Shakugan no Shana
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@c933103 At 26 volumes and a really old anime, not to mention rescue, this series would unfortunately be very uneconomical to license in the English industry at this moment. There is virtually no guarantee that there are 2000 people willing to buy the ebook of every volume, plus the fact that it holds up a translation team for 6+ years, when they could translate dozens of shorter more popular series in that time.
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Even if It's been a while since I watched Shakugan no Shana but a proper licensed version would make me purchase it and complete it.
The story and story/character development is really good on it.
(Plus I miss Shana's "Urusai/Shut up" )
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@legitpancake Is 2000 people buying required for JNC to make a profit from translation? As, in other non-English markets, I have saw lower figures being quoted at breakeven points.
Maybe JNC being based in Western countries have higher running cost and labor cost, but in some other markets I have saw figures down to some hundred copies being cited as breakeven point, and I am talking about physical copies
And I think, Shana, while being a old series, is still very popular, and most people who watch anime nowadays should at least have heard about its name and familiar with its character image, and would probably gave the anime a watch already as well
Not really a good comparison but you can see series like Spice and Wolf or Haruhi from the era with similar popularity are still lingering, with English localization of their novels still continues, which indicates they're profitable
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Maybe it is time to revisit this now, now that quite a number of titles have been rescued and relicensed due to collapse of some other publishers.
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M myskaros referenced this topic on
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A curse of Tokyopop, another dream
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While it has been storming here, I see neither cats nor dogs coming down from the heavens 😔
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I realize there's less urban fantasy these days like this one or Index or i just dont know anything. If you check MAL stat for the "plan to read" its about 3k account. As someone who got interested to this series decades ago, I'm still hoping this one will given a chance. Older fans still rooting for older series to get in English. Man, i don't even know if we're living in the 21st century. One up for this one.
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@roughroadface51 said in Shakugan no Shana:
Older fans still rooting for older series to get in English.
The issue is that fans like to say this, but they don't actually buy these series when it does get licensed and translated. JNC and other publishers have licensed various older series with older, seemingly popular anime, and they rarely perform up to expectations.
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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Would be interested in seeing this translated loved the anime
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@myskaros I think more recent ones like in 2000s-early 2010s might perform better than older series, because both the audience are still relatively similar in term of their age, and also because the continued growth of anime-related market in English world mean shows that are closer to now would have more people watched it than series that are more classic but older.
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@c933103 said in Shakugan no Shana:
I think more recent ones like in 2000s-early 2010s might perform better
growth of anime-related market in English world mean shows that are closer to now would have more people watched it than series that are more classic but older.
Sorry to break it to you, but even 5 years ago is too old for many buyers.
Here's a bunch of JNC series from your timeframe that are not profitable:
Demon King Daimaou (anime 2010)
Infinite Stratos (anime 2011)
Kokoro Connect (anime 2012)
Outbreak Company (anime 2013)
Invaders of the Rokujouma!? (anime 2014)
Amagi Brilliant Park (anime 2014)
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (anime 2014)
Wild Times With a Fake Fake Princess (no anime)Full Metal Panic! only sells enough because of the hardcovers.
Another example of poor sales would be A Certain Magical Index (Yen Press). I get the feeling Yen might be the ones to eventually license Shana because they're doing other long Kadokawa series from the 2000s (DxD, DAL, Baccano, DRRR, S&W). I don't see any other publisher getting it tbh.
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@DoubleMangekyo
Eh first 2010-2014 is about 9-13 years ago alreadyAnd as an anime isn't Infinite Stratos the only one in the list that maintain popularity beyond the season they air? Rokujouma maybe? And IS suffered from author relationship with publisher and illustrator.
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@c933103 said in Shakugan no Shana:
Eh first 2010-2014 is about 9-13 years ago already
They are now, but most of them were much closer to 5 years ago when the series were first licensed by JNC.
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@DoubleMangekyo Hmm... Do you have any data to back up the assertion that those specific titles have lost them money? Some of them make sense, but others maybe less so.
Though unfortunately, as much as I'd love for older series like SnS to get licensed, I do agree that the odds are much worse for them to be profitable. Not just because they may be less familiar to would-be readers but also because the style tends to feel very different than what modern readers might be use to. Slayers is a great example... reading it, there is a style to it that doesn't feel anything like anything more modern.
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@xdrfiredogx said in Shakugan no Shana:
Hmm... Do you have any data to back up the assertion that those specific titles have lost them money? Some of them make sense, but others maybe less so.
Minor note: poor sales, not losses. Some of them may have broke even, or been minorly positive, but not been the sales boom that people were saying they should be given the popularity of the anime or how well it sells in Japan etc. Most of those titles I've seen mentioned by staff as poor sellers in various places.
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@xdrfiredogx said in Shakugan no Shana:
Do you have any data to back up the assertion that those specific titles have lost them money? Some of them make sense, but others maybe less so.
My data is whatever Sam and other JNC staff have said on the discord server over the years. The consensus is that series with old anime (read: more than 5 years ago) don't sell.
Here's Sam saying Orphen, Outbreak and Daimaou are losing money. I'd like to show you more, but that's the only one I've got saved. You could join the discord and search through it if you want, since I can't be bothered.
Though unfortunately, as much as I'd love for older series like SnS to get licensed, I do agree that the odds are much worse for them to be profitable. Not just because they may be less familiar to would-be readers but also because the style tends to feel very different than what modern readers might be use to.
Yeah, the current fad is isekai. Anything that's not that will face an uphill battle.
From what I've gathered, late 90s->late 00s were defined by urban fantasy series (Boogiepop, Shana, Index, Haruhi, etc.); the late 00s->early 10s were magic battle high school (Daimaou, IS, etc.); trapped in a game world stories (SAO, Log Horizon) had a brief stint before isekai fully took over in 2014. Some people say the next big thing will be rom-coms, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Slayers is a great example... reading it, there is a style to it that doesn't feel anything like anything more modern.
Slayers at least seems to have enough name recognition for the hardcovers to do well. (I'm assuming, since JNC is even giving it the audio book treatment now)
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Hello,
The comment above was a good comment to wrap up this side discussion. At least in this topic. If anyone wishes they are free to open up a new topic to discuss various speculation points on old anime in relation to sales.
Otherwise let’s bring this topic back around to Shakugan no Shana.
Thank you
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D DoubleMangekyo referenced this topic on
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Like so many others, I would love to see Shana get picked up by JNC since it's my favorite anime series.
Maybe JNC could do a kickstarter-like drive to gauge interest in the series. I know it's kind of a weird comparison to make, but Hasbro did just that when they considering revamping an old board game from the early 90s called HeroQuest. It ended up being a huge success, and they more than cleared their goal.
I think Shana has enough of a cult following that it would actually do really well with that. Wouldn't actually cost anything unless it was successful in raising the necessary amount and JNC getting the license from Dengeki Bunko.
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@khanman Kickstarter wouldn't be a good idea.
To quote a response by JNC staff from What can us fans do to to expediate the liscening process?:Companies don't like being told "we don't trust that your series will be successful so we want to prove it will sell first." They also don't like being told "we thought it would be popular but not enough people funded, sorry."
I've lost all hope of JNC ever getting Shana. The reason? In a recent licensing stream it was made clear that JNC will not be printing any more of their licenses (barring spin-offs), and people should be asking Yen Press instead. You can thank Kadokawa for this.
Old series like Shana (FMP, Slayers) tend to do well physically, but have horrible digital sales. And even the decent physical sales are dependent on a title having enough name recognition to bring in the old fans. Crest of the Stars, for example, does not have good physical sales.
Basically, JNC has no financial incentive to license Shana since Kadokawa wouldn't allow them to print it anyway, and the digital sales would be subpar.
EDIT: Sam said it himself back in January:
Classic series like full metal/slayers sell terribly, 100% of the time. Only print editions sell for those. Later volumes of classic series can sell <100 copies each digitally. So our ability to license classic series is tied to our ability to put out print editions (otherwise we're looking at 5-figure losses for longer series.)
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@DoubleMangekyo That’s such a major disappointment to hear that they’re not doing any future print offerings of new/future series, except in that very limited case. I always preferred physical copies, between Amazon being stupid and computers & tablets crashing, etc. I would’ve loved to see this series or Cat Planet Cuties picked up. Maybe their stance on print will change and it’ll happen one day….
