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MangaGamer Comments on the Closure of minori


English visual novel publisher and partner of minori, MangaGamer, has commented on the future of its partnership with the now-closed studio.

After producing visual novels for 18 years, the Japanese VN studio minori has announced its closure. Contrary to rumors about the studio’s financial instability, the decision was driven by the divergence of market demand from minori’s personal artistic vision. Not willing to change their ideals, they have chosen to close their doors instead.

The closure of the studio has placed the future of their titles into uncertainty. MangaGamer has been working on English translations for their novels, with vast plans towards minori’s catalog. In their latest blog post, MangaGamer has announced that they’re still in contact with monori’s president, Nobukazu Sakai, also known as nbkz. The studio is interested in continuing their partnership with MangaGamer and licensing the localization of their still-unlicensed properties, in spite of their closure.

Recently, MangaGamer has begun taking pre-orders for one of minori’s titles', Trinoline; however, the future of the Supipara fundraiser is still being discussed.

You can read MangaGamer’s complete comment below, or on their blog:

Thank you, everyone, for your continued patience and understanding following the recent news of minori’s closure.

We have received a number of emails and messages from concerned customers and fans but felt it necessary to obtain as much information as possible from minori before issuing a public statement of our own.

For your convenience, we have provided minori’s original Japanese press release, along with a brief summary of that same text. While this post may not answer all of your questions at this time, we will do our best to provide updates whenever possible.

As many of you are aware, minori, the developer behind titles such as ef – a fairy tale of the two, eden*, Supipara, and Trinoline, has decided to cease domestic operations in Japan. We understand this news came as a great shock to many of our customers, fans, and staff members. There have been a number of rumors circulating behind this closure, the most notable relating to bankruptcy. We want to assure you that this rumor is false – minori is not declaring bankruptcy.

We have provided a brief summary of the official statement listed on minori’s website on February 28th, 2019. As previously mentioned, the full Japanese text can be found in this same post.

We (minori) were not able to meet the original release date for our newest title, Sono Hi no Kemono ni wa (その日の獣には), and broke our promise to our customers.

We (minori) feel there is a divergence between what we want to create versus what customers want today.

By ceasing operations now, our staff can still find work elsewhere and continue their respective careers.

We (minori) believed in what we wanted to create when we developed this company, and bending those ideals, purely for the sake of existing, wouldn’t be right.

What does this mean for Trinoline, the Supipara fundraiser, and the rest of their unlicensed catalog?

For starters, Trinoline’s license and release are perfectly fine. In fact, you can pre-order your copy right now on our website if you so choose.

Additionally, although minori is still sorting things out internally, they would like to continue working with MangaGamer to license and localize their other unlicensed properties that have not yet been released overseas.

However, the fate of the Supipara fundraiser is still unknown at this time. We are working with minori’s president and CEO, nbkz, to work out those details. More information will be made available at a later date.

We thank you all for your continued support and patronage. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our customer support line, support@mangagamer.com

Thank you.


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