New Viz editions

Oburi

All praise Grail
Just read volume one...again. I read it a long ass time ago but haven't touched until now. Anyway it was a great read and I can't wait for volume two. The series really sucked me in from the first few panels of them laying on the battlefield of Sekigahara. I know I'm reaaaaalllyy a latecomer on this manga but who cares I'm going to talk about it as I read it.

Can anyone tell me how many volumes are in this series?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Oburi said:
Can anyone tell me how many volumes are in this series?
Vol 29 just got published in Japan. Viz is up to vol 28. Still no U.S. release date for 29 set, as far as I know.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Oburi said:
Just read volume one...again. I read it a long ass time ago but haven't touched until now. Anyway it was a great read and I can't wait for volume two. The series really sucked me in from the first few panels of them laying on the battlefield of Sekigahara. I know I'm reaaaaalllyy a latecomer on this manga but who cares I'm going to talk about it as I read it.

That's fine by me, would love to have consistent enthusiastic updates to your experience on this board.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
宮本 武蔵 said:
That's fine by me, would love to have consistent enthusiastic updates to your experience on this board.

Yeah for the most part, I'm guitly of having read most of the series and not posting here. I'm going to have to change that now.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
How's it coming Oburi, made any progress? We need fresh perspectives.
mushi.gif
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
I found this on Animenewsnetwork.com


[quote author=Animenewsnetwork.com]
Acclaimed manga creator Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk, REAL) told the Nishi Nippon Shimbun paper that he thinks his award-winning Vagabond samurai manga will end "within one or two years." Inoue made his comments during an interview about the "Inoue Takehiko: Saigo no Manga-Ten" ("Takehiko Inoue: The Final Manga Exhibit") at the Contemporary Art Museum in the southwestern Japanese city of Kumamoto. In the interview which the newspaper published on Wednesday, Inoue cautioned that he cannot foresee everything about the ending yet, but acknowledged that the story has entered the final stages.

Inoue has been drawing the manga since 1998, and Kodansha published the 29th compiled volume in Japan in November. Viz Media will publish the same 29th volume in North America next month. Viz also publishes Inoue's Slam Dunk and REAL manga.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government gave Inoue the MEXT Art Encouragement Shinjin Prize in the Media Arts category last month. Inoue won the separate Media Arts Festival Award in the Manga category for Vagabond in 2000. The same manga earned the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002.
[/quote]

For those who haven't read the novel (myself included) At least I know that is getting close to see the end.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Big news, but i think this deserves its own thread (Vagabond's End?).

I think we knew this already. And Inoue's predicted vagabond's end several times now, with inaccurate results. We'll see...  :judo:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Yeah, I'm dubious, as you pointed out, Inoue's claimed in the past it was ending in a year or two, and yet here it is still going strong years later. Even in these statements he sounded foggy on what was going to happen, or at least it certainly didn't sound like it was all planned out already. Plus, I can imagine "final stages" meaning half a dozen volumes or more still. =)

Anyway, I'm hoping that's the case, because I think if he tries to just wrap it up now he's selling himself, and Mushi, short.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I was in Borders over the weekend and stopped by to see how their Vagabond collection was going. And once again, they ONLY had VizBig editions. Not a single normal-sized volume in sight. :mushisadfrown:

I'd say it's pretty much policy now. I wonder how they'll handle vol 30's release in Nov.
 

Th3Branded0ne

I'll be back.
Walter said:
I was in Borders over the weekend and stopped by to see how their Vagabond collection was going. And once again, they ONLY had VizBig editions.

Yeah is pretty much in the same two Borders close to where I live. I would say they order mostly on sale numbers, because when I was looking if they had Guin saga it was nowhere in any of those two stores.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Yeah, it had been that way for months at the Borders I frequent. Of course, because I can't get what I want from them in a timely manner (used to find Vagabond there early even), I've switched to just ordering them off of Amazon.
 
Walter said:
I was in Borders over the weekend and stopped by to see how their Vagabond collection was going. And once again, they ONLY had VizBig editions. Not a single normal-sized volume in sight. :mushisadfrown:
I admit I haven't checked the series out, and am curious to know everyone's opinion of the VizBig editions versus the single volumes - which do you prefer or recommend? Under 'Merchandise' the VizBig volumes are linked, and I checked the Ebay link on this topic too, it's still available *phew* which means there's hope for me!

I don't mind the price, as long as it's a good series, you can count me in as an 'enthusiast' for anime/ manga I come to like.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
IncantatioN said:
I admit I haven't checked the series out, and am curious to know everyone's opinion of the VizBig editions versus the single volumes - which do you prefer or recommend?

Well, I prefer the single volumes, as I've collected them from the beginning, but, if I was to start over today, I'd have to go with the VizBig's just for the availability and price advantages. Not only is it more bang for your buck at retail, but there's a couple of singles in and out of print, and acquiring those can get extra pricey.

I'd recommend jumping in with VizBig #1 and see how you like it. Another advantage is that it's a bigger sample size, and though it's still early in the maturity of the series, if you like it at all, it only gets better from there.
 
I've bought every Vizbig edition of Vagabond to come out so far so I think I can give the pros and cons a pretty fair rundown.

Pros:
- 3 books in 1 makes you feel like you're getting more and Vagabond is a fairly quick read. Even having three volumes in one book, I have a hard time not tearing through each release in a day.
- The spines of each volume create a growing mosaic of major characters in the story. Perhaps I'll post a picture a little later after I pick up volume 8 (it just hit stores 2 days ago! Booyah!).
- Incredibly cheap. Only $14.00 on Amazon. That's an amazing steal really.
- Paper quality seems fine so far. None of that super cheap paper some US Manga publishers have been pushing out lately.
- They kept the full color segments in these releases (I'm assuming the individual volumes have the color intros)

Cons:
- Each book is pretty heavy and you definitely start to notice the weight while you're reading, especially if you're trying to read each volume on your back.
- With the weight, if you're not careful it's much easier to tear out the bindings. Remember that these are paperback and paperback books, especially large ones such as these, tend to get beat up easily if you're rough on them. (I'm admittedly a little worried about how well these covers would stand up to repeated readings, but so far so good).
- As I mentioned earlier, they're only up to Vizbig volume 8 so far. That means volume 24. On the flip side, the individual releases will hit volume 32 August 17th. The Vizbig editions have been staggered about 3 months apart per release (Recent release was July 20th, volume 9 won't be released until October 19th). Nothing is stopping you from buying the Vizbig editions and then switching to the single volumes when you catch up, but it's more expensive and if you want consistency, you get to wait like I am. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. I kind of like that it's been spaced out a bit for me, but the wait can really feel like a drag when you end your third volume in a set and are left with a crazy cliffhanger (This happens in EVERY volume :sad:).
- You miss out on the cool artwork on the cover of each individual volume.

In general, I really like the Vizbig releases. It's a really handy and cheap way to get your hands on Vagabond legally and the print quality is still great. They have a few minor extras in each Vizbig volume, but they're pretty much negligible. For instance, they have a glossary for some terms and events that US audiences might not understand, but we're up to volume 8 and they haven't bothered to add any new information to that glossary (meaning they only touch base on the earliest events in the series) so I'm not sure why they even bother having it there anymore. There's always a page or two of sketches at the end of each volume and they put a few short quotes that Inoue apparently put in each volume. Just short snippets like "I find myself enjoying coffee more on cold days" (Seriously, it's like that. Just some passing reflections on life. They're sort of fun to read).

Anyhow, this turned out longer than I thought it would be. Regardless, hopefully you pick up the series. I've really enjoyed it, especially with how dreadfully slow Berserk releases have become. I'm not sure what to do when Vizbig finally catches up :ganishka:
 
Wow, thanks グリフィス and CowTip! I was at a Barnes & Nobles right across from Lincoln (movie) Center last night, and saw that they had the VizBig editions, but was on the wall whether to buy them or not without checking with you guys on here.

The VizBig edition, as you mentioned is on the heavy side, and I found myself turning those pages all the more carefully because of the weight issue, and the way I hold em. I think it'll be a downer if I had to read it on the subway. But, the larger page size is enticing!

I'll do this - I'll hit up Forbidden Planet after work tonight and/ Kinokuniya and read the first 3 chapters while I'm there. If I like it, I'll check to see if they have stock of all] individual volumes, and buy them all off. This way it'll be more consistent if I were to pre-order the newer releases or keep up with the series in the future. If they don't have em in stock (*his wallet crosses its imaginative fingers*), I'll gladly go with the VizBig editions! The Barnes & Nobles I was at had the first 6 volumes. Now that I think about it, last night I also noticed big thick volumes for Rurouni Kenshin and One Piece.
 
Yeah, about a year ago I started noticing these mega-volumes quite a bit more, I figured it was a ploy to help battle the slow death of anime and manga in America, but it didn't quite pick up the steam I thought it would. Regardless, looking at manga and anime sections in general feel a little depressing these days due to the sharp decline in popularity. Makes me wonder if things will go back to how they were when I was in middle school / high school when hardly anyone even knew about the stuff.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
CowTip said:
Yeah, about a year ago I started noticing these mega-volumes quite a bit more, I figured it was a ploy to help battle the slow death of anime and manga in America, but it didn't quite pick up the steam I thought it would. Regardless, looking at manga and anime sections in general feel a little depressing these days due to the sharp decline in popularity. Makes me wonder if things will go back to how they were when I was in middle school / high school when hardly anyone even knew about the stuff.
What exactly has given you an indication it's in decline?
 
Well, I can't speak too clearly about manga, though most stores have drastically cut down shelf space. Most Barnes & Nobles have shortened their manga racks and Best Buy has gone from two to three full rows of anime down to merely one or two racks in many locations. On top of this, the last few anime conventions I've been to have had full panels discussing the downfall of anime and voice actors complaining overall about lack of work. On top of this, American TV in general is supporting anime less and less (some of this can be seen by looking at Adult Swim over the last few years. They've slowly been bumping anime off their network because they just couldn't get the viewership they wanted). Plus, we've seen the downfall of ADV films, one of the biggest anime retailers of the 90's and early 2000's as well as a number of other publishing studios. Apparently, even Japan is having some issue with the decline of anime.

Here's an interesting article from CNN from November of last year discussing some of what I'm talking about:
http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/decade-anime-682165

Here's another discussing some of Japan's recent issues:
http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/state-of-the-anime-industry-2009.html

Here's an article on manga in America with an interesting quote pulled out:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/43437-japanese-u-s-manga-publishers-unite-to-fight-scanlations.html

After several years of booming manga sales in the U.S. that drove the popularity of comics and graphic novels in the traditional book market, sales of manga in the U.S. have declined more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009, according to pop culture news site ICv2.com.

Of course it depends on where you live, but if you really look around you'll see a lot of shelf space for manga and anime in general being lost. There's a lot of finger pointing going on right now as to the cause. Fans say it was over-saturation and high prices, others such as companies as is pointed out in that last article blame piracy.... perhaps it's just lost interest in today's new Twilight teen hipster. I dunno.

These big editions make a lot of sense honestly. Take older content that you've already made about as much a return as you can hope for and re-release it in a budget pack. It's also a lot cheaper than buying publishing rights and translating entirely new volumes when you can try to entice new readership to a series you've already put the work in on. I can't help but think back to the Garfield fat-cat 3 packs that I had as a kid and loved so much. Three for one! Woohoo! It just helps that these Vizbig editions happen to be of decent quality. I give them kudos for that.

Edit: Blah, this post just keeps growing, but here's one more I stumbled across. This a bit more recent:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/05/dc-to-shut-down-cmx-manga-imprint/
Over the course of the last six years, CMX has brought a diverse list of titles to America and we value the books and creators that we helped introduce to a new audience. Given the challenges that manga is facing in the American marketplace, we have decided that CMX will cease publishing new titles as of July 1, 2010.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Wow, this thread has certainly become informative. :guts:

Did everything go according to plan, IncantatioN?
 
It didn't :sad:!! On Thursday the CPA came in for his monthly visit, and by the time I left work, it was already 8 PM. I actually went to KinoK but they closed at 8:30 (good thing is at least I know when they close now haha), and yesterday I couldn't because my Zodd Senma (from AOW) was delivered to my office, and I had to carry that huge box (with both hands) back home. SO! I'm gonna hit it up today, and keep you guys updated ^_^ (just woke up)

EDIT:

WO~OKAY! Just got back from KinoK, and it was tough to decide between the bigger thicker VizBig editions and the single volumes. But, looking at the cover-arts on each of them tempted me to get the single ones. Maan, the I looked for a basket, and dumped every volume carefully in it. I didn't get to read the first volume before hand (so I could preview the series and decide if I liked it or not) because every manga in the store is sealed. It's the first time I've bought manga without checking it out first haha!

IMG_2533.jpg


IMG_2534.jpg


Unfortunately, they were missing a few volumes (4, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 21, 22) but they assured me they'd get re-stocks and I could also order them specially if I was interested. For the time being I didn't because of the damage on my Credit Card haha! I thought it was a better idea to just subscribe for a KinoK account so I could get a 10% discount on my giant bill >_>' ($492)

Each Vagabond came out to $8.95 after a $1 discount.

Where do you advice me to pick up the missing volumes from? Amazon?

*OFFTOPIC - I also picked up Akira's Blu-Ray (finally) and the bigger manga volumes (I have the original single volumes but the pages here are bigger, and I blame it on pure gluttonous intent), and subscribed to a 1 Year Subscription for Young Animal (Thanks Aaz for your advice yesterday).

I thought you guys would like to see this too :p

IMG00106-20100724-1337.jpg


IMG00105-20100724-1337.jpg
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Awesome news, IncantatioN, and nice post, I especially appreciate the pictures. :guts:

IncantatioN said:
It's the first time I've bought manga without checking it out first haha!

Your faith will be rewarded. :SK:

IncantatioN said:
Each Vagabond came out to $8.95 after a $1 discount.

Where do you advice me to pick up the missing volumes from? Amazon?

You're not going to beat $8.95 per volume, I'd say to just special order them from there.

Also, update us on your progress here or in the New Readers thread. How far have you gotten? :badbone:
 
Oh cool, I'll special order them then! Thanks for the advice ^_^. I'll go to that thread and include my own update on the read there.

*OFFTOPIC*
Yesterday I was at Midtown Comics close to Times Square, and saw Kojiro's statue. The price looked hefty compared to online prices, but this price is pre-tax, and online prices are pre-shipping! So, I think it's a toss between the two.
NewImage.jpg
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
IncantatioN said:
Oh cool, I'll special order them then! Thanks for the advice ^_^.

No problem, should save you the cost shipping too, and if they get their deliveries at a decent speed, it's a steal.

IncantatioN said:
I'll go to that thread and include my own update on the read there.

My next stop.

IncantatioN said:
*OFFTOPIC*
Yesterday I was at Midtown Comics close to Times Square, and saw Kojiro's statue. The price looked hefty compared to online prices, but this price is pre-tax, and online prices are pre-shipping! So, I think it's a toss between the two.
http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab196/Piraan/Figures/NewImage.jpg

Yeah, sounds like it's about even, plus I've had bad luck with ordering statues online.

CowTip said:
That's a pretty nice haul you got there! What's with volume 2 though? What were they thinking :sad:

What he's got there is an earlier printing of volume 2, my volumes 1-4 all look like that. You can also tell the difference from the logo at the top and bottom of the spines, the one's that say editor's choice are older, while recent printings have that flower-like logo. There's all sorts of little variations and unique characteristics to each volume as the presentation of the series has changed, the strangest is that my volume 6 is noticeably shorter than the others, and it's the only cover with a glossy finish. They all look good and consistent on the inside though, a few typos excluded. I've come to like the little differences, it's like a story in itself as the look of the volumes have evolved. =)
 
Funnily enough, I didn't realize that until I stacked them up for the picture, and that's when I noticed Vol 2 looked different.

CowTip said:
That's a pretty nice haul you got there! What's with volume 2 though? What were they thinking :sad:
Thanks! I'm current up to Volume 14.
 
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