Gangan Mangaka Punished with Upside-Down Printing
- Categories: Manga, News
- Date: Mar 25, 2013 22:10 JST
- Tags: Mangaka, Production Controversy, Shonen Gangan, Square Enix
Square Enix manga magazine Shonen Gangan has astonished readers by deliberately printing a manga upside-down “as punishment” for the author missing a deadline.
The manga in question, Haru ni Naru Uzuuzu Shichau by Fumi Fujimura, has been serialised in Monthly Big Gangan since 2011.
The most recent edition saw 8 pages printed upside-down, with a right-side-up note printed on the page stating that:
“As punishment for Fujimura-sensei breaking a deadline, the manga will be printed upside-down. We apologise for causing readers annoyance with this inexcusable measure.”
The odd punishment has provoked a distinctly mixed reaction:
“This is a joke, right?”
“Editorial onanism? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to reduce the mangaka’s pay?”
“Even as a marketing stunt this is a bit lacking. I guess they didn’t want to use blank pages either.”
“Just sack the mangaka already!”
“These magazines give the impression that their editors are a bunch of children…”
“This is at least quite entertaining to see once in a while.”
“In spite of the deadline the editors seem to have plenty of time to mess around like this!”
“This is just taking things too far.”
“I can’t believe they did this without Fujimura’s consent. It’s quite entertaining… will they restore it for the tankobon?”
“Just a publicity stunt, surely. They have been doing this kind of stuff too much lately.”
“So now the readers get punished along with the mangaka? What is wrong with these companies…”
“Somebody is going to ask for a refund, like when they manage to print pages out of order.”
“Don’t involve the readers in this stuff!”
“It certainly seems Gangan is not doing too well these days.”
“This must have really confused the printers…”
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut “Dragons & Mechs?”
Monster Hunter X Megaman Event Profusely Blue
Love Live! Sunshine!! MV “Will Brighten Up Your Day!”
Top 10 Best Anime Girls of 2015
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar “Has Oppai!”
Picking Up Japan Express Vol. 36 Worth a Pickup
Dimension W Out Of This World
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir PV Certainly Nostalgic
One-Punch Man Soundtrack PV Packs A Wallop
XmasTrickStar “A White Christmas Indeed…”
Wo-Class Carrier Ero-MMD In Dire Straights
Voice Translation Tool Promotional Video “Inexcusable!”
Luck & Logic Far From Lucky
Yandere Simulator Possibly Headed to Kickstarter
Top 20 Recent Anime Most In Need Of A Sequel
Hyrule Warriors Legends PV Clashes Interminably
Akagami no Shirayukihime English Dub Surfaces
Koukaku no Pandora Really Opens That Box
Gate Season 2 Darker Than Ever
Super Sweet Sonico Bikini Figure
Delectable Dizzy Cosplay by Lechat
Dark Elf Cosplay by Non Very Dark Indeed
Titillating Tamako Cosplay Perfectly Pink
Goddess of 2ch: “Full of Lust & Urges (& Also Videos)!”
Raunchy Reisen Inaba Cosplay by Tsuyato
Haruhi Bunny Girl Cosplay Rocks Out
Youmu Ero-Cosplay by Madoka Adachi Deadly Sexy
Comiket 89 Cosplay Sickeningly Sweet
Comiket 89 Cosplay A Guilty Pleasure
Comiket 89 Cosplay Ceaselessly Sexy
So the next time a mangaka misses a deadline, he should submit his work upside down to the editors so when the editors flip it when they publish it, it'll be the right side up! Lesson learnt.
I think it would be fair to have a public reading, while the mangaka is upside down. That would be a more reader-friendly stunt.
This type of petty little passive-aggressive, public 'humiliation' is what passes for revenge in japan. Funny thing, like that time when my company refused to listen to request from a yakuza and they just sent this one fuckin bitch punk chinpira to our lobby to sit there and threaten people.
It was funny watching him slink away with a bow-gait after the security threw him out the front door.
Can't people just turn the magazine/ manga around for a few pages? It's not really much of an inconvenience. If they really wanted to screw with both the author and the readers they should have horizontally flipped all the characters so you could only read it in the mirror. But god forbid that'd take them -effort- to do.
The pages would be out of order. They'd have to first read the left page from right to left, then jump to the right page. It's not that big of a deal, but the effect can't be completely negated. IMO readers should boycott Gangan this month (or demand a refund if they already bought it) to punish Square Enix for involving the readers in their pathetic internal squabbels.
At least, it isn't a bloody mirror.
new punishment - filthy foreigner print edition, everything is flipped
And in broken English barely matching the original story.
This isn't about trolling the readers nor really punishing the mangaka, it's just more like a joke between a mangaka and her editor.
Seems to unprofessional to be anything other then just that a joke between the two.
The only problem I could see arising is with those double page landscape shots.
Why are you a pikachu?
Why aren't you?
Because he has a dick?
;-)
It's like DRM on games = pure shit, FUCK YOU SHONEN SHIT STAIN.
want me to wash off your shounen stain? ;)
God is a Pikachu.
Awful.
he is god!!!!!
GOD DOESNT EXIST!
God does exist!
this gets an anime adaptation, the episode that is from this chapter will air upside-down too.
It's not about Australia perchance, is it?
"As punishment for missing our deadlines, we will inconvenience your readers!"
".. on second thought we will cause inconvenience to OUR readers!"
It's like going to a McDonald's and having the manager spit in your burger, because the employee didn't make it fast enough. Not so brilliant, are we?
It won't bother us who likes to read manga online. The translator will make it normal again.
hah so it actually encourages ppl to read online instead of buying the magazine... really brilliant move
I'm pretty sure it's meant to stop readers from reading the manga for a sec so they can be notified of an irresponsible mangaka's deeds. If the readers think, "This mangaka is irresponsible with deadlines," that might decrease the popularity of the manga in the magazine and encourage its ending and replacement with another series instead.
If you ask me, that's worse for a mangaka than decreased pay.
here's a question, is the text upside down or the complete pages? if it's just pages couldn't you just flip the manga while you read those 8 pages..?
Everything is upside-down, so yeah you can just flip it.
Yeah you could, but then you'd have to go through the pages like we westerners do. Totally impossible
SPECIAL ISSUE: UPSIDE-DOWN CHAPTER.
Marketing strategy right there.
Zura, when upside-down chapter of Gintama will be out?
SPECIAL ISSUE: EVERY PAGE IS UPSIDE-DOWN.
Wait...
I wonder if the anime will be upside down too...
why is this even an issue to literally anyone, does no one posess the amazing state of the art technology known as 'rotating the magazine to read it correctly'.
I can not for the life of me understand why people are getting all ragey about it.
I thought it was pretty funny, its obviously just a joke.
Someone is in denial.
Exactly my thoughts.
Because it was an incredibly stupid and retarded way to "punish" the author. Fucking moron.
It may be a 'joke', but it's incredibly UNPROFESSIONAL. This isn't a school newsletter or a university newspaper, it's a professionally-edited, commercial magazine- something people PAY FOR.
This just shows that the editors and staff of the magazine have no standards of professionalism and makes you wonder how petty they would be in the case of a *REAL* problem?
Square Enix! Should you not be working on a game that does not suck?
What if the same standard of quality was applied to your shitty games?
Oh dear, you might have to ready you arse for the yaoi bat spankin' !!
PS.
Fuck FF 13, that will be all.
Butthurt are we? :P I find your bitching amusing. I liked FF XII. Having mixed thoughts about XIII-2 though, and Lightning Returns looks questionable...
Well XII was solid, just weird and the fixed revision with better gameplay and multiple jobs (Zodiac XII) was never released outside japan.
SquareEnix's manga publishing side is the only thing going for that shit tier company. The gaming company should just close it's doors already.
So let'see here... Mangaka missed the deadline, most likely costing the magazine money. They punish the mangaka by printing the manga upside down, annoying some butthurt fans and thus costing them sales of the said magazine.
How does this punish the mangaka? It's the magazine who lost money on all steps? Mangaka lost...nothing. Most likely his/her fans are supporting him more than before.
People who are reading the magazine will be easily notified that the manga artist isn't good at making deadlines, and those who take that as a problem will not likely vote for the magazine in its readership polls or buy the tankouban. Thus, the manga artist might get pulled from the magazine for lack of popularity. It's a far harsher punishment than what it looks like here.
It's not so much that fans will stop buying the magazine for the other series they may like, but that fans will stop caring about that specific series and cause its downfall.
So they are apologizing for an inexcusable measure that they have taken deliberately.
This makes my brain ouch.
What a bunch of fucktards.
Thank god for photoshop ;o
Revenge Gangan Style!
sorry, I had to. It was inevitable sooner or later anyway.
I think i figured why this happens
mangaka: gimme another day~ i only slept for 3 hrs...
editor: hire an assistant then
mangaka: u will pay?
editor: no
mangaka: then i'll finish it tomorrow
editor: then i'll ruin ur manga
mangaka: do as u please, u r the one who will regret it at the end anyway
editor: u leave me no choice
waaaaay to high expectations !!!!111