Comments on: What’s Up with Del Rey Manga?

By: nemer

nemer — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:53:27 +0000

well I purchased the Zaregoto (1 and 2) graphic novels from DelRey and thought it was great. Now I’m waiting for the rest of the volumes so I enter the site to see if any news are up but it’s not even showing that they’re publishing the novels! How are they suppose to make money out of something not even shown on their website?

By: kacie

kacie — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:20:10 +0000

I’m agreeing with this post. I’ve noticed for one of the series I really like: Aventura, each volume is released per year. I’m beginning to suspect that they’ve dropped it because there has been no mention of when vol. 4 is to be released. I’m hoping this isn’t the case..because even if it isn’t wildly popular I really want it to continue to be published.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:25:23 +0000

Hard to get excited about new series from a publisher when they don’t have the respect of fans to finish what they start. I was curious about these and feel like they didn’t have a chance to succeed.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:40:00 +0000

I’m a little cross that the two series they publish that I read have either had their releases stalled completely (Nodame Cantabile), or spaced over six months apart and now all of a sudden being published as a three volumes in one omnibus over halfway through the series (School Rumble). I’m guessing they’re not their biggest sellers but I really love Nodame and it would be nice to get both series finished!

By: lanugo

lanugo — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:01:42 +0000

Ditto. Del Rey certainly has dropped the bundle. The three series’ that I’m following from them (Gakuen Prince, Nodame Cantabile and My Heavenly Hockey Club) seem to have fallen off their radar – and this following fairly healthy publishing schedules before about July 09. Their forum is woeful, you can practically hear the crickets chirruping.

I’m not sure about decreasing quality, but I didn’t see any preview pages in the last Gakuen Prince and Nodame like they usually do. I know it’s a little point, but it’s foreboding nonetheless, as if they’re “letting things go”. Yikes!

By: Lori Henderson

Lori Henderson — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:18:30 +0000

I’m glad to see by everyone’s comments that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

@Alex I can’t speak to the drop in quality too much, since Del Rey is at the bottom of my read pile, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

@Heather It would be great if more companies went the anthology route, or at least online, but Random House strikes me as too much a traditional pub to take that kind of chance. Anthologies are just for marketing, and we’ve seen the effort they’ve put into that. And online doesn’t seem to interest them much either.

@Michelle/Kate Add me to the list of being ignored by Del Rey for review copies. I emailed the reps several times, and met with them at SDCC, dropping off my card twice and never got a single response from them. They wouldn’t even respond when one of reviewers moved and we tried to give them an updated address (he was already getting review copies before coming to Manga Village.) I’ve pretty much given up on getting review copies from them.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:03:16 +0000

I think you’re right that Del Rey isn’t at the top of its game anymore, which is too bad since they are one of the few manga publishers that historically has a really good record of including extras like translation notes, etc. They still have some series I like, but they aren’t “must reads”. I usually end up swapping for stuff like My Heavenly Hockey Club and Papillon.

By: Katherine Dacey

Katherine Dacey — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:15:33 +0000

It’s not just you, Michelle — I gave up trying to get review copies from Del Rey ages ago. Even when I did receive them, there wasn’t a lot of rhyme or reason to the books I got, or how frequently I received them.

By: Michelle Smith

Michelle Smith — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:35:36 +0000

I've also had a lot of trouble actually getting review copies from them. Finally I have one contact who sends me continuing volumes each month, but Manga Recon seems to have fallen off the list for automatic receipt of debut series. I've mentioned this problem a few times, but nobody seems to care much.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:44:07 +0000

I was a little disappointed about the Xmen news from DelRey, but I was not totally surprised. The OEL market is a tough one, but even more so when the writer and artist must produce 130-200 pages all together and not in chapter form for single issues or magazine format like Yen Plus. In the decade of OEL very, very few have been able to produce even the 3 volumes Tokyopop usually contracts out. I think it would help all the companies if they would put out anthologies like Shonen Jump and Yen Plus, or webcomics like IKKI from VIZ.

My most surprising buy recently was Moyasimon a few months ago. I loved it and can’t wait for more of this college life/biology/chemistry lesson manga. I hope DelRey can find more such interesting titles.