News

Manga Continues Growing in Bookstores

Publishers Weekly has an article explaining the continued growth of the overall manga marketplace in the United States through mainstream bookstores.

Stu Levy of Tokyopop estimates the current U.S.A. manga market to be $150 million. Last Year ICv2 estimated the manga market to be worth somewhere between $30 million and $60 million at the time.

Some of the publishers posted the numbers of titles (volumes) they plan to publish in 2004. Tokyopop plans over 500, Viz over 200, and CPM 60. Tokyopop's top-preforming manga will sell about 100 000 copies per volume, or as many as 250 000 copies in the case of some titles that have had their anime counterpart broadcasted on TV.

One of the other noted items revolves around gender and manga. Mr. Levy states that the American audience for manga is about 60% female. He states that this is most due to the subject content of manga being released in America now. There has been more focus on titles devoted to dramatic stories about relationships and love. Most female readers of manga choose to make their purchases of it at mainstream book stores in graphic novel format, versus traveling to a comic book shop.