San Diego Comic Con is upon us! As one of the largest (the largest?) convention of its kind, it tends to be a safe bet we’ll hear some snazzy manga news from the packed convention panel rooms over the weekend. So far the biggest list goes to Yen Press who had their panel today. The folks on Twitter and ANN were there to share the news –
New licenses:
Aron’s Absurd Armada – Misun Kim
Highschool of the Dead – Shoji Sato/Daisuke Sato
Higurashi: When They Cry Demon Exposing Arc – En Kitou
Otoyome-Gatari (The Bride’s Stories) – Kaoru Mori
Uraboku (The Betrayal Knows My Name) – Hotaru Odagiri *Missed one!
The title here that really excites me is Kaoru Mori’s The Bride’s Stories. Granted, I was rather bored by Emma and couldn’t finish but I really like her artwork and after watching some digital art-processes with some of the cover art from The Bride’s Stories, I was in love. I look forward to giving another of her series a go and Yen Press should give it fantastic treatment, which according to Deb Aoki “will be a hardcover edition w/ a larger trim size”. Extra shiny!
In other news:
After announcing back in April that Yen Plus would be moving to digital, Yen Press staff announced at their panel that today is the day. Starting today a free preview of the format and content is available up on their new Yen Plus website. All it takes is signing up for an account and you’re ready to go.
I must say, the cost of $2.99 a month is a really good price and includes access to the current and past months’ edition of Yen Plus. New content, serialized chapters and each issue is available to the purchaser for two months after its released. I also like that they chose not to make it Flash based – it loads really smoothly and can be viewed on mobile devices such as iPads. More info is available via their site’s FAQ page – though the link most will likely be curious about (“What series are in the magazine?”) is currently not working.
My only real issue with Yen Plus digital as it stands now is the difficulty much of their target audience will have paying for the subscription. It’s only available via PayPal (which works through credit cards or bank accounts) and this isn’t something the younger audience really has access to. I hope they have some sort of at-convention registration process as well in the future. Not being able to buy subscriptions in multiple month installments also seems like something people won’t like but this policy could change as the process evolves. All a learning experience!
During their panel’s Q&A, YP staff also stated they’re not currently looking into license-rescuing any of the titles previously held by the recently expunged CMX, and they don’t at this time have any new light novel announcements to make.
Follow
You forgot to also add Uraboku(aka Betrayal Knows My Name):).
I`m hoping(with a lot of other fans out there) that Yen doesn`t skim down on the quality put into Uraboku. The Haruhi manga translations were one thing, but the Yotsuba&! translations were just a plain disappointment. Which is why I'm hoping for the same signs of quality and effect as the guys who translated Kobato or Parasyte:) *sigh* For now, *crosses fingers*
Oops! Thanks for the heads up – post has now been updated Uraboku ^^
I didn't realize some readers were disappointed with Yen Press's work on Yotsuba&! – I thought it read really smoothly and didn't seem any less hilarious than ADV's version. I will agree wholeheartedly though that Kobato was very well done, very fluent and cute as it should be.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lissa, Thomas. Thomas said: RT @kuriousity: New Blog Post – SDCC: Yen Press / YenPlus http://www.kuri-ousity.com/2010/07/sdcc-yp-licenses-new-titles-offers-free-pr … […]
You're welcome^_^. Uraboku is just one of those highly anticipated series for those already interested.:)
If you have spare time you should check out this review of
Yotsuba&!'s current translation:
http://www.4thletter.net/2009/09/yotsuba-translat…
It goes into detail about the pros, but mostly the cons of the overliteral translation of Yen's version.
William Flanagan translated Kobato, and thus far he's one of the best! The series he translates are treated with that great sense of accuracy he always has:) Not meaning to be offensive or anything but some translators who have a number of series under their name don't always do a great job like Will. Take for example the translator of Haruhi, the translator has a lot of series under her name and yet Haruhi manga ended up being over-literal and poorly adapted into english.
P.S sorry for the long speech but I'm just a fan who cares to read before hitting the click to buy:)