Usagi in Japanese

dkfx1019 · Post by **dkfx1019** » Tue May 20, 2003 22:56 -0700

I just read the article about Stan. At the end of the article, it mentioned that Usagi Yojimbo is not translated into Japanese

Is there talks to possibly do this, or is nobody really interested over there?

Stan Sakai · Post by **Stan Sakai** » Wed May 21, 2003 9:41 -0700

Actually, there has never been a Western comic that has made even a dent in the Japanese manga market. They do have some Western characters--Spider-Man, x-Men, etc--but these are new stories specially created for the Japan market. Much of it has to do with the vast differences in story telling, pacing, etc of the the two markets. It also has to do with Japanese publishers being very protective of their market share. Usagi is translated in a number of European languages, including Polish and Croatian.

Post by **Todd Shogun** » Wed May 21, 2003 14:09 -0700

Then maybe the only way to do it would be to allow a manga studio to write and draw their own UY comics...with Stan's approval of course...

Glennosuke · Post by **Glennosuke** » Wed May 21, 2003 21:09 -0700

Heh. Proprietary protections indeed. Let us see if some of the Japanese readership "discovers" an issue from Europe, then finally realizes that Stan publishes his great work right here in the USA!!

Post by **Todd Shogun** » Thu May 22, 2003 13:46 -0700

I think we need to promote the UYD Japan site even more. Any suggestions on how we do that? Any Japanese Dojo Members out there who can go post the link on various Japanese comic-related message boards and web sites? http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown/5723/

Post by **digulla** » Tue May 27, 2003 3:23 -0700

The most simple way to advertise a fan-website to a large number of people is to post it on a subject-related NEWS group (http://news.google.com/) or to get someone in a magazine to do an interview.

So if someone knows a group or an interested magazine, contact them

Freelance · Post by **Freelance** » Sat May 31, 2003 21:17 -0700

I read a lot of manga.. I'm not kidding either, and the recent advent of "scanlation" skyrocketed the amount of manga I consume.

Japanese artists are notorious space wasters. They get paid for as long as the comic runs. Take "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" for example. It started in 1987 and is still running. Spanning over 80 (!) volumes. As a result the story telling suffers greatly and who the heck wants to read three volumes worth of comics just read about the protagonists fight against one of the bad guys henchmen? Or two volumes that describe the protagonists training to gain 120% more power/master some new technique.

As much as I enjoy manga, it's always a more welcome sight to read the latest Usagi than any manga. The japanese comic readers could use a comic like Usagi Yojimbo. Why?
The storytelling in Usagi and many other US comics is far more condensed and dialogue driven. In the number of pages the average "mangaka" draws a toilet visit (complete with spinlines!), Sakai can tell epic tales. I'm not buying that story that japanese readers are more inclined to like comics with fast paced visual storytelling. Its the mangaka mafia that's pushing this issue! ;)

Sakai should have enough finished material for years of Japanese publishing if some brave enough publisher decided to take on Usagi.

But do we *really* want Japanese readers? Seeing Harry Potter H Dojin is sickening enough.

Freelance
(can't believe I'm dissin' manga like this...)