I’ve bitched before about book publishers printing some novels in trade paperback format in order to boost the price, but now it looks like even manga publishers are getting in on the action.

For example, I recently picked up TokyoPop’s Battlestar Galactica: Echoes of New Caprica. It’s yet another one of their OEL (original English language) manga anthologies, featuring stories from a variety of creators. However, unlike their other manga, for example, the BSG volume is physically larger…and the price is a few dollars higher! Adding insult to injury is the fact that the page count is actually lower than most of their other manga. So now you’re getting less content for a higher price! That’s incredibly irritating. (I should also note that their regular manga volumes have increased in price by a dollar, but that’s unfortunately the reality of the business world.)

Fortunately, I was able to use a 30% off coupon at my local bookstore when I purchased the book, but the point is that I shouldn’t have to. Comic book prices soared into the realm of the ridiculous a long time ago; it’s a shame that some manga publishers are now trying their damnedest to follow suit.

I’m sick of manga publishers’ refusal to translate Japanese terminology. If I buy an English edition of a manga, I want it fully translated. I can understand not translating character names; those, obviously, you need to leave alone. But especially in shonen manga (which is aimed at the male demographic), you see all manner of terminology left in the original Japanese! Obviously, it’s translated into the English alphabet, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to read it all, but the terms themselves are still Japanese. Worse yet, there’s often an asterisk (*) next to the word or words, with the English translation listed below the panel. That makes no sense whatsoever; if you’re going to translate it, then just put it in the damn speech bubble in the first place!

Let me give you some examples. In the popular manga Bleach, we’ve got terms like zanpakutou (“soul-cutting sword”), reiatsu (“spirit energy”), and shun shun rikka (“six flowers of the shielded hibiscus”). I admit that the literal translations of these don’t sound fantastic, but you can take a bit of artistic license and give us an English equivalent! In fact, Bleach has already done this; many of the supporting cast in the series are shinigami, which translates to “gods of death.” That’s not going to sell many books, is it? So, over here, they call them “Soul Reapers.” It essentially means the same thing, but doesn’t sound generic. It gets the point across and sounds unique at the same time.

I bet that the Japanese terms are left untranslated just to please the overly obsessive fanboys and fangirls. That’s stupid. If you want the original Japanese that badly, then take a fucking class and learn the language yourself.

For those of you who’ve played the Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon, you may be interested to know that there’s a manga based on the same property called Ral Ω Grad. However…the manga is very loosely based on the Blue Dragon mythos, and really takes off in a different direction.

The most glaring proof of this are the differences between the two protagonists; in Blue Dragon, it’s a young man named Shu (shown at left), and in Ral Ω Grad, we’ve got Ral (shown at right). Both characters were designed by top manga artists; Shu by Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), and Ral by Takeshi Obata (Death Note). What really sets them apart, aside from the obvious details, is that while the video game is much more “family friendly,” as it were, the manga most certainly is not.

Blue Dragon the game is essentially a Dragon Quest clone (a series that Toriyama has long worked on). It’s a lighthearted turn-based RPG, wherein Shu and his friends journey across the world to defeat the evil king Nene and his mechanized army. To assist them, their shadows have been given physical form, which can be used for various attacks and support. (Shu’s shadow is the titular blue dragon, of course.) Seems fairly by-the-numbers, doesn’t it?

In Ral Ω Grad, we’ve got a decidedly darker tone. Here, the shadows are malevolent entities from the parallel world of Noir, and their ruler, Queen Opsquria, sends them out to slaughter humans and eventually take over the world. The world’s only hope? A teenager named Ral, who’s been encased in a darkened sphere since he was a baby. When he was born, it was discovered that he had a powerful shadow attached to him, which lashed out and destroyed the surrounding village. By putting him in a lightless sphere, he can’t summon the shadow. While he was a prisoner, he was educated by a girl named Mio, and also befriended his shadow, a powerful blue dragon named Grad. Fifteen years later, Opsquria’s troops were on the move, and the only weapon the humans had was Ral and Grad. They released him…

…and his first instinct was to tear open Mio’s dress and fondle her large breasts. And thus began Ral’s quest to rid the world of Opsquria’s evil forces, in order to save all of the world’s women and play with their boobs. Not exactly kiddie fare, is it? Along the way, he meets other people who have their own shadows under control, which leads to the expected massive battles and a final showdown with Opsquria.

Blue Dragon was a good game, but like I said, it was very much a Dragon Quest knockoff. Those games are fantastic enough on their own; if I want to play Dragon Quest, I’ll play Dragon Quest, not a clone. If the game was based on Ral Ω Grad instead, it would’ve been a lot better by many orders of magnitude.

Boob-grabbing included.

Given the fact that Viz Media is taking their sweet time with the Hikaru no Go release schedule, I got impatient and decided to read the rest of series online. Numerous manga series have been translated by fans, and the scanned and edited results (known as “scanlations”) can be found far and wide.

Well, I found the Hikaru no Go scanlations, read the whole thing…and boy, did the ending fucking suck.

Not only did Sai disappear without warning and for no apparent reason about three-quarters of the way through the series, but they never explored the “Divine Move” concept, which was central to the plot! Furthermore, the final go match (the Hokuto Cup) was a huge downer, as well. It kept you guessing as to whether Hikaru would win, but when he didn’t, there was really no proper resolution. He said he wasn’t strong enough, wept a bit, and went back to the regular life of a professional go player. Bor-ing.

It’s a damn shame, because Takeshi Obata’s art was flawless throughout the entire series. The US DVD releases got cancelled halfway through due to lack of interest, and I’ve got a feeling the manga releases may follow suit. Not that it matters to me anymore; I sure as hell won’t be buying the rest, and I’m likely going to sell the volumes I’ve already bought. Ugh; what a letdown!

This is forcing me to re-examine the other series I read. I read Bleach online, and collect the US volumes as they’re released; the quality level there has been consistent. The same goes for Fullmetal Alchemist, which is another one that Viz is dragging their feet with. As for series I don’t read online, like Zatch Bell! and Kurohime…I’m wondering if I should bite the bullet and start checking out the scanlations. Kurohime‘s been excellent so far, but Zatch Bell! has been getting rather stagnant. What’s the sense of continuing to collect the series, if it’s going to slide downhill and possibly end on a bad note?

I’ll have to give it some more thought.

What the fuck is up with Viz Media‘s incredible slacking lately? While many of their titles come out on a bimonthly basis, or a triannual basis (for those manga that are serialized in Shonen Jump magazine), they’ve got popular properties that they’ve seemingly thrown to the wind. Take two that I just happen to read: Hikaru no Go and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Now, Hikaru no Go used to be serialized in Shonen Jump, so the collected volumes came out every few months to collect the chapters that had been released. However, a few months ago, its serialization ended, likely due to declining popularity. The volumes are still on a long schedule, though. If the book’s not doing so well on the popularity front…how about getting the remaining volumes out on a regular basis to drum up interest? The US release of the Hikaru no Go anime was cancelled after only half the series was released on DVD, so future prospects are admittedly looking grim.

With Fullmetal Alchemist, the situation’s even worse. This is a series that’s remained very popular, and the volumes used to come out bimonthly. Starting last fall, Viz shifted to a longer schedule, for some unknown reason. Volume 16 came out in March of 2008…and Volume 17 isn’t due out until at least October! That makes no sense whatsoever; what’s causing these ridiculous delays? The series is popular, but this now semiannual schedule is going to tank it. I know the series was catching up to the Japanese releases, but there’s still a disparity present.

These dead stretches are only going to cost the company readership. You know things are getting bad when you can barely remember what happened in the last volume, because it came out six damn months ago.