Will the final Strawberry Panic novel release?

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Green_Puyo_Tea
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Will the final Strawberry Panic novel release?

Post by Green_Puyo_Tea »

Since the manga wont be finishing (even in Japan I guess), will the 3rd and final volume of the lite novel at least come out? I have the first two and I love them, and I know that the Strawberry Panic series started with the Lite Novels, so I'd love to read the true ending of the series. Also do you have any more information on the Strawberry Panic manga? The artist for that manga still seems to be active so I'm really curious as to whats happened with it. Oh and one more thing, I'm really loving Hayate X Blade, smart move to license that one, it has potential to be really popular.
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Post by Adam_Arnold »


Richard J.
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Post by Richard J. »

Well, having read that thread, I've decided to finish the Seven Seas series that I can and never start another of your titles again. I have never had so many series canceled/not completed from any other company and I am no longer willing to trust any new releases from you guys.

I'm sure someone, probably Lord Styphon, will make some comment about this being an over-reaction. I don't care. I'm not wasting any more of my money starting a series or getting excited about a license from a company that has screwed me over more times than any other publisher. I'm just sick of it.

For a while, I thought, hey I've just got to wait. The sales will come in slowly and eventually I'll at least get to finish SP. Nope, sorry, should have saved my money for something that I could actually finish apparently!

Well, that's what I'm doing from now on. And I'm saving that money for another company's products.
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Ryokosha
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Post by Ryokosha »

The larger problem is, over-reaction or justifible one, such a reaction is creating a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't buy any series at all you are sort of dooming all series even the ones that might otherwise come out without any troubles.

Right now everything is in a state where it needs all the help it can get, with the economy doing what it is doing. Remember the state of the economy and given it, if in this economy if you can show me even one industry that is not cutting back, I'll show you one that is functioning on something other then money.

My question to you, that does not need an answer posted, if this had been any other series would your reaction be the same, or is this particular one for some reason a do or die in your eyes? If it is the latter is it worth risking even the chance of someday to make a statement of sorts today?
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Post by CMB »

I'm willing to keep trying and hope for good things. :sweat:

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Post by Lord Styphon »

Richard J. wrote:I'm sure someone, probably Lord Styphon, will make some comment about this being an over-reaction.
Actually, deciding to not spend anymore of your money on SSE products after a series of disappointments is probably the most reasonable reaction I've seen to anything Seven Seas has done. It's certainly not like you're demanding they finish publishing a series so you can have the complete set, without regard to how much it would cost them to do so, and then act like you're being perfectly reasonable making that demand. Or screaming that their decision whether or not to publish something violates your civil rights.

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Post by Bobster »

Adam Arnold wrote:Strawberry Panic novel 3: /forum/viewtopic.php?t=6449
I read that thread and it was locked. I came here today trying to find out why I could not find volume 3 of the novel. I appreciate your points on the business model detailed in that thread. I am still going to keep buying your products, but I am disappointed at the loss of this one. I appreciate the great job you guys do on the other series that I follow. Thanks for all the good work in trying to get them out to us. Out of curiosity how long is your license for?

Best Regards,

Bobby

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Post by CMB »

One can hope that things will get better and they still print at a later date. :sweat:

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Post by jimmydean815 »

CMB wrote:One can hope that things will get better and they still print at a later date. :sweat:
thats what we're all hoping for
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Post by Matt122005 »

May I ask, since I'm guessing that Ballad of a Shinigami vol. 3 has already been translated and edited and you probably already have a prototype version of it.

Is there a way we can pay HIGHER prices to get a single copy printed for us? Would this be possible? Ya know, paying double the price for a single copy?

And I understand the economic troubles your suffering with, I really do. I was at Barnes and Noble and they mentioned how the company was shipping them back.

But may I ask, have you and your department considered advertising? To normal consumers? I mean, quite a few are interested in LN's, but don't know much about them.

And I must say, that unlike TokyoPop, at least you do have plans to eventually continue the series', instead of canceling them, like they did to GOSICK. arg.

-Matt

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Post by Adam_Arnold »

Matt122005 wrote:May I ask, since I'm guessing that Ballad of a Shinigami vol. 3 has already been translated and edited and you probably already have a prototype version of it.
Is there a way we can pay HIGHER prices to get a single copy printed for us? Would this be possible? Ya know, paying double the price for a single copy?
Shinigami book 3 only exists in the form of a word document of the rewritten translation of the book. That's as far as we got before we halted production on the title. We'd have to hire someone to copy edit that document, pay a layout artist to do layout and graphic design work on the actual book, have that proofed and edited, and cover would have to be designed. Those are a lot of expenses to take into account. If digital distribution were a viable option, we might consider it, but there just isn't a book version of itunes yet to make that possible. So there's really no way for us to release the book given all the further expenses involved.

But may I ask, have you and your department considered advertising? To normal consumers? I mean, quite a few are interested in LN's, but don't know much about them.
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Post by Rebochan »

Unfortunately, I've had a similar reaction as Richard J. - I've pretty much killed most of my purchases of Seven Seas titles because I've spent way too much money on series that never get finished. I only bought Kashimashi just before the last volume was printed just so I wouldn't get invested in yet another great storyline that got canceled after one or two volumes. I've been picking up Dance In The Vampire Bund since it's kept a reasonable release schedule, but I'm still wary of it, and the same is also true of Venus Versus Virus.

I feel even more guilty doing this to the OEM titles, but I've actually invested more money in those than in the licensed stuff. For my support, I've got a grand total of one completed series, and that's Aoi House. I just got my copy of Luna 5, only to discover that it's not really the last book at all, so that's essentially still going because the plots' not resolved. Hollow Fields 3 is on pre-order and I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for it. Even Inverloch, a webcomic that actually *is* completed, got canceled after delaying Vol. 3 for an eternity before the author finally got the rights back. At least she had that option, and I'd already read the entire series before the first book came out.

I've actually stopped reading the manga previews, not due to lack of interest in them, but lack of wanting to get interested, buy Vol. 1, and never get anything else.

And that says nothing for all the printing delays of established titles - I literally lose track of them and don't buy them because the delays last so long that I forget about them.

I don't know what kind of advice to offer, publishing is a hellish business and the crappy economy is not helping any. I'm just an outsider, I don't see the sales sheets and I'm ready to admit that I don't know how to run the company or fix any problems. What I can provide is the perspective of the consumer trying to support this business. Put yourself in my shoes - I've bought at least *seven* titles from Seven Seas that were later canceled, half before they even got a second volume. I know there are financial realities that make the cancellations happen, but at the same time, what kind of reassurance is that to me? Why should I buy another Seven Seas title and assume that its not going to go belly up like the other ones did? The economy's not any nicer to me and the books still cost the same amount of money.

That's basically where I am right now, and I hope that the powers that be take that into account in the future. This is one of the few companies that makes OEM and I'm happy for that - I've been around since before Seven Seas moved into licensing. But I can't support them on blind faith alone.

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Post by Adam_Arnold »

That's basically where I am right now, and I hope that the powers that be take that into account in the future. This is one of the few companies that makes OEM and I'm happy for that - I've been around since before Seven Seas moved into licensing. But I can't support them on blind faith alone.
For the OEL titles, we feel your pain. We hate having to end a series after volume one, so what we've actively been doing with our recent series is make them self-contained so that you get the entire story in a single book. InVisible (176 pages), Arkham Woods (224 pages), 10 Beautiful Assassins (250+ pages), and It Takes A Wizard (a massive 300+ page omnibus)...these are all self-contained original titles that we have coming out next year.

We wish we could continue all of our original titles through to their conclusion, but the reality is that various factors prevent that. Yes, costs can and are an important one, but often, the biggest issues are production related. Writers being unable to write a new script due to other commitments, artist not being able to meet deadlines or not being available to continue a title...it can all add up to a series that's left hanging. And really, that's just the nature of being a comic book publisher. You're at the mercy of your talent a lot of the time. But just know this, we started as an OEL publisher and it's something that we're not going to stop being.


As for your comment about the color webcomic collections of Inverloch and Earthsong, the reason we didn't continue them is due to the costs involved. Like the light novels, they were ridiculously expensive to produce and couldn't break even.

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Post by Rebochan »

Thanks for responding to my post, I wasn't sure if you'd actually want to. I didn't realize the newer titles were one-shots, so I'll see if I can check out the ones that interest me when they finally hit the printers.

I understand there's a completely different set of problems with OEL (not OEM, argh, books not software!), and I do know at least two of the titles I bought were cancelled due to problems like that. It just doesn't really reduce the frustration on this side of things.

I'm well aware of what happened with the webcomics publishing and to be frank, it seems to be something that repeats itself almost every time a real publisher picks up a series, so I can't be too harsh on Seven Seas. I've got a few comics in my daily reads list that went through the same thing. Most of them use print on demand now. It still sucks when you had a book on pre-order and it gets quietly cancelled with no real news for the comic's author about when they can get the publishing rights back and do something else with them (i.e. print on demand).

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