Extremely Lame

Why is it that English manga (Japanese style comic books) are so expensive? A 495¥ manga will inflate to ten bucks in the United States. I realize that there are prices to licensing, translating, and things like that, but there’s no way that would double the price. Look at other Japanese products that have to be licensed and translated before being brought over to the United States.

Video games coming out of Japan have to get translated from Japanese as well. In particular, look at your extremely wordy Japanese games like the Metal Gear Solid series or the Final Fantasy series. Those have hours upon hours of dialog that need to be translated, yet they run the same price as a fully Western game like Grand Theft Auto IV.

Anime TV series are still released one disc at a time instead one season at a time. This is pretty annoying as it too overinflates the price, but it’s not as bad since they don’t tend to go on for thirty or forty volumes as mangas often do. That said, the individual discs are typically in the same range in price as your average movie. Additionally, look at a series like Oz or any other HBO series on DVD. Ridiculously overpriced. A Season of Oz is eight episodes and the season runs $80. Ch-ching!

So what makes English manga double the price of Japanese manga? Beats me, but I do know it’s a ripoff. And woe be unto you if you get netted by a Rumiko Takahashi series. She’s like the Lambchop of Japanese manga. She writes the series that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend. Inuyasha is currently at 54 volumes in Japan and still going. That’s volumes, not issues.