Flipping manga

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:20 am

It may be an issue of what the original authors/publishers want. I know that, when Animerica Extra recently started printing some of their comics in an "unflipped" format, it was because the authors/publishers would not renew the licensing contract unless they were published this way; thus, it may be also that the publishers WANT their comics printed flipped so that the general populace can read them better (this makes sense with Pokemon: Nintendo of America might have restrictions on how their property is presented). It may also be that Viz is in the works to try and release their flipped-only comics in unflipped formats, but, I guess, only time will tell.

DreamEmpress · Post by **DreamEmpress** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 2:35 am

hmmmm....to flip or not to flip, that is the question....

(Shakespeare should be rolling in his grave about now.)

Personally, I like the original non flip. It's nice to read it as intended. however, once i was reading so much original format manga, I went to read a book and opened it on the wrong side. That would have made for some good comedy.

I can read and enjoy the flipped manga I've got. Basically I don't care as long as I can read the story. However, like I said, I do enjoy the original. It's a treat to read that way. I like a little variety like that sometimes. I will admit, it does take a bit to get used to.

About that comment on "backwards", I was in the Japanese bookstore in the International district on day and over heard a mother and child. The little boy was asking why the manga was reversed. the mom said that people in japan read their books backwards. I couldn't help feeling a little annoyed at that comment. considering that's not exactly an image of a country that you want to pass on to your children.

Sailorasteroid · Post by **Sailorasteroid** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 6:23 am

OK, so I think it's fair to say the general consensus is that unflipped is OK or better; of those responding, only LadyFlameSniper actually prefers left-to-right, so I'm thinking it's probably just the novelty that's making it odd for me. Give me a couple months, I'll probably be saying, "BURN the flipped manga!!" ^_^

DreamEmpress wrote:About that comment on "backwards", I was in the Japanese bookstore in the International district on day and over heard a mother and child. The little boy was asking why the manga was reversed. the mom said that people in japan read their books backwards. I couldn't help feeling a little annoyed at that comment. considering that's not exactly an image of a country that you want to pass on to your children.

Well, it's a tad ethnocentric, but she probably couldn't think of a way to say "right-to-left" or "backward from how we read." I'm more annoyed at the innacuracy--they don't read backward from us per se, they read rotated 90 degrees to the right. Or, if you like, we read rotated 90 degrees to the left. But maybe for real accuracy they should start printing manga

t____l
h____i
i____k
s____e

Starscream · Post by **Starscream** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:20 am

Sailorasteroid wrote:But maybe for real accuracy they should start printing manga

t____l
h____i
i____k
s____e

I once thought it would be neat to have translated manga written like that...but do you know how annoying that would be for people to read? In the west, we're trained to read words and sentences left-to-right; I would think that the instinct to read the words as:

tl
hi
ik
se

would be too great, as even the most "developed" of readers might have a hard time of vertical text. It's fine every once in a while (for example, if it's only one word or phrase in a single vertical column), but the fact of the matter is that Westerners aren't accustomed to vertical text very much, and when it's two or three sentences in the bubble, it can get confusing ^^;