Monday, June 08, 2009
Gee, Thanks for the More Expensive, Lower Quality Manga, Tokyopop
Back in April I was wondering what readers would get for the extra dollar they'd be spending on Tokyopop manga titles. At the time, I fantasized about Tokyopop following DC's example and having backup features in each book. I realized such a bonus was unlikely, writing: "I'm assuming the price increase won't be accompanied by any additions to the manga volumes, like better paper stock or color inserts." Boy, how right I was. In fact, not only are there no added perks to offset the price hike, but Tokyopop went the other direction and gave us shoddier production values that cost more.
Comparing Sgt. Frog 17 to the previous volume, I noticed the following declines in quality:
For me, the first flaw is the most critical. Complaining about paper quality might seem nitpicky, but it was noticeable right away, as soon as I grabbed the book out of the shipping box. The book felt flimsy. It also felt thinner, something confirmed by placing it next to an earlier volume of the series:
The cheaper (ha!) paper also affected my reading experience: I noticed several spots where I was distracted by details from the opposite side visible through the page I was reading. The below scan gives a pretty good indication of what this looks like:
Click to Super-Snow-Keroro-size!
Compare that scan with one from the previous volume. (I generally touch up scans a bit to improve the contrast, but the scan from volume 17 was unsalvageable using my usual tweaks.)
I don't know if the combination of price increase plus decreased product quality will be enough to cause me to drop the book, but it's certainly not helping. Has anyone else noticed this with other Tokyopop titles? Is this a one time fluke or Tokyopop's new cost-cutting direction?
UPDATE: I always forget to use Google to see if others are noticing the same things I'm complaining about. Here's a thread at Anime News Network where several posters complain about the same problems with other Tokyopop series. And one poster quotes a Tokyopop rep as explaining:
Another poster quotes something a TP Associate Publisher supposedly wrote over on Amazon:
Back in April I was wondering what readers would get for the extra dollar they'd be spending on Tokyopop manga titles. At the time, I fantasized about Tokyopop following DC's example and having backup features in each book. I realized such a bonus was unlikely, writing: "I'm assuming the price increase won't be accompanied by any additions to the manga volumes, like better paper stock or color inserts." Boy, how right I was. In fact, not only are there no added perks to offset the price hike, but Tokyopop went the other direction and gave us shoddier production values that cost more.
Comparing Sgt. Frog 17 to the previous volume, I noticed the following declines in quality:
- Cheaper, thinner paper stock.
- No glossy color pages at the beginning.
- No more shiny "metallic ink" cover.
- Sloppy editing / quality control standards.
For me, the first flaw is the most critical. Complaining about paper quality might seem nitpicky, but it was noticeable right away, as soon as I grabbed the book out of the shipping box. The book felt flimsy. It also felt thinner, something confirmed by placing it next to an earlier volume of the series:
The cheaper (ha!) paper also affected my reading experience: I noticed several spots where I was distracted by details from the opposite side visible through the page I was reading. The below scan gives a pretty good indication of what this looks like:
Click to Super-Snow-Keroro-size!
Compare that scan with one from the previous volume. (I generally touch up scans a bit to improve the contrast, but the scan from volume 17 was unsalvageable using my usual tweaks.)
I don't know if the combination of price increase plus decreased product quality will be enough to cause me to drop the book, but it's certainly not helping. Has anyone else noticed this with other Tokyopop titles? Is this a one time fluke or Tokyopop's new cost-cutting direction?
UPDATE: I always forget to use Google to see if others are noticing the same things I'm complaining about. Here's a thread at Anime News Network where several posters complain about the same problems with other Tokyopop series. And one poster quotes a Tokyopop rep as explaining:
I understand your concern. Paper, printing, freight has increased in price over the past ten plus years we have been in business. One of our competitors announced last week that they are raising prices higher than we did. We felt in order to keep the price of our manga down, we would change paper and only incease the average price by only 1 dollar. The other paper we used has not only increased in the cost but is getting harder to get. Sorry if there are spelling errors. I'm home sick and I'm usung my Bberry. Thanks, AllysonI know what's she's trying to say and I feel like a jerk for mocking something someone wrote while sick, but I love the juxtaposition of "in order to keep the price of our manga down" ...we decided to raise prices. Oh, and print them on crappier paper. Corporate double-speak for the win!!
Another poster quotes something a TP Associate Publisher supposedly wrote over on Amazon:
I wanted to address a few of the comments on this thread. The paper we had been using prior to the stock you're discussing was only available from one mill, and suffice it to say, this didn't offer us a lot of flexibility with negotiating scheduling, pricing, etc., so we've been exploring other options. The new paper is different, of course, as you noted - our current printer let us know that other graphic novel publishers are inquiring about and using this paper, too. Now we are in the process of gathering feedback from consumers and other partners, and I appreciate all the candid comments as we assess its future. (BTW, our cover stock has not changed - it's still 10pt C1S - but perhaps the different paper gives it that impression.)It also turns out that this was something the eagle-eyed Johanna Draper Carlson spotted in one of her reviews way back in February:
On another note, I haven’t checked out a Tokyopop volume in the past few months, and I was very surprised to note that the price of this volume has gone up (books this size used to be $9.99) while the quality has gone down. The newsprint-like paper feels cheap and unsubstantial, and it looks muddy. The resulting product seems unsubstantial and is unpleasant to read.Reminder: Next time, do the Google research before wasting time writing your own redundant post.
Labels: Companies in Trouble, Complaints, Manga, Sgt. Frog, Tokyopop
12:18 AM | |
Monday, June 16, 2008
What Others Are Saying About Books I've Read But Was Too Lazy To Review Myself
Sometimes it's just easier to react to others' reviews than to start my own...
Bleach 23 - Michelle at Soliloquy in Blue gives the book a C, which is probably a fair grade once I calm down and evaluate matters rationally. So far the Arrancars do seem more goofy than intimidating, and the fight scenes do feel a little boring and stale, especially after sitting through so many of the same types of battles during the Soul Society arc. And what could have been a touching character development moment for Orihime is marred by some completely unnecessary faux-lesbianism fanservice. My only hope is that all the cross-cutting to different characters being tracked by various Arrancars will set up an interesting and intense coordinated attack where our heroes are unable to come to each other's aid. (Davey C. Jones, on the other hand, can't find enough exclamation points to use in praising this installment. And "I don’t know how Ichigo is going to make it out of this one"? Really??? You don't think it'll have something to do with tapping into a previously undiscovered well of strength and/or new ability? And I thought I was a gushing Bleach fanboy.)
Parasyte 3 - Both Carlo Santos and Matthew Brady were a bit bored with this volume, but I thought book three advanced the series in interesting ways. Of primary interest was the ongoing change in Shin's personality due to bonding with Migi. It seems that Shin's humanity is slowly slipping away as the ongoing integration with his parasite causes him to be become more efficient and emotionless. I also liked the development of the government finding out about the parasites and devising a test that will reveal if someone's been infected or not. And as Connie at Slightly Biased Manga reminded me, the media's representations of the "mouth-heads" are pretty hilarious.
Kekkaishi 13 - Isaac Hale give the book a B+ and notices the similarities and differences between the respective opening story arcs for Kekkaishi and that other series about superpowered teenage demon hunters who hang around their school a lot. (I don't really have anything to add to Isaac's review — I just want to remind everyone that they should be reading Kekkaishi.)
Sgt. Frog 15 - Holly Ellingwood at Active Anime clearly enjoys the book, but her review probably won't be much help to readers wondering if they'd enjoy this installment of the series. The bulk of the review is so generic it could apply to any volume of Sgt. Frog. In fact, the review makes me wonder if the reviewer read volume 15 at all. Almost all of the third paragraph is copied word-for-word from the book's back cover blurb, just rearranged in a different order. And the only item not lifted directly from the book seems to be a reference to something that happened in volume 14: "On a recent summer day, Fuyuki’s research led him to another boy, whose situation was eerily like Fuyuki and Keroro’s." That sounds like a description of Encounter CXII "A Midsummer Mix-Up", which was in the previous book.
Myself, I thought Sgt. Frog volume 15 was a fine return to funny frog-like form. The chapter about fukuwarai was hilariously absurd, and indirectly educational, as it taught me something about Japanese culture I didn't know before. The episode with Giroro's kitten assuming human form and taking over the unit was amusing, and we almost witnessed something either very touching or very disturbing (I still haven't quite decided yet). And the two-parter set on Easter Island had a nice message about respecting environmental / historical sites, suggesting that frequently we humans are the invaders that pose the biggest threat to our planet's future.
Plus, volume 15 featured this exchange between Dororo and Keroro which cracks me up every time I read it. I think it perfectly encapsulates the two characters' essential personalities: Dororo, peaceful and concerned, admonishing himself for not recognizing another's pain sooner; Keroro, obliviously self-absorbed, annoyed that his frivolous activities have been interrupted.
Finally, while continuing to Google around, I stumbled upon a review of Honey and Clover so scathingly negative it made me laugh:
(Pretty much all links via MangaBlog)
Sometimes it's just easier to react to others' reviews than to start my own...
Bleach 23 - Michelle at Soliloquy in Blue gives the book a C, which is probably a fair grade once I calm down and evaluate matters rationally. So far the Arrancars do seem more goofy than intimidating, and the fight scenes do feel a little boring and stale, especially after sitting through so many of the same types of battles during the Soul Society arc. And what could have been a touching character development moment for Orihime is marred by some completely unnecessary faux-lesbianism fanservice. My only hope is that all the cross-cutting to different characters being tracked by various Arrancars will set up an interesting and intense coordinated attack where our heroes are unable to come to each other's aid. (Davey C. Jones, on the other hand, can't find enough exclamation points to use in praising this installment. And "I don’t know how Ichigo is going to make it out of this one"? Really??? You don't think it'll have something to do with tapping into a previously undiscovered well of strength and/or new ability? And I thought I was a gushing Bleach fanboy.)
Parasyte 3 - Both Carlo Santos and Matthew Brady were a bit bored with this volume, but I thought book three advanced the series in interesting ways. Of primary interest was the ongoing change in Shin's personality due to bonding with Migi. It seems that Shin's humanity is slowly slipping away as the ongoing integration with his parasite causes him to be become more efficient and emotionless. I also liked the development of the government finding out about the parasites and devising a test that will reveal if someone's been infected or not. And as Connie at Slightly Biased Manga reminded me, the media's representations of the "mouth-heads" are pretty hilarious.
Kekkaishi 13 - Isaac Hale give the book a B+ and notices the similarities and differences between the respective opening story arcs for Kekkaishi and that other series about superpowered teenage demon hunters who hang around their school a lot. (I don't really have anything to add to Isaac's review — I just want to remind everyone that they should be reading Kekkaishi.)
Sgt. Frog 15 - Holly Ellingwood at Active Anime clearly enjoys the book, but her review probably won't be much help to readers wondering if they'd enjoy this installment of the series. The bulk of the review is so generic it could apply to any volume of Sgt. Frog. In fact, the review makes me wonder if the reviewer read volume 15 at all. Almost all of the third paragraph is copied word-for-word from the book's back cover blurb, just rearranged in a different order. And the only item not lifted directly from the book seems to be a reference to something that happened in volume 14: "On a recent summer day, Fuyuki’s research led him to another boy, whose situation was eerily like Fuyuki and Keroro’s." That sounds like a description of Encounter CXII "A Midsummer Mix-Up", which was in the previous book.
Myself, I thought Sgt. Frog volume 15 was a fine return to funny frog-like form. The chapter about fukuwarai was hilariously absurd, and indirectly educational, as it taught me something about Japanese culture I didn't know before. The episode with Giroro's kitten assuming human form and taking over the unit was amusing, and we almost witnessed something either very touching or very disturbing (I still haven't quite decided yet). And the two-parter set on Easter Island had a nice message about respecting environmental / historical sites, suggesting that frequently we humans are the invaders that pose the biggest threat to our planet's future.
Plus, volume 15 featured this exchange between Dororo and Keroro which cracks me up every time I read it. I think it perfectly encapsulates the two characters' essential personalities: Dororo, peaceful and concerned, admonishing himself for not recognizing another's pain sooner; Keroro, obliviously self-absorbed, annoyed that his frivolous activities have been interrupted.
Finally, while continuing to Google around, I stumbled upon a review of Honey and Clover so scathingly negative it made me laugh:
Honey and Clover is pulling the garbage out of seinen and shoujo and putting it into the barest shell of a josei, which means we have 1.) conventions that don’t work well together, resulting in a barely-coherent mush of ideas, 2.) no clearly defined audience (in a bad way - who the hell is supposed to relate to these childish nutcases?), and 3.) more clichés/crappiness than we usually have to sit through in something constrained by one genre. Now we get the crap of josei, seinen, AND shoujo? Thank you for showing me something few series dare, Honey and CloverAfter reading that review, I wondered: Is Honey and Clover really going for some biting meta-manga satire à la Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga? That would be pretty genius.
(Pretty much all links via MangaBlog)
Labels: Bleach, Kekkaishi, Manga, Review Reviews, Sgt. Frog
11:11 PM | |
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Who Writes Their Contracts? Kururu???
NOTE: This entire post was written under some flawed assumptions. See my retraction for an update. Any other ideas for a comic company we can legitimately boycott?
I was planning on writing up some thoughts on the latest volume of Sgt. Frog last night (with hilarious scans and everything!), but the latest round of shady dealings from Tokyopop has dampened my enthusiasm for their works. Like Johanna, I really don't want to be promoting a company that engages in (let's phrase this charitably) extremely questionable business practices at the expense of creators. In fact, I'll take it a step further and suggest it's time for a general boycott of Tokyopop until they get this contract mess straightened out so it's more equitable for creators:
UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon handily demolishes arguments that Tokyopop's contract is just standard operating procedure.
UPDATE #2: Heidi MacDonald weighs in and ties the recent mess into a larger discussion of Tokyopop's OEL program and its treatment of newer, younger creators.
NOTE: This entire post was written under some flawed assumptions. See my retraction for an update. Any other ideas for a comic company we can legitimately boycott?
I was planning on writing up some thoughts on the latest volume of Sgt. Frog last night (with hilarious scans and everything!), but the latest round of shady dealings from Tokyopop has dampened my enthusiasm for their works. Like Johanna, I really don't want to be promoting a company that engages in (let's phrase this charitably) extremely questionable business practices at the expense of creators. In fact, I'll take it a step further and suggest it's time for a general boycott of Tokyopop until they get this contract mess straightened out so it's more equitable for creators:
- If you're a reviewer, stop reviewing their books.
- If you're a reader, stop buying and reading their books.
- If you're a fan, stop discussing Tokyopop (other than to explain why you're no longer discussing them)
- In any case, send Tokyopop a note to let them know why you're no longer a customer of theirs.
UPDATE: Tom Spurgeon handily demolishes arguments that Tokyopop's contract is just standard operating procedure.
UPDATE #2: Heidi MacDonald weighs in and ties the recent mess into a larger discussion of Tokyopop's OEL program and its treatment of newer, younger creators.
Labels: Boycotts, Corporate Shenanigans, Sgt. Frog, Tokyopop
9:35 AM | |
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Positive Side of Illegal Fansubs
Further proof of the awesomeness of Sgt. Frog: the fansubbed Keroro Gunso anime teaches children to read!
Meanwhile, still no news on when (if?) ADV will release the US version of the series.
Further proof of the awesomeness of Sgt. Frog: the fansubbed Keroro Gunso anime teaches children to read!
Meanwhile, still no news on when (if?) ADV will release the US version of the series.
Labels: Keroro Gunso, Sgt. Frog, Sgt. Frog DVD Watch
10:13 AM | |
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
And By 'Soon' ADV Means 'Some Time Before 2012'
A couple weeks ago I got a new Tokyopop Manga Magazine in the mail and was excited to see this ad on the back cover:
And then I noticed that the magazine was dated "Summer 2007" and my excitement diminished. As Johanna noted, the magazine came out really, really late and its contents are really, really old. Meanwhile, still no official word about when the Sgt. Frog DVD will be coming out. There's absolutely nothing on ADV's site, and the SgtFrogTV.com site promoted in the ad currently is just to sign up for email notifications. (I signed up and still haven't received any emails, not even to acknowledge the fact that I signed up.) In the meantime, I'll pass the time by watching free episodes of other anime series on Amazon Unbox.
A couple weeks ago I got a new Tokyopop Manga Magazine in the mail and was excited to see this ad on the back cover:
And then I noticed that the magazine was dated "Summer 2007" and my excitement diminished. As Johanna noted, the magazine came out really, really late and its contents are really, really old. Meanwhile, still no official word about when the Sgt. Frog DVD will be coming out. There's absolutely nothing on ADV's site, and the SgtFrogTV.com site promoted in the ad currently is just to sign up for email notifications. (I signed up and still haven't received any emails, not even to acknowledge the fact that I signed up.) In the meantime, I'll pass the time by watching free episodes of other anime series on Amazon Unbox.
Labels: Anime, Keroro Gunso, Sgt. Frog, Sgt. Frog DVD Watch
10:46 PM | |
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Whatever Happened To: ADV's Sgt. Frog DVD?
Recently I'd been wondering what had happened to the US release of the Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso) anime. ADV announced they'd acquired the rights to the series over a year ago but then there was no news after that. Googling a bit, I turned up this forum where someone posted the following info:
Of course, no info is to be found on ADV's own site, and it's not listed on Amazon, so who knows if it'll really come out in January or not. Until then, I guess I can just continue to watch clips of the fansubbed Japanese episodes on YouTube...
Recently I'd been wondering what had happened to the US release of the Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso) anime. ADV announced they'd acquired the rights to the series over a year ago but then there was no news after that. Googling a bit, I turned up this forum where someone posted the following info:
Its still coming, but ADV Films are in the process of working out how best to release it.A little further down that thread, someone links to another forum where someone spotted the Sgt. Frog DVD listed in the November Previews for a January 2008 release:
At least, thats what ADV Films International head Hugh Davids said at the London MCM Expo today during the anime industry panel. This news applies to both the US and UK release obviously.
NOV07 4721 SERGEANT FROG VOL 1 DVD (Net) (RES) (C: 0-1-3) SRP: $39.99 = $And then even further down the TZ thread, someone reports that the English-language trailer is up on YouTube:
Of course, no info is to be found on ADV's own site, and it's not listed on Amazon, so who knows if it'll really come out in January or not. Until then, I guess I can just continue to watch clips of the fansubbed Japanese episodes on YouTube...
Labels: Anime, Keroro Gunso, Sgt. Frog, Whatever Happened To?
12:12 AM | |
