Tokyopop's woes hit ST: TNG the manga

[Therin of Andor]

This has been a long wait through for the TNG Manga series. When did this all start? I don't really remember when it was but I know I have been waiting for this series.

If memory serves, we were expecting a TNG manga volume - and saw advance artwork of illustrator samples - but that project suddenly switched to TOS instead, and TNG was indefinitely shelved. That first TOS finally came out in 2006. A year later a second TOS came out, and there'll be a third this year. TNG was re-announced only a few months ago, but it's been in limbo for the whole Time TOS manga has been coming out.

I think Tokyopop should cut the Mangas not being read and just focus on what the fans read and love period.

Sounds like they are! I'm sure every title has its fans, so someone will always be devastated - and no publisher deliberately churns out unpopular material.

 

[Steve Roby]

I believe the original Trek manga announcement also said that it would be American writers working with Japanese manga artists, but it didn't work out that way, for whatever reason.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If memory serves, we were expecting a TNG manga volume

Ah! Wikipedia has the date:
"However, in October 2004, Tokyopop announced plans to publish an anthology of Next Generation-based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga."

 

[JoeZhang]

So I think Tokyopop should cut the Mangas not being read and just focus on what the fans read and love period.

Thing is - Tokyopop doesn't publish that stuff, people like Viz do the bulk of the imported material.

 

[Sxottlan]

I had hopes that the Trek manga could continue just so to fuel personal hopes that they'd some day do a Trek anime. Probably wouldn't have happened anyway, but still.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I had hopes that the Trek manga could continue.

The OP didn't say it was cancelled, only pushed back. (There wasn't much in TOS Volume 2 that reminded me of manga at all.)

Considering there has been an anime-styled movie made to support the "Matrix" trilogy, and the "Gotham Knight" was made to fit between "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight", I'd say an anime-style ST production is always a possibility. Anime TNG, voiced by the TV regulars might have done more to keep the youth in the ST franchise than "Generations".

 

[Christopher]

I dunno, I don't see TNG and anime being a very good match, tonally and stylistically. DS9 seems more like the sort of thing that would translate well into anime.

 

[JD]

I don't think it was neccissarily anime, but there actually were some preliminary plans for second animated series a couple years ago. They even had a design for the Captain, and a few other things. I thought it was dead, but apparently there is actually a possability this might still come into being. Here's a link to the article on Memory Alpha http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Untitled_Star_Trek_animated_series.

 

[Stevil2001]

I dunno, I don't see TNG and anime being a very good match, tonally and stylistically. DS9 seems more like the sort of thing that would translate well into anime.

Wouldn't this statement:

Manga isn't a genre or style, it's simply a medium.

Imply that anime shouldn't tonally or stylstically match to any one thing better than another?

 

[Christopher]

I dunno, I don't see TNG and anime being a very good match, tonally and stylistically. DS9 seems more like the sort of thing that would translate well into anime.

Wouldn't this statement:

Manga isn't a genre or style, it's simply a medium.

Imply that anime shouldn't tonally or stylstically match to any one thing better than another?

I expected someone to point that out, but I was thinking in terms of the majority of animes I've seen, the prevailing styles.

 

[William Leisner]

I thought it was dead, but apparently there is actually a possability this might still come into being.

From where do you get that impression? The last edit to the MA article is almost a year old, and the information doesn't seem to have changed from what the original web rumor revealed.

 

[Leroy]

Manga doesn't sell well either? Between this and downloads I don't know what's worse why are the majority of anime/manga fans so unwilling to support the artists by buying stuff and are obsessed with getting everything for free?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I dunno, I don't see TNG and anime being a very good match, tonally and stylistically.

Fan-turned-pro Melody Rondeau used to do the cutest Data, Yar and Lore cartoons in an Astroboy, big-eyed style in the late 80s/early 90s, and I could see them as classic anime characters. TNG had the clean environments that suited that Kimba/Astroboy/Prince Planet style.

DS9 seems more like the sort of thing that would translate well into anime.

I do agree. That WildStorm "n-Vector" comic mini-series, weird art style though it had, reminded me of something that would have suited adaptation as an anime.

 

[JoeZhang]

Manga doesn't sell well either? Between this and downloads I don't know what's worse why are the majority of anime/manga fans so unwilling to support the artists by buying stuff and are obsessed with getting everything for free?

Manga (generally the original material from Japan) sells very well, the "fire everything we've got at the book shops" approach of Tokyopop didn't.

 

[historypeats]

The TokyoPop news hits home with me moreso than others on this board. My girlfriend was one of the 39 laid off.

I had done a little free-lance work for them (cleaning up the translation of a book in April), and had a reasonable enough hope of doing more over the next few months that I passed on teaching summer school. We got the layoff news too late for me to reverse course, and I'm guessing such free-lance work will be harder to come by now. Unless she gets another job soon, we're looking at three months of unemployment for both of us - my assistant-coaching duties for the high school make it hard to find a 9-5 this summer, and I'm pretty wiped from my first year of teaching as it is, Teachers get paid again on September 30th, so we're stretching funds until then. We just moved, which cost a lot, and we're both pretty young...basically, not a good situation for anyone. TokyoPop was a great place for her to work, and I was really looking forward to doing more...but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

 

[Good Will Riker]

Will this manga series start-off from TNG's 1st season, or will it be set during season 3+?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Will this manga series start-off from TNG's 1st season, or will it be set during season 3+?

Tokyopop's TOS stories jumped all over the timeline. I assume the plans for the TNG version were/are the same.

 

[JD]

I thought it was dead, but apparently there is actually a possability this might still come into being.

From where do you get that impression? The last edit to the MA article is almost a year old, and the information doesn't seem to have changed from what the original web rumor revealed.

I just figured that if someone had announced that it was officially dead it would have been added to the page. But I realize now that you've pointed that out that there is a very good chance that it has simply faded away.

 

[Sxottlan]

I dunno, I don't see TNG and anime being a very good match, tonally and stylistically. DS9 seems more like the sort of thing that would translate well into anime.

Oh they have all sorts of anime. There was one a few years ago called Vandread that reminded me a lot of Trek, both in look and feel. Sure there were space battles, but it was mostly about bitter enemies (one side men, the other women) overcoming their differences and working together. While there was always the joke of the mechas of the men and women "merging," it still pointed to how they were more powerful together than apart.

The show aired on Bravo or Encore for a brief time, but I haven't seen it lately.

 

[Christopher]

Come to think of it, I suppose some of the talkier, crisper-designed anime shows could be a good fit to the sedate, clean style of TNG. Something like Ghost in the Shell: SAC season one, for instance -- at least, the middle part of the season where there wasn't a great deal of violence. A lot of long talking-head dialogue scenes, a lot of clean, high-tech scenery, a lot of exploration of thought-provoking ideas.

Or maybe something with the gentle, upbeat tone of a Miyazaki film like Kiki's Delivery Service. In retrospect, I'm amazed I didn't think of that before.

But a lot of anime is more intense, more energetic, more vivid and textured than would fit TNG, and that's what I was thinking of. I think DS9 would be a good fit for that. I guess that's what I'm saying -- not that TNG couldn't be done in an anime style, but that I don't see that being the ideal series for fulfilling the potential of such an adaptation. DS9 just seems like the series that could get the most out of an anime style. It's got the more vivid look, the richer, darker color palette, the more intense characters and drama. (Plus Ezri would make a swell anime pixie. She's practically one to begin with.)