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NEWS: New English-Translated Manga Magazine Gen Launched




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Moomintroll



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1600
Location: Nottingham (UK)
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:34 pm Reply with quote
I'd be willing to give the print version of this a try but nobody in the UK seems to be carrying it and importing it from the US makes it too expensive to be worth bothering with.
Couldn't care less about the online option, free or not.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14795
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:41 pm Reply with quote
If it's not scanlated first, fans wouldn't buy it. Laughing
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bj_waters



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 234
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:38 pm Reply with quote
I love the idea of manga serialization, but I generally prefer to read print than online manga. Any idea if they'll offer a subscription to the print copies? If each issue is $10, then a six-month subscription could be $40-45, something I'd actually pay. I understand that this is pure indie in terms of production and distribution so they don't have a major corporation (SJ) or connections to a magazine branch (YP) to make it feasible on a broad scale (if at all), but I can dream, right?
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John Casey



Joined: 31 May 2009
Posts: 1853
Location: In My Angry Center
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:50 pm Reply with quote
It's an interesting concept to be sure, but after checking out the first issue, the individual stories are all pretty godamn boring. It feels like I'm watching one of those really obscure, pointless Sundance channel original films.

I understand if they're going for "broker", and I can definitely appreciate it, but I think this magazine is trying way too hard to be indie, and in that it completely forgets that indie stands for "independent" and not "Snow Patrol."
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marcos torres toledo



Joined: 01 Sep 2009
Posts: 269
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:31 pm Reply with quote
So this is a manga magazine for adults I hope it catchs on what about reprinting the Cool Devices manga series as a excepiion please. Smile
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Psycho_Despair



Joined: 17 Nov 2009
Posts: 376
Location: East of Eden
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:32 pm Reply with quote
I'll check out the free download and if it is good then I'll take consideration into buying the issues on print, since I prefer print than online Very Happy

And they should have more than just four titles, it would be great if they has at least 8 titles.
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bj_waters



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 234
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:34 pm Reply with quote
Now that I've read it, I think it's pretty good. Wolf seems like a standard sports (boxing) title, Vs. Aliens is probably the best so far (I got a kick out of it) as a cute "aliens are among us" story (though it could dive into romantic comedy in a hurry), Kamen has some potential as a mysterious fantasy adventure, and Souls is probably the weakest of the four as a spiritual detective series. Not a bad batch and the $10 price tag will feel less painful as they add more titles. I could see this running 6 or 7 series like SJ. I'm definitely interested to see where this goes.
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Akukame



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 117
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:39 pm Reply with quote
bj_waters wrote:
Now that I've read it, I think it's pretty good. Wolf seems like a standard sports (boxing) title, Vs. Aliens is probably the best so far (I got a kick out of it) as a cute "aliens are among us" story (though it could dive into romantic comedy in a hurry), Kamen has some potential as a mysterious fantasy adventure, and Souls is probably the weakest of the four as a spiritual detective series.

I think that all of the titles suffer from being severely underdeveloped currently. Normally a first chapter of a manga or a one shot manga will be in the 60 to 70 page range, but these are sitting closer to 30. The artwork on them is passable, but not great (except Souls, the cg style and badly drawn backgrounds just bother me). I've seen some Seinen manga that gets published with much worse artwork. They all suffer from minimal backgrounds, which is to be expected. They also still feel a little generic. VS Alien, which appears to be the strongest of the 4 so far, is still extremely trope-y. It has generic, but still very clean and appealing artwork. It also lacks any real substance since its a slapstick comedy.

With all the bad I'm saying, the stories aren't horrible. And the whole concept of simultaneous release of manga in english is always going to be really appealing to me. The fact that its Seinen is even more appealing to me. So I personally am really going to give this a try and see how these stories develop.

bj_waters wrote:
Not a bad batch and the $10 price tag will feel less painful as they add more titles.

The website says its $3/month as an online subscription (pdf download). That is a pleasing price for ~135 pages in digital form. Being monthly, even if they add additional titles, I don't think that the size of the volumes is going to increase much, if at all. But we'll have to see.
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bj_waters



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 234
PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 10:49 pm Reply with quote
Akukame wrote:
bj_waters wrote:
Not a bad batch and the $10 price tag will feel less painful as they add more titles.

The website says its $3/month as an online subscription (pdf download). That is a pleasing price for ~135 pages in digital form. Being monthly, even if they add additional titles, I don't think that the size of the volumes is going to increase much, if at all. But we'll have to see.


The $10 is for the print versions, something for which I see no subscription, unfortunately.

I find your perspective interesting, perhaps showing that I'm more easily entertained (quite probable). Still, serialized manga is something I want to support, though sometimes it seems like I'm fighting against the tide (called the internet).
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chrisb
Subscriber



Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 620
Location: USA
PostPosted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:36 am Reply with quote
VS Aliens is very cute. The other stories aren't very interesting, but that may change as they get into later chapters. Souls looks like it could be something interesting but it's the weakest one of the bunch.
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The Mad Manga Massacre



Joined: 15 Jul 2009
Posts: 1166
PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:20 pm Reply with quote
Finished reading the first two issues of the magazine and the story seem good so far, Wolf is probably my favourite thus far but the others seem pretty good. Looking forward to further issues and ordered a copy of the print edition of the first issue. I really like the option of being able to choose between digital and print editions (still deciding which version I will stick with in the future myself but...) I hope other publishers begin to give the option for both a digital and print edition of their magazines.
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Pirkaf



Joined: 14 Feb 2008
Posts: 156
PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:36 am Reply with quote
Moomintroll wrote:
I'd be willing to give the print version of this a try but nobody in the UK seems to be carrying it and importing it from the US makes it too expensive to be worth bothering with.
Couldn't care less about the online option, free or not.


bookdepository.co.uk lists it but as "currently unavailable". I'd buy it from them but not from amazon.
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Toriko36



Joined: 09 Nov 2010
Posts: 205
Location: Hoboken, NJ
PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:53 am Reply with quote
Many of you are commenting that the print form for $10 isn't worth it becaus of only 4 titles, but I think the whole premise behind this idea is to keep it in digital form to keep the cost extremely low. I can't even imagine how much overhead it costs for a monthly serial of anything.

I think this is a great idea. For $2.99 a month, you are supporting the underground manga artists and if you want to pay the $10 a month, then by all means, please support the artists but I'm sure the whole idea is to keep the cost low for themselves (low overhead) and keep the cost low for all of the readers.

I also enjoy reading alot of manga in actual book format, feeling the paper in my hands, but just like books, I feel we are fighting the inevitable because all media is going digital (kindle, nook, etc.), it's just the way things are. Not to go off on a tangent, but look at anime, look how much content is now available for streaming and direct download. I know the physical media, DVD/BD will never go away, but just look at the younger generations of kids who know nothing but torrents, scanlations and now streaming media. Again, I belive the whole point of this concept is to keep it digital, so it's easily accessible and kept very inexpensive for both parties.
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