Which Manga Publishers Should I Support?

[Young Avenger]

I want to get into manga. I'm not going to ask for title recommendation because I like to buy things on impulse. I'm more interested in which manga publisher my support should go to. I want to support a publisher what doesn't censor or edit their books. To my knowledge only Dark Horse and Del Ray does this. Any more I should be aware of?

[The Xenos]

CMX.

Naw. I'm totally kidding you on that. Bastards with their Tenjo Tenge edits. That was the worst case I've seen.

Viz has had some slip ups. Most notably for me, Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 8 and editing a cross shaped rock to look more round. Yeah, because easily offended Christians were sure going to make it 8 volumes into a manga with characters named after the seven deadly sins and has all sorts of talk about the main charcters going against God will by trying to ressurect the dead. Nice one Viz.

Tokyopop edited Tsukiyomi Moon Phase or some other one. They took out nipples, but left in all the nudity and bondage of an underage character. Yeah. That makes all kinds of sense.

Still, I buy series from both those companies. I am way of them and don't trust them as much. Still, I want to support good series that they publish. Providing they're not edited to hell, that is. The FMA edit I overlooked because it sounded like they heard the outrage from fans and realized how stupid that edit was.

I have a larger gripe with Tokyopop's marketing and them calling even American books 'manga', but that's another debate.

Acutally, I just remember some issue with Air Gear at Del Ray too, but it seems they learned their mistake there too.
http://www.animedistrict.com/news.php?id=167

[Young Avenger]

I'm avoiding anything by CMX. I know of that of the edits they done with Tenjo Tenge. If there editing is too bad then I might look into Viz. Same with Tokyopop. Thanx for the reply.

[Inkthinker]

Yeah, CMX is right off the list... after the TJTG fiasco, I largely lost any and all interest in their line.

Dark Horse and Del Rey have, so far, been the most respectful of their original content, releasing with little or no edits and censoring of content. Berserk is about as scary, horrifying and deeply offensive as content can get, but that's part of the point of the whole story in the first place, and DH treats it right.

Viz and Tokyopop are hit-or-miss, but I think they generally do all right, and for the most part I don't quibble about the changes they make.

[Citizen V]

Viz has been publishing for a long time,i remember them putting out comics in the 90`s.Tokyopop is basically Manga that is nearly identical to Manga released in Japan.

[The Xenos]

Well, except for the 'manga' that Tokyopop publishes that isn't Japanese at all. They publish American graphic novels and falsely label them manga. Not that I'm against Tokyopop's original American content. I just hate how they try to mix it in with their manga translations.

Tokyopop did start out with their '100% authentic manga' marketing when they started publishing smaller takubon. Technically Tokyopop started out with comic book sized books. I have some Cowboy Bebop and Love Hina comic book sized books. I think before that they were just Mixx Entertainment and republished Sailor Moon comics in standard comic book sized issues. I actually have a really nice copy of a volume of Clover with a Chix Comics logo on the side. On the back it says 'Tokyopop press' before they went full out with the Tokyopop label and logo. Later volumes have that. I don't think they even publish the series anymore. It was $15, thin, and had a nice dust jacket.

Anyway, Tokyopop started publishing full volumes in Japanese takubon size and that's when they struck gold. Now I still argue they're not 100% authentic manga. They don't have dust jackets like all the manga I saw in Japan and they don't bother with anthologies. (And the price is $10 not 500 or so yen, almost half the price.)

Still they are a good American manga publisher. They set the standard format for how manga is sold in the US. $10 for a 5x7 sized collection. They saw how Japan sold collections and sold that format. They skipped anthology magazines outright because they don't sell for crap here.

Really, the only one I avoid is CMX. Though funny enough I buy a good amount of DC books. I guess I don't see why the hell DC got into manga and I don't think they understand the market. (Then again, I am tempted to say the same of their mainstream comics line.)

Though at least they don't mix stuff like their new Minx line into their manga like Tokyopop does. Again, I don't mind Tokyopop publishing original US books. I just hate them mixing them in with manga and hoping no one notices. I had a friend half joke that their next step would be giving creators Japanese names so no one notices. Then again, their president kinda already did that with the whole DJ Milky scam. He made a up a whole fake persona living in Japan or some such crap. When I learned of that fiasco, Tokyopop went down a notch as a company in my book.

Also, I look for more mature reader and seinen books, so Dark Horse is perfect for me. Though some other publishers seem to have some titles. I was just reading Welcome to the NHK from Tokyopop. They also put out a favorite manga Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei. Viz has their signature line for stuff like Monster and Golgo 13. Del Ray has Genshiken which is more for older teens, especially later volumes when they turn up the dirty jokes.

[Alex Scott]

Man, now I feel like I have to stick up for CMX. I hate the Tenjho Jenge edits as much as the next guy, but as far as I know, that's the only title they've edited. They also happen to publish one of my new favorite titles, Kaoru Mori's Victorian-era drama Emma.

Otherwise, Del Rey's by far the best company out there. Great titles, great translations, and great editorial content all around.

Also, ADV Manga is finally releasing the fourth volumes of Yotsuba&! and Gunslinger Girl this month, and I'm willing to forgive ADV anything just to have Yotsuba back.