Why Not Just Start With a Colored Manga?

[TheGreatness25]

Hello all. Since Viz put up a portion of the Dragon Ball Super manga online, it makes me happy that Super the manga might be coming soon to the U.S. (however long it takes them to release all of it is beyond my comprehension as they seem to be really... really... really... really... slowwww when it comes to releasing the manga). But one question came to me: Why is it still in black and white? They've went back to redo the original Dragon Ball manga and add color to it. Why is the new stuff coming out without color? I realize it might take time to color the thing (then again, in today's world, how much time does it really take?), but still. Is that the reason why the mana is still in black and white? I can just see 10 years form now, they'll release Dragon Ball Super "the way it was meant to be read" with color.

[JulieYBM]

It takes time and money to properly color. The color editions of the original comic look terrible and were clearly done with little thought long after the creation of the drawings. Dragon Ball Super is just a cheap comic that needs to be sold in a magazine and then collected into a cheaply printed volume a few months later. It's not a prestigious production.

[Nejishiki]

It's just a standard practice to ink manga in black and white. The original 42 volumes of Dragon Ball being digitally colored was a special occasion. Really, any week where the author has a colored chapter is treated as a special occasion with how rare it comes by. You must also be mindful that the workload for manga artists is higher than normal compared to other industries and that drawing to include color and drawing in black and white are two similar, but entirely different processes of work.

[TheGreatness25]

I get your point. I know that this is tradition and standard practice, I guess it's just interesting that it never switched over to color. In the US, every BS little comic book is colored in (except for ones in the newspapers of course). When I was young, I saw comic books that never amounted to anything (nobody knows what they are now and they don't even come up when I do a Google search on them) were fully colored. I guess the time constraint and possible money (though how much money does it really take?) are that big of an influence.

[JulieYBM]

Japanese comics are made faster and sold for less than American comics. That has allowed them to stay relevant and popular. There really isn't any point in using color unless you're going to do it right, either. A full-color comic from Saeki Shun would look nice, but his art for black-and-white is great, too, even without his awesome color sensibilities.

[TheGreatness25]

I guess it's just weird since I haven't been following Super, to think that Super Saiyan "Blue" will look like Super Saiyan. I feel like the colors make a difference now.

[JulieYBM]

I guess it's just weird since I haven't been following Super, to think that Super Saiyan "Blue" will look like Super Saiyan. I feel like the colors make a difference now.

Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan use screen tone as a coloring, so it is easy to tell which is the original Super Saiyan and which is Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.

[TheGreatness25]

Ah okay. That's cool I guess. Thank you for the info

[winnersproof]

The comparison to US comics is incredibly unfair and insinuating that coloring a comic is quick and easy is offensive to the artists who make a living doing it. Toyotaro is writing, penciling, inking, and lettering about 30 pages a month for Super for about $4 a volume. A US comic has a writer, penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer for 22 pages a month for about $4 an issue. A colored manga would also require more complex pencils. Toriyama would have lots of objects, outfits, etc. be all black because it was easier to draw. Toyotaro also does this. For the full color editions these had to be redrawn with details like fabric wrinkles so that they wouldn't appear poorly drawn. Basically every instance of Piccolo or Vegeta would need extensive redrawing. It's not just as simple as adding the basic colors in on Photoshop layer and calling it a day. That's just step one/flatting, then there's shading which is the time consuming part.

Trust me, I want Super in color just as much as you do but either the price goes up considerably, it takes a much longer time to come out, or it turns out bad and actually hurts the art. The manga industry(especially not Jump) is not capable of changing like this for something as in-demand as Dragon Ball. Sorry if this came off like an angry rant(I really don't mean it to) but good coloring is not easy.

[TheGreatness25]

But I feel like this isn't the olden days where they had to color everything by hand. Even with things that are black (hair, clothing, etc), they could just do the outline and color it in digitally after the fact. It would make it easier for recoloring if the detail was put in to begin with. But yeah I see your point. And obviously it's a big task. I just feel like since they made such a push for color recently, it's basically doing twice to work -- drawing it originally, then going back to redo it in color adding in detail.

[winnersproof]

It's really just too much work to ask of one artist and Shueisha/Jump don't care enough about the manga to warrant hiring someone else. The manga is just an ad for the show to them. It's kinda surprising it's being collected in Japan and released at all over here to begin with.

[ParkerAL]

I just feel like since they made such a push for color recently, it's basically doing twice to work -- drawing it originally, then going back to redo it in color adding in detail.

They're almost certainly not going to go back and colorize the Super manga. As much as I like what Toyotaro's been able to do with it, it's still only a cheap promotional comic - a quick marketing tool. It's not going to come out in color. The vast, overwhelming majority of manga are never reprinted in color.

[TheGreatness25]

That kind of sucks considering that originally, the anime was pretty much a supplement to the manga, which is the original work. It's kind of like if I wrote a book that was turned into a movie and they treated my book as the supplement to the movie. I guess the concept escapes me. From what I understand, doesn't the Super manga also come out before the anime? So how could it be viewed in such a weird way?

I guess I'm just not used to that way of thinking. I'd never say that the Batman comics in 1997 were a promotional piece for Batman and Robin. That would be crazy. So it's kind of mind-boggling for me that such a viewpoint would exist for Dragon Ball. Oh well, it is what it is. I guess the question was answered and they don't really seem to really care about the manga over there.

[VegettoEX]

From what I understand, doesn't the Super manga also come out before the anime? So how could it be viewed in such a weird way?

Yes and no. It started before the TV series began, fell behind, skipped ahead, and now is behind again.

It is its own completely separate type of product from anything Dragon Ball has seen before (an adaptation of the same story done by a different author to serve as promotion for a separate product yet still given liberty to have its own spin), and as such, I really think/encourage people to not pigeon-hole it so much.

[TheGreatness25]

Two words: man confusing lol I'd definitely pick up the manga once Viz carries it over here (hopefully they can release it within a 5 year window; we know how prompt they are with their releases ).

So forgetting "canon," because that conversation never really interested me, what seems to be more interesting the anime or manga? In DB/Z, it was clear that pacing and all that was won over by the manga. Is that still the case since it's all convoluted?

[ParkerAL]

The Dragon Ball Super anime was never a supplement to the manga by Toyotaro. At this point in time, the anime is the main platform for advertising Dragon Ball products. The current manga is only a sideshow novelty, albeit one that is well made. It is not on the same level of importance as Toriyama's manga. Not even close.

[ekrolo2]

The Dragon Ball Super anime was never a supplement to the manga by Toyotaro. At this point in time, the anime is the main platform for advertising Dragon Ball products. The current manga is only a sideshow novelty, albeit one that is well made. It is not on the same level of importance as Toriyama's manga. Not even close.

Erm, who said it was? The manga is there to promote the anime, it was never the other way around. It being in many ways better than the show and more consistent with itself and what Toriyama wrote in the manga beforehand is a totally different matter.