Ok, I said I was going to do my next post on my new Blog, but I lied! The new blog is just about done, I just need to transfer all my posts tonight after work. I’m just so disappointed with rising manga prices lately that I had to make a post! With so many companies selling their manga at over $10 these days I was happy that Viz was still around to hold down the affordability fort at $7.95 for Shonen Jump titles and $8.99 for Shojo Beat titles. Now I look at the pre-orders for the newest manga from Viz and they’re all at the new price of $9.99.
Viz still wins at being the cheapest but…I’ll be purchasing less of their manga at these prices (particularly Shonen Jump titles). There are some titles that I love so much that I’d pay $15 a volume for…but there aren’t many series I’m following that have earned THAT much love from me. So pretty much I’ll be less impulsive on which new series I pursue from Viz due to the new pricing.
Why will I buy less Shonen Jump manga specifically? Well in general I often enjoy Shonen more as anime anyway, so giving up the manga is not as big of a deal to me. Not to mention if the series is a Shonen Jump title it almost always has an anime associated with it…not so much with Shojo Beat titles. Plus the jump in price was too much for me, $7.95 to $9.99 is a large leap. To me, most Shonen manga series aren’t worth that. I will probably only continue collecting Claymore and One Piece at thath price.
BUT despite the rise in prices I still respect Viz as a manga company and think they’re really great. I recognize that the economy is in a sorry state and if this is what it takes to keep them afloat, then so be it. But I still need to watch out for myself, and as a result I’ll be buying a few less titles then I usually do.
But I have a burning question…would Viz have made this price jump if Tokyopop hadn’t raised their prices? Or if Yen Press come on the scene at $10.99? It also may be directly related to their Shojo Beat anthology folding.
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Tokyopop raised their prices from $9.99 to $10.99 and I’ve heard rumors it could go up again. I kind of expected Viz to go up to $10, but I was hoping they might not too. I already thought it was expensive, ouch.
This sucks. I new they were doing that with Naruto, but I didn’t know they were changing so many other titles too. Now my 25% off Borders coupons bearly mean anything! Not as bad as Dark Horses spike for Berserk though. It’s $15 now.
I’ve realized that there are some price increase in Japanese books… Recently bought some shonen jump manga in Kinokuniya, and the price was increased by 1 SGD
light novel and magazine price is going up too… ugh
What’s been bothering me more than the rising prices, is Tokyopop becoming even further of a bitch. I bought the first volume of Future Diary (I really love that manga and have yet to find it in Japanese), opening it up… and noticing the volume was 11 dollars for cheap-ass paper that you can see through. How dare they drop the quality of the books AND raise the price!
They’re on a complete ban list for me from here on out – I’m even going to be buying the rest of Gakuen Alice and Your and My Secret in Japanese now, because I’m sick of their bullshit.
I don’t mind paying a bit more for quality (just look at all the spelling and grammar errors you see in a lot of the VIZ titles that you don’t see in Yen Press or Del Ray – that extra dollar or two is worth it when it comes down to it with the good publishers), but I refuse to pay more when they’re being assholes.
I prefer buying Megami magazine than manga for $10..
Oh great. I haven’t bought manga in a couple months and this is what happens? 😡 Well I almost exclusively buy from Barnes & Noble, but this sucks.