EX: Are there limitations placed on the success of manga when translating it? What are these limiting factors?

FS: There are lots of them. First is content--the material you get to translate. This is a limitation of the market. People won't want to have something translated if they don't think it will do well. This is the main limitation. Another limitation is the size of the market. The manga market here is much smaller than the anime market here.
The other limitation is one of language. Cultural words and puns don't always translate easily. One exception that comes to mind though is LUM, the English version of URUSEI YATSURA. It has been very popular, and I really didn't expect that, to tell you the truth.

EX: Because of all the language and cultural nuances, you mean?

FS: Yes. I didn't think that it would be very popular over here because sometimes it's very hard to make the jokes make any sense when you render them in English.

EX: Who do you think is buying manga in the U.S. and how does it compare to the Japanese market?

FS: In America, 90% of the market is male, and I think most of the readers are in their early 20's. That's a big difference from Japan right there, since the market there is much closer to a 50/50 split between males and females.
In addition, the age range of manga readers is much broader in Japan. Probably everyone under 55 has--at various points in life--read a lot of manga. In the over 60 group, there are those who don't read manga on principle or simply because they are not part of the "manga generation," which means that they didn't grow up with them, and would have a hard time reading and understanding manga as a medium.

EX: Do you ever see a genre of comics in America aimed specifically at adults (like the salaryman comics in Japan)?

FS: We already have erotic comics, which are specifically aimed at adults--we hope. (Laughs). Other than that, right now prospects are bleak unless reading habits change.

EX: What were the challenges you faced to get your new book published? Do publishers recognize anime and manga as a theme they want to cover or did you have to convince them?

FS: Stone Bridge Press, my current publisher, wasn't a problem. It's run by Peter Goodman, who was the editor of MANGA! MANGA!, who used to work for Kodansha International. He knew there was more of a market than that of which Kodansha was aware. Most publishers, however, are still totally unaware of the potential of manga and anime because the book and comic book publishing industries are separated by a "grand canyon" of distribution practices and policies. They don't know what's going on with each other or how to deal with each other. So awareness on the part of American publishers is very low.
For this book, it wasn't really a problem. But Kodansha International, for example, didn't see the need for a revision. Pantheon, another publisher I have worked with, perceived there might be a sort of avant-garde market, but that project didn't pan out. This situation of course may change in the future.

EX: Which job do you most enjoy and why?

FS: I make my living interpreting, but what I like the best is writing. Actually, to tell you the truth, I like having written the best. (Laughs). I like translating, too, but that doesn't have the same ownership. Even though you craft the words, it's still someone else's ideas that you're trying to express.

EX: What was the biggest problem with translating the GUNDAM novels?

FS: I can't answer in the singular. To start with, it was really hard to get the publisher to understand what was involved. The translation itself wasn't super difficult, but I was constrained by the materials. And these novels, they're dependent upon the visuals. In Japan there were the television shows and the movies and all the toys to add a visual presence--a kind of basic knowledge--to the novels that just wasn't present here. And there were three books. That they were never backed up by the visuals made them less successful than I think they could have been. Still, I find it distressing that the publisher has allowed these novels to go out of print.

EX: We've talked a lot about manga, but what about anime? What anime do you watch?

FS: Generally I don't watch anime because it's sequential and I'm a random access kind of guy. It's hard for me to find the time to devote to a long-running series. Of course, I have seen GHOST IN THE SHELL, OMOIDE POROPORO (Only Yesterday), and some other big titles.

EX: How do you stay current on both the Japanese and American manga industry?

FS: For the book, I talked to a lot of individual people. I don't pretend to know everything--it's just too huge a scene. I pick areas that interest me and I follow those. I wouldn't dream of trying to be current on all manga all the time.