The Viz Media Thread
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faster yes. But everything else is shittier than Alpha's version. Picture quality, translation quality, all that stuff is vastly inferior
The problem is, while everything else is worse than Alpha's, its not that much worse. The picture quality is better but not that much and while the translations on Mangastream can be below average you can still make sense of things and the issues aren't generally huge ones. Pile that on top of the fact that its 2 weeks faster and free and it all pretty much evens out. Look SJA has every right to charge you and the price is very reasonable, but MS does have a point when it says that it gives you similar quality as a bunch of "nobodies" running a website to a huge company. The problem is, until Viz makes it really worth your while to go to SJA, the scans are not going to stop.
Also, agree with Vongola, the scans are what really got me into the manga in the first place and I now own all the Viz volumes because of it…
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Can someone tell me if Viz is bound by their agreement with Shueisha to only release sjalpha in North America? I would fully support the legal method of acquiring One Piece in English if it was available where I live. Now I just read the online scans then purchase the volumes off Amazon when Viz releases them.
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Hey guys, I need some help. I've been trying to subscribe to Shonen Jump Alpha, but I've been searching the entire website and I can't see anything where I can literally give money to Viz so I can read Shonen Jump. Also, whenever I try to click the vizmanga browser "app" it just refreshes the page instead of sending me somewhere else.
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Well,I dont mind going back to thursday reading.It wasnt last summer that I noticed that chapters started coming out on wendsdays,so that was cool.So just one day isnt that bad,I mean,you still wait the seven days lol
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@Vongola_Boss_XI:
Viz is stupid sometimes. SJ Alpha is 3 weeks behind….scans will continue. The problem is mangareader gets their Jump scans from Binktopia as well, which means we will not be getting Wednesday chapters anymore most likely. I'd say, expect a return to Thursday / Friday / Satruday chapters =/ Viz is too stupid to release that if people weren't up to date with One piece through scans NO ONE would have supported their 33 volume speed up of the series. People demanded the speed up because they knew how awesome One Piece is and bought the volumes for the same reason. One Piece is selling really well because of the online scan readers contrary to what Viz claims. This is an inconvenience, but new scan groups will rise up. Even then, Viz's Shonen Jump Alpha is not ideal. I do not care for Viz's online reader and some people just won't like reading Zolo every week (That's the only name change that still exists; It doesn't bother me, though I do prefer to read scans the first time then re-read Viz's translation). Viz should have followed Funimation's lead in getting stuff out at the same time as Japan....but they didn't. I agree with mangastream's statement entirely. The problem remains, who is going to scan One Piece now without Binktopia? Other scan groups are a bit inferior. It's a loss to weekly One Piece readers. No doubt Viz is doing this for the sake of SJ Alpha....but Alpha doesn't have Hunter x Hunter, KHR!, or several other series mentioned. I'm pretty annoyed that HxH is finally back and it's now going to be difficult to find scans.
This is coming from someone who has subscribed to the magazine since 2004, bought volumes 1 - 60, and CW 1&2. The only reason I've subscribed since like 2006 was for One Piece.
Unless Alpha is as fast as scans and contains all weekly series like HxH this type of move is just not going to be successful. Within a few months, hopefully another scan group will pick up the reigns and have chapters out by wednesday again.
EXACTLY my thoughts. You have huge shoes to fill VIZ
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Yeah, I'm going to have to pass on Alpha until they significantly reduce the release delay. Not expecting scan-fast releases, but maybe releases the day Jump goes on sale in Japan. Even the day afterward would be ok with me. But several weeks is unacceptable to me. I'll stick to sailing the scanlation seas as a manga pirate.
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I am betting they will start closing the gap on a week when Japan probably doesn't have Jump…
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I feel a good number of people in here don't quite fully understand the nature of the internet, as Viz clearly doesn't themselves.
Remember last year when they went after the online readers? Didn't change a thing. More recently and generally speaking, Megaupload and other similar filesharing sites went down, and not even a week later the stats indicated the shutdowns didn't even put a dent in the amount of piracy going on. Other sites simply picked up the slack.
Scans will continue. I doubt the release schedule will even be impacted much if at all. Maybe for a week or two. Before long the status quo will resume, everyone will have forgotten about this, and Viz, like the MPAA and RIAA, will probably be too fucking stupid to realize the folly of their pointless efforts.
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http://peacetheory.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/its-a-sad-sad-day-for-manga-fans-analysis/
All I know is that they have completely lost control of their fanbase, which isn't good for any company. PR should have stayed on top of this and offered reason and rationale to the legions of manga fans that feel slighted by their actions. The fact that there is no front page explanation/prepared statement on VIZ's website seems disrespectful, and I think they're going to have a hard time convincing people to pay for their services because of it.
Just off the top of my head, the first thing VIZ needs to do is turn off comments on their Facebook, because everyone is venting and making VIZ look terrible. They've already made their choice - they have to stick to it. But what they cannot do is not follow through and look like they can't manage the backlash.
One Piece is so loved that it won't be too hard to find, even in mangastream's absence. If someone does eventually fill that void, then VIZ will not have accomplished much of anything, other than raising negative publicity for themselves. It makes me wonder how tapped in to the mind of their consumer they really are. This may very well turn in to a case study that proves companies need to do more research on their customer and accommodate and not fight their fanbase's wants and needs.
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Oh my god,theres so much fan rage on the internet,I love the online fanbases!
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I just wish people would stop brown nosing on Twitter. VIZMedia and Tokyopop both started with scanlations and hiring translators that came from the community. To just start swinging ones sword around saying that this is the absolute right thing to do would just be backstabbing the very fanbase they've been apart of for years. Only US can access SJA legally, the rest of the world should just stop being up to date so they can fall behind on VIZ's accord? I do not see how this is fair at all.
I understand that we get the pages way before we should, and I've tried to atone for reading scanlations by purchasing everything One Piece VIZ have put out, which I have. I can't just throw everything up in the air and shove my head up VIZ's ass when they have just silenced One Piece in English globally and have restricted up to date one piece to the USA only.
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http://peacetheory.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/its-a-sad-sad-day-for-manga-fans-analysis/
I understand your argument and agree on generally, but it's not exactly true what it says on that link. MS was not shut down; in fact, they're talking about now having time to pick up a few new series. They just dropped the ones licensed by Viz.
@Dan:
I feel a good number of people in here don't quite fully understand the nature of the internet, as Viz clearly doesn't themselves.
Remember last year when they went after the online readers? Didn't change a thing. More recently and generally speaking, Megaupload and other similar filesharing sites went down, and not even a week later the stats indicated the shutdowns didn't even put a dent in the amount of piracy going on. Other sites simply picked up the slack.
Scans will continue. I doubt the release schedule will even be impacted much if at all. Maybe for a week or two. Before long the status quo will resume, everyone will have forgotten about this, and Viz, like the MPAA and RIAA, will probably be too fucking stupid to realize the folly of their pointless efforts.
I realize this has happened before and happens every time some company tries shutting down some other scanlation/online reading websites. Yes, this has happened before, and I think we got pretty comfortable with MangaStream for a long time - at least a long time considering how fast things change in the online world.
However, I think the real thing people (like the thousands of comments around social media) are upset and worried about this time is because this was one of the few groups who were working on so many Jump series on a regular schedule and doing a good work, and now people don't know who will pick their favorite series, if they'll be picked by good groups at all, or how long will that take, will it live up to MS's quality in terms of speed and resolution, how will the translations look, what will become of them, etc.
This same thing will happen and getting a C&D is a matter of time for every group out there (I don't know, do they even send out C&Ds anymore or has that changed into another warning? Sorry about that if it's something else now). -
I'm not really going to apologize for Mangastream. We all know that piracy is wrong. I do think that if Viz did a better job of releasing the chapters on time and not squatting on series they own but don't release then they would limit the number of valid excuses and complaints people have. If Funimation can do it with the anime, why can't Viz do it with the manga?
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I'm not really going to apologize for Mangastream. We all know that piracy is wrong. I do think that if Viz did a better job of releasing the chapters on time and not squatting on series they own but don't release then they would limit the number of valid excuses and complaints people have. If Funimation can do it with the anime, why can't Viz do it with the manga?
I'm not going to go into anything about the right or wrong subject here, I understand this is not the place, but I just want to say something very quickly if you excuse me.
Please watch this:
!
Or read it if you can't follow comfortably word by word.
You may not change your opinion, you're free to think whatever you want, but you should at least consider that piracy is not everything the media makes it look like. There are many, many people actually benefiting from it in their sales after all; because these days if you're not on the internet, you're not on anywhere.
I'm sure there are millions of fans who got to know One Piece through pirated ways around the world and then got into buying the volumes, DVDs, merchandise and other stuff. At least I know I did; I followed the entire series online and then spent a significant amount of money into merchandise at some point - heck, this is nothing considering people doing much more than that. But nobody can make me feel bad or wrong about following something online, considering the fact that many (at least top-level) artists make enough money to buy my house when they publish one issue of their work. And as many people pointed out, they will not be able to completely stop it after all. All I'm sad about is losing MS's (considerably) satisfactory work for all this time.
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I'm not really going to apologize for Mangastream. We all know that piracy is wrong. I do think that if Viz did a better job of releasing the chapters on time and not squatting on series they own but don't release then they would limit the number of valid excuses and complaints people have. If Funimation can do it with the anime, why can't Viz do it with the manga?
If you're referring to the speed of Shonen Jump Alpha's chapter release, I don't think that VIZ has anything to do with that.
Getting something legally released is a completely different matter from unauthorized releasing. I don't really like the two week gap myself, but I understand that they had to have had their reasons, and I can live with it.
The fact that MS got out chapters almost an week in advance of their release in Japan and then their snarky little comment does not let me feel bad for them in the least.
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The thing is, shutting down Mangastream isn't going to stop a single person from reading One Piece without paying. Scanlation sites, like every facet of piracy, spring up like hydras in this situation. All they've accomplished is annoying the community.
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The thing is, shutting down Mangastream isn't going to stop a single person from reading One Piece without paying. Scanlation sites, like every facet of piracy, spring up like hydras in this situation. All they've accomplished is annoying the community.
exactly, you can even put the scanlations on facebook
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The Viz translation of 653 actually brings up an interesting point.
On the last page, Chopper says "Get hurt as you want, people!"
That line struck me as odd. Maybe it's some foreshadowing on the 5th chapter?
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The Viz translation of 653 actually brings up an interesting point.
On the last page, Chopper says "Get hurt as you want, people!"
That line struck me as odd. Maybe it's some foreshadowing on the 5th chapter?
Or that it doesn't sound like something a speaking person would say. The syntax sounds completely off.
checks mangareader "Get as much injuries as you like, everyone!" That sounds a little better. -
It probably sounds off because he forgot the word "As" before hurt in the text. C'mon guys, do you really think Stephen doesn't know what he is doing?
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Or that it doesn't sound like something a speaking person would say. The syntax sounds completely off.
checks mangareader "Get as much injuries as you like, everyone!" That sounds a little better.That's why I said it could be foreshadowing.
Chopper could have very well said "people" in the Japanese version, and Mangastream could have changed it to "everyone" to make it flow better; though without the raws and someone fluent in Japanese, it's impossible to confirm.
But Chopper hasn't had his "5th" chapter, and one possible reason for that is that he sees everyone else as "people" while he's a "monster".
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This whole situation reminds me of Gabe Newell's words.
"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
How come the multi-billion company understands that well, but tiny puny viz don't?
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Just came back from reading VizMedia's Facebook page.
Oh, the rage is strong on there. There are hate comments all over the place.
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Just came back from reading VizMedia's Facebook page.
Oh, the rage is strong on there. There are hate comments all over the place.
I wouldn't take any of that too seriously. Seems to be mostly coming from teenagers. I doubt they ever spent much, if any, money on the series to begin with.
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Eh. I'm sure somebody else'll start scanlating One Piece. Viz is two years behind and still poncing around in Marineford last time I checked so they're not really an option anyways. Worst case scenario I continue to buy the Japanese volumes and look at the pretty pictures and find a text translation.
Oh hey, I do videos on figures and manga and stuff: https://www.youtube.com/thatmanhismerch
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Just came back from reading VizMedia's Facebook page.
Oh, the rage is strong on there. There are hate comments all over the place.
Indeed.
"WAAAAAAAAAAH I WANT FREE MANGA YOU'RE A GREEDY CORPORATION AND MANGASTREAM'S BETTER WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!1111one"
That's all I got out of it.
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Well typically, Facebook isn't the best place for well thought out postings.
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I wouldn't take any of that too seriously. Seems to be mostly coming from teenagers. I doubt they ever spent much, if any, money on the series to begin with.
I'm very sure it's teenagers. They obviously don't know any better or are just plain ignorant.
Viz is two years behind and still poncing around in Marineford last time I checked so they're not really an option anyways.
Actually, the volumes are up to the Post War arc, the magazine is at the beginning of the Fishman Island arc, and Alpha has just finished the FI arc.
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I'm very sure it's teenagers. They obviously don't know any better or are just plain ignorant.
Actually, the volumes are up to the Post War arc, the magazine is at the beginning of the Fishman Island arc, and Alpha has just finished the FI arc.
Oh. So a year and a half behind in the volumes.
Magazine isn't available in the UK. (actually it may be in specialist stores at a premium price like it used to be.) Fairly sure that Alpha is also not available in the UK. Neither are options.I don't think they're doing an option for just One Piece either. Far too expensive to be paying weekly for all of the ones at a price that seems higher than it is to buy an entire volume of the Japanese version.
Oh hey, I do videos on figures and manga and stuff: https://www.youtube.com/thatmanhismerch
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More specifically, Volume 61 releases next month(in print) and tomorrow / Monday chapter 654 will be released. Hopefully, Alpha will eventually be up to same day release.
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I'm not that Sad becuause MR will probably still uload the newest chapter but what I liked about MS was it had a good quality nos as good as VIZ does but pretty good quality
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Oh. So a year and a half behind in the volumes.
Magazine isn't available in the UK. (actually it may be in specialist stores at a premium price like it used to be.) Fairly sure that Alpha is also not available in the UK. Neither are options.Yeah, about that much.
It's a possibility that Alpha will soon be available in the UK, but it's still pretty uncertain at this point.
I guess it's one of those "wait and see" type of deals. -
Still. It seems that Alpha is an option if you want all of them. I didn't read Naruto and Bleach when they were free. Why would I pay for them?
Give us One Piece, at a weekly price of like £1-£2 or so and then be done with it. And let it be up to date. Sounds like Alpha is also behind a lil too.
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Three weeks behind with a seemingly lazy translation at half the price of ONE VOLUME of One piece in japan with no physical copy? FUCK THAT. I think I'm going to learn Japanese REAL quick after this, it's just much more convenient at this point.
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I'd say Alpha is worth it for One Piece, Toriko, and Bakuman. Hopefully Hunter x Hunter is added soon. And I'd love for Viz to get around to releasing Sket Dance and Beelzebub. I like Alpha for the possibilities. One day, we could have same day releases. Viz could screen potential new series to release like the aforementioned two. Viz could resurrect Gintama. I subscribe to show Viz that the support is there, which will hopefully get them to greatly improve the service.
EDIT: Lazy translation? It's Stephen doing the translating. I's good.
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I'll admit that as a UK reader, this disappoints me as I'll have to look somewhere else for my weekly One Piece fix. However I completely understand why Mangastream was taken down. Of course Viz are going to want you to opt for the legal way of reading their products as Shueisha are probably encouraging them to track down sites like MS. I do buy their physical volumes as soon as they are released but of course I cannot use SJA. But of course as soon as/if THATS available, I will subscribe right away to support Viz for bringing the stories we know and love in the first place. Whining about it like children isn't going to help. Please take a look at this article by Tsukento as it fully shows how this should be handled properly by both Viz and the fans.
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Great post dude.
I'll bookmark the article to read later this morning after getting some sleep.
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I can't remember, do you need an i device to use Alpha?
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Yeah, about that much.
It's a possibility that Alpha will soon be available in the UK, but it's still pretty uncertain at this point.
I guess it's one of those "wait and see" type of deals.As someone that's been busting his arse trying to get any sort of response out of VIZ, I'd personally love to see this. Though how likely it is I have no idea since I have not gotten a straight reply.
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Well written article. Hoping to hear back from him on his stance on the chapter gap issue.
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it is sad that they had to stop but viz did not win with me cause i get alpha off bitorrent for free.
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I can't remember, do you need an i device to use Alpha?
There is an option to use Alpha on iOS platforms, but you can use your web browser to view it :3
Support One Piece in the UK! Buy One Piece on DVD from Manga Entertainment!
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There is an option to use Alpha on iOS platforms, but you can use your web browser to view it :3
Ah, OK. Thanks.
I'd like for it to come to Europe, but I see anything outside of UK not working, since other companies own One Piece there.
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Three weeks behind with a seemingly lazy translation at half the price of ONE VOLUME of One piece in japan with no physical copy? FUCK THAT. I think I'm going to learn Japanese REAL quick after this, it's just much more convenient at this point.
Stephen is the translator. I will import the English translated versions even though I buy the German and Japanese ones BECAUSE of his translations. He is the best One Piece translator there is. And it is 2 weeks behind which will probably further close in a few weeks and it costs much less than you think. You may should inform yourself before bitching. I'm not American and it seems I'm better informed than you.
Give us One Piece, at a weekly price of like £1-£2 or so and then be done with it. And let it be up to date. Sounds like Alpha is also behind a lil too.
A subscription costs 26 dollar. That makes for 48 chapter per year an average price of 0,54 cent per chapter. This is 0,3427 pound per One Piece chapter and as a bonus you get 5 other Manga which you might read or might not for "free". This is much less than 1-2 pound per chapter you would be willing to pay for a One Piece chapter.
I guess with time they will close the gap of 2 weeks and add other Manga like HxH. -
Sad as it is, I think (or hope) that someone else will take over the scanlations… I just really hope we won't get back to the low quality friday releases... even if it would still be better than nothing
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A subscription costs 26 dollar. That makes for 48 chapter per year an average price of 0,54 cent per chapter. This is 0,3427 pound per One Piece chapter and as a bonus you get 5 other Manga which you might read or might not for "free". This is much less than 1-2 pound per chapter you would be willing to pay for a One Piece chapter.
I guess with time they will close the gap of 2 weeks and add other Manga like HxH.You forgot one little detail, you're not buying them, you're renting.
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This really sucks! I live in the middle east where no manga or anime can be bought here, where i live!! Only in Dubai i can get all the latest manga volumes and that is 700KM from here!! no shipping to anywhere, you can only go there and buy what you want!! and that is not an option for me, cause it cost me around $700 just to go there and stay for 2 days! Also, if i want to read the latest volume i have to wait at least 2 months after release!! Shipping from the US is also out of the question. it costs a lot more just to ship from there to here! about 3-4 times the price of the volume it self!
One last thing VIZ translation sucks big time! i hate reading luffy sayin Gum GUM!! and readin Zolo!
