8 Comments

• Tweets that mention The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Weekend Edition, 7/25/10 -- Topsy.com July 25, 2010 at 11:27 PM

  [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Manga Critic, RadixExtreme (World). RadixExtreme (World) said: Manga News: Weekend Edition, 7/25/10: The new Square Enix manga portal is up, with preview chapters of their… http://tinyurl.com/38pfmva [...]
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  Jade July 26, 2010 at 5:22 PM

  You forgot to mention that Sumomomo Momomo series you dig so much. The Square Enix site looks promising since the site actually seems to work.

  Yen+, on the other hand, is doing its best to convince me that it is buggy garbage. Plus, no archive access for a subscription??? That’s ridiculous. I can hold on to a magazine for as long as I want, what’s logistically different about the on-line version? I don’t even know what titles will be running, they had a bad link to their list. That was %2.99, right?

  Seriously, if I’m expected to pay, they’d better at least attempt to offer something a little more than Sunday or Ikki, not to mention scan sites.
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  Katherine Dacey July 26, 2010 at 7:32 PM

  Gee, wonder how I missed Sumomomomomomomomomo Momomomomomomomo?

  From reading the comment thread, it seems as if I’m one of the few people who hasn’t experienced browser difficulties; good thing they’re doing a test-run before charging money for the service! I didn’t have any trouble viewing/reading the new Yen+ issue; it took a little experimenting to get the right scale for my computer screen (my laptop has a fairly small window), but once I did, the resolution was fine. Most of the stories being serialized in it aren’t of particular interest to me — Gossip Girl?! — but I didn’t think $2.99/month was too much to ask for what they were offering. Madeline Rosca’s new story was a nice bonus; her artwork and storytelling have continued to grow since she won the International Manga Award in 2007.

  I have no idea how subscribing to Yen+ will compare with using Square Enix’s portal, since SE hasn’t explained yet how their service will work. I’m certainly curious to see if they can make a go of it; if so, that bodes well for other companies wishing to follow suit.
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  Jade July 27, 2010 at 4:16 AM

  Well, compared to dinner and a movie, $2.99 is a good price, but compared to what I pay for the sigIkki or Sunday site, $2.99 a month is an infinity percent increase, plus all value I’m being viciously robbed of from a hardcopy. Oh, and a subscription to the print magazine was only $4.16 per issue. It’s like walking into Denny’s and being offered a 25% discount if you only pretend to eat.

  Honestly, if it were a .pdf or ewhatever I could download and stow away on my computer somewhere for future reference, $2.99 would be fine. I’ve paid more than that for .pdfs of some books I already own in print. I’m not going to pay that much to be able to look at a website for two months and then never again though.

  Speaking of comics you love though…here’s another update I just noticed that you probably forgot existed: http://www.sigikki.com/series/bobandhisfunkycrew/index.shtml#readManga
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  Katherine Dacey July 27, 2010 at 8:04 AM

  I’m sure that Yen is worried about piracy — if they allowed people to download PDFs of the magazine, it would be very easy for someone to make them available via the Internet to non-subscribers. I’m also guessing that this is just an experiment; if Yen+ is an online success, I could see Yen branching out into other kinds of electronic distribution, e.g. a monthly fee for unlimited access to an online library, or a pay-per-view system similar to eManga or NETCOMICS.
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  Jade July 27, 2010 at 2:01 PM

  I pretty much gave up scans when I saw the quality of reading experience a real, legitimate publisher could offer with Ikki. I completely understand where you’re coming from in wanting to give content delivery experiments like this a chance.

  That said, inflating the price of a site like Ikki this much while retaining the rotating title scarcity model is just something I can’t get behind at all. They’re even ratcheting up the scarcity with only two chapters available at a time. ‘Oh and, but, could be,’ only have so much value when we’re talking about paying three dollars a month for something.

  I’m sorry, but all of the terribly clever market manuevering that Yen does just doesn’t stack up right with the competition. Viz offers me highly enjoyable entertainment that caters to me with all their products for a logical price. Every time Yen’s fans get into a snit over new marketing schemes, we’re told that we plebes need to let the publisher make more money and find other audiences. Sorry, but I have to hear excuses about Yen shenanigans too much when the competition has proven their loyalty as publishers to their customers. They’re having a rough time financially? Me too, but I still buy their books.

  Their new site model in conjunction with a three dollar subscription price is nonsense and I’m putting my foot down, that’s all there is to it. I feel embarrassed that I was actually looking forward to this garbage and I’m not looking forward to reading about Hassler coming down from on high to tell everyone why they need to bend backwards for the publisher’s sake.
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  Katherine Dacey July 27, 2010 at 2:42 PM

  As I see it, this is an experiment from Yen, and they’re actively soliciting feedback from fans about glitches, features, etc. before charging for access to it. Most of the other publishers don’t even open the door for that kind of dialogue with readers. I’m not defending the magazine as it’s currently constituted or saying fans should cease and desist, but I feel like it’s premature to condemn the new Yen+ until the full line-up of titles has been announced. If Yen doesn’t make an effort to address legitimate reader concerns — such as lack of access to a series/article archive — then I think it’s fair to declare it a bust and move on.

  It’s my understanding that the new Square Enix portal is a joint effort with American publishers. I don’t know the extent of Yen and VIZ’s involvement with SE, but it will be very interesting to see how that shapes up.
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  Jade July 28, 2010 at 2:03 PM

  Yes, you’ve made a very good point about my premature rant. Still, from a company of which a certain party is willing to complain about a review by questioning the value of critique itself, I’m not so sure about the weight they place in reader opinion. Plenty of scan brats have also pottied up much of the pool of discussion enough that reasonable reader feedback may be lost in a golden deluge of entitlement.

  I’m really looking forward to seeing what SE does though. Their catalog of licenses really does dominate a fair share of publishing here across the board, so I don’t think they’ll pull a Kodansha on the print end. I know they don’t tend to jump into an arena unless they can bring some game-changing innovation to the arena, so it’s really impossible to predict what they have in mind for…November?