VIZ Editor + Scanlator = Love?
So last night I came across an article on ComiPress about a scanlation group that claimed to have received a phone call from InuYasha supervising editor Ian Robertson and they discussed various errors throughout the manga’s releases as well as the fact that the manga is printed flipped (read left-to-right, western-style).
I found it especially interesting since I had considered doing an article on this alleged letter from Robertson to the writer of an open letter to VIZ regarding the same issues. I wound up not doing the article because the recipient’s credibility was somewhat questionable, but now I can’t help but wonder…
In the scanlation group’s post Robertson apparently mentions that he’s not allowed to make posts on message boards without permission from VIZ; is he allowed to discuss these problems with scanlators and say that he’ll read the scanlations to get tips on what to fix and how? And if not, is it a sign that Robertson is really frustrated with VIZ’s decisions on InuYasha?
Granted, I could be seeing more than there actually is here; it might be totally allowed. Or it might have even been approved, since it reflects well on VIZ and makes them look like they really listen to fans.
On the other hand, none of this correspondence has been confirmed by VIZ or Robertson yet, as far as I know (I have an e-mail out to Robertson). But these are two separate entities, I’m fairly certain– especially since they said conflicting things (the Adult Swim poster says that InuYasha is going to get un-flipped even though the letter he posted says nothing of the sort; the scanlation group’s post says that Robertson can’t even make that decision), so I’m disinclined to think it a hoax.
I’m really not sure what to make of this– or whether to really make anything.
Tags: ian-robertson, inuyasha, viz-media