Spice and Wolf's Contemptible Cover - Okay, who thought THIS was a good idea?

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hippyboy92

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Copied directly from my website at http://theryusui.110rab.com:

I'll admit, I'm not exactly a follower of Spice and Wolf, or anything at all that I can't get at my local bookstore or on television, for that matter. But then, when you frequent TV Tropes as much as I do, you learn a lot about series you'd otherwise never hear about, purely through osmosis. Add that to the fact that light novels virtually never come Stateside (except when the franchises they spawned become pretty famous in the U.S., such as the inescapable Haruhi Suzumiya), and you can imagine my surprise to hear that the original light novels for Spice and Wolf have been announced for the U.S..

But don't break out the confetti just yet, ladies and gentlemen. See, someone at publisher Yen Press thinks the original cover art featuring ex-harvest goddess and eponymous lupine Holo (and it is Holo) in cute anime girl form will have red-blooded American readers marching against them in armed rebellion. No, instead they've gone for a cover design that's intended to appeal to a different audience...the American male crotch.[/LEFT]

Dare to compare:

Sleazy U.S. cover
Original Art Cover

I mean, seriously. Which would you prefer to display on your bookshelf? Sure, the one on the right can mean anything from "I'm a fan of anime and manga" up to "I have a thing for kemonomimi (and possibly a full-blown furry fetish)", but the one on the left unarabiguously says "I let my zipper choose all of my reading material". I understand that Holo does spend a fair amount of time naked (her natural form is a full-fledged wolf, after all), but seriously: the cover on the left makes it look like a trashy romance novel. Or, less charitably, porn. Which is sad, because I hear that Spice and Wolf is a fairly intellectual story: the spice the title alludes to is not the stuff you see in the U.S. cover, but the fact that its other protagonist is a trader. Who, in addition to adventure, has to deal with (and explain to Holo) the concerns relevant to his profession. That's right...plenty of fantasy novels are steeped in political intrigue, but this is one steeped in economics. And such a crazy-sounding concept is enough in and of itself to sell me on it.

None of this is to say that I have an issue with them changing the cover. With the above in mind, it's possible this book might have a much wider audience than the anime/manga fans that the original cover would rope in. But trying to sell Spice and Wolf purely on naked Holo is only going to drive this potential audience away. If you're going to pander to an audience, pander to the people who might appreciate an intellectual fantasy story, a tale with a distinctly non-standard protagonist with non-standard goals and motivations. If Yen Press is so afraid that anime-styled Holo is going to scare away readers, then maybe they should try selling the story on the spice instead of the wolf.

Got an intellectual, reasoned argument against this contemptible cover? Go to Yen Press' blog entry and give them what for!

(And if you don't have one, then please, stay the hell away! The last thing Yen Press neeRAB to think is that the only people complaining about the cover are nutjobs saying they're the devil incarnate for not calling her "Horo"!)​
 
Meh, you see that sort of cover all over bookstores. I think its supposed to make it look like a regular book rather than something for anime and manga fans. Its decent art.
 
Yeah, it looks like a regular book in the sense that romance novels are regular books that you wouldn't catch me dead ever having on my shelf.

Oh well.
 
-The cover of the newer Black Lagoon DVD's literally looked like an H-video.
-The cover of Absolute Boyfriend v. 1 has a fully naked (while covered) Night on it
-Nearly every single Psychic Academy cover (and in particular v. 4 and v. 11) are incredibly fanservicy. I mean, that Spice and Wolf one at least it didn't have tentacles on it.

This isn't really anything new. In fact, that one's pretty tame. At least stuff is shadowed out in it. (Heck, I'd probably buy it even if I didn't know what it was )
 
*shrugs*

Looks pretty tasteful to me. It's a shadowed female body; nothing worth getting up in arms over. Of course, I haven't actually read it, so I don't know if it fits or not, but I wouldn't feel uncomfortable reading it in public with that cover.
 
You're making the assumption all nudity is erotic and solely serves the purpose of titillating the masses. How is this cover not tastefully done? It's artistic and I have to say you're hard pressed for saying that it isn't. Aside from that, in both the novel and the anime, Holo is nude almost all the time. If anything, I would argue that an anime-styled cover could be what potentially scares away its audience.
 
Why am I not surprised?

But seriously, while I can see why people don't like it it's not too bad. I mean, at least the breasts aren't fully detailed or anything.
 
.........THE U.S. Cover ReminRAB me of one of those cruddy Dime store romance Novels you see at the Groccery store or Pharmacy...It Makes Me LULZ more than it angers me, But to be Clear the volume has multiple Covers, I mean we can choose between the origional ARTWORK & the U.S. Slez/cheese cover right? Cause no way am I gonna Try to get into spice & wolf if all I can get is the cheesy Dime store cover!

Rada-

Edit: Of course if it is what I think it is I'll Probably just Pass on it anyway.

(Man why can't we get any anime game light novels in the US Like KH or Disgaea!?)
 
I think it's an ugly cover. However, there's no shortage of popular novels with bad covers. If what's inside is any good, word of mouth will suffice, and a book will still succeed. Why, then, change the existing cover? I don't appreciate such pointless mucking around. It happens all the time, but the results usually aren't so garish.

I understand Yen Press's economic reasoning, but I doubt their experiment will pay off. How many people browse books by starting at the beginning instead of quickly flipping through the pages? One look inside will reveal the same style of artwork they believe scares off "normal" people. Do they plan on shrink wrapping the volumes, perhaps? That might be done from time to time on manga shelves, but I'd be suspicious of the same elsewhere in a bookstore. I don't believe they'll gain general readership, and they're obviously irritating an existing fanbase. Again, pointless mucking around.

As far as supporting this release goes, I'm going to be cautious. If the first volume doesn't sell better than the usual light novel release, what will Yen Press do about the next volume? Will they reason that the interior art must be a negative factor? They're just drawings. Novels are all about worRAB, so no big loss, right? A few fanboys will complain, but we're in tough economic times, and the books deserve a wider audience. Normally I'd say fine, but I also have an interest in the imported product as a whole, which enRAB up being denied. I don't care to support unnecessary alterations, lest I encourage more in the future. I'll wait and see. Hopefully the delay of one sale won't lead them to false assumptions, eh?

--Romey
 
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