YES!

[athenaltena]

I finally got my paws on Gunslinger Girl volume 4 today. I only heard that it was finally out by accident when I was browsing through Anime Insider at Big Y before I went to work, but when I saw the ad announcing it I almost said out loud "Took you freaking long enough, ADV!"

It's really been almost about a year since the last one was released, and I know I wasn't alone in terms of being pissed off about ADV just putting it on hold without a definite reason given, as at least a few people were hoping they'd drop it so another publisher could pick it up since other countries have been getting new volumes. I was almost to the point of ordering it from a British bookseller, but then *boom* there it is. Not only did they put a huge flyer in Anime Insider (and Newtype, apparently) saying that it was coming back, but now they had ads for the next volume in the back as if to say "Don't worry, we'll keep translating it." I just hope they keep to that.

Either way this whole thing was a PR blunder on ADV's part. There are few ways to alienate your customer base like stopping translation out of nowhere and not giving a reason to the public.

What was incredibly funny is that as I was in the store walking towards the counter some guy saw the book in my hands and immediately looked up at me and asked "Where'd you get that?!" at which point I just meekly pointed towards the manga section and he scurried off. I was rather glad to see what I wasn't the only one waiting for this book. :P

Comments

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, it's finally out now? I'd forgotten all about it after I'd been looking for a better part of the year with no luck. D: Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to grab it!

[athenaltena.livejournal.com]

Yup, found it at Barnes and Noble. Glad I could help spread the love. :)

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

Er, *the better of a year. XD Unfortunately I'm afraid Viz is doing the same thing right now with the Fushigi Yugi prequel, Genbu Kaiden; it's been stuck at #5 for months now. At first I thought it was because they caught up to the Japanese releases (since they actually picked the series up very fast after it started coming out), but there's just no way at this point. I also hate how Yu Yu Hakusho is now only released two times a year, while they're releasing three volumes of Naruto a month from now until December. Sadly, I'll be draining my wallet for them all the same, but it's still absolute insanity.

I know they just want to catch up to Naruto in Japan but dammit I've been collecting Inuyasha for almost 10 years, why can't they pick that up a little!?

[athenaltena.livejournal.com]

I admit I don't follow either of those series, but I can understand the aggravation. I've actually really come to like Del Rey manga because they stick to their release dates and have lots of notes, but some of the bigger companies seem to not value their customers enough. It's no wonder so many people are turning to scanlations these days. '-_-

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

It's no wonder so many people are turning to scanlations these days. '-_-

lol, yeah, that's actually the exact reason Viz is pumping out three volumes of Naruto a month now - they got criticized for being too slow, and realized their readership was hurting because of it. I mean, when fans are doing a better and more timely job of translating than America's biggest manga publishing company, there's something wrong. ^^;

[bulmafox.livejournal.com]

About time!

[athenaltena.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

I didn't think I'd make such a big deal of it, but oh well, I love that series too much

[le-section-8.livejournal.com]

You think that's bad? Us Yotsuba fans waited like three years!

[athenaltena.livejournal.com]

Yup, ADV strikes again. '-_- They are not good with PR or releasing stuff on time at all.