Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - Printing Money
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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Nah, it seems the market for manga in the West skews girly, if anything. 
If it makes any difference, according to ICV2 in North America, the anime market is still about twice the manga market. |
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Jedi Master
 Posts: 400 |
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OMG, the Angel Beats manga and light novel haven't been licensed!?! That money is still sitting on the table!?! How much!?! How much!?! I wanna piece!
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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Hmm it;s a tossup between Tiger and Bunny and Puella Magi Madoka for my anime of the year. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Madoka has the better story, and it did a brilliaint job of attacking one of the genre's I hate the most. On the other hand, while it may not have been the most plot heavy show Tiger and Bunny was a pretty fun show, and I actually found myself liking every single one of the characters. Not to mention it's nice to see a show with US mainstream appeal actually do well in Japan as well. It's hard for me to choose...
Mawaru Penguindrum would also be a contender but the final episode hasn't aired yet and while it probably won't influence my opinion of the show too much it is better to see it before making declarations to it's greatness. It is the third series I gave a 10/10 to this year though. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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That is the process for whether or not something becomes (or maintains) publication, it doesn't affect whether or not people get paid for what was already published. I'll agree with your assessment that the number of mangaka behind a Bleach, Naruto or One Piece is a small select group, but you can bet your tail those guys get a piece for one simple reason: They (the publisher) DON'T WANT THEM TO LEAVE. A series can get cut if the ratings aren't good enough, but that's a two-edged sword, that means mangaka can just stop doing the thing also. And if your choice is to lose ALL revenue from a popular/successful creator or share a (small) piece of it, you do the latter.
Aside from being the "most infamous" of them, AFAIK TokyoPop is the ONLY one that did that and TokyoPop was not (and is not) a subsidiary of any Japanese publishing company (which is one of several reasons they folded but Viz is still around). "Rising Stars of Manga" was TP's thing and was not a standard for manga. If you believe the "realism" of Bakuman, take note that SEVERAL times the editors talk about making sure some of the creators don't leave to GO TO ANOTHER PUBLISHER. I can even point out one or two actual mangaka that I follow that DID EXACTLY THAT. For an example look at Trigun & Trigun Maximum, Nightow was published by Tokuma Shoten until the magazine Trigun was in died (the publisher is still around though), he then went to Shonen Gahosha (different publisher) to do a new work but wanted to finish Trigun, so "Trigun Maximum" was published by them. |
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CG-LOVER
 Posts: 355 Location: East Lansing, MI |
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For the answerfans question are we to assume you are talking about titles that came out in japan in 2011? If thats the case then id definitely give my vote to Tiger and Bunny.
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I recommend a book by Roland Kelts titled JapanAmerica. In it he mentions that in Japanese publishing culture it is considered "rude and even insulting" for an author, or creator of a manga, or novel to ask for a royalty when negotiating a publishing contract. Whether that's because the publishing agents have managed to brainwash authors into thinking that historically, or it's yet another inhibition caused by historical fundamental extreme politeness caused by centuries of isolation from the rest of the world, is unclear, but until said author's creation becomes a "big seller" enough that other publishers would want to "headhunt" him or her from their existing publisher, the majority of authors and creators are at the mercy of what ever they, or their agents can deal out of a publisher for a one time up front amount a money, and that's the end of it. This situation was allegedly the foundation for the original deal that 4Kids signed with Nintendo for the rights to the Pokemon anime. Nintendo's agents were feeling rather proud that they managed to get $10 Million out of Kahn for the license, until they saw what the first movie got at US boxoffices and then on further investigation discovered just how much 4Kids was raking in on US and overseas sales. Now you know why they pulled it back and started running it themselves, but they missed out on a few billions before the penny finally dropped just what the term "royalties" really meant outside of Japan, other than another way to describe the Emperor's family.
Last edited by Mohawk52 on Sat Dec 17, 2011 6:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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That's a nice way to put it. |
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toyNN
 Posts: 252 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Happy to see all the others who wrote in about Revolutionary Girl Utena release. My #1 too. I would also give mention to Summer Wars and Evangelion 2.22
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tasogarenootome
 Posts: 593 |
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Also excited for Utena, though Tales of the Abyss was definitely my best buy this year, if for no other reason than I never thought that anime would see US shores. Now DVD players everywhere can echo with the lyrical music of Luke's incessant complaining.
Definitely some interesting questions this time around, along with the forum discussion surrounding them. I always wondered what the hold-up with the Kindle was in Japan. Anime of 2011? I gotta confess I'm a bit behind and have yet to see Madoka Magica or most of the series in Bamboo's The Stream column, so my votes are for Tiger and Bunny from Japan and Durarara!! as a series that aired in the US for the first time this year. |
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aereus
Posts: 574 |
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I have to disagree with the Answerman about the whole manga sending money back to Japan as well --
American sales have no bearing on the continued serializing or cancellation of your favorite authors in Japan. If you actually want to support the author you have to "vote with your wallet" and buy the Japanese volume. Editors follow the pulse of popularity every issue they release. As such, by the time you buy your US release of a certain manga volume it may be over a year+ since that came out in a Japanese magazine. The editor's decision to cancel them or not happens a long time earlier than that. Shonen Jump for example: Their main metric for popularity is still the feedback card included with every issue. Followed by tankobon sales after that. If you really want to have a voice in manga you like continuing and similar ones being made, then buy the Japanese tankobon. Inside the US you can order from bookstores like Sanseido or Kinokuniya and only pay local shipping instead of EMS/SAL. The price atm is ~$9.50 per volume before shipping. Fairly comparable to US release prices. Just look up the title on Amazon.co.jp and find the ISBN# to order it. Just keep the scanlations around if you want to read it again and know that you are doing the maximum amount of fan support for your author (It's not like most people read a volume more than 1-2x before it sits on the shelf forever after that)
PS: Naruto sells somewhere around 50k per volume in the US as the #1 manga title. In Japan they sell in excess of 900k. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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If people are going to rely on scanlations to actually read it, then why would they bother to buy the Japanese edition? Supporting the U.S. release companies probably sends more money to the manga-ka than people outside Japan buying the Japanese edition does. |
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NonoAsumy
Posts: 90 |
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Nichijou and Mawaru Penguindrum are my top 2.
Both are excellent shows in a pretty strong year (Usagi Drop, Wandering Son and other titles) I haven´t watched Level E though, I heard it is quite good and Hyouge Mono just doesnt get translated. |
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aereus
Posts: 574 |
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Uh, no. It doesn't. That doesn't even make any sense. Once the book leaves their warehouse, a sale is a sale. It doesn't matter where the end consumer buys it from. I don't understand why so many people think the way you do. Please explain the logic so I can understand your POV. Is there really such a large difference between reading the scanlation and putting the original Japanese copy on the shelf -- compared to reading the English one and putting it on the shelf? Either way you read it 1-2x and it goes on the shelf. Except buying the original is a direct sale from the publisher, instead of from a US company that pays a small licensing fee. And as I said before -- it has an actual impact on that author and continuing to make manga you like. The US release doesn't. |
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fuuma_monou
Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Do you have the numbers to back up your position? As in, do enough people outside Japan buy the Japanese release to make a difference in whether or not a series is cancelled? Licensing fees aren't public knowledge, but I'm pretty sure they're not "small". Japanese publishers aren't relying on us, directly, for extra income. Makes more business sense to license manga to publishers around the world who know their respective markets. I can read basic Japanese--enough to grok untranslated shonen/shojo manga. I'd much rather read a printed English translation. Given the cost of shipping from Japan (no local Japanese book stores with manga) it ends up being cheaper (plenty of of U.S.-released manga in local book stores and comic shops). Unlicensed titles are about the only ones I bother to import. As for scanlations, they're copyright infringement. Buying the Japanese release is fine and dandy, buy most people lean towards "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" |
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aereus
Posts: 574 |
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Repeating before: A sale is a sale. Even if foreigners buying the Japanese release was only 5% of total sales -- that can mean the difference between continuation or cancellation. Also, the way Japanese companies work, the author is very unlikely to see anything out of the license fee charged to the US company.
Yes scanlations are an unauthorized translation, but seeing as you would own the actual manga that goes with it, you aren't exactly pirating their manga. See my one post higher up on this page for how you can buy manga inside the US for similar prices to the derivative release. There are US-based book stores that don't charge for ordering pretty much any manga with an ISBN#. Just pool your order so you can get like 6 volumes shipped for $6 instead of one at a time. |
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