in which lys is full of nonsense as usual.

[lyschan]

Whew! I am finally feeling better! I hardly ever get sick, so whenever I do it takes me by surprise how miserable it is. This time especially, I started out with a sore throat, which I hate, and then I had a really annoying cough for days until I lost my voice, and I spent a couple nights waking up from weird dreams because I was feverish, and a

Comments

[double_dear]

Our problem with the Happy Cafe cover is that the title looks more like a diner than a cafe to us, especially based on the types of food sold there. And Shindo just doesn't seem the type to allow any kind of coffee stain, regardless of how adorable it might be (though it is, in fact, very adorable). Maybe Uru and Ichiro convinced him or hid it from him or something...

And yes, the more we look at them, the more TokyoPop covers do seem very very good. We never paid that much attention to covers before.

We're glad you're feeling better!!

[lyschan]

Ohh, I guess that is true about the diner-look. But I don't know what exactly the aesthetic for a Japanese kissaten would be... so the American cafe/diner look works alright for me. As for the coffee stain, perhaps it was left on the table (or menu or whatever the surface is) by a customer who is in the process of enjoying their cup of coffee, so it hasn't been wiped clean yet?

I didn't pay much attention to covers in the past either, but now that I'm always reading more and more manga (and now that I've noticed some really nice designs) I'm on the lookout for pretty covers. It's probably different for you since you read the books in Japanese so you have to go more out of your way to see the American edition covers. But some Japanese books are getting to be more fancy and attractive-looking too...

Thank you! I'm glad too :D

[derpa]

Hooray! I'm glad you're feeling better, and I'm sorry I got you sick. That was totally my fault. I felt the same way after it though, I found it so easy to fall asleep and enjoy breathing normally and not having a sore throat. The grammar in that sentence might be off, but you know what I mean. So anyway I'm glad you got over it! Who knows if that super green juice actually helps. I think you'll agree it still lasted way too long.

[lyschan]

Aw, I forgive you for getting me sick! I know I wouldn't want to give anyone else that strain of sickness, so I'm sure you feel the same and didn't actually want to infect me. But we're well again now, so hurrah!

[umadoshi]

Hooray for feeling better! (And for a tasty dinner. ^^)

Tokyopop really does tend to have awesome covers. I used to not pay much attention, but then when I started rewriting I looked harder because I cared how the books I worked on looked, and I've usually been really happy. (I love the design for Shinobi Life. Love it love it love it.)

[lyschan]

Oh, Shinobi Life's covers are delightful! It's that individual attention to the style and content of each series that makes me love a well-designed cover. I like to know the company publishing it cares about it enough to make it eye-catching. Tokyopop's been doing a lot to show they care about their products and fans lately, and that's gone a long way to win my loyalty.

[badtzphoto]

I'm glad that you're feeling better.
I never paid much attention to a book cover nor its spine, until I started reading manga and read comments about them :) So, yeah, I agree TP manga do have nicer cover design. I always wonder why english publishers can't keep the original covers, though.

[lyschan]

On original covers-from what I've seen, companies generally use the original cover artwork for the covers here, but they still have to change the title to English, which means choosing new fonts/etc for the title. And in some cases they have to reformat the artwork (mostly with Hana to Yume titles, which are all confined to a squarish area rather than taking up the whole cover space-if US publishers left the covers in that format, they probably wouldn't look as attractive to english readers who aren't used to it).

Actually, I found it interesting that with Haru Hana, the French editions had covers very similar to the Japanese, with the same style bubble font and everything. I wouldn't have been upset if Tokyopop decided to go a similar route, but after seeing the final version I think their design is an improvement from the original. So I'm happy to let them design their books to best appeal to new readers :D

[badtzphoto]

Interesting. The font matches pretty well. Thanks for the research :) Now I'm also curious about Haru Hana and since it's only 3 volumes, it's on my list to check out :)
On a side note, the size of the french manga is the same as japanese manga unlike US published ones.

[lyschan]

Only three volumes, and it's being released as one volume here so it'll be even cheaper (16.99 retail price, according to amazon)! It sounds like a cute story and I like the artist's style (I read her Flower of the Deep Sleep some time ago) so I'm excited!

Oh, interesting about the size being the same for French and Japanese editions. Do they also have the jacket-style covers like Japanese manga, or just simple covers like ours? I just read an article the other day about how Tokyopop started the trend of printing manga in the size that's become standard here. I wonder what prompted their choice...