erolover wrote...
I can't say I'm surprised about some of the reactions regarding FAKKU continuing to go legit and removing unlicensed content. I get people are pissed about transparency and losing free content, but it really isn't like Jacob owes an explanation, or owes people an advanced warning for the removal of content people never paid for in the first place. I mean, if FAKKU's unlicensed content had all been behind a paywall, that would be a different story. At least he gave us users some advanced notice.
Anyway, I love hentai, and I
really love ero manga. Like Jacob said in another forum topic, hentai is art, and to me, that's especially true for ero manga. I remember when I got the first ero manga I bought, in the mail. I opened it and looked through it. I loved the art, and I loved the obscene (in a good way) nature of the images. It was so hot. Since then, I've been a passionate fan of ero manga. I've imported so many Japanese ero manga, even though I don't understand what they're saying, because I love it that much, and it's nice to know that the artists got compensated for their work. I'm not going to lie, I've pirated stuff, but I do also buy a lot of the stuff I pirated. That said, I'm happy that now I have another, better way of getting the content I like, in physical and digital form, DRM-free, in
English, uncensored and in high quality, while supporting the artists, all thanks to FAKKU.
On a related note, Wani Magazine has a crap ton of artists whose work I like. When I started getting into ero manga, I started compiling and maintaining a physical list of artists I like and what publishers they published under. Wani easily has the most number of artists I like; Other publishers don't even come close. Now that Kairakuten and X-Eros are being simulpublished, I get to read English versions of many different artists' work who I like. I've actually slowed down on importing Japanese versions of ero manga because FAKKU is now working with Wani to publish English versions. I'm so happy that I finally get to read translated, uncensored versions of Nishi Iori (I really like his work but it never seemed to get scanlated). Anyway, looking at the list of artists Jacob listed in his post, I'm a fan of 17 or so artists from that list, which is a lot, and that's not even counting the other artists that normally publish with Wani, like Kisaragi Gunma, Cuvie, henreader, to name a few. Thanks to these magazines getting translated, I'll also get to read the work of artists I've never heard of and I may even become a fan of their work too!
I know this post is big, but I must confess another reason as to why I'm looking forward to this new direction FAKKU is going in, and it has to do with supporting/compensating the artists for their work; specifically, it has to to with them having incentive to continue drawing ero manga. I'm a fan of tosh's work, who is also known as Saeki Shun, the artist of the manga Food Wars. When I learned that tosh went mainstream, and was no longer doing ero manga (at least I think that's the case), I was devastated (not “someone important to me died devastated,” but you get the point). I was like, “there goes another good artist lost to mainstream.” I respect people's decisions to do what they want with their lives, and I don't expect nor do I demand that they cater to me, but it would have been nice if tosh was still doing porn. I don't know why he went to work on non-porn manga, maybe it was for fame or maybe because it was his dream, or maybe it was because of money; I really don't know. However, if some of these hentai artists leave porn due to financial reasons, it's good to know that with my purchases my dollars will go to the artists and hopefully give them incentive to stay, instead of leave, and continue drawing hot, sexy pictures.
I feel exactly the same as you.
Too bad I don't have the money to import books from the outside (Fakku Books + shipping cost me about 1 week worth of food in my country). But I as well see hentai as art, it's got a magic in it that really makes it outstanding. Thankfully the internet has helped me a lot (specially piracy) to keep in touch with artists, and even finding new artists or artists I never heard before. It has even given me the opportunities to talk directly to some artists on twitter, giving them thanks for their works and efforts (that's the best I can do right now without money) and sometimes even talk about their works or some characters they drew.
Being able to support them is good too. Even though I would love to support them directly, but I have few ways for doing so.
I'm planning on buying books from the artists I really like, though. Takenoko Seijin's Kakusei Kanojo being one of them.
Also it's good to see that with this, new artists will be known, there are already a couple of new artists form past wani anthologies that I really liked.
Personally I think that piracy has helped a lot of us with finding artists and content we never expected to see, sites like g.e-hentai and translator's sites have been really useful over these years when it comes to expanding and spreading content for everyone (even if their intention wasn't to be legal in the first place) so I think they deserve some thanks as well, but some people just go "you filthy pirates!", "ruining the artists" and stuff like that, but that's another issue. Of course pirates don't have the rights to act so entitled when free porn is taken out of their hands, but I think everyone has been helpful and useful one way or the other.
And yes, I saw comments about Tosh's "departure" from the h-scene to make his non-h manga. Personally I was happy for him, the best thing I could do is wish him luck with his new manga. Same goes with Takeda Hiromitsu and Maken-ki, if they are enjoying what they are doing, I feel happy for them,