What happened to all the shonen?

Fan Boy Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

What I want to know is how come Mangascreener doesn't do any more shonen manga? They used to have a lot of good titles like One Piece and Rave, but now all they do is seinin and one shots. I mean, I do like some of their series a lot, but I miss all the good shonen projects. I think they should pick up a new shonen series.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

I originally write a long, patronising response, but I'll just re-write it in point format:
- most of the shonen shit MS used to do is already licensed
- shonen is, for the most part, formulaic, predictable and boring.
- a lot of us prefer wider, more unique tastes in manga that we work on. I mean jesus, there aren't enough groups doing the flavor-of-the-month Jump/Magazine title already?

PS

Quote:

I think they should pick up a new shonen series.

And I think you should go have sex with your grandmother, or her rotting corpse/cremated remains if she is already dead. Seriously. Why would I care what YOU think I should do next? (which, by the way, is "nothing": I've grown tired of serving you asshats)

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:51 pm

There is only one man to blame for the fact that MS used to be the premier shonen manga site, and thats myself. I founded MS around 6 years ago, starting out with One Piece, City Hunter, Slam Dunk, Love Hina and Naruto among others...
Simply put, most of the shounen projects we used to do were started over five years ago... THATS A LONG TIME AGO!... when i started MS i was still in highschool, shonen was cool, and for the most part untouched by American manga companies. For most American readers shonen was new and exciting... but just to emphasize, that was more than five years ago, MS was at the tip of a huge wave, and the first part of that wave to crash.
All of our original titles got licensed... in retrospect they were the best and most famous Shonen series running at the time... for quality shonen (an oximoron to some) there was only one way to go... down. For that reason we didn't pick up any more shonen projects. Actually, it was a pretty smart move at the time, because most shonen manga that come out now are licensed quickly, even if they suck. So its not worth our time to translate them.
Age is also a factor, the MS staff on average is like 5 years older than most of the other groups out there, except for our peers at sites like Omanga, JJ, MP, BoTH, SC... who just happen to be doing a lot of the same kind of manga we do. Over the last 5 years we were maturing in taste, as well as exposure to new manga. For example, when SummerSoldier came on board as a translator we started many new projects which are now regarded as a pillar of the MS library even though they probably wouldn't be picked up by any other site outside our direct circle of peers.
Another factor commonly overlooked is the fanbase. Some of us just got tired of the Shaman King and One Piece fans, who seemed to constantly get younger and younger. There's nothing more lame than being a 20 year old college student in a chatroom filled with 12 and 13 year olds. It was time to start translating stuff that reflected our age, and the level of peers we would actually want to associate with.
In a nutshell, many of us simply outgrew shonen, and some just opted for something "better."

Now you have a choice to, there are about 100 manga translation groups now, a lot of them are fly by nighters, many are established with libraries of their own projects. More than half of them do shonen... only 4 or 5 do the kind of series that MS has become associated with. There is a large quantity of shonen out there, but only a small quantity of quality manga.

Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 9:17 pm

Very well said, Izumi. There are a million and one groups out there doing only shonen manga, so why should we be the million-and-second?

Fan Boy Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

Thank you, Izumi, for giving a decent reply. Unlike that sick minded, die-a-virgin, asshole; Emperor Ketchup. I understand where you're coming from. It just seemed weird to me that the group just completely changed their focus of genre. I do like a lot of Mangascreener's stuff like Monster and King of Thorns, etc. But Im still a highschooler and I'm still in the mind-set that One Piece is still the best. And there are still a few series I've seen in Shonen Jump that I would like to see get done. There are a lot of sites out there that do shonen manga, but a lot of them will only release a few chapters and never be heard from again, and most of them just really suck in quality. And well, Mangascreener is one of the best groups around, and I wish they would do some projects more to my taste. I don't expect MS to just drop everything and bend to my wants, but Im allowed to state my opinion.

So in closing, Go fuck yourself, Emperor Ketchup.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

Gum-Gum Pistol wrote:

So in closing, Go fuck yourself, Emperor Ketchup.

Shit man, I would have tried if I were flexible enough. In any case thank you for your brilliant insight (I'm an asshole? No way! PS did you notice how shit gets wet when it rains? It's shocking, isn't it), we hope to never hear from you again.

Roadie Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Posts: 65 Location: CA

Gum-Gum Pistol wrote:

I wish they would do some projects more to my taste.

fuck your taste, we're too busy fucking ourselves with the infinite mansex we have.
and hmmm did i mention manboobs? ecstasy!

ps: we hate rubbers

Fan Boy Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

Emperor Ketchup wrote:

Gum-Gum Pistol wrote:

So in closing, Go fuck yourself, Emperor Ketchup.

Shit man, I would have tried if I were flexible enough. In any case thank you for your brilliant insight (I'm an asshole? No way! PS did you notice how shit gets wet when it rains? It's shocking, isn't it), we hope to never hear from you again.

Oh, haha. Ya got me! You're so clever, with your swearing and sarcastic comments. Im just utterly dumbfounded as to what to say to that. You've completely shattered my self-esteem, with your razor like wit. Now, I guess I'm going to go cry myself to sleep, and wait for my months of future therepy that I'll need to keep me from killing myself. Wow, it must be nice to come home from your community college and dead-end blockbuster job, sit in your parents' basement, and vent out all your years of trauma from being your highschool's resident loser, and be able to boost your fragile self esteem by shredding one simple question. I'm sure it must be exilerating to have a tiny amount of power in some tiny forum to help hide the fact that you're just a little boy. Inside and out. And I look forward to the day that karma forces you to get hit by a bus, and end your pathetic existance.

Amateur Musician Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 197

What are you getting all pissed off about? MS gives you free manga, maybe it's not to your taste? Fine, then go somewhere else.
Confused

Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:59 am

Gum-Gum, don't mind EK... he's trolling for that response... in fact, he's that way with everyone, even the staff... its kind of cute actually... like in a circus freak way.

Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:08 am

Basically, this Gum Gum guy was asking why we don't do the kind of manga he wants us to do which, you have to admit, is kind of an obnoxious question for a leecher to ask. I'm assuming that's why EK responded in the way he did.

Groupie Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 118

Have you tried asking Toriyama's World for whatever shonen project you're interested in? They seem to be more focused on the shonen crowd, with a smattering of shojo. They do some good work.

I'm just another leecher myself, but I prefer seinen, and the totally random stuff MangaScreener are focused on now. (Helter Skelter, National Quiz, etc.) With so many groups in the vast expanse of the net, focusing on something more unique seems like a better tactic to me. I feel like MS are doing more of a service too by translating stuff that has little chance of being licensed in today's market. Good shonen is easily picked up, so we don't have to worry too much with that genre. I can see Death Note licensed within a year, but I can't imagine "Sexy Voice and Robo - New from Tokyopop!" *shudder* I don't want to imagine that actually....(prefer Viz...)

Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 10:31 am

Yeah, EK knows i love him, in the manlove way. I don't mind his response at all, it was quite appropriate, i just don't see why Gum Gum has to take it seriously, i was just point out that its the way things are around here... He may have been around MS long enough to see us lose our shonen projects, but he hasn't been around long enough to realize that we are harshly intolerant of obnoxious leechers.

Fan Boy Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 4

Summer Soldier wrote:

Basically, this Gum Gum guy was asking why we don't do the kind of manga he wants us to do which, you have to admit, is kind of an obnoxious question for a leecher to ask. I'm assuming that's why EK responded in the way he did.

No, Im just asking why you don't do they types of manga that you used too.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

omg you have hurt my feelings, I have no choice but to hastily flee teh internet and go cry myself to bed in the basement.