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Sep. 10th, 2006 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaAhh, so apparently Blu licensed one of my favorite yaoi mangas, Tarako Kotobuki's 'Sex Pistols', which is now called 'Love Pistols' :/ Haha, I could be annoyed by the name-change (even though I do get why, blahblahblah-whatever), but I'm more sort of... just disappointed that it's licensed in my usual way. 'Cause you know, I've already read 3-4 volumes scanlated and it's really gonna be awhile before they're up to where the scanlations left off, and... okay, there's the usual grumpy feeling whenever any manga I like a lot & am following is licensed.
See, okay, I don't care if this makes me anti-community or anti-industry or an anarchist selfish bitch or whatever... or maybe I'm just tired of hearing how I 'should' support 'the industry' the way I 'should' save the whales (though that's a bad example 'cause I would give money, were I to actually have some-- which I don't, btw-- to save the whales... though this may be beside the point).
I was just thinking that manga/comics are one of the only (if not -the- only) artistic medium where the only way to read/view/experience it is if you buy it new, officially. And it only grows more expensive & difficult to find with age, not more. With music, there's cable television and radio and also there's just a huge culture of sharing (actual CDs) between friends & mixtapes (not to mention some libraries and clubs). With movies & even anime, there's TV/cable and a much-reduced rental option in chain stores which are literally everywhere (not to mention some libraries, campus & other movie + anime clubs and a much more hardcore piracy culture). With books-- the libraries are the obvious 'duh' option (since I can literally can get any book in the world through Interlibrary Loan only a week or two after publication now), but you can also get them uber-cheap in used book places and in bookclubs (thanks, SciFi Bookclub!) Meh. Even art gets the 'book' resource option when/if it's published in that form (and though libraries are -starting- to buy up manga/comics, it's really nowhere near a good/serious sample), and well, if I only have $2.95 to spare, I can get a comic for that much money instead of waiting for the bloody graphic novel (but not a manga). :/ Hell, I can and do read single issues IN THE STORE if I'm casually browsing but don't have money that week. :/
Basically, at this point, it's fully understandable-blah-blah-blah, but especially yaoi mangas are a small niche market, not mass-marketed and made convenient in this country (yet). A bunch of your basic local comics stores are cutting back on normal comics titles and/or going out of business, forget carrying yaoi. Yes, chain bookstores carry the graphic novels more & more-- but a) expensive & sometimes marked up; b) shorter shelf-life than comics stores with their back-issue departments; c) to me these aren't conducive to browsing unless I want to spend a ton of money I don't have that day. So I spend even more time after the release waiting for them to show up used & half-price online :/
I refuse to feel like a grinch because a manga getting licensed currently means it's much less available to me (outside of hunting it at half.com). Would I buy it for $10 anyway when volume 5 or whatever comes out? Fine, yeah, but having to, not to mention waiting at least a year till then? That really annoys me, mostly when I see fangirls squee about it. It really makes me want to anti-squee. At the very least, it's extremely inconvenient, after already waiting for new Sex Pistols for ages after its hiatus since their magazine went bankrupt. :/ :/ :/
So: BOOOO, SEX PISTOLS GOT LICENSED! :P *rattles empty pockets*
See, okay, I don't care if this makes me anti-community or anti-industry or an anarchist selfish bitch or whatever... or maybe I'm just tired of hearing how I 'should' support 'the industry' the way I 'should' save the whales (though that's a bad example 'cause I would give money, were I to actually have some-- which I don't, btw-- to save the whales... though this may be beside the point).
I was just thinking that manga/comics are one of the only (if not -the- only) artistic medium where the only way to read/view/experience it is if you buy it new, officially. And it only grows more expensive & difficult to find with age, not more. With music, there's cable television and radio and also there's just a huge culture of sharing (actual CDs) between friends & mixtapes (not to mention some libraries and clubs). With movies & even anime, there's TV/cable and a much-reduced rental option in chain stores which are literally everywhere (not to mention some libraries, campus & other movie + anime clubs and a much more hardcore piracy culture). With books-- the libraries are the obvious 'duh' option (since I can literally can get any book in the world through Interlibrary Loan only a week or two after publication now), but you can also get them uber-cheap in used book places and in bookclubs (thanks, SciFi Bookclub!) Meh. Even art gets the 'book' resource option when/if it's published in that form (and though libraries are -starting- to buy up manga/comics, it's really nowhere near a good/serious sample), and well, if I only have $2.95 to spare, I can get a comic for that much money instead of waiting for the bloody graphic novel (but not a manga). :/ Hell, I can and do read single issues IN THE STORE if I'm casually browsing but don't have money that week. :/
Basically, at this point, it's fully understandable-blah-blah-blah, but especially yaoi mangas are a small niche market, not mass-marketed and made convenient in this country (yet). A bunch of your basic local comics stores are cutting back on normal comics titles and/or going out of business, forget carrying yaoi. Yes, chain bookstores carry the graphic novels more & more-- but a) expensive & sometimes marked up; b) shorter shelf-life than comics stores with their back-issue departments; c) to me these aren't conducive to browsing unless I want to spend a ton of money I don't have that day. So I spend even more time after the release waiting for them to show up used & half-price online :/
I refuse to feel like a grinch because a manga getting licensed currently means it's much less available to me (outside of hunting it at half.com). Would I buy it for $10 anyway when volume 5 or whatever comes out? Fine, yeah, but having to, not to mention waiting at least a year till then? That really annoys me, mostly when I see fangirls squee about it. It really makes me want to anti-squee. At the very least, it's extremely inconvenient, after already waiting for new Sex Pistols for ages after its hiatus since their magazine went bankrupt. :/ :/ :/
So: BOOOO, SEX PISTOLS GOT LICENSED! :P *rattles empty pockets*
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 11:01 pm (UTC)...but yeah, well, we can both buy it online, I think? Though outside the US you can't use half.com, there's always amazon.com... *sigh*
I really feel so lame for locking this, but maaaan, after the recent wank (http://adora-spintriae.livejournal.com/253625.html?thread=1632953), I really don't wanna argue with any... uh.... weird fangirls ^^;;;
no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 11:16 pm (UTC)Ah, that thing with that is I don't have my own credit card. Or money, yet. So it'd be my parents basically buying me porn, and they'd want to see it when it was delivered, and ... they own erotica of their own, but I still doubt they'd like me reading it. :P
I think licensing is great. I don't see why piracy has to stop, though. It was still piracy even when the manga was unlicensed, for fuck's sake.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 11:23 pm (UTC)Hehe, I used to download full-on anime (like, 300mb) on dial-up... takes all night and some creativity, but... :> It sucks about the money thing, though. I was just a shameless child & used my mom's card for pay for numerous romance novels in my time, but then my mom never had any doubts about what a freak I am :))