Manga you wish was licensed

[VLordGTZ]

Apparently, Dark Horse is still trying to license the final 3 volumes of Blood Blockade Battlefront.

I'm glad to hear that plans to release more BBB aren't dead yet.   

[Spark Of Spirit]

Was just about to post this.

Great news.

[LumRanmaYasha]

What a relief! Hopefully they'll license Back 2 Back as well.

[gunswordfist]

Isn't that the Drake diss track?

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm referring to the direct sequel to Blood Blockade Battlefront. It's really little more than a name change brought upon because it changed magazines last year, but Dark Horse would still have to license it as separate series.

[gunswordfist]

There's a sequel? Jeez, I need to watch tge anime.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Isn't that the Drake diss track?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMeafEWN2jo

[Markness]

Apparently, Dark Horse is still trying to license the final 3 volumes of Blood Blockade Battlefront.

I'm glad to hear that plans to release more BBB aren't dead yet.   

Wow, and I was just about to swear off Dark Horse for good. They better get back on Drifters and Eden as well. I do not want all three of these series to have incomplete runs.

[gunswordfist]

Isn't that the Drake diss track?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMeafEWN2jo

God I love his music!

[Markness]

It's strange to me how Hokuto no Ken and Guyver were never completed by Viz despite how both mangas got live action films in the 90's. Does anyone know exactly why Viz dropped them?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Most likely due to poor sales. They initially dropped JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for the same reason until the 2012 anime revitalized the public interest and awareness of the franchise, which has given Viz the much needed incentive to give the manga another shot.

Some of these older series would need something similar to happen for them in order to justify Viz picking them back up again.

[Markness]

Most likely due to poor sales. They initially dropped JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for the same reason until the 2012 anime revitalized the public interest and awareness of the franchise, which has given Viz the much needed incentive to give the manga another shot.

Some of these older series would need something similar to happen for them in order to justify Viz picking them back up again.

I think some other factors with JJBA were the music references being potential lawsuit landmines, the series has no end in sight, and most of the English speaking world at the time was only familiar with the OVAs and fighting games. I think I also read Jason Thompson say somewhere Viz only planned on bringing over Stardust Crusaders at the time but I'm glad the new anime made them change their minds.

I just hope the same can happen with Ushio and Tora. Some might ask why don't I just learn Japanese and import the various series I wish were licensed. It's not that I don't want to learn Japanese, I'm just not in a good place in my life to really take the time to learn a new language and importing stuff can be very expensive.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's strange to me how Hokuto no Ken and Guyver were never completed by Viz despite how both mangas got live action films in the 90's. Does anyone know exactly why Viz dropped them?

Viz tried to release FOTNS twice back in the day, first in 1989 and then later in 1996. Ultimately, the sales just weren't and they only got through roughly five volumes worth of content. Raijin Comics tried to do it later in 2002, but that attempt also failed, so badly in fact Raijin abandoned the american comics market entirely afterwards. The series has three strikes going against it at this point, so unless a new anime adaption comes out and becomes really popular, the chances of another attempt by anyone is pretty slim I'm afraid.

As for JoJo's, Viz actually was originally going to publish it in the early 90s, but abandoned their plans after Baoh sold poorly. Then in the early 2000s they were considering releasing it in monthly floppies like they originally did with Dragon Ball, or adding it to their then upcoming Shonen Jump magazine, but they stalled on doing that until finally they just decided to release it in graphic novel format in 2005. They did Stardust Crusaders because it was the most well-known and popular part, and that was really the only part they ever planned on doing unless it became really popular and sold really well. It didn't, so they just finished SC and left it at that. But compared to FOTNS you can say Viz's first attempt was at least moderately successful since it sold enough for them to be able to release all of SC like they wanted to in the first place.

[gunswordfist]

Sighs, of course Guyver hasn't been fully translated.

[VLordGTZ]

Well, the Guyver manga is still ongoing, so it's not possible to fully translate it yet.   

I'm surprised no one tried to bring it over again when the 2005 anime came out, though.