Generations of thieves

I was at a bookstore the other day, and a mother and daughter were in the manga section.  An employee gave them several recommendations, and the girl (I'm going to say she may have been 15 max) kept saying, "Oh, I love that one!  I read it online!"  She was saying this about long-since licensed manga titles that are not provided by the publisher online. 

It came down to final choice time, and they could only pick two.  "You read this one online, right?" the mother asked.  "So you don't need to buy it, right?"

I was weeping inside.  Seriously.  Does this adult not know it's illegal to read pirated works online?  Does she not know economics (if you don't financially support the creators in some way, eventually there will be no more product since the artists can't afford to make the art)?! 

I mean, it's great that this mother was interested and involved in her daughter's life, but shouldn't she be the voice of, I dunno, legal uprightness in their relationship?  I just really don't know what to even think about this situation except to be sad.

Any thoughts?

Requiem for CMX

CMX, one of my favorite manga publishers, is dying. 

To mourn their passing, I'm taking a trip down memory lane to celebrate all the good times CMX brought me.  I made some lists.  Shut up; it's soothing. Connie over at Slightly Biased Manga did the same thing in an angry, funny, well-written post that includes more than bare bones summaries of some of her favorites.

What do my lists tell you?  (Aside from the fact that I am an indiscriminate, omnivorous reader, which you may already know, and the fact that I was too saddened [actually, just in too much pain] to do all the links, though I may try to fill some in later.)

1. CMX has made me very happy over the last six years.  I was slowly (as my budget allowed) collecting a LOT of their series, and I am heartbroken to see them summarily ungently kicked into that good night.
2. You should buy any of these titles that interest you before they're gone. 

What don't my lists tell you?  Which ones I've talked about in "What I Read" posts.  Most of them had at least some CMX.

Complete Series I've enjoyed at least part of

• Astral Project: Trippy.
• Battle of Genryu: I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.
• Canon: A little shojo horror from a master of it. A lot of reversals in such a short series.
• Chikyu Misaki: Cute and sometimes creepy. The baby loch ness monster thing was just irresistable, and you had to love the guest starring role featuring WOlverine.
• Cipher: THe 80s will never die! Just a treat the whole way through, even when it was pretty dark. If you liked Fame back in the day . . .
• Deka Kyoshi: I really did like this one for its ability to go to very dark places that kids sometimes have to face unprepared because no one will talk to them about certain situations.
• Devil Does Exist: Snotty, bratty, and fun romantic comedy with very stylish artwork.
• Dokkoida?!: Dumbest superhero costume ever; silly and stupid and fun series.
• Emma: Beautiful in every way.
• Empty Empire: I still wanted to know what happened next.
• Flat Earth Exchange: In the end, I really did enjoy it.
• Gals!: SuperGALS! forever! Like the anti-afterschool special.
• Jihai: Short, sweet sci-fi trilogy about what we do to make the most of the time we have. And stuff.
• Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne: Tanemura. 'Nough said.
• Key to the Kingdom: Really underappreciated gem of old-school, straight-fantasy. Great stuff.
• Kiichi and the Magic Books: Quirky, sad, wonderful.
• King of Cards: Yeah, why did they license this? It wasn't because Tateno was famous here (that came later), but I thought this series was a hoot because of the versatility it showed.
• Land of the Blindfolded: Sweet, sometimes sad romance with some supernatural touches.
• Lapis Lazuli Crown: Fun, quick shojo goodness.
• Lizard Prince: Yeah, kind of adorable and quirky and relaxing.
• March on Earth: Yes, there was some melodrama, but there were these transcendent moments that made it worthwhile.
• Monster Collection: Trashy, violent, fanservice in its quirky fantasy version.
• Moon Child: Out of this world. Literally. And that ending. Like a roller coaster in a dark building.
• Name of the Flower: Sad, quirky, tender story about how we can't save each other sometimes.
• Omukae Desu: Weird and wonderful.
• Oyayubihime Infinity: Fate, destiny, tattoos. Really fun.
• Palette of 12 Secret Colors: Breezy, lovely, quirky, wonderful, like most of this author's stuff.
• Penguin Revolution: Cheerful and genki and adorable.
• Pieces of a Spiral: Wanted to know what happened.
• Recipe for Gertrude: Adored this quirky, category-defying work of weirdness with its somewhat detached heroine and its odd moments of tenderness and humor.
• Seimaden: Dark love story fantasy. Cough You Higuri Cough.
• Sword of the Dark Ones: Violence, swords, angst, shorter than Berserk.
• Tears of a Lamb: Kind of a psychological vaguely relational school drama.
• Tenryu: The Dragon Cycle: I like the artist. Her characters are delightfully cranky on a regular basis.
• Tower of the Future: Fan of the artist, but I did like this story's quirkiness.
• VS (Versus): Bring on the music melodrama!
• Young Magician: Dark, dark fantasy where very bad things happen.

Incomplete Series I've enjoyed at least part of

• Apothecarius Argentum: This one hurts.  Sort of classy and classic and restrained and just great.
• Ballad of a Shinigami: Quirky short stories about a little Shinigami and the people she meets.
• Broken Blade ?: Shonen mech fantasy magic world political drama love story war thing. Very nice.
• Crayon Shinchan: So very, very wrong. I had to babysit a kid like this once, so I know they exist.
• Fire Investigator Nanase: I was curious to find out how it all turned out.
• From Eroica With Love: Ridiculous, hilarious, highly inappropriate.
• Gon: Astounding and brilliant. No text, just things that would make the Nature Chanel seem benign and boring.
• I Hate You More Than Anyone: Funny, twisted romantic comedy.
• Musashi Number Nine: I am a sucker for teenage spies.
• Swan: Oh, dear.  I loved this one.
• Two Flowers for the Dragon: I wrote about this delightful title once.
• Venus Capriccio: Cute and breezy romantic story with a slight twist.
• Venus in Love: I kind of adored this melodrama-free slice-of-romantic-life college story.

Series I never had a chance to enjoy even part of (but wanted to)

Classical Medley, Diamond Girl, Go Go Heaven!!, Go West!, Kikaider Code 02, King of Debris, My Darling! Miss Bancho, Oh! My Brother, Steel Fist Riku, Stolen Hearts, Suihelibe!, Tale of an Unknown Country, Teru Teru x Shonen, Time Guardian, World I Create, Any of the new ones with one volume out.

Here are some other announcements and reactions.  Excuse me while I go cry.

Do you have any CMX series you're going to really miss?

Ah, Twilight manga

Here are some excepts from a pretty funny post about the Twilight manga, fandom, economics, and general snobbery.  I did read and enjoy the novels, and ST is halfway through the series right now.  She is not interested in spoilers.

"You are not cooler or more intelligent than a Twilight fan just because the bubble gum that you pick for your brain wasn't originally written in English."

"If you want to feel superior to people who read escapist literature, pick up some damned Marcel Proust, or Thomas Mann. I still won't take you seriously, but then at least I'll have someone to commiserate with."

I got a kick out of it as someone who happily devours escapist trash, pulp, fine literature, and most everything in between on the manga and novel continuum.

A Call to Responsible Fandom

"This sense of possession leads fans to believe that their input means anything. In reality, all any fan of a series can do is buy or not buy a thing. By withholding their money, Fans think they are making a *statement.* All they are really doing, of course, is killing the thing they profess to love."

"In the long run, you only hurt yourself by refusing to buy the book. If it doesn’t sell well, Yen will cancel it. And what a Pyrrhic victory that will be for you and the other fans whose principal objection was the cover art."

Check out The Manga Critic's Few Thoughts About Fantitlement for the rest of the story and more comments.

I stayed awake in economics, and I am a squeaky-clean sort of person.  This means no searching the internet  for fansubs (or scanlations of books I don't own in Japanese) for me.  I have limited time and money, and I prefer to spend them legally supporting my hobbies and the things I like, etc.  There is more than enough bounty available legally through the library, Netflix, and even the internet to keep me busy.

When publishers were experimenting with light novels, I bought some I didn't love because I figured that the only way to get the ones I did want was to support the idea of light novels until they sold well enough that the ones I wanted got licensed and published.

Not many people think like that, so I only got one volume of Kino's Journey, a stunningly, hypnotically, beautifully translated book.

I didn't get all of Scrapped Princess, Seikai: Crest of the Stars, Good Witch of the West, Boogiepop Phantom, or Missing. I have gotten three volumes of Twelve Kingdoms.  (Thank you to everyone who bought this series.  Request it from your library if you didn't.)  I got Brave Story and some Moribito, too.  I'm hoping for more.

If enough of us behave wisely and in a fiscally responsible way, I think all of us will benefit.  Maybe (probably) we won't all get everything we want, but we might get more than we would have otherwise.  In this new year, I encourage you to support the manga and anime industries by voting in the economy with whatever dollars you can squeeze out of your budget (plan ahead and be ready for the sales at Right Stuf), by using your public library (shamelessly requesting titles you want to read), and by responsibly using the resources completely legally available on the internet.

It's that delayed gratification thing.  If we all do it, it will work for our benefits.

Economics for Otaku

I read a great quote from Jason Thompson in this article. 

"The easy availability of scanlations (online bootleg translations of manga) makes it even easier for hardcore fans to self-marginalize by removing any economic weight from their opinions."

Yep, especially in this economy, the fan dollar is the way to vote.  Cast your votes wisely!