I always wonder why manga publishers does not release an English e-reader edition. I know ...

Major reason being: they need the digital rights from the Japanese publishers. Most of the time they can't even get that, the Japanese publishers won't let them. That is the case with all of Ayano's works.

how sad

Exactly what Lightasus said. Sad, but true.

My friends at DMP keep telling me what a fight it is at times to negotiate with the Japanese publishers about pretty much anything. From what they say, different cultures and mentalities really come into play here.

For example, DMP attaining the publishing rights for the final books of Ai no Kusabi after the change of publishers in Japan was an absolute drama that would have brought even Shakespeare to tears. It took them about three years to finalise that deal. Whenever I asked them how negotiations were coming along, they would always say: "We have to treat very carefully here." In my native tongue we call this an "egg dance". That is precisely what it is. To make matters worse, that was also the time after the earthquake and the tsunami. All talks pretty much came to a standstill for half a year. And even when DMP succeeded, the result turned out to still be deeply unsatisfying:

In Japan, not only the publisher for Ai no Kusabi had changed, but the artwork had as well. The new publisher had the books revised and used a different artist. They rereleased the previous novels as a revised edition with the new artwork and then published the final books.

When DMP bought the rights for the final books, that was all they got: The final books with the new artwork - but NOT the previous ones. Because DMP only held the rights for the old edition with the old artwork of the previous books by the old publisher. And buying the rights for all books anew would have been too expensive for DMP. It was simply not an option. So the Ai no Kusabi series in English has six books with the old art and old edition and two with the new art and revised edition.

And don't get me started on the fact that they also used a different translator for those last two books... Large chunks of the original were just missing. Male characters suddenly became female... There have been several attempts to organise a fan made translation of the whole series. But the original is very intricate in it's language and not easy to translate. Plus, it's a lot of material. It's an absolute shame. It's really THE classic Yaoi story of all times.

I would totally pay for that...

I always wonder if you are telling the truth or not. Also, are you even allowed to discuss all the information that you got from your friend to the public assuming that it is true? You could get sued you know for releasing information.

Okay, I am a little taken aback now and somewhat hurt, SugarCupcake. Are you always so quick at making accusations about other people without any proof? That is a pretty dangerous thing, you know. It's libel, as a matter of fact.

Now, why would I lie about something like that? It's not as if I claim I'm the long lost twin sister of Prince Harry, the Kardashians or something equally weird.

Would it give me any advantage making that up? NO. Did I tell you anything that was a secret or internal matters? NO. The details about the Ai no Kusab negotiation are all well-known. So are the difficulties in negotiations. It's a long standing fact in the Yaoi world. You will find it is something that is discussed in many communities (and this here is a message board, not a community). I helped my (real life) friend RihannonL, who ran the Ai no Kusabi fan site in 2012 for the Ai no Kusabi remake, set up an official interview with Yoko Tanigaki, the then sales manager of DMP (who is now the DMP vice-president for sales and distribution) at the end of 2011. She asked her a ton of questions and got the respective answers from Yoko. That included all the info I posted earlier. The interview was authorised by DMP and went public on Riha's ANK site. If you watch the beginning of each of the four ANK remake episodes, you will also find the name RihannonL in the "thanks" section at the beginning.

Riha's site is no longer active (sadly, the ANK remake died too after the first four episodes due to abysmal sales figures), so you can no longer read the full interview, but it is still mentioned on several sites including this one:

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1261466956
(scroll down for Riha's post asking for questions for the scheduled interview)

http://intensedebate.com/profiles/voidex2012
(Some parts of her blog posts about the ANK remake and the interview with DMP are still visible there)

http://blyme-yaoi.com/main/2011/10/15/ai-no-kusabi-remake-novas-informacoes-e-trailer/

You can find some details of the interview being discussed here:
http://www.yaoiotaku.com/forums/threads/6778-ai-no-kusabi-fanclub/page3

The information from the interview was also well and often discussed in various forums at the time including Aaarin and the ANK community. If you were around in the ANK community in 2012, there was nothing here that I said, that hasn't been said back then. You would have read it in those communities at some point. Riha explained about the different versions and the problems ad nauseum at the time.

So NO. No lies.

Trust me, I'm older than most people here. I know what I can and cannot tell people. I keep company secrets that are a wee bit bigger than this stuff. It was only to give you an idea and a bit of background info on the difficulties involved. If that information is not wanted, I shall refrain from posting here in the future. *shrugs* For those in the Viewfinder and the Ai no Kusabi community, you know where to find me. I'm mean_green_ogre on LJ. Those who recognize me from the old days of the Ai no Kusabi LJ community know that what I said about Rihannon was true, also. The folks who are also in the Viewfinder scanlation group can find my comments on the first page of the comments for the new chapter, for example. I am chatting to the group owner there. You can also find my commenting on the one that does the chapter summary. And on a bunch of other Viewfinder communities.

Sorry this kind of information isn't appreciated around here. Take care. Auf Wiedersehen.

I did find the post of Rihannon's old Ai no Kusabi site that had the interview with Yoko through the Wayback Machine. The post is intact, but unfortunately, the interview was a slide show (so the info couldn't be copied and taken elsewhere) that no no longer works because the site itself is gone and this is just the cache version.

http://web.archive.org/web/20111219074718/ http://ainokusabiremake2012.wordpress.com/category/q-a-faq/

The other blog post links should also work, but pictures etc are gone. You can find her discussing the info I mentioned at different points throughout the blog.

Okay, I just left you a superlong reply and posted it and it's gone now. I am incredibly PO-ed, that took me ages to write and the other post doesn't make sense without it... I will try and write a shorter version again. God, I hate this site...

I wrote you a super long reply and Mangago just ate it. Too many links, I suppose. So this will be shorter. It’s nearly 2am over here and I would like to go to bed.

First of all, I am somewhat taken aback and hurt by your reply, SugarCupcake. Do you always call people liars and make accusations so quickly without proof? To be honest, that is a dangerous thing to do. Libel, in fact.

Why would I lie about this or make this up? That makes absolutely no sense. It’s not as if I claimed I was the long lost twin of Prince Harry and/or half a Kardashian! It doesn’t give me any advantages to make it up, I have no need to show off with this kind of information and I wasn’t spilling any secrets to begin with. So why that accusation?

Not one bit about this was secret or internal information. All of it has been made public. Believe me, I’ve been around the block and have bigger secrets to keep within my company than what I ever do or do not hear from DMP.

The fact that negotiations with Japanese publishers are notoriously difficult is only too well-known and has been for years, nay, decades. Often discussed ad nauseum throughout many communities, often remarked upon by publishers and other members of the industry. Nothing new here.

Every bit of information I wrote about Ai no Kusabi is well-known as well. You would know this if you had been part of the Ai no Kusabi community around 2011 and 2012, when the remake came out. In fact, I helped my real life friend RihannonL, who ran the very popular Ai no Kusabi fan site for the Ai no Kusabi remake in 2012, to set up an interview at the end of 2011 with Yoko Tanigaki, the then sales manager of DMP (and now DMP’s vice-president for sales and distribution). Riha asked Yoko a ton of questions from fans as well as her own. Yoko answered all the questions in detail and authorized the publication of the interview exclusively on Riha’s site. All the information I posted earlier was part of the interview at the time and then discussed in length in the respective Ai no Kusabi communities after the interview went public.

Riha’s Ai no Kusabi site no longer exists (and the remake died, too, after abysmal sales figures for the first four episodes), but there are still sites with info about the interview and you can still see a web cache version of her Ai no Kusabi site including the blog post with the interview here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111219074718/ http://ainokusabiremake2012.wordpress.com/category/q-a-faq/

The interview itself was in the form of a slide show (to prevent other sites from stealing the info via copy-paste), so that was a separate file, like all the pictures, videos etc. Those external files are all gone since the site was deleted, just the web cache remains. But the blog posts are mostly still clickable and the text is still there. If I remember correctly, Riha discusses the interview and the whole negotiation process elsewhere. Don’t know if the comment section still works, didn’t check.
Other sites that mention the interview with DMP (and I had to throw out most links so Mangago doesn’t go ballistic again):
http://blyme-yaoi.com/main/2011/10/15/ai-no-kusabi-remake-novas-informacoes-e-trailer/

http://www.yaoiotaku.com/forums/threads/6778-ai-no-kusabi-fanclub/page3

http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEgQFjAE&url= http%3A%2F%2Ftieba.baidu.com%2Fp%2F1261466956&ei=xFOgVfznBcn1Uq6RgoAB&usg=AFQjCNGljvKQIdGf_6T3MF0JgHDpfN2M9Q

It was also discussed at length in the ANK community on LJ and on Aarinfantasy. Riha explained the whole bit about the different version and the negotiations ad nauseum and repeatedly to a lot of people at the time who were confused by the different versions, artwork etc.

So NO. No lies.

I was merely trying to give you some background info and be helpful. If that kind of information is not appreciated around here, without being called a liar, then I shall refrain from posting here in the future. *shrugs* People can still find me elsewhere: I am mean-green-ogre on Live Journal. Those from the Ai no Kusabi community know that what I said about Rihannon is true (and that we are in fact friends). You can also find her name RihannonL in the credit/thanks section (by aarinfantasy) of the subbed four episodes of the Ai no Kusabi remake, at the beginning of each episode. Those who are members in the Viewfinder scanlation group can find my comments, amongst others, on the first page of the new chapter, where I am chatting with the group owner. I also do so on the group that does the chapter summaries as well as a number of other Viewfinder related LJs, like FayeC, Dark Mtarashidango, Sunflower, Krambi. No lies there either, as you can see.

I am somewhat disappointed in you, SweetCupcake, I can’t lie (no pun intended). Believe me, I am far beyond the stage in life where I wish to impress a group of teenagers or tweens (not trying to be condescending in any way, just older). But I wish you all the best as well as the rest of you. Take care, be nice to each other. Auf Wiedersehen.

I wrote you a super long reply and Mangago just ate it. Too many links, I suppose. So this will be shorter. It’s nearly 2am over here and I would like to go to bed.

First of all, I am somewhat taken aback and hurt by your reply, SugarCupcake. Do you always call people liars and make accusations so quickly without proof? To be honest, that is a dangerous thing to do. Libel, in fact.

Why would I lie about this or make this up? That makes absolutely no sense. It’s not as if I claimed I was the long lost twin of Prince Harry and/or half a Kardashian! It doesn’t give me any advantages to make it up, I have no need to show off with this kind of information and I wasn’t spilling any secrets to begin with. So why that accusation?

Not one bit about this was secret or internal information. All of it has been made public. Believe me, I’ve been around the block and have bigger secrets to keep within my company than what I ever do or do not hear from DMP.

The fact that negotiations with Japanese publishers are notoriously difficult is only too well-known and has been for years, nay, decades. Often discussed ad nauseum throughout many communities, often remarked upon by publishers and other members of the industry. Nothing new here.

Every bit of information I wrote about Ai no Kusabi is well-known as well. You would know this if you had been part of the Ai no Kusabi community around 2011 and 2012, when the remake came out. In fact, I helped my real life friend RihannonL, who ran the very popular Ai no Kusabi fan site for the Ai no Kusabi remake in 2012, to set up an interview at the end of 2011 with Yoko Tanigaki, the then sales manager of DMP (and now DMP’s vice-president for sales and distribution). Riha asked Yoko a ton of questions from fans as well as her own. Yoko answered all the questions in detail and authorized the publication of the interview exclusively on Riha’s site. All the information I posted earlier was part of the interview at the time and then discussed in length in the respective Ai no Kusabi communities after the interview went public.

Riha’s Ai no Kusabi site no longer exists (and the remake died, too, after abysmal sales figures for the first four episodes), but there are still sites with info about the interview and you can still see a web cache version of her Ai no Kusabi site including the blog post with the interview here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111219074718/ http://ainokusabiremake2012.wordpress.com/category/q-a-faq/

The interview itself was in the form of a slide show (to prevent other sites from stealing the info via copy-paste), so that was a separate file, like all the pictures, videos etc. Those external files are all gone since the site was deleted, just the web cache remains. But the blog posts are mostly still clickable and the text is still there. If I remember correctly, Riha discusses the interview and the whole negotiation process elsewhere. Don’t know if the comment section still works, didn’t check.
Other sites that mention the interview with DMP (and I had to throw out most links so Mangago doesn’t go ballistic again) (EDIT: I will have to write this without a link, Mangago keeps deleting my post because they think this is spam)
blyme-yaoi (dot) com/main/2011/10/15/ai-no-kusabi-remake-novas-informacoes-e-trailer/

yaoiotaku (dot) com/forums/threads/6778-ai-no-kusabi-fanclub/page3

google (dot) de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEgQFjAE&url= http%3A%2F%2Ftieba.baidu.com%2Fp%2F1261466956&ei=xFOgVfznBcn1Uq6RgoAB&usg=AFQjCNGljvKQIdGf_6T3MF0JgHDpfN2M9Q

It was also discussed at length in the ANK community on LJ and on Aarinfantasy. Riha explained the whole bit about the different version and the negotiations ad nauseum and repeatedly to a lot of people at the time who were confused by the different versions, artwork etc.

So NO. No lies.

I was merely trying to give you some background info and be helpful. If that kind of information is not appreciated around here, without being called a liar, then I shall refrain from posting here in the future. *shrugs* People can still find me elsewhere: I am mean-green-ogre on Live Journal. Those from the Ai no Kusabi community know that what I said about Rihannon is true (and that we are in fact friends). You can also find her name RihannonL in the credit/thanks section (by aarinfantasy) of the subbed four episodes of the Ai no Kusabi remake, at the beginning of each episode. Those who are members in the Viewfinder scanlation group can find my comments, amongst others, on the first page of the new chapter, where I am chatting with the group owner. I also do so on the group that does the chapter summaries as well as a number of other Viewfinder related LJs, like FayeC, Dark Mtarashidango, Sunflower, Krambi. No lies there either, as you can see.

I am somewhat disappointed in you, SweetCupcake, I can’t lie (no pun intended). Believe me, I am far beyond the stage in life where I wish to impress a group of teenagers or tweens (not trying to be condescending in any way, just older). But I wish you all the best as well as the rest of you. Take care, be nice to each other. Auf Wiedersehen.

I wrote you a super long reply and Mangago just ate it. Too many links, I suppose. So this will be shorter. It’s nearly 2am over here and I would like to go to bed.

First of all, I am somewhat taken aback and hurt by your reply, SugarCupcake. Do you always call people liars and make accusations so quickly without proof? To be honest, that is a dangerous thing to do. Libel, in fact.

Why would I lie about this or make this up? That makes absolutely no sense. It’s not as if I claimed I was the long lost twin of Prince Harry and/or half a Kardashian! It doesn’t give me any advantages to make it up, I have no need to show off with this kind of information and I wasn’t spilling any secrets to begin with. So why that accusation?

Not one bit about this was secret or internal information. All of it has been made public. Believe me, I’ve been around the block and have bigger secrets to keep within my company than what I ever do or do not hear from DMP.

The fact that negotiations with Japanese publishers are notoriously difficult is only too well-known and has been for years, nay, decades. Often discussed ad nauseum throughout many communities, often remarked upon by publishers and other members of the industry. Nothing new here.

Every bit of information I wrote about Ai no Kusabi is well-known as well. You would know this if you had been part of the Ai no Kusabi community around 2011 and 2012, when the remake came out. In fact, I helped my real life friend RihannonL, who ran the very popular Ai no Kusabi fan site for the Ai no Kusabi remake in 2012, to set up an interview at the end of 2011 with Yoko Tanigaki, the then sales manager of DMP (and now DMP’s vice-president for sales and distribution). Riha asked Yoko a ton of questions from fans as well as her own. Yoko answered all the questions in detail and authorized the publication of the interview exclusively on Riha’s site. All the information I posted earlier was part of the interview at the time and then discussed in length in the respective Ai no Kusabi communities after the interview went public.

Riha’s Ai no Kusabi site no longer exists (and the remake died, too, after abysmal sales figures for the first four episodes), but there are still sites with info about the interview and you can still see a web cache version of her Ai no Kusabi site including the blog post with the interview here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111219074718/ http://ainokusabiremake2012.wordpress.com/category/q-a-faq/

The interview itself was in the form of a slide show (to prevent other sites from stealing the info via copy-paste), so that was a separate file, like all the pictures, videos etc. Those external files are all gone since the site was deleted, just the web cache remains. But the blog posts are mostly still clickable and the text is still there. If I remember correctly, Riha discusses the interview and the whole negotiation process elsewhere. Don’t know if the comment section still works, didn’t check.
To see other sites that mention the interview with DMP, google for “ai no kusabi remake rihannon interview dmp “ since Mangago keeps deleting my post with all the links.

It was also discussed at length in the ANK community on LJ and on Aarinfantasy. Riha explained the whole bit about the different version and the negotiations ad nauseum and repeatedly to a lot of people at the time who were confused by the different versions, artwork etc.

So NO. No lies.

I was merely trying to give you some background info and be helpful. If that kind of information is not appreciated around here, without being called a liar, then I shall refrain from posting here in the future. *shrugs* People can still find me elsewhere: I am mean-green-ogre on Live Journal. Those from the Ai no Kusabi community know that what I said about Rihannon is true (and that we are in fact friends). You can also find her name RihannonL in the credit/thanks section (by aarinfantasy) of the subbed four episodes of the Ai no Kusabi remake, at the beginning of each episode. Those who are members in the Viewfinder scanlation group can find my comments, amongst others, on the first page of the new chapter, where I am chatting with the group owner. I also do so on the group that does the chapter summaries as well as a number of other Viewfinder related LJs, like FayeC, Dark Mtarashidango, Sunflower, Krambi. No lies there either, as you can see.

I am somewhat disappointed in you, SweetCupcake, I can’t lie (no pun intended). Believe me, I am far beyond the stage in life where I wish to impress a group of teenagers or tweens (not trying to be condescending in any way, just older). But I wish you all the best as well as the rest of you. Take care, be nice to each other. Auf Wiedersehen.

My handle on LJ is mean_green_ogre, not mean-green-ogre. Not that anyone is interested, but hey...

P.S.:
SweetCupcake, if you click on the actual blog entry for Riha's interview

http://web.archive.org/web/20111127124010/ http://ainokusabiremake2012.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/ai-no-kusabi-our-interview-with-yoko-tanigaki-sales-manager-of-dmp/

and scroll down to the comments you can see people discussing the interview. You can tell from the comments that they are referring to some of the things I mentioned (different editions, artwork etc.). Riha even suggested to DMP in the interview at the time that they should at least try and license all the artwork so they could reprint the earlier books, but use the new art. The comments mention that.

Who says we're not interested? Thank you for your insight.

There is an E-reader for this? ( like read online no purchasing or so)
I don't want a printed copy and I don't mind waiting for the whole volume

No, there isn't.

Oooooh hello! I know you XD nice to see you here!

Sadly none. I wish though.

Heheh... Wine. Condoms. Green tea. Whiskey. Kinky toys. Aphrodisiac. Dark room. Secret room. Latex. Lube. Bondage equipment. Guns. Fedora.

And only you and I know what that means, Ashida. XD

@ SweetCupcake: So you called me a liar and made false accusations about me without any reason. I proved to you without a shadow of a doubt in my posts above that I most certainly was NOT lying and that everything I said was TRUE.

And now you have absolutely nothing to say for yourself? Nothing? Wow. Just... wow. "Spineless" is the word that comes to mind.

I was really hoping you would have the integrity to say sorry for making such unfounded accusations and slander, but obviously that's not going to happen.

I really don't want to hang around in a place where people call me that for no reason and just because I try to provide information. So I'm out of here for good. Fortunately, there are other places where one can talk about Viewfinder. You know where to find me, guys, see you there. Bye.