May 22nd, 2009 (05:33 pm)
mood: surprised
Seems like Bokurano was just licensed in the US by Viz.
On one hand: YIPPEE! It's good to see a series I love - and a fairly obscure one at that - get an official release so I can (hopefully, assuming it does well enough on the new IKKI site) pay money for it and own a hard copy and support it.
On the other: To put it shortly, it's Viz.
Two things I'll point out here. One: it's pretty obvious that if Bokurano were to be licensed, it would be by Viz, because they pretty much have a monopoly on Shogakukan stuff. Two: unlike the vast majority of manga fandom, I don't hate Viz at all, nor do I spit and snarl at every single little thing they do with their titles. (Guys, they have to change brand names for legal reasons, and I'm sure Naruto isn't ruined forever just because the main character's waving a fist instead of flipping the bird. Take it easy sometimes!)
With that out of the way, Bokurano does have some very contraversial content in places. I'm just wondering how Viz is likely to cope with that, though if all their IKKI titles are planned to go on their Signature label, I think I can be cautiously optimistic.
Well, if a few bits end up on the cutting room floor (I'd know which bits, and I probably wouldn't blame Viz for it, considering) I think I'd still buy it anyway. I bought all the volume releases Dark Horse put out for NaruTaru, after all. Speaking of which, I am laughing at the peeps on the forums who think DH would've done so much of a better job with Bokurano. Did they forget that they never finished NaruTaru? Never mind that, to my knowledge, they put out most of their new stuff at a snail's pace these days. XD
I'll have to check out the new IKKI site later, as Children of the Sea seems intriguing and I recall hearing good things about it. Oh, and I've got the raw of Bokurano chapter 62 to look at, too.