YAOI NEWS: DMP Interview About Viewfinder

Since the news broke about the licensing of Viewfinder, many fans have been questioning why June would be handling the title instead of 801 Media. Deb Aoki over at About.Com: Manga shot off some questions to Michelle Mauk at Digital Manga Publishing addressing that very question. As far as the bigger concern of censorship, although not specifically addressed with a question, she does touch on it a bit by saying "So this title is special, and we are treating it as something special. We're shooting for the stars here, so we have to make it count!". I'm thinking by saying it will be treated 'special' (hell, it has its own website already!) that this is their way of saying it won't be treated like their typical June titles and therefore won't be censored all to hell.

What do you think? Worried? Not worried? Don't care?

~Jennifer LeBlanc

10 Comments

Cait March 15, 2010 at 8:21 PM

I think your assessment is pretty good. I don’t think they are going to censor it, and if they do, it will be incredibly minimal.

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sunflower March 16, 2010 at 10:17 AM

Well, honestly, I think that if they weren’t going to censor the book, they’d just say so. Because let’s think about it logically. They are, or they aren’t.

Let’s say they aren’t. Fans are upset about the possibility and saying they won’t order a censored book. Does DMP lose sales by staying quiet, or speak and reassure people?

Let’s say they are. Fans are upset about the possibility and saying they won’t order a censored book. Does DMP speak and confirm it and definitely lose sales, or do they hedge, hoping to gain sales because people just don’t know?

Frankly, I’m wondering if the main story is to be left alone, but the one that they might censor is that schoolboy story Love Lessons which could potentially give them trouble because of the ages of the characters. I couldn’t care less about that oneshot, because I’ve never liked it, especially their ages. So DMP can censor away on that one as far as I’m concerned. That would be a compromise most fans could deal with, I think.

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Beruda Reply:
March 17th, 2010 at 7:35 PM
“So DMP can censor away on that one as far as I’m concerned. That would be a compromise most fans could deal with, I think.”

Not me, I really like that oneshot. ^_^

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Max March 16, 2010 at 12:33 PM

Yikes. I’ve just had the wool pulled off from over my eyes. It never occurred to me that June (or any English language licenser) would censor manga. And I’ve got hundreds of manga (mostly Yaoi). I feel so naive and so…….dirty. So is there a list somewhere of the English language Yaoi mange that have been censored? I might even try getting a hold of the Japanese versions just for the pictures (I can’t read Japanese). Now I need to go cry – boo hoo. And shame on those publishers.

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Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:35 PM
There is no list of censored manga and keep in mind, Japan does censor their boys’ love to varying degrees. I have no idea to what extent any publisher here has censored or if they simply choose less explicit titles to avoid the issues. I know censorship sucks but we in the U.S. have laws that could land us or a publisher in jail if some censorship didn’t occur on the more explicit titles with for example ‘younger’ characters. Just ask Christopher Handley.

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sunflower Reply:
March 17th, 2010 at 8:08 PM
Some fans have started a list at the DMP forums, and I checked a few and they were correct. It’s only light changes, but they do things like replace penises with cones of light, erase pubic hair, and erase bodily fluids.

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nana March 16, 2010 at 12:47 PM

Have you seeen this?

http://www.onedramaqueen.com/shop/

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Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:38 PM
Yes, I’m aware of it. However, at this point in time I choose not to post about it due to past issues with this publisher saying the same thing, collecting money and then not providing the product. Once I see they are actually back in business for real then perhaps I will post about it.

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arisa_fubuki March 16, 2010 at 6:31 PM

I don’t know much about the English release coming up, but as for the French release, Asuka didn’t censor the chapters published in BexBoy (the French one), and they say they’re not going to censor it when it comes out as paperback.
So now the question is: will they do the same for the English version?

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warrioritagaki March 21, 2010 at 3:15 PM

Well I can honestly say I dont care about “Viewfinder”. Though I do hope for the sake of the fans because it does have a huge following that it isent censored. Dont hold your breath this isent Junes strength. I like Crimson spell better.

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