Naoki Urasawa

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm a big fan of the omnibus format, but I'm not the biggest collector of manga, still. Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun, and Urasawa are pretty much all that's on my list.

Not thinking about collecting Vinland Saga? I love the designs of the books and the fact that they are hardcovers, myself. The bonus stuff like Yukimura's manga about the Shinsengumi, short comics about Ylfa, historical notes, etc. are nice additions too.

It'd be nice if Planetes got a re-release of similar quality, since the manga is out of print now. Maybe if Vinland Saga keeps selling well for Kodansha they'll consider re-licensing it.

My manga collection has grown like 30X times in the past year, somehow. Considering that I'm keeping up with quite a few releases, like the Monster, Vinland Saga, and Ranma 1/2 omnibi, it's probably just going to keep getting bigger. 

Unless of course AnJ gets licensed. 

I'd love it if AnJ, and Asao Takamori's other works, get licensed someday. Though, I feel the only way it could was if it was a digital only deal through something like Crunchyroll manga, a la their classic Takao Saito manga selection. It seems that unless it was written by Osamu Tezuka, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, or Shigeru Mizuki, old classic manga titles won't ever get licensed for print releases in the west. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh, I'll get Vinland Saga eventually, but I've got a lot on my list right now. If they get omnibus releases of 20th Century Boys and Pluto then I'll really have my work cut out for me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I do want to collect those Viz Big editions of Rurouni Kenshin and Dragon Ball, myself.

If AnJ were to ever get licensed and released in the states (which would be amazing, so naturally it's never going to actually happen), I'd love it if instead of releasing all 20 volumes individually, they instead opted to publish bigger books containing 2 volumes each.

[Avaitor]

I'm hoping to try to collect 20CB, Pluto, Kenshin, and maybe Death Note in the near future, myself. Maybe Black Jack, as well.

But my money goes all over the place, so I just haven't had too much dough for manga. I had to make an exception for Monster, though.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Perfect Edition volume 4 and 5 appear to be up from preorder to which I already did. 4 is out in April and 5 is out in June, so that's a ways off.

Meanwhile my volume 3 just shipped.

[Avaitor]

I actually have a B&N gift card with more or less exactly how much volume 3 will cost, which I got after trading in a book I didn't want for Christmas. So now I don't even have to pay for it.

Can't wait!

[Spark Of Spirit]

I do like the way the volumes for the omnibuses have been set up so far. The first volume was the entire introduction and start of the story up to Tenma leaving to find Johan, and the second contained the entire Neo-Nazi plot. The third shows the consequences of the earlier stories while also leading up to the beginning of the Munich arc. Since volume 4 should contain most of Munich, it should be ripping as well.

I wish more manga had omnibuses.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The way the volumes pair together all works out pretty well. I guess 2 in 1's were the way to go with the series after all!

Which manga in particular would you like to see omnibus editions of?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Which manga in particular would you like to see omnibus editions of?

I guess saying "all of them" would be cheating? 

Bakuman, Slam Dunk, and REAL would be nice since the authors' other works are in that format. Other Urasawa stuff like Pluto and 20th Century Boys, too. As for unlicensed stuff, well, obviously Ashita no Joe (ten volumes is an easier sell than twenty, I think) would be at the top of the list.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ashita no Joe was compiled from its original 20 volumes into 12 in Japan. Perhaps if someone could license it and translate those volumes, we'd have the perfect collectable version of it available.

Of course that'll never happen, but I would totally buy the series if it was available in English.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Ashita no Joe was compiled from its original 20 volumes into 12 in Japan. Perhaps if someone could license it and translate those volumes, we'd have the perfect collectable version of it available.

Of course that'll never happen, but I would totally buy the series if it was available in English.

If someone would kickstart it, I know I'd throw some money in. But then, I don't know if there would be enough interest from modern anime/manga fans for it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Takamori and Chiba don't have the name recognition status of Tezuka, so it probably wouldn't get funded.

For what it's worth, though, AnJ has slowly but steadily been gaining popularity among scan readers. It may eventually build up a dedicated cult fan-base over a few more years, enough for a publisher like Viz to take notice. It's way too much of a long shot, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Bakuman, Slam Dunk, and REAL would be nice since the authors' other works are in that format. Other Urasawa stuff like Pluto and 20th Century Boys, too.

Yeah, I think all those would be great. I'd especially love to see one for SD, even if that's the most unlikely to happen among what you've listed.

Takamori and Chiba don't have the name recognition status of Tezuka, so it probably wouldn't get funded.

For what it's worth, though, AnJ has slowly but steadily been gaining popularity among scan readers. It may eventually build up a dedicated cult fan-base over a few more years, enough for a publisher like Viz to take notice. It's way too much of a long shot, though.

Even Tezuka's name isn't enough to get his stuff funded sometimes, if that mega kickstarter and the current Alabaster kickstarter are any indication...

If AnJ were to be licensed for a print release, it would probably have to be Kodansha, Vertical, or DMP. Kodansha and Vertical are focused on more modern stuff, and DMP would probably not be enthused about licensing a long non-Tezuka series when that mega-Kickstarter failed, so all of them seem like long shots to me. It could get a digital translation, maybe released Crunchyroll Manga, since they are interested in getting more diverse and classic titles in addition to new ones (their affiliation with Kodansha also helps). That seems like the most likely bet to me.

As far as the anime goes, at least AnJ2, that seems more possible to me with the releases of a lot of older anime titles lately like Space Adventure Cobra and Mazinger Z. I could see Nozomi or Eastern Star trying to do it sometime. 

My biggest wish is for Viz to release the Kanzeban versions of Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku after their done with the Ranma 1/2 omnibi. That would collect those series in 15 and 10 volumes respectively, which would be perfect. But the UY manga failed twice here and MI was never a big seller either, so I know it's probably not going to happen.

I think the one series that I would like to see an omnibus edition of soon and has a decent chance of happening would be Detective Conan. That series is just so unbelievably long, and being able to collect it in a third of the amount of volumes would be so much easier.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

I'm still holding out for some kind of omnibus release of 20th Century Boys, like the one avaiable in France. It's the main reason I haven't started buying up the volumes.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm still holding out for some kind of omnibus release of 20th Century Boys, like the one avaiable in France. It's the main reason I haven't started buying up the volumes.

They could very easily do it after Monster is done. In fact, I kind of expect it. Since it will be awhile until Billy Bat is done and they can release it, they gotta keep Urasawa fresh in the public mind. So what better way than with omnibus releases of 20th Century Boys and Pluto next?