Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

[GyroidFanatic]

Ignoring the Kodansha connection, I'm really glad it's Del Rey that picked up if only due to their great cultural notes in each volume.

[yezhanquan]

Anyone knows what the latest chapter is? I'm guessing 100++.

[d-one]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

According to AnimeNewsNetwork, Del Rey has picked up the manga rights to SZS and will start releasing it next year!

damn my country publisher can't publish it 'cause it's too hard tor them and for the reader in my country >_> (That sucks but true)

[The Sandman]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

While the hope for scanlated chapters died, the gratitude for translated chapters was born out of those ashes. Nothing personal to the scanlator groups.


I wonder what each character in the series would say about this. I could imagine Chiri going "They must properly translate every bit of text of each page, even the bits that don't have an English equivilant."

Harumi would probably want more hot Sensei-on-Jun action. Kafuka would be sure it would turn out for the best. Kaere would be confused as hell. And Matoi is too ingrossed in her deep love to care.

[ellifeedn]

While I'm grateful for a licensed version, I'm happy that the scanlators are giving out the second volume, which will probably be their last release of this series. Downloading it was worth the laughs that that volume had.

[yezhanquan]

I hope they include all the references and omakes.

[SinsI]

Originally Posted by d-one

damn my country publisher can't publish it 'cause it's too hard tor them and for the reader in my country >_> (That sucks but true)

It just means that your publisher is actually sane. English anime fansubs of the latter episodes of ZSZS attract just ~7000 downloads worldwide - and anime is FAR superior in the visual department, VA's work and music. If half of them lives in the US, and 10% of those actually buy it, 10$ per volume - you are looking at a "huge" potential market of 3500$. Now take into account increased translator's fee and other costs - and you see that you are in a big red. If you actually publish volume 2 it's going to be even bigger loss, and volume 3 and on are a guaranteed cancel.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

According to AnimeNewsNetwork, Del Rey has picked up the manga rights to SZS and will start releasing it next year!

They *can't* be serious.

No, I don't hate them. In fact I totally love them for it. But this is like, a guaranteed loss if anything could ever be called that.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by SinsI

It just means that your publisher is actually sane. English anime fansubs of the latter episodes of ZSZS attract just ~7000 downloads worldwide - and anime is FAR superior in the visual department, VA's work and music. If half of them lives in the US, and 10% of those actually buy it, 10$ per volume - you are looking at a "huge" potential market of 3500$. Now take into account increased translator's fee and other costs - and you see that you are in a big red. If you actually publish volume 2 it's going to be even bigger loss, and volume 3 and on are a guaranteed cancel.

The massive delay in fansub releases together with the incomprehensible nature of the text-heavy raw episodes mean people just don't bother with it. The amount of downloads in this case isn't the limiting factor in the popularity of the show, but is the difficulty in translation.

[ellifeedn]

Why must you be so negative about this series being licensed? You never know what will happen.

[SinsI]

Why? The answer is very simple. Since it is licensed, scanlations will stop/become fewer(no new SZZ for over a year); so far we have two volumes translated - and I expect Del Ray to cancel this series after the same two volumes are out, with them loosing money and wasting translation/editing potential that could've been better spent elsewhere.
And we even cannot be sure someone will pick this series back up, as timing is extremely important. Unless they put out another full season of SZS anime the interest in this title will dwindle.
In the end everybody loses.

[CrowKenobi]

^^You just don't want to pay for any SZS manga, do you?



Since you seem to be a real genius () at this, how do you explain the Excel Saga manga anyway? (15+ volumes released by VIZ so far)

[SinsI]

What does extremely niche and wordplay-oriented SZS has to do with good-for-all Excel Saga?

[CrowKenobi]

Originally Posted by SinsI

What does extremely niche and wordplay-oriented SZS has to do with good-for-all Excel Saga?

Everything! The anime ended a couple of years before the manga got here, yet it seems to be selling; and I don't consider Excel Saga "good-for-all," but more like SZS, as you put it: "niche and wordplay-oriented." (otherwise why would there be a section in the back explaining a lot of the wordplay)

[SinsI]

Oh, please!
Excel Saga has constantly attractive art, some main plot(and character development), it doesn't involve current Japanese culture too often and wordplay jokes play only a minor part (like 10% of them all, you can easily remove them altogether) - most of the humor is about character interactions and thus perfectly translatable. This all sums up to what I consider a good-for-all comedy.
SZS on the other hand has very uneven art (generic Kumeta art is very controversal), no central plot, static characters and a billion references; each chapter is basically built around some major wordplay (and takes it to the extreme at that, often consisting of just listings of wordplay-facts). Yes, it features some interesting characters and then they interact it's often very funny - but those are at most 30% of the original humor...
With SZS "a section in the back explaining a lot of the wordplay" wouldn't be enough - its needs a page of references for each page of the original, and you can't postpone them.
And those who say "ah, i've read some first chapters, it can be translated" - please note that they actually introduce the characters and thus have a much higher percentage of character interaction than the latter ones. (I was also hooked by Kaffka - Nozomu chemistry, but it didn't develop into anything...)
Try something like chapter 83 (also was scanlated) and see if it still stays funny.

[Dop]

Time to bounce this old thread with the news that the first volume released by Del Rey is now out, and my copy arrived today.

[duckpuppy]

Where did you order from? Amazon and BN say pre-order for February 24.

[ellifeedn]

ZETSUBOU SHITA!! Learning that the series is going to end has left me in despair!

[Kirito]

I'm sad too, but I hope they give us a chance to see whom he'll end up with. I'll definitely be in despair if he doesn't choice one of the girls who're obviously in love with him.

[Utsuro no Hako]

He'll end up with all the girls ... in a mass suicide.