Viz's Print Edition of the "Full Colour Comics" Discussion

[FortuneSSJ]

Now with Freeza coming back in 2015. this will be another wasted opportunity to release the Freeza arc.
Such quality thrown to the garbage.

[jrdemr]

The movie won't be shown in US theaters next year (at least not likely), so it wouldn't make much sense for them to release a domestic version of the Full Color Freeza Arc when there's no movie being released domestically to tie it to. I'm much more hopeful for a Japanese release of the Pre-Z Full Color volumes. They could do it when the movie does eventually make its way to US shores, but by then, so much time will have passed since the Saiyan volumes were released that it makes it all the more unlikely.

[eledoremassis02]

I think it was halted for the 3 in 1's (so they didnt pull a Funimation and over-saturate the market with Z. However, if thats the case, thats really unfair (and I buy the 3in1's)

[SSJ2FutureGohan]

Not to sound lost, but I don't wanna read through 21 pages. VIZ definitely is stopping with Vol. 3 for full color? Was it announced that they're pretty much done?

[eledoremassis02]

Not to sound lost, but I don't wanna read through 21 pages. VIZ definitely is stopping with Vol. 3 for full color? Was it announced that they're pretty much done?

Last I checked, they are on Hiatus (though they didnt state why)

[UltimateHammerBro]

I think I read somewhere that the Japanese company was reluctant to license more volumes internationally and that's why the English edition was on hiatus.
I personally find it weird, since the Spanish edition of the Freeza saga has already been announced and is scheduled for February:

[jrdemr]

I think it was halted for the 3 in 1's (so they didnt pull a Funimation and over-saturate the market with Z.

The 3-in-1 were released before the Full Colors, so it wouldn't make much sense for them to start releasing a second version and then halt it because of a prior (and objectively inferior) release.

Not to sound lost, but I don't wanna read through 21 pages. VIZ definitely is stopping with Vol. 3 for full color? Was it announced that they're pretty much done?

They haven't come out and just plain said it was cancelled (they very rarely do), they just said that for now, they only had plans to release the Saiyan arc, but by looking at the new releases they have announced so far, the latest of which comes out June 2015, it's safe to say that the Full Color ship has sailed. They do announce new releases every now and then, but their announcement deluge is at Anime Expo, in July, and if they were to announce the continuation of the Full Colors at AE 2015, they'd come out around January/February 2016, which seems very unlikely. They'd be published 2 years after the first Saiyan saga volume, it's just too long. Not to mention they've had more than enough time since February to evaluate the sales. If they wanted to keep them coming, they would have announced the Freeza saga already. Cold Skin once said on the general Full Color Comics discussion thread that Viz clearly doesn't like printing in color due to being obviously more expensive than just printing in monochrome - even the VizBigs monochromed about 40% of the manga's original color pages.

I think I read somewhere that the Japanese company was reluctant to license more volumes internationally and that's why the English edition was on hiatus.
I personally find it weird, since the Spanish edition of the Freeza saga has already been announced and is scheduled for February]

I'm starting to think it's a question of Viz wanting to do stuff on the cheap. Tons of European countries get really good quality anime and manga and yet the American market frequently gets the cheaper versions only (if any version at all). If Europe can get it, there's no reason the U.S. wouldn't be able to get it as well - unless they'd be unwilling to dish out as much.

[eledoremassis02]

The 3-in-1 were released before the Full Colors, so it wouldn't make much sense for them to start releasing a second version and then halt it because of a prior (and objectively inferior) release.

True, but they we're at the Dragon Ball portion and just started Z a few month ago. It may have been a "wait a moment" moment. The binding on the full colors can be questionable so while the paper is good the binding quality is debatable (like their VIZbigs *another quality release*)

[jrdemr]

True, but they we're at the Dragon Ball portion and just started Z a few month ago. It may have been a "wait a moment" moment.

They had to have known that they'd be reaching the Z-Era in the 3-in-1 shortly, so for them to release the Full Colors while knowing they'd put them on hold after just 3 volumes still doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

The binding on the full colors can be questionable so while the paper is good the binding quality is debatable (like their VIZbigs *another quality release*)

I know a lot of people have been worried about the binding (not that it ever happened to any of my own 3 volumes), but even so, both the Full Color and the VizBig editions are unquestionably better than the 3-in-1. The only good thing about them are the covers (never really liked the covers on both the Full Colors and the VizBigs). And a lot of people still consider them to be a insult due to Viz putting Kanzenban covers on an edition that doesn't have an ounce of its quality.

[eledoremassis02]

Its all guessing but this is viz we're talking about (they wont get back to me on the title card typo in the 3in1). they might of realized it later on? We could ask on facebook

They are higher quality but the vizbigs binding could be better and i've seen full collors with cracked binding and a few loose pages (i think it was mentioned in the kanzenshuu reveiw).

Either way, viz has gotten real unprofessional :/

[anth21ony]

After doing some research, I posted an article about VIZ's Full Color Comic and future publications the other day on my website..http://wp.me/p3OIeC-7uS

VIZ's press release from a year ago states that, "future publications will be published three times a year". The initial release was in February 2014, so maybe they will be announcing something soon?

San Francisco, CA, January 27, 2014 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, brings Akira Toriyama’s classic manga (graphic novel) series DRAGON BALL back to fans in an entirely new way with the release of DRAGON BALL FULL COLOR Volume 1 on February 4th.

The new edition from the Shonen Jump imprint features a special full-color treatment of the first DRAGON BALL Z manga volume in a larger 6 5/8" x 10 ¼” size. The volume is rated ‘A’ for All Ages and will carry an MSRP of $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN / £12.99 U.K. Future volumes will be published three times a year http://www.viz.com/node/1006052.

[LordCrumb]

Three issues a year? That's cheap.

[Careless Saiyajin]

I mean all of z is already digitally colored with Japanese font and viz will little by little edit the English translation over that and release it they are just for some reason giving it a break for now, I am confident we will see English continuation of the full color in 2016.

[jrdemr]

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to see this news and I sure hope this does come through, but... sorry to be a killjoy, but if Viz always intended to publish new volumes at a rate of three per year, then why did they always tell people asking them about the Freeza volumes that they only had plans to publish the Saiyan saga for now? And why hasn't the first Freeza volume appeared in their release calendar, which goes all the way to April?

The announcement is undoubtedly genuine, but something's not quite right here... did they have a change of heart?

[EmmaWinters]

The announcement is undoubtedly genuine, but something's not quite right here... did they have a change of heart?

It's too early to say, so for now, we need to take them at their word.
For all we know, they're planning to start in the Summer.

Viz's "three times a year" has been the plan from the start.
Right now, it's a waiting game. Anything else is speculation.

[jrdemr]

It's too early to say, so for now, we need to take them at their word.
For all we know, they're planning to start in the Summer.

Viz's "three times a year" has been the plan from the start.
Right now, it's a waiting game. Anything else is speculation.

It's not so much speculation when you've also got direct word from them in the opposite direction.



I know you want to believe more will be coming (believe me, I do too), but when you've got two conflicting messages from the same company it's kinda hard to "take them at their word".

True, they might be planning to start in the Summer, but when you get the same negative reply so many times, I try to refrain from getting my hopes up.

I asked them to comment on the announcement on their facebook page, let's see what they have to say (if they do say something).

[Theophrastus]

With Naruto having ended, Viz is (at least theoretically) going to need something that they can treat as a tent-pole franchise until The Next Big Thing hits. Especially with Kai airing on Toonami (basically free advertising) and RoF probably getting a US release sometime next year, I could see Viz deciding to fall back on a shiny new release of DBZ in the form of the Full Colors until they can find whatever the new hotness is. 17 volumes at 3 per year would give them 5 years and 8 months of breathing room.

...Of course, this speculation hinges on the idea that the DB manga has a relative popularity in the US comparable to the DBZ anime, and I have no idea whether that's actually the case or not.

[Careless Saiyajin]

With US fans on this forum it is however from experience of people I know in real life that enjoy watching DBZ the majority of them other then myself do not purchase manga unfortunately. There could be a great deal of people in the US that do but I do not know them in my personal experience.

[FortuneSSJ]

Could this be?! After all that coments in their facebook page, a new hope?!
Its hard to not getting hype. But its still soon to tell.

[dbboxkaifan]

Viz as of now has the crappy 3-in-1 release ongoing so maybe they're holding back the Full Colour mangas until they're all out but don't hold yer breath for it.