Japanese Language issues

Neswizard2 · Post by **Neswizard2** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 19:19 -0700

Hi. I am not sure of this. But are the comics in Japanese available anywhere? Do they exist?

If it first came out in Japan I am an idiot and appologize. But I really would like to learn more about it and if there are graphic novels in japanese available?

Ok thank you!

Post by **Steve Hubbell** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 21:46 -0700

Usagi Yojimbo has been originally published in English (in the USA) since the very first story was released in 1984.

Over the years, Usagi has been translated into a dozen languages, but not Japanese.

Stan Sakai (in the japanminded.com interview) wrote:Usagi is not published in Japan. In fact, there is no Western comic that has ever made any serious impact in the Japanese manga market. There were a few Marvel comics, but those were rewritten and redrawn for the Japanese market. I went to Japan in 1998 as a guest of the Osamu Tezuka Studios, and I was surprised people knew who I was since Usagi is not easily available there.
http://www.japanminded.com/news.php

Let's see if I can do this without missing any....

Foreign language editions, in no special order
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Swedish
Polish
Croatian
Hungarian
Czech
Belgian (or Dutch?)
and Indonesian (at least, according to Stan)

Neswizard2 · Post by **Neswizard2** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 22:52 -0700

Thank you very much Steve! I am grateful to know that!

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:31 -0700

I don't know if the Indonesian UY is out, but they did pay for the rights.

A Brazilian edition of Shades of Death will be published by DEVIR Livraria Ltda at the end of April. It will be their first volume.

Cosmo · Post by **Cosmo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 13:07 -0700

Steve, the language spoken in Flemish Belgium is virtually the same as Dutch. There's no Belgian language (that's the problem with Belgium, actually

)

By the way, is the Enigma edition available in the Netherlands, as the Paquet edition is available in French-speaking Belgium ?

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 14:27 -0700

Cosmo wrote: By the way, is the Enigma edition available in the Netherlands, as the Paquet edition is available in French-speaking Belgium ?

Yes, it is. I did a signing in Haarlem, just outside of Amsterdam, about 3 years ago.