Manga on Mobile Phones.

Well, with all my topics like "Death to........ bittorrent!!?? ??" and "Ds vs PSP" I am a "Texhnolyze" (if you get my drift)
Recently TokyoPop and GoComics has announced that they will have 3 manga titles available for mobile phones.
Saying:
NEW ORLEANS, LA.-Three popular manga titles are now available for mobile phones from GoComics. In an exclusive arrangement, TOKYOPOP and GoComics have launched three original properties for wireless use.

Princess Ai, @Large and Shutter Box are now available to mobile
operators and their subscribers. Manga graphic novels are a Japanese comic phenomena that has quickly become the fastest growing segment of North American book retail sales. "Everything is manga these days," says GoComics CEO Chris Pizey. "Book stores' comic book shelves are dominated by this style of art. It's tremendously exciting to be working with TOKYOPOP to bring the hottest graphic trend in the world to mobile phone users."

Manga graphic novels appeal to the new generation of young adults- men and women both - increasingly influenced by international culture, by mixing traditional action with elegant stories about human relationships.

"Princess Ai is the #1 selling manga hit comic that appeals to women 16-25. @Large has a following of men 18-30 and ShutterBox is favored by women 13 to 20. These are great demographics for mobile phone users."

"We are delighted to work with GoComics in bringing our popular manga titles to the small screen." says Kathryn Klingler, Director of
Licensing for TOKYOPOP.

About GoComics
GoComics is a best-of-breed wireless content provider, offering a broad mix of popular comics for mobile phones, publishing wireless product lines featuring Garfield, Doonesbury, FoxTrot, Opus and many more. GoComics is a division of uclick / Andrews McMeel Universal, the leading publisher of humor books and calendars in North America. GoComics' graphics, greetings and comic strip services are sold by the top U.S. carriers (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile), as well as Vodafone, Orange, and other leading distributors worldwide.

ABOUT TOKYOPOP(r)
As the largest English-language publisher of manga in the world,
TOKYOPOP is hailed as a leading youth-oriented entertainment brand. TOKYOPOP's innovative product extensions include its pioneering Cine-Manga(r) book format, which features colorful flavors of pop culture's hottest films, television shows and music videos. The company has expanded its property reach beyond publishing-TOKYOPOP's television
series have been broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network,
Showtime and G4Media, and are released on DVD, with consumer products available at all major retail outlets. The company's global reach has recently expanded to Europe, with new offices in the UK and Germany, in addition to its Los Angeles and Tokyo operations. With nearly 28 million books in print, TOKYOPOP's award-winning catalogue of licensed and original properties features more than 200,000 pages of manga compiled
over nearly 1,000 manga volumes.

I was wondering if this is a service you would take advantage of on your own mobile phone? What if there were more titles available?

For me I don't think I would use this service even if there were more titles available since the screen on  phones i seen are so tiny it would be difficult to see what was going on in the manga. I also love being able to hold a manga in my hands, flip though it and take my time reading it. With manga on a cell it just doesn't seem as relaxing to me. Manga for me is a break from technology. It gets me away from the computer, television and the phone. Having it on my phone just doesn't seem right to me. I think it would slow me down. Even when reading something slow like Sand Land, I am only on a frame for a few seconds, and loading the frames would kill me. I doubt that they could show more than 2 frames at a time.it's my strong opinion that this whole thing is going to die, and die fast. While cellphones are popular things in Japan, they aren't that integrated here in the US. Yes, everyone has them, but no, most do not use it for everything they do in their lives.

It's also very impractical. How many pixels does the average phone have? Is it going to even be readable without the expense of the picture itself? They might as well have a storybook or something. Also, I hate reading manga on my computer, so why would I want to read it on my cellphone?

Does anyone like reading with their cellphone?
It may only shoot off in Japan, where cell phones are somewhat a large intregal part of everyday life.


But It would also save on paper since it wouldn't be printed out. I suppose if you have a PDA or a phone with a larger screen like those ones made for games it would be better as well. I am sure there are other benefits if I start to think about this service.
As almost everyone has already pointed out, cell phone screens don't provide nearly enough pixels to even see the graphics clearly, which is what manga is all about (well, there's plot of course, but if the art isn't appealing, whose going to want to read it?).

TokyoPop is taking an expensive risk with this, and I have a feeling it's going to come back and bite them--Kujo-style.


What are your opinions on reading manga on your mobile phone?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I'm not really interested in that kind of service. It may be more appealing in several years, when the technology will be more developed, but not at the moment.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Once tablet PCs become more prevalent, this might be a cool feature. Whle on the train, "Oh, the new Berserk episode came out? Sure, I'll deposit Y500. ---download complete---" I'd be all about it, personally.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Walter said:
Whle on the train, "Oh, the new Berserk episode came out? Sure, I'll deposit Y500. ---download complete---" I'd be all about it, personally.

I'd also be all about it, problem is that I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon (or at all). Hence my full of restrained hope several years comment. :SK:
 
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