Thinking about the problems facing the transplantation of manga kissa to the new world, I got to thinking about the vast number of otaku cultural elements that are wildly successful in the Other Country, and simply do not exist anywhere else. Even in the relatively short time that I have been interested in anime and manga, the official releases seen in North America have seen an exponential increase in both quantity and quality. Things that it seemed would never get an official release even two or three years ago are now considered perfectly normal. It’s now possible to find genuine gachapon in all sorts of places, genuine manga anthologies are showing up in otherwise normal locations, and translated light novels are coming out almost every month.
However, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, we need to remember that an otaku’s work is never done. For all the progress that has been made, it is important to remember how much further we have to go. Certain things are still not suitable for release in gaijin-land, and no matter how badly we may want them, they probably never will be. I promise that I won’t make a habit of doing posts that are nothing but enumerated lists, since I think that pretty much every other blog on the tubes has got that style covered, but since it is the beginning of the year I would ask you to grant me this one indulgence. Without much further ado, I would like to present a list of ten things that will NEVER be officially released in English for a North American market. I would invite all those reading to please prove me wrong.
10. Big-Name Bishoujo Games

It’s something of a miracle that we are blessed with more-or-less regular releases of PC bishoujo games at all. This is primarily due to the heroic efforts of Mr. Peter Payne and his glorious utopian vision of J-List (full disclosure: Shingo works for J-List, but I don’t! Nor do I see any money that may or may not come in from their advertisements on this site). Through these efforts, North America now has some semblance of a functioning marketplace for bishoujo games. This year, they even managed to acquire and release some relatively big names, such as Lightning Warrior Raidy and Princess Waltz.
Unfortunately, as much as this represents incredible progress, the market is still a tiny, tiny shadow of its source. There is essentially only one company doing this, and they can only do so much. Only a small handful of games are released each year, and although many of them are reasonably high-quality, none of them are really the “big names” that English-speaking otaku would be familiar with. Aside from Ai Yori Aoshi, none of the games released thus far were popular enough to warrant an anime adaptation, and Raidy is the first game so far that I had actually heard of prior to it being picked up by J-List.
Where are the Key games? The recent Kanon anime got licensed within a matter of months, but the game has languished for almost 10 years without any hope of being brought stateside. For that matter, where are all the Navel, and Aquaplus games? These games are big enough that any self respecting otaku knows them, but there’s still no (legal) way to play them in English. Not acceptable.
My understanding is that the obstacles to these games seeing English releases are primarily financial, which makes a certain amount of sense. Publishers of very successful games are going to want substantial amounts of money to license them, and are probably not going to be very understanding or sympathetic of the circumstances surrounding the English market. The economics of Other Country media are mind-boggling to begin with, and it is somewhat miraculous that the sole functioning importer and localizer of bishoujo games can manage to take games that originally cost 9000 yen (or more) and drop them onto the American market at $25.00 (or less). To be fair, anime distributors perform a similar kind of alchemy, but these games, particularly the 18+ games, are catering to a smaller market and will always do lower volume. Most of these games are also available in an “All Ages” edition, but thus far that hasn’t been the direction the market is going.
I won’t lie, any company that would risk paying out the nose for one of these licenses, then following through with a localization and release would almost definitely lose a substantial amount of money when all was said and done. From a purely otaku perspective, though, I simply don’t care. I want my games, and I want them now.
9. Specialist Magazines

2008 was not a great year for anime magazines in North America. Newtype USA, which has appeared to be going strong, abruptly halted publication back in February, only to be replaced with PiQ, a magzine designed to appeal to a broader audience, but which died a dog’s death after only four issues. Otaku USA is surviving, but underwent a price reduction and a minor format change (no DVD, no more…) and can still only manage six issues a year.
Even at its height, the American market only allows for for a very small number of otaku magazines, each of which touches on a very broad range of topics (I’m deliberately not counting manga anthologies here, since they really do not qualify as “magazines” for these purposes). This is something where my expertise is a bit limited, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the situation is not much better in other English-speaking countries. Meanwhile, the market in the Other Country seems to sprout more and more specialized publications ever month. Things like Newtype Romance seem to sprout up like weeds with no warning, and any number of really odd publications will appear as one-shots for a month at a time.
Aside from issues stemming from the relatively small size of the target demographics involved, some of the magazines simply wouldn’t server much of a purpose in North America. Things like Megami really do not have enough verbal content to require localization, so anyone that wants them can import them easily enough. Hobby Japan could have a target audience, but a very small one, and without a thriving local plamo/bishoujo figure industry in place to support it, it seems like it would be impossible to arrange the pages and pages of advertisements that would be required to sustain it. This enters into a chicken-and-egg problem with the American plamo/figure industry itself, which has made steady gains in recent years but is still laughable compared to its origins.
In the end, it seems like magazines are more a pleasant side-effect of otaku industries, rather than a driving force in and of themselves. The only surefire way to grow the magazine market is to grow everything else first.
8. Licensed Food

I know, this one is a little insane, but bear with me. Licensed food and drink products are exceedingly common in the Other Country. Not too long ago, Square Enix released an official Final Fantasy “Potion” beverage, made available in ordinary convenience stores. There was also a reasonably widespread brand of Yakitate Japan bread for a while, and it seems like ever other week C.C. Lemon or Calpis are running some kind of 2D-affiliated promotion. Plus there is, of course, UCC Coffee.
It’s worth mentioning, since this is definitely a distinctly Other Country phenomenon, but as most of these products have a reputation for tasting like styrofoam soaked in paint thinner, it’s not entirely clear why, let alone how, this would be replicated overseas. Certain import businesses do make these things available (typically the ones with longer shelf lives) but again, if I walk into 7/11 I’m not going to find any.
Things like Pocky and Hi-Chew are increasingly common in America, even in otherwise perfectly normal stores, and I have to think that gaijin otaku culture had a hand in this. With that in mind, is it possible that someday we could see bigger franchises (although hopefully not just certain long-running Shounen Jump titles) get their own licensed food products outside of their native land?
Yeah…probably not.
7. Console Bishoujo Games

Similar in concept to #10, but lagging far far behind in execution, these games occupy a troubled spot in the cultural landscape. Since almost all console games are not allowed to be 18+ titles, these are typically “all ages” editions of their PC counterparts. Lacking the pornographic hook to attract the dedicated, if small, market that PC titles cater to, these games face the herculean challenge of attempting to interest gaijin gamers in “visual novel” gameplay.
Good luck with that.
Some of the big titles with large “crossover” appeal, such as Ar Tonelico and (arguably) the recent Persona games have made inroads in this respect, but none of them have yet turned enough heads in the gaming world to justify experimenting a purer breed. Even the titles that are tie-ins with anime and manga that have achieved massive success (relatively speaking) are left by the wayside if they stray too far from fighting and adventure game territory. The big businesses want nothing to do with these games, which continue to be treated like toxic waste even when some truly baffling titles are being selected for localization.
Unfortunately, the model that has achieved modest success in the PC space is unlikely to translate well, simply due to the ridiculously high bar set for entry into the console space. Publishing a console game and acquiring the distribution rights to a foreign property are each immensely difficult tasks on their own, asking a smaller company to do both at once makes it tremendously unlikely that a project will ever get off the ground.
The current generation of consoles indicates a promising shift, though. As well-networked consoles begin to make downloadable games a truly viable option, distribution costs come way down and publishers are willing to take (slightly) more risks. If this trend continues, then these technologically simple 2D games could become prime candidates to make an appearance as a downloadable title, be it with new content or re-releases of older properties. Should that happen, there’s a real chance that we might start to see them crossing international borders.
Of course, even then it wouldn’t be any of the really good ones. See #10.
6. Meido

Now, before we even get started, yes, I do know that some enterprising souls have opened up Other Country-style meido kissa on North American soil, as well as in several other countries. Having said that, however, much like the manga kissa that was reported on previously, they are not exactly catching on. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that most countries lack a distinct Akiba-like otaku mecca where this sort of thing could blossom. These days it seems like meido kissa can carve out a sustainable existence in just about any part of Tokyo, and many places beyond, but I suspect that if the first few had opened in Shibuya instead of Akiba, they never really would have found their footing. Plenty of cities have “Japan Town” areas, but even the openly otaku-related stores are always blended in with a wide set “tradition” operations. None of them really approaches an Akiba level of shameless and indulgent otaku cloistering, which is likely necessary to foster a successful meido culture. And let’s face it, even if it proved that the business model could succeed, having a meido kissa in the middle of Times Square really wouldn’t be the same kind of atmosphere.
Furthermore, the “extended” meido culture faces even bigger challenges. The meido-bus, meido-massage, and meido-gaming operations are questionable business models even in areas where meido are plentiful. Trying to transplant them when they haven’t yet proven themselves in any form is a fool’s gambit. At the risk of sounding crass, I can’t help but wonder about the relative difficulty of finding suitable meido outside of the Other Country, to say nothing of drawing in a suitable clientele. The relationship between the meido that (in any decent establishment) show a genuine enthusiasm for their work and the otaku that enjoy their company with humility and respect is something that has to evolve organically, and no matter the intentions of the brave souls that try to make it happen, it’s unlikely to work out well in the near future.
Although if we could get that gaijin otaku mecca built somewhere, this problem could very well solve itself.
5. Pachislot

I don’t usually pay a lot of attention when people try to write something off as being “inherently Japanese” and try to assert that should be ignored or left alone because it is so deeply culturally entrenched that no one else in the world will ever really “get it” in any meaningful way, but in this case…
Pachinko is quite the national passtime in the Other Country, attracting attention mostly from bored housewives and listless, unskilled gamblers. To me, it also proves that it is possible to be under constant assault from all directions with audio and video stimulation and still be bored out of your mind.
What does this have to do with 2D culture, you ask? Well, modern pachinko (or pachi-slot, which adds elements of slots to the mix, but doesn’t change the core “sit on a stool and watch the game play itself” gameplay) machines all have themes. The theme doesn’t affect the gameplay, but to break up the monotony, they will play little animations and give off encouraging sound effects whenever some game event occurs. For whatever reason, the most popular themes are all anime and manga derived. One would assume, given the stereotypical clientele, that something with a Mito Komon theme would go over better, but it turns out that Hokuto no Ken and Evangelion consistently come out on top.
Weird, huh?
“Cultural differences” aside, I have a nagging suspicion that any area with looser gambling restrictions would really not take to the pachinko model. Real gamblers would be disinclined to go through such an obtuse mechanism to get results, and non-gamblers aren’t going to have the patience to play this type of game without getting real rewards. And the game is definitely not accessible for new players, resulting in added difficulties with trying to explain the ins and outs of the machines themselves.
Plus, even if pachinko somehow took off in North America, we wouldn’t get the themes we wanted anyway. We’d just end up with machines that had American Idol plastered all over them.
4. Doujinshi

I’m not talking about translating and re-releasing individual doujinshi here, since the Internet has filled that niche as much as it really ever should be filled, and asking for a commercial localization of an inherently non-commercial product is a bit bent. Instead, consider the lack or a proper doujinshi culture in North America, and the difficulties facing anyone that would try to close that gap. Although nowadays, any sizeable convention will have its own “artists alley”, dedicated events for buying and selling homemade publications are totally unheard of, and regardless of how you feel about the quality of the work on display at general-purpose cons, it is inarguably inferior in quantity.
If you take a step back, the fact that doujinshi sokubaikai manage to exist anywhere is a bit of a miracle. For several days, a convention center plays host to universe with rules completely different from our own. Hundreds of thousands of people buy and sell products that blatantly and openly infringe other people’s copyrights, most of it shameless pornography, and none of the rightsholders makes a fuss about it. I can’t think of a single thing in North America that displays this kind of blanket amnesty from our normal litigious society. Obviously the internet allows for free expression of this kind (more out of practicality than design) but the end result is really not the same. No one can argue that browsing Fakku is the same thing as actually going to comiket.
This brings me to one of the most unfortunate circumstances that gaijin otaku culture faces. By the time a product gets licensed and released outside of its country of origin, it is already serving two masters. If you want to create a derivative of that product, you have potential legal entanglements with both the localizer and the original publisher, and the burden is entirely on you to get it sorted out. This is the same legal nightmare that prevents the Super Robot Taisen games from ever getting localized (not including the “original” games, for obvious reasons). If you end up with a larger franchise, where different anime incarnations are licensed by different distributors, and a manga adaptation could be licensed by someone totally different, then you might as well just give up and go home.
Sorting things like this out will always be easier (not to claim that it’s easy) in the Other Country, and there is really not much that can be done about it. Furthermore, putting 2D ero material that far out in the open is courting disaster all by itself. Given the quality of some things that pass as “fan art” around here, it’s easy to say we’re better off, but I like to think that with a little practice we could get the knack of it.
3. Touhou

Obviously a subset of #4 but with distinct enough circumstances that I feel it warranted its own entry. Also, it’s my list, and I’ll do what I want. Having long been an underground phenomenon with an astounding cult following, Touhou now seems poised to burst into the mainstream. At least what some people consider “mainstream”. For better or worse, and despite original creator ZUN’s strong objections I think we’re going to be seeing very big things come out of Touhou-land in 2009.
The recent Maikaze anime adaptation poses problems that are almost unique in the history of anime localization and distribution. It’s unclear whether it will blossom into something larger than the single episode that exists (hint: it will) but even in its current incarnation, it represents a curious dilemma. Will anyone license it? Can anyone license it? Who, exactly, would it be licensed from? ZUN has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want it distributed to anyone, which I’m assuming includes us gaijin, and I’m guessing that whatever arrangement Maikaze has with ther (rather amazing) cast would put them in an awkward position regardless.
Would anyone want to license a Touhou anime? Probably. Anime distributors have a grand tradition of licensing tiny parts of a huge franchise that seem bizarre and off-putting to anyone not familiar with the source material, I see no reason they would stop now. It’s possibly someone might take an interest in licensing the games themselves, but honestly trying to sell 2D (ish) PC bullet hell games devoid of context really wouldn’t go very well. The might conceivably fare better as something like downloadable console games (XBLA or similar) but this complicates an already difficult task. What’s more, it definitely seems like this is the last thing ZUN would want, for reasons that are really known only to him.
The situation is essentially hopeless. Maikaze were kind enough to add English subtitles to their DVD, in a particularly obvious case of doujin-quality exceeding corporate-quality, but it’s still not as if I can just run down to Suncoast and buy the damn thing. Since there is really no local equivalent to the kinds of stores that would sell Touhou goods in the Other Country, or to the events that release them, any organized distribution would likely constitute the “commercialization” that ZUN is so opposed to.
I can’t say I blame him, but it’s somehow still a troubling thought. Much as it seems that Other Country Touhou maniacs can’t seem to decide how to feel about the Maikaze anime and all its implications, it’s tough to figure out just whether the licensing said anime (or said implications) would be a good thing or a bad thing.
2. Kodomo no Jikan

A low blow, perhaps, but lest we forget…
It’s now more than a year since the Seven Seas debacle, wherein an American publisher licensed this manga of…err…questionable moral purity, and came within a breath of publishing it through the standard channels, only to very suddenly realize what an amazingly bad idea that would be. As the manga continues to reach new heights of…uhh…”cultural differences” and one season of an anime adaptation showing absolutely no signs of interest from overseas distributors, the situation looks more dire than ever.
I’m not a big Kojikan fan myself, but I can’t help but feel bad all of the American lolicon otaku who were eagerly anticipating that release, only to be snubbed at the last minute. Obviously it’s not the end of the world, since scanlations are always readily available, but it’s still kind of a kick in the pants when a distributor claims to be releasing something, typically slowing or halting fan translations in the process, only to change their mind without any clear change in circumstances.
It’s a reasonable question to ask why Seven Seas would have licensed this title in the first place, it’s not as though it started off as something innocent and suddenly took an unexpected turn in later volumes. The entire point of the manga is that there is a small child saying and doing inappropriate things to her school teacher. Admittedly it gets more explicit the longer it runs, but still, one can’t help but wonder if anyone at Seven Seas had bothered reading it when the acquired the distribution rights.
On the one hand, nothing is more infuriating than watching distributors buy up the rights to countless beloved series, only to then sit on them for years and years without any intention of releasing them. The practice of striking down fan translations while refusing to allow consumers to actually buy the products legitimately is a loathsome side effect of the growth of the international otaku industries. On the other hand, though, given the content involved, part of me cannot help but be a little grateful that Kojika is not sitting in a public library somewhere, just waiting for some uppity parents group to stumble across it and start imprisoning neighborhood otaku for possessing unapproved literature. Even now, we have to pick our battles carefully.
Of course, back in 2005, I would have said exactly the same thing about Welcome to the NHK, so you really never know.
1. Sakura Taisen

There’s really just no excuse for this one. The Sakura Taisen franchise has been big business in the Other Country ever since it debuted in 1996. Having now sold over 3 million copies and given birth to various spin-offs and adaptations, it’s all but a household name now.
And yet…
Aside from a smattering of anime releases, none of the franchise has ever made it abroad. To a certain extent, this falls under the umbrella of #7, as the games feature enough “dating sim” elements to be considered alienating to westerners. Still, the games are far from pure visual novels, containing genuine strategy gaming elements to break up the lengthy dialog. Also, they are awesome, and should be played by everyone, regardless of how distasteful they might find playing a video game that involves reading. These games contain one of the greatest settings, and several of the greatest characters that I have ever encountered as an otaku. The fact that it’s been more than ten years and not a single game has made it to an English release is a disgrace to both the companies and the consumers involved.
Get it together, guys.
Re 3:
An animation localiser in the US cannot license the unofficial Touhou animation because they would not be able to get the rights cleared for a commercial release. As the animation is a derivative work, not abiding by ZUN’s rules for creation and distribution will result in copyright violation. Therefore, unless the animation localiser in the US can talk to ZUN and get his approval, this won’t fly legally and ZUN would have legal standing to sue.
Re 7:
This reminds me of the various discussions on whether Idolm@ster could even be brought stateside without parents and activist groups stirring up a storm.
Re 10:
If MangaGamer is actually successful, then game companies in Japan will be paying attention, since MangaGamer is essentially an effort spearheaded by OVERDRIVE, NEXTON and CIRCUS. They aren’t all top-tier, but they are not obscure and dying brands either.
>>zalas
This is the first I’ve heard of this thing you call MangaGamer (looks like a European initiative, so I’m a bit further out of the loop) but it looks very intriguing. Most of these titles look comparable to what JAST is publishing these days, but Da Capo is nothing to sneeze at, and it certainly does sound like it has interesting industry support behind it.
This is something I’ll need to keep on top of.
Re: #4
It has always been a source of great disappointment to me that Western manga fandom, in particular within the genre I work in, has stalled on consumption (often through illicit means), while the Japanese counterpart holds creative contribution in highest esteem.
That said, I do not agree that doujinshi is “untranslatable” in the West. In fact the doujinshi spirit can be readily observed here and now, if we look outside the sphere of manga and toward another fandom which, ironically, many otaku view with acrimony: furry fandom. Much of it is based on fan-created, sexually-charged, derivative material, which is balanced with a reverance for creator rights, in stark contrast to the majority of western doujinshi “fans” who repeatedly demonstrate their disregard for the wishes of doujinshi authors. The DIY attitude in furry fandom, lamentably absent in the average western porn otaku, has lead to the production of many doujinshi-like comics and fanzines, and conventions where they are sold and traded.
The biggest impediment to the development of a doujinshi culture in America is not the copyright holders… it is a lack of ambition on the part of fans, and a lack of discipline to honor the unspoken boundaries that allow the Japanese professional and amature world to view each other with respect, even if one may find the other’s output distasteful.
Some thoughts:
Meido:
With the success of Hooters and it’s imitators, I’d say Meido is possible but unlikely. The big problem here are that maids and fancy dresses haven’t been fashionable in decades. All the big stars tend to go for slim to skin-tight clothes these days. There aren’t many maid shows around, either, to fan the flames. As such, this one doesn’t seem likely.
Doujinshi:
There is actually a very large fan-fiction community out there. However, the west gravitates more towards stories instead of art. Perhaps this has to do with the differences in languages, with the west being more phonetically based and the east being more pictorial. Just a hypothesis, though, I’m not claiming it as even a theory.
Loli and close relative romance:
All of these are considered forbidden for good reasons. Anything with even a hint of these will have a nearly impossible time overcoming the legal and moral hurdles. The real-life biology and science are all against these, too.
Given how much Other Country entertainment deals with one or more of those subjects even in passing, it’s no real surprise that it is having a hard time being accepted. In fact, my conversations with people usually start with having to try and separate the good from the bad because in most people’s minds, it’s all bad. To some extent they are right since loli and close relative romance ought to be considered hentai, but it isn’t. And that is too bad for further sales.
Dating Sims:
One thought I had here after trying a few dating sim games is that they are too passive and mechanical. You are required to save often so you can back up if you make a mistake. Don’t forget to save, either, because the game usually won’t auto-save for you! Your gameplay choices are limited but substantial, so even if you only get one choice an hour, it will affect the rest of the game, so you have to pay attention (and keep saving). You also have no control over your character other than those small set of choices, so it can get irritating to have to keep clicking away just to get to the next choice. The one-line of text at a time with little to no history gets really annoying for people used to reading and listening to larger chunks of text. Finally, it’s not like the graphics are exciting, though the art work at time can really be nice. You kinda know you are in trouble when you realize that dating sims are both higher art and lower animation than South Park.
Basically a dating sim is a lot like MMOG “grinding”, but without the ability to choose the variety of grinding or when to stop.
In Summary:
I think you are right that most of these, if not all, are untouchable for the time being. Probably quite a while. I frankly think that eliminating the loli and close relative romance would allow for a wider audience with little dilution of the overall stories being told. I think that’s the best bet for unlocking most of these untouchables.
MangaGamer is really run by the Japanese with most of their staff in America. It’s only incorporated in Europe for legal/tax/whatever reasons.
Your ignorance of them is exactly why a lot of people wonder if they’ll succeed or not. Most people have never heard of them. They do almost (completely?) no advertising and people only know about them through word of mouth. It also doesn’t help that their initial games had horrible Engrish, and they need to get rid of that stigma.
>>Aside from Ai Yori Aoshi, none of the games released thus far were popular enough to warrant an anime adaptation
Wasn’t the game adapted from the original manga?
>>but it’s still not as if I can just run down to Suncoast and buy the damn thing.
They still have Suncoasts??? I wouldn’t buy stuff from them anymore anyways, not when I have DDD…
>>Kojika
Yeah, in the latest chapter Rin is masturbating with a detachable shower head. Yeah.
>>Simon
I was with you up until you brought furries into this. :P
>>kdp
I think a straightforward comparison of meido kissa vs. hooters is a bit simplistic, but you’re not far off the mark on this
You make a good point re: doujinshi, except you’re ignoring the fact that there is a thriving fanfiction culture pretty much everywhere. It’s rare, but some doujinshi are even purely text with no art, the real difference is that there are organized distribution channels for pulped-dead-tree editions of fanworks.
I’m not advocating pedo/ephebophilia and incest as acceptable practices in real life, far from it. What we’re talking about is fantasy and art, and a healthy distinction between the two would do everyone involved a world of good.
As far as censoring things without compromising the original artistic vision or “dilution of the overall stories” goes, you’re just wrong. At least in the case discussed, if that happened to Kodomo no Jikan, there’d basically be nothing left.
Your concerns about the appeal of dating sims are duly noted, but the fact remains that they are a viable business model in one place and not another. Those of us who _do_ enjoy these games and are still living in the “another” are not happy about the situation.
>>Reikon
Are they selling to an American market? I’m honestly surprised that this is the first I’m hearing about them.
>>wildarmsheero
Hey, just because the anime predates the game doesn’t prove a thing!
…yeah, you got me on that one. And yeah, we talked about Suncoast.
Re: Kojika. Ahh. Yeah. Yeah. That pretty much says it all, I guess. Are you still involved in translating that?
>>Seiya
Yes, they are selling to an American market as well. They had a small booth set up at Anime Expo and held a (fully packed) panel on Da Capo.
My apologies. I crossed a line I shouldn’t have.
Replace furry fandom with yaoi fandom, and the same arguments apply, if only to a smaller extent. There are Western yaoi fans in America and Europe who are self-publishing great stuff. Not many, but notable.
Doujinshi can be done. Ero fans just seem lacking in initiative when compared to others.
>> Re: Kojika. Ahh. Yeah. Yeah. That pretty much says it all, I guess. Are you still involved in translating that?
Sadly, no :(
Re:1 actually think someone getting the balls to bring 1 of the Sakura Taisen games over her finally here the sniipet of the interview General NIS America Questions
A little birdie told us that someone was finally getting brave enough to localize a game in the Sakura Wars series, mainly the fifth game in the main series for the PS2. Would that be NIS America, and what can you tell us about the game?
NISA: Haha, your birdie knows too much. Let’s just say the game is in the works by an undisclosed company. I’ve heard somewhere that the game should come out in ’09.
wheter or not its NIsamerica or another company remains to be seen
here the link for the interview http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2008/nisainterview.html
i like sakura taisen, great combination of magic and mecha anime, plus the girls have some moe factor. it’s on my A list for anime.
Re-10 Seiya have you forgotten about kitty media who’ve released bible black & discipline wouldnt those be big names bishoujo games/visiual novel?
Hirohisa4president beat me to it. Media Blasters’ Kitty Gokko sub-label has published _Bible Black_ and _Discipline: The Record of a Crusade_, with _Heartwork_ scheduled for 31 March 2009.
http://www.rightstuf.com/aod/kgg0638
http://www.rightstuf.com/aod/kgg0732
http://www.rightstuf.com/aod/kgg0857
The answer to the entirety of your post lies in a single solution : learn Japanese. Surely learning a foreign language is easier than hoping and waiting for properties to be picked up, licensed and translated.
Glad to hear that Sakura Taisen will finally be released over here. Perhaps the success of Persona helped show that visual novel + strategy rpg combos are indeed marketable.
>>Simon
Don’t apologize, I just think that you’re reaching a bit in terms of comparison.
>>Light
Looks promising, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
>>hirohisa4president
You’re absolutely right, this slipped my mind. I’ll admit that these are very much “big name” titles, but I still feel like there’s a tier above them that is being ignored. And even if you disagree, honestly one or two games from the entire history of the genre is simply not enough.
>>shipon
I’ll grant you “simpler”, “more reliable”, and quite possibly “faster” but I’m not sure I’m going with you on “easier”. Few things are easier than waiting.
It’s great to see you’re still around, btw, I’m sure you’re very busy, but is there any chance we could look forward to some more HDTV episodes?
>>hirohisa4president
I get the feeling that they are titles that people would recognise in the US a lot more than in Japan, due to the early availability of the eroanime in the US.
@seiya you mean the stuff in the magazines like tech+gian etc. not being released?
And about #7 If i recall Sony has said they wouldn’t allow any 18+ games on their u.s. consoles so until sony u.s. will allow publishers to even release a/o games then having them from japan isnt going to happen,but the silver lining is ps3 u.s. & japan are same region so importing from japan an a/o rated ps3 game will still work on u.s. ps3 so the rule is sorta undermined ^.^;
light beat me to it, but yes, rumors abound that SakuTai may finally make it overseas.
But I do have to say that there ARE reasons as to why it’s taken so goddamn long to do it (if it actually does).
For one, the bishoujo game elements are so much more prevalent than the “regular” game elements in Sakura Taisen. For every 4 hours of gameplay you’ll spend at least 1 of those hours traipsing around the theater looking for LIPS choices. Of its gameplay melding, SakuTai is bishoujo game first, tactical game second. Most of the other “curiously Japanese” games that have made it here are usually the other way around.
There’s hope, though. NIS America and Atlus have done a great deal in making the environment less hostile to quirky Japanese games, and SEGA did release Valkyria Chronicles AND Yakuza 2 (with the latter being Japanese-only voice).
I can only wonder as to what they’ll do to the localization. It’ll be quite the task to properly localize a game that’s mostly talking and reading, esp. with regard to voice track.
Also, how well could such a “weird” game do when it’d be released at roughly the end of the PS2’s lifespan (and probably starting with Episode 5 to boot)?
[…] at Heisei Democracy (warning: NSFW!), Seiya lists ten Japanese things that don’t translate too well, including doujinshi and Kodomo no […]
Some of these are simply a matter of numbers. Not enough people who want the particular product or service exist here on western shores. And very often if enough people *want* it, not enough people would *buy* it to make it worth a distributor’s time and money.
Other products and services have tangential “morality” issues which would make it – at best – exceedingly problematic to implement. And others rely on a completely different concept of copyright. Recently, a number of Japanese copyright holders have been cracking down on certain egregious abuses of their IP, so it’s not entirely that they do *nothing* about it.
I expect this current financial crisis to cut the western anime and manga industry to the quick, so there will be a lot of room for growth and change when it all blows over. And the audience is changing, rapidly. in five years the Beyblade kids will discover something else and it’ll be the Next Big Thing and some of them, will be the next SJ seres consumer.
In ten years, there’ll be a bigger audience and therefore more of a market. One hopes.
Cheers,
Erica
Hungry for Yuri? have some Okazu!
http://okazu.blogspot.com
Really interesting discussion, but please forgive my ignorance (and rustiness on Japanese, it’s been a few years since I used my 2+ years of study)… an awful lot of nihongo fan-terms seem to be getting thrown around a lot here. And while I can try to guess what some mean, there are still a few I don’t follow. I can’t be the only person reading this who doesn’t know what “touhou” and “kodomo no jikan” are. (Yes, I understand teh exact meaning of “kodomo no jikan” but the words don’t mean much to me in context). Could anyone enlighten me? Or should I Google all this stuff? ^_^
By the way, Seiya, I wanted to say I really appreciate you breathing some life back into this site. It’s one of my favorites to regularly check.
>>ZeroGFrame
Touhou Project is a series of (mostly) bullet-curtain 2D vertical shoot-em-up games and has achieved massive popularity amongst Japanese otaku (at least on the Internet). It has spawned a ton of various derivative works, such as those IOSYS flash movies (Marisa stole a precious thing, etc.)
And you can read all about Kodomo no Jikan at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/industry-comments/2007-05-29/jason-deangelis-nymphet ;)
What I find odd about kodomo no jikan that japanese importers seem to have requests for it and it seems to sell for them pretty well? so it must have an audience somewhere in u.s. right?
I am an artist that does several artist alleys in conventions across North America. The issue with the lack of doujinshis is the exorbitant cost of printing and producing them here. It may cost at least $5 per book (depending on the quantity printed), and in order to make back the cost and some profit, the artist would have to sell for at least $10-15. I don’t believe there is enough of a market in North America that is willing to spend their money on a doujinshi unless it is priced lower, and is a doujinshi that is targeted towards a series they are interested in. Several of my friends in the artist alleys create their own doujinshis, and they don’t contain any 18+ content, so I believe it is possible to create doujinshi in North America sans the risque content. But the costs of printing, the libelous culture of America (some AAs have already been threatened of closure for selling of fanworks), and the lack of audience does not make a strong case for more fan artists to jump into creating doujinshis yet.
>>ZeroGFrame
Although I do try to enforce a policy of not “dumbing down” terminology, in an effort to encourage people to learn any new terms they might not be familiar with, as zalas pointed out these terms are actually proper names, and as such I’m not in a position to translate them even if I wanted to. Next time, some added links may be in order though.
>>hirohisa4president
I don’t doubt there’s at least a decent (no pun intended) market for Kojika, the reason it’s not getting released is fear of a backlash over the content, plain and simple.
>>Nayuki
This is really interesting. I wasn’t aware there was such a premium on this kind of publishing. I wonder how much of that is just logistics vs. supply and demand. I also don’t actually have a concrete sense of how much publishing doujinshi costs in the Other Country, but I’m sure they’re not selling at a loss. What sort of volume are we talking about here? I’m sure the cost per unit comes down if you’re printing several hundred.
I’ll use this site’s post to pull figures from for the Japanese side of doujinshi costs and pricing figures. I am not sure how accurate it is, but let’s say we use that as the start.
http://zepy.momotato.com/2008/11/27/doujin-work/
So doujinshis are sold at approx 550 yen each ($5.50 USD). The cost to print each doujin is 300 yen each ($3.00 USD). They also do a huge print run of 10,000 doujins. And the rest they do not sell at a particular event, they can sell at consignment via shops. I believe this model enables Japanese artists to create doujinshis cheaply and so widely.
One of my friends that did a doujinshi, I think she did a print run of 400 and it cost around $5 per book. I think she sells her doujins around $10-15 each. However I believe the hardest part is trying to sell all the books she has printed, break even, and make a profit compared to the cost. North American convention attendance are also very small. 43,000 in AX (USA) vs. 550,000 in Comiket (Japan).
From what I have heard from several friends also is that printing for doujinshis is very cheap in Japan. The printing technology is really advanced and affordable. In North America, you need to do a great deal of research to find a decent printer that will print at an affordable price (and small enough print run).
So right now there are alot of factors working against the North American doujin artist compared to the Japanese doujin artists. Perhaps as the North American doujin market grows over time as well as printing costs coming down, then more artists will do doujins. Right now, I see doujins as fairly risky in terms of returns as I see it as being difficult to break even on (both print costs and time). Hopefully this might change over time and more artists will embrace this medium. For now we’ll have to wait and see (being the pragmatic artist as I am).
It’s times like this that I really missed Shingo and his insights. He actually went thru the process of selling a dojinshi at a comiket. His inputs here will have been most wonderful. sigh…
>>Nayuki
I really appreciate this added perspective. This may require further discussion.
>>blacklotus
Amen, brother.
>>Seiya
Sure, feel free to contact me if you’d like to further discuss. Or maybe there will be some follow-up post in regards to doujinshi on this site. I’m RSSing you guys, so I look forward to it. Cheers!
[…] go make a music blog if there’s no plausible readership or niche there. It’s like that Heisei Democracy post where there’s this manga cafe in San Francisco. It can’t work because they’re […]
For every 4 hours of gameplay you’ll spend at least 1 of those hours traipsing around the theater looking for LIPS choices. —–> very well said..its absolutely true my friend