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  • Initial D Fifth Stage has ended with 14 episodes. [confirmed]
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Views: 3,959  ·  Replies: 9 
> When will Kodansha re-release the manga.
Eternal Firebird
  Posted: Apr 22 2017, 05:01 PM


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There are scanlations, yes, but I wanna see it in physical form. My question is why hasn't Kodansha re-release the Initial D manga, they did it with some of their series, but why not Initial D?

IF they do, I'd say they re-release Volume 1-33 with better translation and have the character's original names (ex. keep Takumi's original name not change/shorten it to Tak) and after re-releasing those volumes, release Volume 34-48, IF they even plan on releasing them.
Meteor
Posted: Apr 23 2017, 05:19 AM


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Kodansha USA generally does not do license-rescues. They're not gonna put out an English release of the Initial D manga anytime soon, because there just isn't enough demand to justify all the work, printing costs and potential behind-the-scenes complications involved (especially for such a long-running series).
At the end of the day, they only have a limited amount of people and money to throw at all the manga they have to work on. Unless demand for Initial D in the US suddenly skyrockets, I think they'll just keep focusing their efforts on series that are guaranteed to succeed.
BOZZ
Posted: Apr 23 2017, 07:13 AM


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QUOTE (Meteor @ 1 hour, 54 minutes ago)
Kodansha USA generally does not do license-rescues. They're not gonna put out an English release of the Initial D manga anytime soon, because there just isn't enough demand to justify all the work, printing costs and potential behind-the-scenes complications involved (especially for such a long-running series).
At the end of the day, they only have a limited amount of people and money to throw at all the manga they have to work on. Unless demand for Initial D in the US suddenly skyrockets, I think they'll just keep focusing their efforts on series that are guaranteed to succeed.

They sort of have done license rescues, like picking up most of Del Ray's titles when their manga publishing department was shutdown.

To be honest, I personally think Initial D is too niche of a manga series to be financially successful for Kodansha USA in the long run, plus Funimation's success with Initial D should be an indicator seeing how they did not license and release Fifth Stage, Final Stage or the Legend movies and eventually released what they did license of Initial D into a cheap bundle.
kyonpalm
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 10:07 AM


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QUOTE (BOZZ @ Yesterday, 11:13 AM)
To be honest, I personally think Initial D is too niche of a manga series to be financially successful for Kodansha USA in the long run ...

Maybe this was true five years ago but I honestly don't see it that way anymore. Look how much no-name stuff gets localized all the time. Initial D is definitely still more popular. Plus (for better or worse) normalfags are starting to get into it more due to Deja Vu and memes about the show in general.

I think keeping the series in print wouldn't be a bad idea at all, but the two biggest roadblocks are the fact they'd have to re-do the translation and typesetting (which they'd have to do anyway even if Tokyopop's version didn't exist, but because it does, might just feel almost redundant to the company) and also there are 48 volumes which is a lot to commit to.
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BOZZ
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 10:33 AM


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QUOTE (kyonpalm @ 26 minutes, 7 seconds ago)
Maybe this was true five years ago but I honestly don't see it that way anymore. Look how much no-name stuff gets localized all the time. Initial D is definitely still more popular. Plus (for better or worse) normalfags are starting to get into it more due to Deja Vu and memes about the show in general.

I think keeping the series in print wouldn't be a bad idea at all, but the two biggest roadblocks are the fact they'd have to re-do the translation and typesetting (which they'd have to do anyway even if Tokyopop's version didn't exist, but because it does, might just feel almost redundant to the company) and also there are 48 volumes which is a lot to commit to.

I don't know, if things are so much better now than 5 years ago, then I am a loss as to why Funimation (or another company) hasn't released more Initial D (heck in France some company picked up the Legend movies for release there)? Heck, besides Initial D, I can't really think of many racing manga or anime that has been localised for English speaking audiences, I'd almost have to say Initial D is the most recent.

The thing is sure, a lot of stuff has been licensed for release in North America, from really random, fan-servicey light novels to even sports manga, that makes me question the rationale of localising them, but I guess the companies that localise this stuff have confidence that these products will make them a profit, which at the end of the day is the goal of companies like Kodansha or Funimation.

Your last bit about publishing has me thinking about two more things, digital publishing and the length of Initial D.

A big knock against Initial D being re-published is that it is 48 volumes in length. What worries me is whether, Kodansha (which owns Initial D's manga rights as far as I know) will have enough confidence in the series to publish the whole thing rather then dropping it part of the way through, which has happened to other manga over the years. It probably won't inspire much confidence if Kodansha were to look the sales figures of the Initial D manga when it was being published by Tokyopop (they were pretty bad).

I do realise that there are quite a few companies that currently do release their manga digitally on the iTunes store, Comixology, or within their own apps/websites, but I wonder why they don't take a bit of a calculated risk with perhaps titles that are less popular and just release them digitally only?I can't imagine a digital only release being remotely as expensive as a physical release.

This post has been edited by BOZZ on Apr 24 2017, 10:36 AM
JeffreySoftbark
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 10:58 AM


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QUOTE (Meteor @ Yesterday, 5:19 AM)
Unless demand for Initial D in the US suddenly skyrockets

Looks like we've gotta make that happen shifty2.gif shifty2.gif shifty2.gif
Eternal Firebird
  Posted: Apr 24 2017, 11:54 AM


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QUOTE (JeffreySoftbark @ 56 minutes, 15 seconds ago)
Looks like we've gotta make that happen shifty2.gif shifty2.gif shifty2.gif

Through petitions? (Like that Change.org crap) If it is petitions, pretty sure it won't work.
Tessou
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 12:58 PM


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QUOTE (JeffreySoftbark @ 2 hours, 0 minutes ago)
Looks like we've gotta make that happen shifty2.gif shifty2.gif shifty2.gif

I'd love to see how you plan on doing that. Ten million Initial D fan club groups on Facebook screaming for localization over the years hasn't made Funimation nor Kodansha budge one bit. Kodansha USA doesn't even return inquiries.

A dead series getting a new printing is not unheard of, but it's an uphill battle.
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Samoro
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 01:53 PM


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I think it's hard to a serie like Initial D get a new reprint of manga. It's a dream I would love see it, just like Card Captor Sakura. The main reason, like one said, it's IniD is a serie for a niche, even Shigeno put it in the series (what in manga calls "normal readers").
BOZZ
Posted: Apr 24 2017, 05:44 PM


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Looks like Kodansha is apparently going to be launching an app for manga and are recruiting people to come on board to develop it.