Ah My Goddess manga to properly go right to left

[lan]

To be honest, I don’t know that much about the story or characters, at all.

Knowing me, I can put up with owning it, seeing it on my shelf day in day out, for 6 years, watching the unread graphic novels add up and add up, without turning 1 single precious page, without seeing the fantastic artwork inside, without reading the forbidden stories, ah hu that’s right, yeah I can do that, yeah…… course I can… I can….I will….I have to…….

[AstroNerdBoy]

Jimmy said:

Yes, buy it when it is released. Because you don't know if Dark Horse will be reprinting it in 6 years time, which is how long it will take for the reprints of old material to reach vol21. Besides, tell me you don't know enough of the story to follow it at this point?
Although many wish DH had done this long ago, vol 21 is not a bad place to start. It is the start of a story arc, not in the middle of one.

That's true. Six years is a LONG time and I'm stunned at DH's slow reprinting scheduled. Even Viz is reprinting thier volumes on a faster pace.

Heh! Only a year or so ago, no one even dreamed that DH would cave in and unflip the manga at all.

[lan]

Heh! Only a year or so ago, no one even dreamed that DH would cave in and unflip the manga at all.

Um, I did.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Lan said:

Um, I did.

I argued sometime back then (possibly on the AIC board) that DH could start unflipping the art immediately and convert to the correct manga standard. However, there were many who berated me over this saying that there was no way in hell that a company would change in mid-stream and that folks would hate it. Yeah, well I guess they were all wrong.

I still wish that DH would include the honorifics AND have extras like Del Rey does, but getting the unflipped art is better than nothing.

[lan]

Yeah I second that ^^

[Timotheus]

I believe they are restoring some of the extra art and such to the TPBs. The attitude seems to be to make their TPBs resemble the Kodansha Tankoubans, including the original additional art and graphics, such as mechanical designs. I'm kinda hoping they restore the mini-goddess strips to where they were as well.

[lan]

Yeah, AstroNerdBoy and i were talking about this earler on the Sanctuary board.

[lan]

ok that guy carl Horn has said more-

I'm sorry that I didn't get back to this thread earlier, but the holidays and all that. In any case, thank you for all the responses.

To answer some of your questions: yes, when it comes to the new OMG! editions, they will be printed and read in Japanese order, but, just like past DH editions, sound FX will be retouched. It would be awkward to switch to "no retouch" after doing two-thirds of the story (thus far) that way, and besides I honestly believe that flopping and retouching FX are issues to be considered individually--actually, every manga should be considered individually when it comes to adapting it; I'm against one-size-fits-all approaches. Each original manga is itself an individual* creation, after all.

Generally speaking, the new, unflopped releases of past volumes will be based on the old DH volumes--in other words, they will not be re-translated. I've already noticed some of the apparent changes you mention, such as references to musicians and using dollars instead of yen.

I'm thinking that what I might do is have a section of liner notes in the back of each volume making note of any such changes and commenting on what was changed, so that the original information becomes known. While my first instinct is to change dollars right back to yen, one of the odd things, of course, is that over the last 15 years of OMG!'s run, the dollar-yen exchange has swung, I believe, 40-50% in either direction, so simply stating a figure doesn't necessarily help all that much.

That brings up another point. Do you know that very early story where Keiichi threatens to trash the otaku's LD player? It seems to really date the story--but there's no point in worrying about that, or you'd have to start redrawing the mullets that were all over Nekomi Tech in the late 80s. Of course, nowdays only a hardcore otaku WOULD still have an LD player ^_^.

Just as Kosuke Fujishima's drawing style has changed (and the most recent OMG! in Japan looks different from the point where DH is now), the fifteen years of OMG! represent a lot of changes in fashion and technology, and it would be inappropriate to attempt to conceal or rewrite it (I hated it when that happened with LUPIN III on Adult Swim, much as I was amazed to see it actually on U.S. TV after 25 years) But "anachronisms" of these sort are something else I might comment upon in a liner note section.

I intend to keep the old OMG! letters column, "Letters To The Enchantress," going in the new graphic novel series as well. Please feel free to send your letters, comments, and fan art to [e-mail]. Even in the age of online forums, I still think it's nice to actually run such things in the manga itself. An important point: if there's anything in past volumes that you think is an actual error or should be considered for change, please also send me an explanation at that address, and I'll look into it.

Thanks again, and hope to hear from you soon,
Carl

*With help from the artist's assistants and editor. ^_^

"but, just like past DH editions, sound FX will be retouched. It would be awkward to switch to "no retouch" after doing two-thirds of the story (thus far) that way, and besides I honestly believe that flopping and retouching FX are issues to be considered individually--actually, every manga should be considered individually when it comes to adapting it; I'm against one-size-fits-all approaches. Each original manga is itself an individual* creation, after all."

HU? what is this saying? what are FX? is this saying that the "sounds" will be in english??or that they will be in japanese, like Tokyopop and Del Ray do??

[Timotheus]

Fx = SFX = sound effects

What it means is, since they have already replaced the Japanese sound effects with English ones in their released material up to now, they will continue to do so in the new releases.

They are not going to bother going back and redoing all the artwork changes that were caused by these earlier alterations on the re-issued material, and since they have a tradition of replacing the SFX with English in this series, they feel they should continue with it for continuitys sake.

Considering how small a part SFX plays in an average OMG story, I'm not heading to the barricades on this point.

While it still hasn't been mentioned in the recent articles, the last word I heard was there were to be three new TPBs a year and the reissued TPBs weren't supposed to effect that schedule. Whether that's still true or not, only Dark Horse knows.

[Jimmy C]

the last word I heard was there were to be three new TPBs a year and the reissued TPBs weren't supposed to effect that schedule.

That's how I calculated the "6 years" I mentioned earlier. Assuming DH sticks to their 3-per year plan and that the reissues are going to be released between new volumes, the most efficient schedule would be to release the new volumes every Feb, Jun and Oct of the year. Then the old releases would be every Apr, Aug and Dec of the year, one every four months.

There are 20 volumes to be reprinted.
20 volumes * 4 months = 80 months

80 months / 12 = 6 years, 8 months

Looks like I was slightly off. It could take up to year 7 for them to reprint vol 21. Asumming they're interested in doing so.

And this schedule is assuming DH picks the most efficient schedule for their plans and don't slip up. Chances it will take longer than what I've shown.

[lan]

I’m getting confused. Why would they want to reprint volume 21 in 7 years time??

[Jimmy C]

I’m getting confused. Why would they want to reprint volume 21 in 7 years time??

Maybe to pick up the people who decided to "wait" like you wanted to.

[lan]

Maybe to pick up the people who decided to "wait" like you wanted to.

Ok maybe I should rephrase what I’m saying-
Why reprint volume 21 in 7 years time if they won’t include anything new?
They would be better off printing loads this year, to cater for the new fans (but only for in 7 years from now) and obviously the fans they already have now.

I’m not used to Manga having English FX.
I wish the re-release had the original Japanese sounds, with in 7 years time, a re-release of volume 21 having the Japanease sounds too.

I have found the English companies to include too much sound, which can spoil the artwork.

I have no idea what they have done in OMG! So far, and I’m not going to find out either, as that would mean taking a volume off the shelf in a shop, and looking inside it!

[Timotheus]

As I tried to imply before, Mr Fujishima is very restrained in his use of sound FXs, mostly for engine noises, races, and Bampi's emotional disputes. So I'm not worried about it. (Okay, he does use all the standard Japanese conventions for hearts beating and people falling over in shock, but he rarely uses block letters or fills a panel with them.)

If you want, take a peek at the mini-goddess TPB. It won't spoil any of the manga stories and give you an idea of what his style is like and how Dark Horse altered the drawings in their translations.

[Jimmy C]

This should be of interest to you guys. The relevant quote from Carl Horn:

Here is the release schedule for the new editions of OMG! as currently planned. Vol. 21 comes out in July; there will then be a three-month gap before Vol. 1 comes out in October. At this point it becomes bimonthly; so, Vol. 22 in December, Vol. 2 in Februrary 2006, Vol. 23 in April 2006, etc.

So now you have some idea of when to expect the books.