Otaku World Forums

Sparks · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 7:58 am Post subject: Tokyopop vs. Darkhorse vs. VIZ

I want to have a manga review section on my site: www.geocities.com/sparkslightning (I updated the layout!)and I think that I want to put a table similar to this on it somewhere!

This is a comparison between the top manga publishers! Feel free to add more facts or correct them!
Prices
Tokyopop-- Usually $10 for manga, $20 for artbooks
VIZ---------Usually $15 for manga
Darkhorse-Big range... Could someone post them!?
Famous For
Tokyopop--Sailor Moon, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura
VIZ---------Inu-Yasha, Yu-Gi-Oh, Ranma 1/2
Darkhorse-Trigun(coming soon), Oh! My Goddess, Astro Boy
Selection
Tokyopop--80+ series
VIZ---------51+ series
Darkhorse-36+ series

If you'd like to correct or add any information, please do so. And also, please tell me what your favorite manga publisher and series is! Mine is Tokyopop and Chobits by CLAMP!
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Dov Sherman · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 8:16 am Post subject:

Viz used to be my favorite because they got me started on manga in the first place. Dark Horse also has some great titles and excellent production quality. But Tokypop has really been impressing me with good prices and sheer volume lately. Ironcat Productions has also been improving greatly recently. CPM Manga doesn't do as much but they do have some very good titles.
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Sparks · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 9:14 am Post subject:

I've never heard of Ironcat Productions and CPM Manga before. Do they have websites!?
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KawaiiBabe · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:08 pm Post subject:

I like Tokyo Pop, I can keep my books in my baggy flares-and very affordable. Though I have very few-they are worth it! Very Happy

And my first manga ook!
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MarsCelestial · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 3:07 pm Post subject:

Most of the manga I own is by Tokyopop. Unfortunately, that includes manga before their '100% Manga' line, that make funny cracking noises and fall apart if you hiccup too forcefully. But out of 80+ something manga, 69 are from Tokyopop. (I just counted, but I could be wrong because alot of people borrow from me.) The rest are mostly Viz, with like 1 from ComicsOne and another from CPM.
ComicsOne has really sucky titles. But Onegai Teacher is good, so maybe they'll improve. I mean, theres no way that they're going to stay in business otherwise with such great competition.
I want some of the manga Darkhorse puts out, but $18 is way too much! However Vampire Princess Miyu looks so pretty. I'm hoping they'll jump on the low-price bandwagon soon....
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Dov Sherman · Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 5:12 pm Post subject:

pattyboyd · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 5:59 am Post subject:

Old tokyopop manga is probably the best way to see how not to publish manga, but they've deffinately improved! Now they're one of my favorites. Darkhorse has the highest quality printing and some amazing series (two of my absolute favorites, soon to be three:D Ah my goddess!, shadowstar, TRIGUN!) (sparks, the price range depends on page number, minigoddess is thier cheapest at $10, but normally it's $13 to $18) I only have inu yasha from viz so I can't really go on about them. I Record of lodoss war: chronicles of the heroic knight from CPM. The printing is ok, the paper isn't too cheap, and from what I can tell the translation is decent. Prices are $15.95, a little much. All in all a decent company. The only other publisher I have titles (uzumaki) from is Pulp. Seems to me they skip issues, but otherwise it seems pretty decent. $15 for a pretty thick volume. seems ok
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chibialex · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 5:46 pm Post subject:

mine is tokyopop out my 100+ manga 80% are tokyopop/mixxzine/chixcomic (gah weren't some there first attemps at transtaling terrable?) tokyopop has gotten way better at translateing they cheep and heck the put out a buch of shoujo titles so they own my wallet.

though on a side note i'll forever worship viz for picking up hana yori dango
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Alcy · Otaku Ultima Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 1475

I generally prefer Tokyopop's translations..the modern ones, anyway. Both Viz and early Tokyopop occasionally practiced censorship, which I don't approve of. I'm not sure of any others that did.
CPM (I think that's who did Slayers...) was OK translation-wise, but I would've preferred it in right-to-left format, and I thought the tankoubons were overpriced (about $16..).
Tokyopop does a good job releasing a large selection of titles in a nice format-I prefer the right-to-left with intact sound effects. Unfortunately, they also tend to leave typos.
Ironcat did an OK job on Futaba-kun Change, but I would've preferred the page size a little smaller and in right-to-left format. Also, the clearly PSP-generated covers were a bit cheesy looking.
Viz does an OK job, I haven't seen their new RTL/smaller-size volumes yet, but I'm glad they made the change (they also lowered prices!)
As far as original publishers, I have some by FC, Kodansha, and (unknown kanji)toyume. I liked how FC and Kodansha put furigana with everything, very helpful. Happy Happy

SakuraFairy · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 6:37 pm Post subject:

tokyo pop put out chobits, paradise kiss, card captor sakura, sorcerer hunters, Magic knight rayearth, sailor moon, and clover so they get my vote

I'm still angery at them for canceling the Tokyo Pop magazine, that was a great mag....they did a reveiw of the Otaku World website, thats gotta show some taste..

Alcy · Otaku Ultima Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 1475

SakuraFairy · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 8:32 pm Post subject:

I tried Animerica Extra, but its just not the same, i liked tokyo pop's random articles. I have most of the back issues of tokyo pop, and several of the Mixxine ones too.

I didn't know they changed the names in clover? they seemed like pretty japanese names to me.

ccs and Sailor moon mangas are soooooooooooooooooo much better then the anime's, diffrent storylines and all. Plus the manga of ccs has more blatent refrences to all the crazy relationships (the best part of ccs in my opinion). oh and the costumes are better too.

nicole · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 8:44 pm Post subject:

Darkhorse has always been good...but i'm too cheap for their prices. I used to HATE Tokyopop and Viz 'cos their translations sucked and Viz's prices are too high. Tokyopop's a lot better...but since Viz did the RTL/smaller-size volumes. Those are good (and cheap). The first volume of Ranma used to sell for like $25 'cos it's so big, but now it's around $8 (like all of the volumes). The translations were finally fixed too (they did some sorry crap to Inuyasha...like spelling-wise...it's been fixed!).

I also got to hand it to Viz...they're Shounen Jump is sweet! I love Naruto and One Piece and I'm really starting to dig Shaman King. I actually find the Yu-Gi-Oh manga to be interesting, too...plus Yuu Yuu Hakusou's in there. I just hate Dagonball Z (they had an interesting interview with the guy who drew it...he hates it! He also said he BSed more than the last half of it 'cos he couldn't figure out how to make the characters stronger and the publisher was pressuring him so much....very cool). They have really good facts about Japan in there, too, that explain a lot of stuff you see in there about the Japanese culture (lots of stuff I didn't even know).

Alcy · Otaku Ultima Joined: 30 Apr 2002 Posts: 1475