to be read all of a piece. It is so easy to get caught up in translating each separate sentence one-by-one that you can forget that the result should come together as natural, sensible English.

Alethea and Athena: Just one? If we had to pick just one, it would be to make sure to read over your first draft again, and edit it. We didn’t use to edit our translations, and we found out the hard way that that can lead to some embarrassing mistakes. But more importantly, when you’re translating something, on the first draft, you have to think in two different linguistic worlds at the same time. Sometimes the translator’s internal language conversion over-corrects, and you end up in what we call “Japanese mode.” That means you think that a phrase that sounds perfectly fine in Japanese also sounds perfectly fine in English…and it doesn’t.

The most extreme example we have of this is from one of our classmates when we were studying Japanese in college. He had served a Mormon mission in Japan, which means he spent two years immersed in the language. One time he was talking on the phone with someone back home, and, referring to someone who had been sick, he mentioned that person’s “recovery interval.” That’s the literal translation of how you would say “while you/he/she/etc. were recovering” in Japanese, so when he had to come up with a phrase off the top of his head, that’s what he came up with.

That kind of thing can easily creep in to translations for the same reason–it’s the first thing that pops into your head. We also have a habit of deliberately leaving odd phrases in, just to make sure we get all the information in a sentence, and we like to go back and come up with a more natural-sounding way to say it when we have more mental capacity to focus on how things sound, both as far as naturalness and emotion. (During the first draft, our main focus is on conveying information.)

tl;dr: Don’t let your first draft be your only draft.

Dan: One thing translators must do when translating a Japanese title into English is put the focus on what they’re writing in English. If a translator’s aim is to convey the feelings, atmosphere, and enjoyment of one piece of work into another language, then the output shouldn’t sound like a translation. It should sound smooth and eloquent like the original, which requires natural, fluid English. It also means rearranging word order, not going with the standard dictionary definition of certain words, and so on. Translators must keep their English skills honed, and always proofread.

Lilly: Read the book once thoroughly, before you start translating. It makes a lot of difference! Trust me!

What would be the best way for a translator to break into the manga industry?

Amanda: Most interviews I’ve read with this question talk about making contacts with people in the industry, going out to cons to meet and greet, etc. Networking seems to be the advice given to newcomers in any field, because…it’s true. And most people have already heard that, so…the second-best way is probably to find any other translation work you can to build up your resume, and jump on opportunities like MTB and DMG.

Simona: Umm…well, do a lot of practice, become REALLY good and show your goodies.

In spite of my 22 years of experience it can happen that I get replies like “sorry we’re all set” when I ask to translate some titles I like (the author actually told them they wanted me to do it, but not even that was enough!) too, so it’s a rather competitive field and I guess that the ones who are already working regularly for this or that publisher surely don’t want to leave their spot to someone else.

Adrienne: The best way is the one that works, of course!

But in all seriousness, I doubt there is one “best” way to go about it. Networking is always a good idea not just for translating manga, but for any job. You can talk to (and hopefully befriend) many manga editors and manga professionals on various social media outlets, or attend conventions and events to meet them in person. Also, the Digital Manga Guild and the annual Manga Translation Battle contest are great ways to get your work out there and build a portfolio. There are lots of ways to go about it.

Alethea and Athena: Go into lettering, ha ha.

We’re not really on the inside of the whole publishing process, so this is just speculation based on our observations, but it seems like the industry is a little saturated with translators, but it could use more letterers.

But if you want to break in as a translator, it’s mainly about finding the right connections. Conventions used to be a good way to do this, but since the big manga companies only go to the big conventions and don’t always like to talk about job opportunities while they’re there, that’s probably not the best way to go anymore.

So these days, it’s probably better to use social media and network that way. Follow the companies on Facebook and Twitter, maybe try speaking up so they know you exist. We understand a lot of people from the manga industry are pretty talkative on Twitter, so that might be a good place to get to know people.

And once you get in, do good work, and especially be reliable about meeting deadlines. If you can do that, you’re likely to get more work.

Dan: Use websites like proz.com or TranslatorsCafe. If you’re unknown and don’t have much experience, chances are you will have to do some jobs that you aren’t really interested in, but that’s just how it goes. Search every day in new ways for new opportunities and you’ll definitely find one.

Lilly: Well, know the language. I’ve known a lot of people who’s taken JLPT tests and things but those kind of things, doesn’t really matter.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Amanda: I love this job, but know that it’s tough. Not just the translating part–as a freelancer, you’re a business. You have to schedule your time and balance your work life/home life. There were a few months where I was basically working two full time jobs because I suddenly had so much manga to work on, but was afraid to reduce my hours at my day job by much because it was on short notice and I still needed those regular checks. I hate to admit it, but my husband got the short end of the stick, and I didn’t realize it at first because I was so focused on the job. So on top of working to improve your actual translations, be aware of the challenges of working from home.

Simona: Manga language is ‘alive’, it changes constantly, following the flow of contemporary culture; to deeply understand the language, especially the one used in manga, I very strongly suggest to spend some time studying or working in Japan, preferably both (a student visa allows you to work 20 hours a week if I’m not mistaken) and also read and watch a lot of stuff you like – manga, literature, light novels, magazines, internet news, anime, movies, whatever – just keep practicing without the hassle of doing it as a duty but seeing it as a pleasure. Communication is also very important, so make Japanese friends, online and off, and write/talk to them in Japanese as much as possible. Music is good as well, learn the lyrics and astonish your Japanese friends at karaoke! If you want to be a manga translator, of course it’s paramount to read TONS of manga, also the English versions, so you get used to the various ways to translate onomatopoeia, that’s generally one of the most daunting parts of translating manga (I personally don’t find them that difficult, but many of my students do.)

Adrienne: Keep practicing your Japanese, don’t forget to practice your English and, most of all, have patience. It might take some time for your big break to come, but don’t lose heart. Ganbatte!!

Alethea and Athena Nibley: Practice. The only way to get better as a translator is to translate a lot. Pay attention to what words are said in what context. Use Japanese language dictionaries, because they’ll give you an idea of the Japanese nuance.

The goal is to figure out not only what the word means in a “the J-E dictionary say it means this” sense, but also what it means to a Japanese person. For example, if you look up “urusai” in a dictionary, it will tell you it means “loud, noisy, etc.” But when someone says it, the sentiment is usually “shut up!”

There are a lot of words, phrase, particles, etc. that you won’t want to translate to exactly the same thing in every context–pay attention to that. “Noni” doesn’t always have to be translated to “even though.” That reminds me–also be aware of how real English speakers talk. Sometimes the “noni” sentiment is conveyed naturally without a translation (based on how the rest of the sentence is worded), and sometimes you want to take it in another direction. For example, an English speaker is more likely to say, “After all my hard work!” than, “Even though I worked so hard!”

We could go on and on about this, but it all boils down to this: know how Japanese speakers talk, know how English speakers talk, and be aware of the characters and their personalities–how they’re written in Japanese, and how they can be conveyed in English. The Japanese text will guide you if you look at the spirit of it instead of trying to translate “by the book,” so to speak.

Dan: If someone’s interested in translation, I highly recommend that they practice on their own before attempting to do it professionally. If you’ve translated 100 chapters of manga on your own time, and you still enjoy it, then chances are you’ll be able to handle professional work as well.

Lilly: Have lots of experience. Know what you want. Be ambitious and be aggressive — nobody spoon feeds you work…

Well, I ended up getting one more response back to my query for manga letterers sharing advice about manga lettering. But as you already know, I posted it last week. That doesn’t really mean I wouldn’t stop posting very important info on manga lettering. As you can see, I’m now posting Abigail Blackman’s (Inu x Boku SS, Soul Eater Not!, a few volumes of Sundome) answers to my questions. Why yes, I did add this info to the original post. But since I know some might miss it, I decided to single Abigail out. It’s punishment for being late!

…Probably. Anyways, here’s her answers.

How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga letterer?

I started working on the editorial staff of Yen Press back in 2008. When projects came in with tight turnaround times (particularly during the Yen Plus magazine era) I started lettering internally for Yen. Generally speaking, though, interested letterers can reach out to Yen Press via their general email ([email protected]). Every potential letterer is given a guide and a lettering test, and may be assigned to a project from there.

If there was one misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in the industry, what was it?

I actually knew very little about manga when I first started working at Yen. Most of my knowledge of Japanese manga series came through anime. I guess anytime you hear “industry,” you wonder if the people who work for the company are super-fans or just doing their day job. (I thought they were all going to be crazy fanboys/girls.) Working in manga is certainly fun, and everyone I’ve worked with is a big fan and supporter of manga. But I think learning the balance between being a fan and being a successful business would be the hardest thing to learn for a lot of people. Fans will sometimes get hostile about a series being cut or not being licensed at all. There are so many times fans request series that we personally love, but just wouldn’t be successful in the US market. There are times when we’d love to do a fancy cover treatment for a book but can’t. That’s a hard decision and it breaks your heart, but it’s the reality of staying in business so a publisher can continue to release manga. Sometimes I feel like fans think the industry is deliberately trying to screw them, but there is soooo much discussion and back-and-forth about the best way to bring the best manga to the readers.

What’s the worst thing you had ever done when it came to lettering?

Yen has a very rigorous editorial process after the lettering is turned in, so it’s rare for a major error to make it into the printed book. Still, errors do sometimes slip past, but usually they’re things most fans wouldn’t notice. (Or so we hope!) For example, there’s at least one book where a stray piece of text was left over the art. Little things like imperfect centering or bad word breaks are annoying, but at least the really bad errors can always be fixed in a reprint if they’re noticeable to readers.

What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in this venture?

Some people think lettering for manga is easy, that it’s just a simple matter of copy-and-paste. But all comics are about the marriage of illustration and text, and the layout of the text is just as important. Sloppy lettering can detract from the art and from the readers’ experience, so it’s important for the letterer to have a good eye for design and be comfortable with all the functions available to them in Photoshop and InDesign. Some books may also require the letterer to repair art that was under Japanese text (particularly for companies that replace all the Japanese SFX), so the letterer really needs to be skilled in Photoshop and, to some degree, drawing. Really it’s that eye for good balance that makes or breaks a letterer for me. A letterer can be taught the “house rules,” but you need to be able to see that something is centered, that the text size is appropriate for the emphasis of the dialogue or for the size of the bubble, etc.