Macross The First

[Marzan]

3 hours ago, hachi said:

I really don't like the expanded Minmay fan service. As a commenter noted, she's gone ecchi...

 

well, Macross the First wasn't really selling well, and nothing drives up interest like fan servisu, so I'm not surprised.

[Gerli]

I'm ok with fanservice... look at that upskirt shot... so lewd!

Spoiler

 

[Einherjar]

If I only knew a medical device to make a lame compliment for that.

[hachi]

22 hours ago, Marzan said:

well, Macross the First wasn't really selling well, and nothing drives up interest like fan servisu, so I'm not surprised.

That's a bad response from them. They should get some writer who is better than Mikimoto, and let him focus on drawing. Though I suppose that would be more costly. Or maybe get the editor of the Mobile Suit Gundam manga? That one looked more like a competent retelling.

[Seto Kaiba]

23 hours ago, Marzan said:

well, Macross the First wasn't really selling well, and nothing drives up interest like fan servisu, so I'm not surprised.

Wasn't the lagging sales largely to do with the fact that it was a dog's age between releases?

[hachi]

21 hours ago, Gerli said:

I'm ok with fanservice... look at that upskirt shot... so lewd!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Now that kind of fanservice I approve!

[Marzan]

On 27/03/2018 at 3:41 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Wasn't the lagging sales largely to do with the fact that it was a dog's age between releases?

Could be, but I just don’t think there’s a big market for Macross manga adaptations in this day and age.

[Gerli]

4 hours ago, Marzan said:

Could be, but I just don’t think there’s a big market for Macross manga adaptations in this day and age.

I bet it would sale like hot cakes IF someone officially translates it and do a proper release in printed format 

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, Marzan said:

Could be, but I just don’t think there’s a big market for Macross manga adaptations in this day and age.

I'd expect demand for Macross manga to wax and wane in sync with the releases of Macross animated features.  Both Macross Frontier and Macross Delta had enough momentum to sustain a fair number of manga titles, light novels, and video games.  Gundam proved that the market would sustain a reboot manga like that with Gundam: the Origin.  I suspect the problem in Macross the First's case was simply that Mikimoto-sensei being overcommitted kept the releases too far apart to build up a strong following.

 

 

1 hour ago, Gerli said:

I bet it would sale like hot cakes IF someone officially translates it and do a proper release in printed format 

Outside Japan?  I dunno... there is a decently large "underground" Macross fandom despite the franchise's No Export For You status but I'm not sure it'd be enough to make the manga a bestseller.  After all, the Americanized derivative is a virtual nonentity even in the already niche anime market in the US.

[Gerli]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

 

 

Outside Japan?  I dunno... there is a decently large "underground" Macross fandom despite the franchise's No Export For You status but I'm not sure it'd be enough to make the manga a bestseller.  After all, the Americanized derivative is a virtual nonentity even in the already niche anime market in the US.

Yes, but what about the rest of the world? Latin America consumes a lot of manga, Mexico is printing a lot of series right now, even small markets like Argentina printed an published Macross 7 trash... I think there are a big market outside of Japan ready to throw money at official merchandising (Besides toys) 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Gerli

[JB0]

On 3/30/2018 at 6:47 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Outside Japan?  I dunno... there is a decently large "underground" Macross fandom despite the franchise's No Export For You status but I'm not sure it'd be enough to make the manga a bestseller.  After all, the Americanized derivative is a virtual nonentity even in the already niche anime market in the US.

In fairness, as I recall things Robotech was starting to slip into obscurity back when Mac+ was considered must-see japanimation. Harmony Gold has been bad at selling this for a very long time.

[Gerli]

What are the best candidates to pick the US/America distribution Rights in 2021? Netflix?

[kajnrig]

To the manga? I don't even know now, it's been so long since I stopped reading manga...

To the original show? I bet Funimation'll be right there, blank discs in hand, ready to port the entire mega-franchise over.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 3/30/2018 at 9:44 PM, Gerli said:

Yes, but what about the rest of the world? Latin America consumes a lot of manga, Mexico is printing a lot of series right now, even small markets like Argentina printed an published Macross 7 trash... I think there are a big market outside of Japan ready to throw money at official merchandising (Besides toys) 

It's still pretty niche, and let's not forget that Latin America tends to be Robotech territory... which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of taste or sense.

 

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

In fairness, as I recall things Robotech was starting to slip into obscurity back when Mac+ was considered must-see japanimation. Harmony Gold has been bad at selling this for a very long time.

Even before then, really... the Robotech series had already worn out its welcome as early as 1992, with hobby press from the period leading up to Macross II: Lovers Again's release being not at all shy about taking shots at Robotech.

 

2 hours ago, Gerli said:

What are the best candidates to pick the US/America distribution Rights in 2021? Netflix?

Hard to say... but I'd bet against Netflix.  They seem to be more interested in pursuing development of their own original anime productions, like their partnership with Tsutomu Nihei that's led to them doing Knights of Sidonia and now a Blame! movie.  Hulu's mostly picking up older shows, with a few Bandai simulcasts.  Crunchyroll and/or FUNimation would seem the logical choice.

 

6 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

To the manga? I don't even know now, it's been so long since I stopped reading manga...

Macross does have a past business relationship with Shogakukan, who own Viz Media... one of the bigger manga publishers in the US.

 

 

[hachi]

On 3/31/2018 at 7:47 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd expect demand for Macross manga to wax and wane in sync with the releases of Macross animated features.  Both Macross Frontier and Macross Delta had enough momentum to sustain a fair number of manga titles, light novels, and video games.  Gundam proved that the market would sustain a reboot manga like that with Gundam: the Origin.  I suspect the problem in Macross the First's case was simply that Mikimoto-sensei being overcommitted kept the releases too far apart to build up a strong following.

 

 

Outside Japan?  I dunno... there is a decently large "underground" Macross fandom despite the franchise's No Export For You status but I'm not sure it'd be enough to make the manga a bestseller.  After all, the Americanized derivative is a virtual nonentity even in the already niche anime market in the US.

I thought the original Gundam series was boring, but the manga at least looked interesting to me. The execution there was also better than Macross The First--Minmay showing off her legs is a cheap trick (I think). I didn't continue with the Gundam manga since I'm more of a Macross fan and I felt my money should be spent there more lol.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, hachi said:

I thought the original Gundam series was boring, but the manga at least looked interesting to me. The execution there was also better than Macross The First--Minmay showing off her legs is a cheap trick (I think). I didn't continue with the Gundam manga since I'm more of a Macross fan and I felt my money should be spent there more lol.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Origin was a decent-enough manga series, though I felt its attempt to mix character art in the retro 70's art style of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime with more detailed modern-styled mecha action sequences looked jarring and made the characters feel out of place at times.

Where Gundam: the Origin and Macross the First differed was that Origin stuck to a regular release schedule in serialization that kept the audience engaged.  First had delay after delay because it was always taking a backseat to Mikimoto's other projects like Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel, so the persistent delays hamstrung its ability to gain a following once it moved from Macross Ace to other publications.

The reason I suspect it wouldn't do so hot in the US and abroad is that even a "sure thing" title like Gundam: the Origin tanked in the original attempt to bring it over.

[hachi]

They should get a new artist plus writer if Mikimoto can't release regularly. In this age of excess competition for our attention, there's no way that release schedule would meet great success. The output wasn't even that extraordinary in my opinion. I'm sure there are a lot of talented Japanese mangaka who need the opportunity as well.

[JB0]

On 4/3/2018 at 11:22 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Crunchyroll and/or FUNimation would seem the logical choice.

Crunchyroll? With their "never subtitle a song ever" rule? I sure hope they aren't interested in Macross.

[Seto Kaiba]

12 hours ago, hachi said:

They should get a new artist plus writer if Mikimoto can't release regularly. In this age of excess competition for our attention, there's no way that release schedule would meet great success.

Or, alternatively, just hire Mikimoto some extra help so he can carry the Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel and Macross the First at the same time.

 

12 hours ago, hachi said:

The output wasn't even that extraordinary in my opinion. I'm sure there are a lot of talented Japanese mangaka who need the opportunity as well.

The backgrounds and mecha are drawn to a pretty high level of detail, so that's probably where a good portion of the production time goes on each chapter.

 

 

8 hours ago, JB0 said:

Crunchyroll? With their "never subtitle a song ever" rule? I sure hope they aren't interested in Macross.

Isn't that more a "never subtitle an OP/ED song" rule?  I know I've seen at least one title on there in which songs sung by characters in the episode proper were subtitled.

Considering they're one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, simulcast streaming outfit handling anime properties for the US, they'd be the most likely candidate.

[hachi]

On 4/6/2018 at 10:26 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Or, alternatively, just hire Mikimoto some extra help so he can carry the Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel and Macross the First at the same time.

 

The backgrounds and mecha are drawn to a pretty high level of detail, so that's probably where a good portion of the production time goes on each chapter.

 

 

Isn't that more a "never subtitle an OP/ED song" rule?  I know I've seen at least one title on there in which songs sung by characters in the episode proper were subtitled.

Considering they're one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, simulcast streaming outfit handling anime properties for the US, they'd be the most likely candidate.

Actually they could just hire helpers without us knowing, but Mikimoto might prefer doing it by himself.

Regarding the output, I wasn't talking about the art. The art is great. It's just story wise it wasn't really that amazing that imagine a large number of people will consider it worth waiting for. What's the point of spending too much time on the art if the audience went away because they were tired of waiting for the next chapter? His effort is wasted if he's doing this on a whim but I'm sure he's not.

I may sound as ranting please just excuse me, as a fan I just want the manga to succeed (I'm jealous at the Gundam fans). But I strongly feel that they need to improve the writing and sustain the regular release schedule. Otherwise, they get another mangaka or should just drop it now.

[pengbuzz]

My two cents worth: as long as HG has a deathgrip on the rights in North America, manga, anime, live action movie and just about anything else isn't going to work very well here. Aside from the issues that have already been talked to death about HG, they just are not very good at promoting anything, period.

[Einherjar]

So with the rate at which Cycomi releases chapters, assuming that the only additions will be just new pages to chapters and touch ups for old pages and nothing is skipped, at what exact date should entirely new content start being posted?  And does that date have any significance?  I guess you should go by how chapters and part of chapters were released during the magazine runs and previous online apps.

[Gerli]

Chilean Group U.N.Spacy Chile is already working on translating the new chapters.

[Primus1X]

Is the art for the reboot completely drawn from scratch or did Mikimoto reuse art from the The First (2009)? If so, does the character and mecha design change significantly?

[Seto Kaiba]

17 minutes ago, Primus1X said:

Is the art for the reboot completely drawn from scratch or did Mikimoto reuse art from the The First (2009)? If so, does the character and mecha design change significantly?

No, it's not completely drawn from scratch.  The character and mecha design hasn't really changed that I've seen.

[Dynaman]

Lotsa talking heads in this issue, I do wish it was available in an English version.  Yeah I know the gist of the story already but if they throw a curveball I would not know what is going on.

[peter]

On 7/15/2018 at 6:10 AM, Dynaman said:

Lotsa talking heads in this issue, I do wish it was available in an English version.  Yeah I know the gist of the story already but if they throw a curveball I would not know what is going on.

First reissue is out? 

[Dynaman]

4 hours ago, peter said:

First reissue is out? 

No - just the latest "chapter" (or whatever it is called) on the website they are releasing it on.

[Einherjar]

On 7/15/2018 at 6:10 AM, Dynaman said:

Lotsa talking heads in this issue, I do wish it was available in an English version.  Yeah I know the gist of the story already but if they throw a curveball I would not know what is going on.

Get your body ready for the Mars chapters. 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Einherjar said:

Get your body ready for the Mars chapters. 

... and the complete confusion that'll set in when the new edition catches back up to Vol.5 and 6 of the previous edition, which diverged into an original flashback story.

[Dynaman]

Does anyone know if there is a site that does scanlation translations of pictures on other web sites?  I know that Japanese to English translations are often rough at best but some indication of what is going on would be helpful.

I have an image translation tool on my phone that works but the small screen size would be a nightmare for a web comic image.

[Seto Kaiba]

47 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

Does anyone know if there is a site that does scanlation translations of pictures on other web sites?

Splitting hairs here, but it wouldn't be a scanalation since the source material in this case is purely digital.  They'd just be rehosting the image (piracy). 

There are loads of translation groups out there, but I don't know of anyone that's tackling the new edition of Macross the First.  Releases were so slow that scanalation groups kind of lost interest in doing the original edition and an English translation sort of ground to a halt near the end of Vol.1.

 

47 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

I know that Japanese to English translations are often rough at best but some indication of what is going on would be helpful.

@Talos and I tossed around the idea of doing a full translation of the previous edition a couple of years back, but shelved the project after certain users on these boards started going on about how scans are bad and how stupid it was to want a translation of Macross the First because the story is mostly the same as the original series. 

Unfortunately my Photoshop-fu is far too weak to tackle a project like that on my own, even if I had the time these days.  

 

47 minutes ago, Dynaman said:

I have an image translation tool on my phone that works but the small screen size would be a nightmare for a web comic image.

Your best bet there would probably be opening the manga in your PC's web browser and using your phone to take snapshots of the speech bubbles.  Or, if you're OK with going slower, using an editor to cut out the word bubbles as stand-alone images.

[Dynaman]

Just to be clear, I don't want the text to be put into a text bubble and reprinted or anything, just checking to see if there was any tool out there that found and translated text in an image.  I'll have to give the phone app a try with the web page.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Dynaman said:

Just to be clear, I don't want the text to be put into a text bubble and reprinted or anything, just checking to see if there was any tool out there that found and translated text in an image.  I'll have to give the phone app a try with the web page.

A few of the online free translation tools offer document translation of images, but I think it's just the same OCR they use in cloud form in their cell phone apps in most cases.

The most effective method I've heard has been opening the comic in your PC's web browser, and using Google Translate's realtime OCR on your phone by taking snapshots of individual speech bubbles in the web page.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Seto Kaiba

[JB0]

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There are loads of translation groups out there, but I don't know of anyone that's tackling the new edition of Macross the First.  Releases were so slow that scanalation groups kind of lost interest in doing the original edition and an English translation sort of ground to a halt near the end of Vol.1.

The only person I ever saw translating Macross the First quit because he felt like he was encouraging piracy.