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Manga Creator Ayano Yamane: Not Enough Paper, Ink
posted on by Gia Manry
Boys-love manga creator Ayano Yamane (Target in the Finder series, Crimson Spell) posted on Twitter on Monday to note that, because of damage done to paper mills in the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, both paper and ink are now in short supply. In particular, the Ishinomaki and Iwanuma mills in Miyagi Prefecture and the Nakoso mill in Fukushima Prefecture are out of commission.
She linked to a March 24 entry in a local blog with photographs of the damage at the Ishinomaki mill, and she characterized the mill as a "total loss." She offered her prayers for the safety of the workers at the mills.
Yamane noted that this is affecting books slated for an April 5 release, including her own Finder no Netsujō. In a follow-up Tweet, she encouraged her followers to buy new books from stores if they can find them. She later translated part of her posts into English.
Japan's NHK news also reported on ink shortages in Japan affecting the country's newspapers, and the Publishers Weekly magazine's analysis of the Japanese publishing industry's status after the earthquake also noted the current short supply of ink and paper, including the color ink used to publish manga in its anthology form.
