At work, a guy in his late teens asked me if I could recommend any young adult books with ninja protagonists. I told him, no, sadly, but I did know of some ninja manga he might enjoy. As I geared up to recommend Nabari no Ou, he waved me off, saying, “Oh, me & my friends get that stuff online for free.”
ARRRRGGH.
Some people have no problem subsisting exclusively on pirated manga, and I don’t get it.
Although I’m a bookseller, I like scanlations. They’re the main reason I got back into manga after dropping it for 10 years. They changed my attitude from “please let me hate this series” (and thus save myself countless hours & dollars) to “please let this be good.” I discovered two of my favorite series, Eyeshield 21 & Skip Beat!, solely because of scanlations. And selfishly, I’d rather customers read books online than come in and damage our merchandise (I’m looking at you, girl who keeps breaking the spine of our Azumanga Daioh Omnibus *shakes fist*).
BUT, I also buy manga. I try to buy 5 to 10 volumes of manga a month, mostly series I’ve already read or previewed online. If I can afford it, I buy new. And I’m not swimming in cash–in fact, as a writer & bookseller, quite the opposite.
I buy because I like having legal, physical copies of the work I love. I like supporting the companies taking financial risks to bring translated manga to the U.S. I like supporting artists who make the work I admire (however minuscule the support might be after everyone gets their cut). Money talks; it determines what gets translated or made. Artists used to have patrons; now they have us, the rabble. For that reason, I’ll never sneer at people who actually pay for x (manga, music, movies, etc).
So when people come up to me & admit that they read but never pay for manga, without a trace of shame, I can’t believe it. Like the ninja lover. Or the hardcore Naruto fan I know who’s never bought any Naruto books or DVDs. Or the (supremely talented) manga-style graphic novelist who of all people should know better. I just want to grab them by the shoulders & go:
Buy some friggin’ manga (then get off my lawn).
Hahaha I know what you mean and I’m a teenanger, I always find it weird when you find some hardcore manga fans and then you ask them how many manga they actually own. Zero. WTF
I have no problem with scanulations either but if you really like a manga, buy it.
Ps: Skip Beat’s one of my favorites too
I can’t imagine truly loving a series & yet not wanting a hard copy. WTF indeed.
And Skip Beat = awesome.