What's going on with the Umineko manga?

07th Discussion
#1

So in case nobody else has been paying attention, Yen Press have been doing this amazing job localising all of the Umineko manga for release in English-speaking territories, and they’ve managed to release all the way up to the end of Dawn of the Golden Witch, consistently promising each subsequent volume. But all of a sudden, their release schedule for Umineko has disappeared. As far as I can tell, there’s no observable plans for Yen Press to release the final two Episodes of Umineko, leaving readers right before the finale of this amazing story. I’ve tweeted at them a few times for comment (they are usually pretty active in replying to people) but all of my attempts have been met with no response. Things aren’t looking good.

I guess the first question is: have you been buying these releases? It would help if I could get some firsthand data on whether or not these releases have been successful. I thought for sure they would be but, maybe I’m wrong?

2 Likes
#2

Damn, I forgot the localization wasn’t done yet. I can’t help but to say I’ve seen Umineko in bookshops many times (which is in itself interesting) and have of course always wanted to buy it but never have seeing as I tend to see the omnibus editions and I’m not generally willing to drop £30+ on manga on a whim. I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t been that successful, but what a shame if they stop.

#3

All of the English volumes incorporate two Japanese volumes worth of content as far as I’m aware, hence thicc af

2 Likes
#4

I don’t know about the stock in other countries, but in mine (India), while the Visual Novels themselves are not for sale, the mangas are all up for sale on amazon.in, and quite a lot of price ends up going in shipping as well as the cost of the mangas itself, to the point where I have to evaluate the worth of the mangas itself and which one I absolutely must have. I guess that’s​ a sign of localisation?

Although, the same problem persists here: all volumes up until the last volume of Dawn of the Golden Witch are available, if not sold out (and very few are sold out, maybe one in Turn and Alliance), Requiem and Twilight are virtually unheard of, let alone Umineko Hane. So yes, I think they’ve either hit a wall or they’ve stopped bothering. Or ours is simply a country where sales hasn’t exactly been booming for Umineko on account of the few people who know that it even exists.

#5

Sigh… I get it but it makes it hard to reach for vs. something else. I’m still building my Higurashi collection and was going to start on it after that. It seems weird Yen Press would make it this far then terminate the project, though? I can’t see why there’d’ve been a sudden drop in support at this point.

1 Like
#6

I have finished Higurashi and have all the books released so far so it would really suck if they stopped now. Hopefully it is just to space out releases a bit but it doesn’t sound promising…

#7

I’ve bought their releases of Umineko - they are doing a great job with it. I am sad they don’t have pre-order pages up for the other chapters, but I have a pretty good opinion of Yen Press and feel pretty confident they will finish what they started. My best guess is that they are still finalizing some details with Japanese publisher regarding these volumes and can’t comment on it until things are straightened out and approved.

5 Likes
#8

Well, here’s hoping so Miyu!

#9

I sure hope they continue, I’d love to have the complete set sitting on my shelf. I have everything up until End so far, and the manga does a great job streamlining the more tedious parts of Umineko (The early Bits in Legend, Ange’s scenes in Alliance) without cutting anything out.

1 Like
#10

I’m almost entirely certain they plan on continuing. If they were to cancel a series, surely they’d cancel Rose Guns Days and not Umineko- they’re far closer to Umineko’s end, and it’s a much more popular series. And yet, they definitely plan on doing RGD S3, so I have to assume they’ll do the rest of the Umineko manga too.

What I think is most likely, is that they don’t want to say anything about the next volume until they’re positive about a release window. After all, the omnibus volumes have been getting bigger and bigger, and more time has opened up between volume releases accordingly.

#11

For the time being I’m going to have faith that they plan to finish it. If a few months passes and there’s no sign of it continuing, I guess we’ll just have to do something about it~

#12

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ryukishi07/umineko-when-they-cry-episode-7-requiem-of-the-golden-witch-vol-1/9780316411899/?yen

Looks like it was just delayed a bit. I am kind of curious about the gap though.

4 Likes
#13

Maybe its due to running out of print? Most of the Barnes and Nobles I visit around Manhattan and Brooklyn don’t have much stock.
Or maybe its because EP7 is such a pivotal Episode so Yen Press felt like they had to get it right.

#14

That’s fantastic news! Guess we were just overworried after all.

1 Like
#15

Glad to see it’ll be released but surprisingly large gap if it’s not going to come out until November. Still, looking forward to it.

#16

This is very good news, and it is definitely worth the wait for such an incredible arc as Episode 7.

#17

Ooh a November release that’s quite a wait, but EP7 is pretty worth it.

Time to save up more money for EP7!

2 Likes
#18

So we’ve finally got the cover for the first volume of EP7 which will be released on the 19th of December!

It is indicated that it will be more than 800 pages… I hope it won’t break 'cause it starts getting really huge! I was expecting something like 500 or 600 pages at maximum. Maybe they did that to keep it to 3 volumes instead of going for 4? (which I maybe would have prefered). Or is EP7 manga really that lengthy?

2 Likes
#19

EP7 & 8’s manga have 9 volumes (some of them close to 300 pages iirc), maybe they want to do 4 volumes and went with the first 3 into one.

To be more precise, I think this was a bad move from them in a way:
Volume 1 is 356-pages long
Volume 2 and 3 are 240-ish

While:
Volume 4 is 210-ish
Volume 5 is 220-ish
Volume 6 is 200-ish
Those 3 are much better candidates for a triple volume then the first 3, and end in a rather good cliffhanger too (much like volume 2 does).

And for the best candidate, we still have:
Volume 7 & 8 are 180-ish pages
Volume 9 is 220-ish pages long, and concludes the release.

Altenatively, volume 5-7 could be the most equilibrated triple volume, and ends in an acceptably good cliffhanger as well (volume 6’s is much better though).

2 Likes
#20

Maybe it’s the wrong thread, but there are several things about the Yen Press versions that I noticed.
First, to stay on-topic, I’m buying them one by one from an online-shop (I have never seen them in any store ever), but by now all the question arcs except those I’ve bought are already taken out of it for some reason. Whether they are sold out or they have given up on them, I can only guess. And it’s pretty disheartening and I really don’t want to turn to Amazon…

Second… I don’t know how they look in other countries, but when I first picked up my episode 3 volumes and leaved through the pages, I was left utterly baffled that Red Truth isn’t fucking red. It’s just boldened? When comparing with Japanese versions or even my Higurashi volumes, I saw that even the artwork pages at the beginning and the end were only black/white. I thought they were kidding me! But apparently all the Yen Press translations skip on the colours… damn shame…

And… I don’t know whether some purists will probably lynch me, but I am wondering… Am I the only one who then set out to correct that myself with a red marker?

4 Likes