Va'al wrote:Given all the negative reaction this news is getting, I think we're forgetting how big it actually is for IDW to be officially available in another language, especially with the Japanese readership!
Was AHM not as successful? Maybe. I liked it. I still do. Slow pacing? Sure. But as a one-volume read, to me, it works. And it sets the scene for everything that comes after it, Costa, Roberts, Barber, RID/MTMTE, Dark Cybertron, Drift, Scott, Windblade and Combiner Wars. It's a good place to start, without having to delve back into the -ations.
WW2 also set the scene for everything to come after it, it's still not a good thing though. Or a good jumping on point
Eh, this story is right up the alley for the Manga audience, big stupid overblown action scenes, massive city destroying action, pointless side characters and stories that only serve to pad the story out to it's 12 chapters. The only thing that's missing is everyone announcing their attacks (Fusion Canon Blast of DEATH, Prime Fist of Justice, Insecticon Planet Crush), little girls in skimpy outfits, unnecessary panty shots, and nose bleed. Oh and recounting the previous events for 5 pages every 30 pages.
I can see why they chose AHM to start with, it's the easiest jumping on point for them, one it's as I said already pretty Shonen, but the previous -tion stuff has a completely different structure and feel to this and the Ongoing after it.
While the tion stuff is a bit slow, it's also too "quiet" for Japan, most of the stuff is just infiltrating and trying to outsmart the enemy with just very few actual robot fights, while mostly focusing on moving the story forward. AHM and the Ongoing are the right kind of slow for Japanese readers, since they spread out the story and extend it with long pretty pointless dialogue that goes practically nowhere, while pretending that it does, with plenty of action in between.
It would be too big a jump for Japanese readers to get used to tion, then get used to AHM tonal shift which pretty much stays the norm for the following material until RID and MTMTE shows up. It's just kinda the problem idw has now due to first caring so much about their continuity, then not caring at all, just to now care a whole lot again.
Hell, they might not even have to print the old spotlights or tion series, since MTMTE and RID bring up the stuff that's important post AHM, and explains it all while expanding on it to better fit the current status quo.
But yeah, this is the first foreign language printing of idw's TF comics, I know German comic fans have been petitioning Panini to start releasing idw's TF stuff, having the idw licence and all, but as of yet nothing has come of that.