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I just received an email from Amazon: My preorder of Volume 16 has been shipped.

Volume 17 is due in February, and 18 is due after that as well.

It looks like Kodansha is getting their act together.

Not to mention that Kodansha Comics has saved themselves the trouble of having to come up with titles that have Angel in them that have some bearing on what happens in the volume and is just going by straight volume numbers.

AR-99 wrote:Not to mention that Kodansha Comics has saved themselves the trouble of having to come up with titles that have Angel in them that have some bearing on what happens in the volume and is just going by straight volume numbers.

It would be smarter to preserve the original title each volume has in Japanese.

The original Gunnm volumes had titles in Japanese but LO does not.

AR-99 wrote:The original Gunnm volumes had titles in Japanese but LO does not.

If you check Yukito's Japanese page, when presenting the volume covers he also presents the titles in English.
Volume 16 is Independence War; [http://jajatom.moo.jp/album/gallery.cgi?mode=view&no=71]
Volume 17 is The Angel of Sword. [http://jajatom.moo.jp/album/gallery.cgi?mode=view&no=82]

Those are the titles of the illustrations themselves. Every illustration on the gallery has a title. If you look at some of the other volume covers, the naming of the illustration as the volume becomes even less plausible: e.g. Vol. 2 would be "Air Hole" (http://jajatom.moo.jp/album/gallery.cgi?mode=view&no=5), Vol. 4 would be "Bullet Wound" (http://jajatom.moo.jp/album/gallery.cgi?mode=view&no=9), and Vol. 13 would be "Karate Metal" (http://jajatom.moo.jp/album/gallery.cgi?mode=view&no=66).

I'm looking at my raw scans and the volume covers and inside pages have no titles other than 銃夢 LastOrder and volume number. Having the titles on the website but nowhere on the printed volumes makes no sense.

I did say the titles refer to the volume covers.
What I mean is that they do make sense with the volumes themselves, even Air Hole, if you consider the story. As to Karate Metal, I dare say it is a sort of poetic license, in which he included all the villains in the volume.

I expected the look of the volumes to be quite different under a different publisher,
What I didn't expect was the drop in quality of the materials used in the books themselves.

The pages seem to be printed on a lower quality paper, and the covers are simply awful, barely stronger than the pages themselves.
The VIZ volumes could get exposed to a splash of moisture and shrug it off, these seem like they would be ruined really, really easily.

Out of all the assorted Manga, trades and so forth that I have on my shelves, Last Order 16 is easily the poorest quality publication in terms of materials.
Really disappointed, but at least it's continuing, I suppose.

oh the qaulity is poor huh maby thats why it is cheaper to at my local stores they say 6.99 usd on the webste but my stores claim they are in stock but when i scedual to pick up they never have them ill have to pay shipping now to get them wtf

I'm pretty sure you're looking at the Viz editions through rose-colored glasses here. I have the two editions next to each other, and near as I can tell the paper and print quality are identical. The only difference is that the KUP editions have a matte finish on the cover rather than a glossy finish, which is a matter of taste, not quality. (We could have chosen a glossy finish but thought matte looked classier.)

Welcome to our forum Mr. Applegate

Forum dwellers, he's a Kodansha editor working on Gunnm - Last order.
Ask him everything you want to know.
Please keep it polite

^Ripper

^Ripper wrote:Welcome to our forum Mr. Applegate

Forum dwellers, he's a Kodansha editor working on Gunnm - Last order.
Ask him everything you want to know.
Please keep it polite

^Ripper

Thanks for the welcome! Everyone can also feel free to send me any feedback you have at bapplegate [at] randomhouse.com.

Applegate? Are you Christina's relative?
Anyway, keep us informed about the releases you have on Gunnm (at least, I hope that is the reason why you have entered this forum).

maybe they want us to proofcheck their work

Actually, Christina is a distant relative, and we have met. I don't know her well or anything, though.

And HumanRage -- We proofread Last Order more thoroughly than any of our series except for Sailor Moon. That said, if you do find an error (God forbid), please e-mail me about it and I can get it fixed for reprint.

Vol. 1 of the LO omnibus is coming out in a week so I would like to know what the 2 original stories are if anyone picks it up. Amazon has it for nearly half off. Or wait until the release date and someone will post that info.

If Ben is still around I had a couple general questions that may be of interest to other folks so I will post them:

1) Are there any plans to eventually republish the original series and/or the side stories (Another Stories)? Viz right now doesn't list either the original manga or LO on its website in print or digital form but they did republish the original manga several years ago

On a related note, it would be great if the supplemental material from the Complete Edition were published as AFAIK the only accessible version of this for Western audiences is the French version by Glenat. A lot of the information was superseded by LO and refers to the video game but it would still be great to have. Another gem to see in English would be the timeline that comes with Another Stories.

2) I was curious about a couple name changes that I noticed: Derossi became Delossi and Hegior Hopper became Hegioa Hopper. The latter is closer to the original Japanese but the former not as much.

AR-99 wrote:Vol. 1 of the LO omnibus is coming out in a week so I would like to know what the 2 original stories are if anyone picks it up. Amazon has it for nearly half off. Or wait until the release date and someone will post that info.

The stories are 飛人 (Hito), which we translated as "Fly," and "The Great Machine" (大・摩神). Both are from early in Kishiro's career. The Busybodies from Fly should look particularly familiar.

If Ben is still around I had a couple general questions that may be of interest to other folks so I will post them:

1) Are there any plans to eventually republish the original series and/or the side stories (Another Stories)? Viz right now doesn't list either the original manga or LO on its website in print or digital form but they did republish the original manga several years ago

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, Kishiro has not authorized a reprint of the original series, even in Japan. If he does bring the rights to Kodansha Japan, then we'll have the opportunity to examine bringing the series back into print in English. Even if that happens there are cost considerations, since we'd certainly need to commission a new translation. That said, we're all fans and we would love to get that opportunity.

On a related note, it would be great if the supplemental material from the Complete Edition were published as AFAIK the only accessible version of this for Western audiences is the French version by Glenat. A lot of the information was superseded by LO and refers to the video game but it would still be great to have. Another gem to see in English would be the timeline that comes with Another Stories.

I'll keep all of this in mind if, eventually, we get the chance.

2) I was curious about a couple name changes that I noticed: Derossi became Delossi and Hegior Hopper became Hegioa Hopper. The latter is closer to the original Japanese but the former not as much.

Those were typos, unfortunately. If the characters' names appear again in future volumes, they will be corrected, and when Vol. 16 goes to reprint I'll see that they're corrected there as well. We've been instructed by Kodansha to use the existing name spellings, though I have strayed a little from that when correcting a minor issue (i.e., Viz's arbitrary renaming of Erica's dog in omnibus 1).

It's awesome to see some "official" feedback.

The omnibus looks amazing. I don't need the first one, and the bonus materials didn't grab me; but I definitely need to fill a hole here or there, 2 and or 3 for sure. And the PRICE is INSANE...If anyone I know indicates the slightest interest in my LO's...I know what they are getting.

The material question...I don't think there is much of a difference...I think I could slightly detect a difference in the paper weight. LO on the shelves again is awesome.