Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the status of Digital Manga, Inc.’s Kickstarters and the rumor that they are on the verge of closing. Well, the president of the company, Hikaru Sasahara, released a statement on March 19th. So, while many of you probably have read his remarks (and may be glad to FINALLY hear something after months of being ghosted by the company), I decided this week to just go through this press release and respond with my thoughts.
Disclaimer: I did not back any of Digital Manga’s Kickstarters. This is just my opinion as a consumer and as someone who wants to see titles like Kimagure Orange Road printed and available for purchase at all major retailers.
Dear all our Kickstarter backers,
Except those of you who are still waiting for Under the Air. Y’all don’t get this update message. Because shipping out rewards over a period of 7+ months is fast compared to waiting over a year to get an update I guess.
First of all, please accept my sincere apology for causing such a considerable delay in fulfilling your books and rewards.
Am I the only one who raised their eyebrow at “causing”? It’s a rather interesting choice of words. Not “I apologize for the delay”, which would be more common.
Since you put a lot of trust in Digital Manga when you pledged for this campaign, my heart truly aches. Due to the fact that our Kickstarter-driven manga publishing was an unexplored project, that none of us had ever challenged before, we encountered multiple problems and difficulties that we could not fully foresee.
I would just like to point out at the time Kimagure Orange Road’s campaign launched in 2016, DMI had created 13 previous Kickstarters, their first being in 2012. Not all were successful, but, as the saying goes, this wasn’t their first rodeo. Yes, I imagine there would be some differences in a campaign centering around the God of Manga versus a lolicon title, but they didn’t learn anything from all their previous experiences? Heck, their second Kickstarter involving Barbara didn’t ship out for six months after the expected release date after their first campaign (Swallowing the Earth) stayed on schedule.
It’s also noteworthy that they later decided to skip the middle man and just crowdfund themselves.
In regards to Kimagure Orange Road, we never would have expected for Matsumoto-sensei to be struck down by his life-threatening illness while the campaign was still ongoing and we ended up not being able to obtain his hand-drawn shikishi and other exclusive reward items as we had initially planned.
I already discussed this previously, but this would be a good example of an unforeseen mishap. And regardless of whether you think 10% or whatever is a fair refund… what about Kodomo no Jikan? Wonder 3? Or, you know, the actual Kimagure Orange Road manga?
I mean, it’s good to know that DMI hasn’t completely disappeared into thin air, and I’m glad Sasahara is giving fans some sort of update. But after all this time, each campaign should get some additional information. I know some people backed just for the extras, but the main product should be included in an update!
Being, also, responsive to the needs and requests of all the backers, we have put a significant amount of our own resources into each campaign and that in turn has made our financial situation weakened.
We all know DMI doesn’t have the financial stability of the bigger manga publishers. As I mentioned before, they could be making some extra money if they would actually have their titles available through other channels. Of course it costs money to print off copies to send to Right Stuf, Amazon, etc., but companies need to spend money to earn money.
They also have to get their name out there. Their social media pages have been inactive since late 2017 at best (2016 for their own blog right on their website), and even those updates were sporadic. That’s not to mention their homepage is advertising YaoiCon 2017. How would anyone know what their upcoming releases are without doing some deep digging? Yes, their other imprints like Juné are far more active online, but the actual Digital Manga, Inc. page should still be kept up-to-date.
It’s also worth repeating they might not have been stretched so thin if they weren’t trying to handle five Kickstarters at once.
Despite of all of the above, I am here to pledge that we will do our very best to fulfill our obligation and deliver your books and rewards as soon as we practically can.
You will be seeing all of your campaigned books / rewards coming to your door slowly but steadily in the near future.
Let me go back to Under the Air. It is just inexcusable that some people received their items in August 2017, and yet it’s now March 2018 and there is a block of people still waiting. I have no idea if it’s a large segment or a small segment, and I also have no idea if they are international backers or if DMI is just going down the list in order. The Kickstarter had 777 backers. Let’s say everyone gets their item soon. That means about 100 backers a month got their items. Kimagure Orange Road and Kodomo no Jikan each have over 900 backers. At this rate, does this mean it will take nine months for all these fans to get their items once DMI enters the shipping stage?!
Of course, as the saying goes, better late than never. I don’t want to see anyone end up with nothing.
Thank you very again for your continuing support.
Sincerely,
Hikaru Sasahara
President
Digital Manga, Inc.
Several comments I read around the web were fully supportive. I honestly don’t know if they’re just kindhearted people, enthusiastic fans, or slightly naïve, as I can’t understand being at least a little frustrated that it took accusations of them closing and fleeing before they provided a statement. Nothing says a company deserves your support after having it make a statement only after being threatened with Kickstarter reports and lawsuits. Communication is essential for customer service, and they need to do a lot better in the coming months.