Chocolove is Joco in the English-language manga

[ViciousKatanaGuy]

VIZ feels that the name "Chocolove" is too controversial; the guy's name is "Joco" in the English manga.

So far Joco is the only character to get the dub name in the English manga (Morphine became "Morphea" in the English manga)

[kimaraoyamada]

...Great. *sweatdrop*

Note to self: convince parents to order the French copies. They're not only significantly more accurate to the original (as proven by the copies of volumes 9 and 10 that I have in French), but will let me practice my French and get good grades in school.

[ViciousKatanaGuy]

kimaraoyamada said:

...Great. *sweatdrop*

Note to self: convince parents to order the French copies. They're not only significantly more accurate to the original (as proven by the copies of volumes 9 and 10 that I have in French), but will let me practice my French and get good grades in school.

I believe we can find copies of the French Gns on the English Amazon.com - I could be wrong.

Although the name change to Joco doesn't seem so strange to me (as the character is not Japanese/Chinese), I do not like the unneeded art edits. We should write letters to Barnes and Noble stating that we are not buying some Shaman King volumes due to unneeded art edits.

If VIZ only changed the names of Joco and Morphea, I would be okay with the English-language Shaman King manga post Volume 5.

[Lovely]

Wow. I'm glad I quit the Viz version of this series back at volume 6 or so.

[TakinawaTonfa]

Am I the only one that had a remote thought that this was a more than likely name change?

Doesn't really matter to me though, I'm more interested in how Chocolove's jokes are handled.

And Vicious, I'm sorry to say, but sending a letter to B&N or any other bookstore isn't going sh*t. You should write a letter/s to Viz if you wanna complain about the edits. (Although lately it looks like they've really eased off on editing a lot more than in the past)

[ViciousKatanaGuy]

takinawatonfa said:

And Vicious, I'm sorry to say, but sending a letter to B&N or any other bookstore isn't going sh*t.

Of course it matters.

Why?

Because booksellers choose quanitites of books that they feel like will be easily sold. If book sellers realize that certain books are not sold due to unpopular changes, they may pressure the publisher into changing the content?

Whenever a retailer sells a product with an issue, the retailer and the original manufacturer are BOTH affected. Therefore it makes sense to contact the retailer and the original manufacturer.

Anyway, as for the jokes...

Here is Joke no. 1:

Joco: Hey, don't ignore me!! You gotta hear what I have to say!!
Ryu: Sorry, but we're busy right now. Take a hike, kid.
Joco: You realize that the next event is a tournament, right? A tournament!
Ryu: A tournament?
Joco: Did someone say "permanent"?
* Ryu and co. continue to walk away
Joco: Waaah! Hey! Listen to me! It's true! I'm not kidding!

[TakinawaTonfa]

I understand what you're trying to get at, but its not that simple.

For one thing, bookstores don't base their entire profits off the sale of graphic novels, Nor are they really raking a lot of cash from the sale. The majority of the money goes to licensing, royalties, etc.

When it comes to the "quantities they choose", typically theres already a deal in advance, and they just put out whatever gets sent to them, as it is with most retailers. if they need anymore, they'll order, until then its just a matter of time until the books get bought. And thats the thing, sometime along the line, it will get purchased, it ain't gonna kill 'em if one particular title isn't that popular. If even a couple copies of 'X' graphic novels get sold within a typical business day, then good for them.

Its not really any different than complaining to a Best Buy about how the One Piece DVDs are only in English. If they aren't being bought, something else will . They are not the people to complain to, and chances are, they'll tell you to take your complaint to whoever produces the product in question. Be it a movie/book/anything.

That, and you also gotta factor in the people who really care about the SK editing.

[ViciousKatanaGuy]

That reminds me - Didn't Chocolove have fuller lips in the manga?

In the English version, in several shots he seems to have no lips. Maybe VIZ is pulling a Mr. Popo on us?

[Lovely]

Eh, I was never worried about Choco's jokes. I mean, replacing intentionally bad jokes and puns with different bad jokes and puns isn't really something that requires a great writer.

I mean, c'mon, the point is that Chocoloves jokes are bad!

Anyways, bookstores like edits when it comes to manga or books that might even remotely be geared to the younger sorts. It means the holier-than-though parents won't complain and add the books to their daily book burnings.

And to Tonfa, yeah, I can't say I'm really suprised that Chocoloves name got changed. I mean, admitedly, it is a near racially insensitive name. But honestly, Shaman King is FULL of stereotypes, silliness and near- insensitivity. That's part of its charm.
I mean, the series also has the girlish British boy and his FAIRY who's named after hallucinogenic drugs. The man character and main villian are named after leaves (acompanied by occasional stoner visuals), the stereotypical Japanese thug (with a heart of gold!,) the nerd, etc, etc...

Takei plays around with this stuff and is fairly lighthearted about it, that you can tell no harm is really meant.

Eh, well, what can ya do. Viz even edits Fullmetal Alchemist, a series that's aimed at a higher age group, so it's no surprise really that ShamanKing falls to the cutting board as well. No surprise, it's just depressing.

[TakinawaTonfa]

For some reason, that single FMA edit, created a huge uproar among fans, by which I mean on a higher magnitude than anything else they've ever done really. (By which I mean that multiple anime and media news sites reported the same story)

This is probably just me, but I think thats playing some part of making them easing off art editing as of now, some of there recent releases do keep the more heavy material (Hell, volume 12 of I''s was shrinkwrapped)

[Vasuki]

The name thing doesn't bother me TOO much, as there's a small possibility of saying Joco is a nickname later on. (unlikily, and I suppose it's still not the greatest but it's something) Name edits arn't huge to me as long as the creator agrees to them, and they arn't super Americanized. Many X-laws names were also changed, but like Morphea they were done with much more of a subtle flair that with Chocolove.

What DOES bother me is the lip thing; as it's an artistic edit which I am far more against than name edits. I noticed that too and wondered is maybe he was just drawn differently earlier on in the manga. (I noticed his eyes were different too, so maybe this is the case...) This is weird because his lips were full in the anime, although I suppose one could argue that the only reason this wasn't edited is because of the intense amount of time, effort, and money it would have cost 4kids.

I advise that anyone who cares about these edits make clear in their emails to Viz to avoid the edits in the graphic novels and make some sort of statement about understanding in regards to the magazine sales. Far from ideal, but it will perhaps make your argument a little less sounding like an angry fan they get 1000+ emails a day from.

[TakinawaTonfa]

Well, the did put back the manji (swastika-like symbol) on Hao's shikigami in vol. 11, if that means anything.

(As they did with Neji's tattoo in Naruto)

[Setsumi-san]

I understand why they wouldn't want to offend the African-American community. I really can't whine about this because I'm white and I don't care about name changes so long as they keep character personalities the same. There's really nothing more to say.