CMX announced in July 29, 2007 at the San Diego Comic Con that they have the rights for Ms. Kaoru Mori's manga title "Shirley".
Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2007/comic-con-international/cmx-manga
OMG!!
I'm really happy about it ^^. But...what will we all do on the message board now? : O
I actually don't think the recent Shirley Madison chapters are included, but they've been removed just to be on the safe side. We'll put them back if things clear up.
>>4
Just have to translate other maid-related materials, I suppose.
Or have massive rants and flamings about the unfairness of this licensing, too... -_-
A Request
With this balooning of licensing, please redesign your front page, it's disheartening to see all those strike-outs
Well, okay, but now it's kind of disheartening how short it is. :)
Maybe I can now trick whispers into working on something from my own pile of unfinished projects!
Seeing that most of Ms. Mori's manga work as well as the anime has been licensed to be published in english, I'm wondering if her work is that popular in the US? Ok, all in the board love her work and we are from almost all over the world, but anyone of us know of others that like Emma or Shirley and are not part of the board? I'm only know of one other person.
Yes, you pose an interesting question. I myself still consider Emma as an 'undiscovered gem' by the vast majority of the fandom. At least that's the situation here in Croatia among the people I know. I'm guessing this is due mostly to the fact that the anime hasn't been licenced up until now. I'm guessing once it gets published the ranks will swell a bit more. I'm intentionally mentioning the anime because, let's face it, most people learn about a manga once it gets animated and even then most will only watch the anime. Yes, it's a hard life for a manga fan...
You're right about people learning about the anime firts and then about the manga. I remember seeing Emma's anime torrents when they were released by IIChan, but since it was about a maid that falls for a young master, I thought it was too cliche, so I passed it then. A year or more later, I rediscovered the anime and fell for it and started to seek for the manga. As soon as I downloaded a volume of the manga I inmeditely read it. I couldn't download then as fast as I want it.
The plot has been used countless times, a woman and a man of different social classes fall for each other, and have to strugle with their families, friends and society to be together, yet Ms. Mori is a great storyteller and graphic artist and she gave it new life to the romance genre.
I know of one other person from my area, and I'm pretty plugged into the anime/manga community around here. The anime/manga clubs play what is mainstream popular, and Emma, sadly, just doesn't fall into that category. Maybe with the anime being licensed, it'll become more than a niche series. I'm hoping so anyway. I'm sad to see the translations go. I guess this is just a sign that I need to continue studying Japanese. In any case, thanks for all the hard work Whispers and the entire IItran group.
>>13
I had similar first thoughts about Emma. It was at a local Con and they were running behind schedule so they asked the people in the room if we wanted to continue watching what we were or move onto Victorian Romance Emma, and pretty much everyone in the room (all of 10 people) said to move on to Emma. I judged it by the name and walked out before it even started.
I ended up coming back five minutes later because nothing else was playing. In another five minutes I had fallen in love with it. After that I doggedly searched for any torrents or ways I could download it and could not sit still while I waited. I didn't get to read the manga until late last year, though.
Whenever I tell people about Emma I always say something like "I know it sounds cliche, but it's really not. Emma doesn't turn out to be the long lost grand-daughter of a noble or anything like that. And because of how often this type of romance is written about (usually mediocre at best) it takes a lot of talent to be able to create something that really stands out from and above all the others." I feel like I owe it to the series and Ms. Mori for judging it so harshly at first.
It's still a little bittersweet having it licensed. On one hand Ms. Mori and Emma get what they truely deserve and more people will discover it, but on the other it'll be something like a year for the rest of the manga to come out (which has some annoying typos). And the DVD's still don't have an official release date, do they?
Yes, I know how you feel. I've just sent a mail to the Italian editor of Emma asking if they'll publish Further Tales. I hope they do. The manga is still going out (at vol. 5 now). What I'm miffed about is that even if they do publish it, they'll publish the first 8 chapters right away (probably as volume 8, from what I've seen that's what they did in Japan) and then we'll have to wait until the next 8 chapters get out. Sigh. It seems I'll have to brush up my Japanese, which is by no means good. I can deal with the hiragana and I hope I'll manage to translate that part (I know it will be a salad, but hey, beggers can't be choosers), but for the kanji I'm a complete novice. Anyone know of any good online kanji dictionaries?
On another note, I too have been raccomanding Emma to whomever I can, especially since even my sister and mom read it (and cried a lot while doing it). I just tell them: "It's one of the best manga/comics I've read in the last 5-6 years." But I agree it won't probably become an extremely popular title as some of the mainstream titles. What I'm guessing will happen is that now that the anime has been licenced the fanbase will shift from the current situation, where most fans have both read the manga and watched the anime, to a situation where the bulk of the fans will be those who have watched only the anime. Which is a shame because IMHO the manga is better. It just has a certain atmosphere which IMO the anime hasn't managed to capture completely (especially the second season). Not to say that I didn't like the anime. It's good. I liked the first season although I disagreed with some of the choices. As for the second season I have mixed feelings. I didn't like that they deviated heavily from the manga in the second part of the season, although they redeemed themselves in my eyes with the last 2 episodes. But I still like the manga more. It's a matter of taste I guess.
Does anyone know what chapters Volume 8 of Emma includes? By the cover chapters 1 and 2 (Kelly's youth).
I'm guessing about 6-7 chapters. That was more or less the norm with the first seven volumes.
Now an info for the Italian fans. I've contacted Dynit (the Italian publisher of Emma) about the Further Tales. Got a response by Anna Marani that more or less for now they plan to publish just the seven volumes of the Emma manga and after they get some sale result feedback they'll think about it. Anna told me that she hopes that they'll do it because she liked the manga a lot too. So guys and girls, start cracking on the keyboard and start writing the emails to get it published. The e-mail is info@dynit.it .
Langbaobao, message received.
Started Dynit email bombing and word spread :)
Let's hope that they'll publish at least the anime (even a sub-only version like the Rightstuf one will do). I have the same mixed feelings for season 2 though :)