Forum - View topicNEWS: Toren Smith predicts manga industry to go bust
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Zeiram
 Posts: 317 |
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Yuri!! GL!!! we need more women on women action!!
erk... ok... we need gentle sweet girl/girl romances ^^;;; eh whatev, either fine by me, i'm trying to write one myself...mweh |
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Kal
 Posts: 130 Location: USA |
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Lol. I see that Zeiram is a big fan of yuri. Hehe. I dunno, I prefer shoujo-ai & shounen-ai over the hardcore yaoi and yuri.. but there are always exceptions ^~
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astra
Posts: 131 |
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I see more and more people venturing into the manga sections at bookstores and it seems promising. However, I have to agree that many titles that the manga companies are putting out seem crappy. Instead of purchasing so many titles that deal with the same subject matter, I think they should concentrate on improving the quality of their manga. This could mean hiring more (or perhaps better?) editors to work on their translations. Often the writing both in the manga itself and on the cover and back just seems juvenile. It would also seem wiser to get more varied titles. I like that Tokyopop has released many interesting titles like Paradise Kiss, Kodomo no Omocha, and Clamp titles. They are all radically different from eachother and hold the reader's interest. What they don't need is more Peach Girl clones.
I'd also like to see more manga outside the comics sections. Maybe they could lobby for Fushigi Yuugi in the romance section. The manga version of the Tale of Genji could sit next to the novel. This could help manga become even more mainstream, as it would introduce it to those who are unwilling to venture into comic book stores. Somebody stated that the Japanese value manga as an artform while Americans view it as disposable. I would argue that the opposite is true. American comics used to run full-color with a hefty $4 for a few pages. Manga is changing that. In Japan, manga is cheap enough for people to buy stacks and not make a huge dent in their wallets. It is also available everywhere. It is printed on low quality paper to keep the price down. Once people are through reading it, they can sell it to a second hand store like Bookoff and then purchase more. Previously, in America people thought the artwork was integral to selling the comic. The manga version of Akira was colored because they thought it wouldnt sell in black and white. Now, because of manga, companies are switching to cheaper ways of putting together comic books. In effect, they are making comics become disposable (but more mainstream,) like their Japanese counterparts. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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How is it still a "sanitized" version of the shonen stuff? There's several shoujo manga out there that can get just as bloody and violent a shonen manga. Just because it's for girls does NOT mean it's fluffy and made for sensitive eyes. I guess I really can't explain it to you how shoujo manga is NOT a minority in Japan, and there are shoujo magazines that specialize in nothing but mature shoujo, just like there are magazines that specialize in nothing but kid shonen. Asuka magazine is one of the most popular shoujo magazines that specialize in a majority of mature shoujo manga, and so is Sho-comi, and they sell well with both sexes. Just because it's a good, violent, shoujo manga does not mean it's not going to find an audience over here. Shoujo is basically a shonen manga with a more complex and detailed plot. Take a look at X and try calling it fluffy. I apologize for earlier seeming to say that shonen manga had more crap then shoujo. I just ment in terms of what American companies are bringing in. And example of this would be ADV's Einix/Comic Blade aquisitions. They bought a TON of titles, all which I'm pretty sure are shonen magazine titles *I read comic blade content* and as people have stated, with that many titles, a lot will be crap. Even more sadly, some of their best titles in that list will have trouble finding an audience because ADV is choosing to release them from the middle of the manga series. I do read a majority of shoujo titles *Sho-comi being my fave Manga Magazine* but I do enjoy shonen manga, especially a majority of the things found in the Japanese Shonen Jump, *I adore Bleach above all* Magazine-Z, Comic Blade, and Shonen Weekly. I wouldn't call the selection of shonen manga that I read small, I just read a lot of manga, more so then most American readers, and I just happen to prefer more shoujo titles over shonen. I still though, have yet to come across a good shonen manga that I honestly enjoyed that didn't have violence, or sports. *Has only liked Prince of Tennis for some odd reason in the sports department*. On that basis is why I said shoujo manga spreads across more genres. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15315 |
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Kal: Ok, I'll replace "crap" with "homogenized product". You happy? And whether I like it or not, Raijin proved that the girls who are fans of CLAMP won't be touching Fist of the North Star anytime soon.
astra:
How about quality assurance people who actually read the manga instead of just looking at the cover?
Perhaps, but in Japan, you don't normally have publishers who consider whatever you write their intellectual property, to the point that they'll forget about paying you if it ever gets re-printed. (See the creators of Superman as a good example of getting shafted.) In Japan, if you become successful as a writer/artist/both, you're the one who gets all the glory, not the publisher, who, in America can hire 20-30 artists to replace you when you retire, and screw up whatever appeal or continuity you established just to boost sales. (*cough* Spiderman clone *cough*)
It's disposable on the surface, but because it's so ubiquitous, there's a better chance to get discovered there, because there's a culture of appreciation for art that just doesn't resonate across the pond.
It should be noted that Kodansha was consulted on Akira's color scheme. Also, as you can tell, Japanese manga uses color pages too. Just not as often. greenwolf:
Name a few.
I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying it's catering to a minority market.
There are manga magazines which specialize in pachinko. The Japanese just like to tap into more markets than we do. That doesn't mean they're always successful.
*cough* Banana Fish *cough*
Ok, it's fluffy. It's got people dressed like Goths, but they're still fluffy. |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Just to name a few, X *I'd like your explination as to why you just called it Fluffy btw*, Neji, and my personal fave, Angel Sanctuary. |
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sacchan
Posts: 277 Location: Okinawa, Japan |
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Does American companies license good, mature shojo/ladies comics, too?
For example, titles like: Galboy(about marriage and family), Kimi no te ga Sasayaiteru (romance and marriage between a deaf woman and an average businessman), Waru (average OL climbs the business ladder), NATURAL(modeling success story), PRIDE (a politician's daughter becomes a news reporter and exposes her father's misdeeds), Omizu no Hanamichi (slice of life of women who work at an expensive bar in Tokyo), and much more. Maybe some people think all shojo/ladies are the same because only the titles aimed at teenage girls are licensed? (Same for shonen, too. Are the good seinen manga also getting licensed?) |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Nah, right now only the teenager stuff is getting through, but it seems like Tokyopop is taking an intrest to some of the shoujo manga targeted for older women. It's just doubtful it'll do well here any time soon because older women don't seem to be taking much of an intrest in graphic novels. |
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sacchan
Posts: 277 Location: Okinawa, Japan |
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Maybe some company should license SILVER (art by Fujita Kazuko) and stick it on the shelf beside all the harlequin romance novels to draw in mature audiences, since it's based on a romance novel by Penny Jordan. (I haven't read it, but heard it's really steamy
 )
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Lol, that reminds me of some of the stuff in the Sho-comi magazines. The majority of those titles are targeted at teenage girls, yet at EXTREMLY steamy so... it makes me wonder what age you have to be in Japan to read pornographic material. They'd definatly would have to release the shoujo-magic titles here in plastic wrap with the 18 and up thing. |
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Neilworms2
Posts: 1 |
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Shoujo manga, shounen manga, that's all I'm hearing debates about manga aimed at TEENAGE BOYS and TEENAGE GIRLS... where is the Seinen and Josei manga here? Its not here... very little of it gets published... who here knows of Kan Takahama, Iou Kuroda, Jiro Taniguchi, Naoki Usawa, Taiyou Matsumoto? I'm almost certain the answer is a solid no
 (okay a few might know of at one of the last three mentioned)
Why do people do not know about any of these authors who are quite prolific and acclaimed in Japan? The answer is that we have an extremely distorted picture of the manga market in Japan. We are only getting a fraction of what's out there and as a result with us only getting shounen and shoujo aimed at anime fans (which isn't as big a group as you might think in japan to put it nicely  ... people who read manga are much more prevailant and generally it has much more respect as an artform). Those artist above are all people who work in seinen manga a subset of manga your not going to find much of over here.
What about river's edge? Does anyone know of that... its an example of Josei manga... not even many scanlators seek either of these ADULT aimed generas (and I mean adult as in aimed at adult audiences not necessarly pornographic). They instead only look at shounen and shoujo shounen and shoujo... and that is exactly the problem with the US market right now, its far too limited and booming far too quickly... we aren't seeing too much variety we are only seeing the most mainstream work aimed at Teenage audiences here, and as a result many people in on this fad will tire of this stuff as they grow older. The only way the US manga market is going to survive IMO is if it introduces (at least at a slow rate) a wider and more diverse strata of works. |
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dmanjdb
Posts: 113 |
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The manga biz won't go bust. I will be downsided.
Tokyopop releases a lot of good mangas so I don't think they will get hurt in the end. But they need to get some releases quicker to the stands. I forgot theres a Planetes manga out there. ADV is mixed bag. The have the absolute WORST manga releases ever (Happy lesson manga is HORRIBLE). But lets be honest ADV started releasing crappy anime and look at them now. Viz was pionner in manga in the US but recently they have been a follower. TP have $10 GN? We will too. TP have shoujo manga? we will release 10 times the amount of shoujo to annoy the male fans. Shoujo will be the one who will suffer the most. American girls are the fickelest (sp?) persons in the world. If it wasn't for Shonen Jump and some wicked action mangas I would think Viz is turning gay (not that anything wrong with that). One more thing. Anything that goes up most come down. Is gonna be the same with manga plain and simple. Will it go bust? No. Its gonna be here for a long time. |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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... isn't that your exact same post from page 2? Anyway, I don't see the number of manga coming to America beinga total problem. I think all the manga they get will be able to pay for themselves. A problem I do see, and am already seeing, is that book stores won't carry every title, and manga is taking up too much of their shelf space. This is understandable, and already I have to special order the majority of my manga because they never have it. I think that special ordering certian manga titles is going to become a common practice with manga buyers, which in turn will possibly kill some potential costumers when the store never carries volume 1 of certian series. |
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dmanjdb
Posts: 113 |
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Really??? Sorry I didn't see it. I guess it drowned in the Thread. So I pasted from word. Sorry again. Last edited by dmanjdb on Fri Apr 16, 2004 1:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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musouka
Posts: 707 |
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Banana Fish, Yasha, and X, as much as I really dislike CLAMP, is also a good example. And, as for sanitized, there was content in Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai Suru that was giving me nightmares and making me throw up. I've read a lot of shounen/seinen in my day, but none has ever done that to me. |
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