Viz Media Rant - Part 1

First off, welcome to a series of off-the-cuff rants I may do, which won't necessarily be weekly. I just rhymed "Rankings" with "Rantings". Like what I did there?

Viz Media Rant - Part 1

Right, so, as we all know, Viz Media are responsible for bringing over to the West many great anime and manga titles, such as Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and HxH. However, I have to question their handling of these titles and their other ones. I'm talking about the series that you never really see them promote, such as Reborn! and Gintama. And the result? Reborn! is on an indefinite hiatus and Gintama has been cancelled.

Let's start with Reborn!. Now, I purchased all 16 English volumes of Reborn!, which was my first manga ever bought, in the space of August 2010 to January 2011, WITHOUT knowing that the series was on hiatus. My suspicions were first aroused when I saw that Volume 17 was supposed to have been released in October 2010. I investigated a little around the internet and discovered that it had gone on hiatus due to low sales. And the cause of this? SHITTY TRANSLATIONS AND SHITTY PROMOTION! I was aware that there were errors that could've easily been corrected, such as "Kyosuke Hibari" and Mammon having the "Yellow pacifier", but a Southern Gokudera and a Tsuna who, under pressure, exclaims "Great gruntin' groundhogs!" and "Holy ham on rye with kraut!" is unacceptable. Now, I don't think Viz fully acknowledged the series' darker, action-y transition, so kept it as a comedy. But that does not make up for very silly mistakes that could've been avoid with a little QC. I mean, if scanlators can do better translations for free, why should Viz pay those morons to do a shitty job? Which brings me to another rant, but that's for another day. Anyway, back to Reborn!. There was no hype for the series, shitty translations, resulting in its hiatus. And what dare Viz doing? They are currently sitting on the licence as if they're expecting it to suddenly "POOF!" them lots of cash. PROMOTE THAT SHIT!!! We've just come out of the holiday season, where people are most likely to spend their cash, and Viz could've used that as an opportunity to get some of their lower-selling manga out there! But what do they do? They put their higher-selling manga on sale instead, as if they're not making Viz any money. I can't fucking stand them and I don't know why they make shut crappy business decisions. At the moment, unless Reborn! gets picked up by another company, its future in the West is looking very bleak.

Gintama sells incredibly well, and does very well in the weekly rankings, coming 1st in a few occasions. I saw no effort by Viz to promote such a great, great series. Very disappointing that Viz cancelled it. Had lots of potential. I understand that there were many cultural references and jokes that couldn't be translated, but that's what makes it so funny and unique! It's like the Family Guy of anime and manga! I was literally JUST about to buy the first volume on my birthday, but that was the day Viz announced its cancellation. Viz, you suck cock big-time. You just let a potential money-maker slip right through your hands. Oh, but that don't concern you, does it? As long as you keep suckling at the teats of your precious Naruto (which is incredibly overrated), you'll be fine! I mean, it only accounts for 10% of your revenue(!) It's not like if you promoted more series as much as you did Naruto, you'd make more money(!) I mean, who'd want that?

This is just one of the many reasons I'm glad Naruto and Bleach (No offence Bleach, you're ok) are in their final arc. I mean, once they're over, I want to see if Viz will continue to ride their dicks for the next 10 years.

Ah well, Part 2 coming soon. Thanks for reading, please leave feedback and comments! ^_^