Forum - View topicThe Present Situation and Future of the Manga Industry
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The Mad Manga Massacre
Posts: 1171 |
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The title is fairly self explanitory but I was simply curious on other human's perspective on the present state the manga industry is in. Is Tokyopop dead yet? The majority of their titles have been discontinued, some with only a volume or two left before they would have been completed. Del Ray and CMX seem to be having 4-5 month gaps between releases of new volumes. Should the recession end in larger countries would the manga/anime industry be able to get itself back on its feet again? Or would it simply wither away? Was it all a passing fad to the general public? Are short (1-3 volume) series truly the way to go? I apologize for the length of this post
 but many of these questions are driving me crazy. Your thoughts?
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Tokyopop isn't dead yet, but at this point I'm not sure if they'll make it through...I have a feeling that if they don't die off, they'll end up as a small company with a few titles, and nothing like they used to be. However, no one knows for sure, and there is a chance that (depending on how the economy does), they'll be fine. Currently, it's not looking good, with the hiatuses, quality drop, prices, and lags between volume releases. We must keep in mind that unlike VIZ, Del Rey, and Yen Press, Tokyopop had no agreements/co-ownership with Japanese companies to license specific/popular titles (it's how VIZ ends up Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bleach, etc). I'm not too sure on Del Rey and CMX.
I'm positive the industry will eventually stabilize. It may take a bit, but it will happen. In the mean time, VIZ is stable, Del Rey and CMX are still going, and Yen Press has a nice amount of resources that make it capable of surviving. As for volume length...Do you mean purchases? I would stick to shorter, complete series for companies that seem to be failing, but companies such as VIZ and Yen Press seem to be doing fine and have lined up releases. Yen Press has even listed future releases as far as 2012, and I think I recall seeing 2013 on one. |
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I think I said this in an anime post. To me, the bubble burst. Speculation and thoughts of an ever growing market just drove exceptions up and up and up into impossible heights. Then the market dropped, due to various reasons including its own speculation and hubris. Icarus flew too close to the sun. The market was glutted with more than it could support. Now it's bubbling down to something more realistic.
Manga retailers had books that wouldn't move and sat on shelves. Hell, some went to the paper shredder as a friend who worked at a Barnes and Noble over the holidays attested to. (A sad little secret of book retailers.) Some books were just too niche to sell in mainstream or even specialty stores. Oh and sometimes customers in the aisle that wouldn't either. And yes, that you could download maybe 90% of these titles online for free and a whole generation (of which I'm on a tip myself) has been raised viewing this as a valid or the valid source of reading Japanese comics. Though maybe online retailers allow specific and cult favorite books to get bought and into the hands of the people who do buy them. Lord knows my roommate doesn't bother going down to the local comic shop and orders all his books online and in bulk during sales. Though to be fair one of the stores has a just OK selection, but another one a few subway stops away has an amazing one. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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To be fair, this is true of about 40% of all books, manga or otherwise. The bookstore returns them to the publisher and sometimes they are sold as remainders (ie what those discount bookstores get sent) and some as pulped. Mass market paperbacks make up the majority of the second group. I think the manga industry finally had to face up to the fact that the market had been oversaturated with titles. There were just too many books on the shelves. I think the main publishers who are still active will recover. Certainly Viz has nothing to worry about and I doubt Del Rey does either. I've never bought anything CMX so I'm not sure about that. I think even Tokyopop will continue, though it will help if they either finally cancel the "delayed" series or start them up again (please give me more Suppli!). Really, the only company out there that I see as being absolutely dead is ADV and rightly so. Which is shame since their releases were nice...when they actually came out. But they really are a dead company now and I just hope someone else picks up the Gunslinger Girl license because I really want to read the rest of it. |
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asura_wings
Posts: 31 |
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Bookstores are sometimes used as suppliers for online shops such as Amazon and those remainders do go to purchasers in online shop,it really sucks I even bought a copy that had been read allot in the bookstore,that manga title I bought is a mindless Shojo Smut that I think nobody wanna buy and I regret buying that. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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CMX has the backing of DC Comics. But DC would never be afraid of pulling the plug if it stopped selling. They've done it to many lines they've started over the years. I'm honestly surprised its lasted as long as it has, the only title they have ever published that I had any interest in was GON.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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The way it works at the store I work is first you send back what you can. Anything now out of print won't be taken back by the publisher. If you can send it back your store will be given "credit" on their next order. Manga count as Trade Paperbacks, not mass market's so they don't face fate of a shredder, we send them back. I've noticed however with stores such as Barnes and Noble and Books a Millions sometimes the store rarely bothers with returns and just puts stuff in the discount pile, or destroys them. I don't think manga is going anywhere, it's shown it has an audience. Like Marie said this is all due to Saturation. Manga sells best here when there's a fanbase to begin with, be it with an anime that's popular here or word of mouth via scanlations. About 3 years ago ADV and Tokyopop started making all these deals to get whole bloody catelouges of some Japanese companies thinking every little thing would sell and they discovered they were wrong. People can recognize crap when they see it. CMX has a number of fan-favorites, mine from them would be Emma. Last edited by littlegreenwolf on Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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My guess is that CMX has found a comfortable niche ((old) shoujo manga?) and isn't really worried about the future. Just look at the number of new series for 2009 and 2010! Apparantly they focus on short series that are cheap to license, but avoid crap at the same time.
Dark Horse , Vertical and DelRey are in similar situations. YenPress is might more vulnerable, because they're the newbies, but they seem to have a good idea of what readers want and act accordingly. Tokyopop and Viz don't have niche. Viz is a powerhouse and doesn't need one. Tokyopop not so much, obviously. As for unwanted Tokyopop manga, a lot of books have made their way to the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Over here, you can find Tokyopop manga at Boekenfestijn for €1,95. Most of it is OOP, but recent and still running series can also be found there. |
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DomFortress
 Posts: 751 Location: Richmond BC, Canada |
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The distribution and production aren't the real problems. In fact, the system itself worked so well, we owned the current market saturation thanks to both the existing fandom and the industry. If it wasn't for the both of them constantly reproducing intellectual properties faster than the current fan base and the subculture can grow, while both sides are distributing the said properties faster than legal distribution can regulate properly economic growth. Just the kind of direction you'll get from an isolated entertainment industry in an isolated society, led buy some of their most isolated minority group within their already isolated subculture. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Get the hell out of this manga forum. I don't want you invading here and spewing your same "THEY WERE MORE CREATIVE IN THE 80S" bull here. You have shown no understanding of the current manga market in North America or Japan, and only have indicated that you don't read manga AT ALL, so stop with this "character-based stories with little cultural relevancy" and "unrelatable characters" rubbish.
Pretty much. Considering how companies like Viz and Yen Press are expanding, and Dark Horse and Del Rey are becoming leaner, as well as an increasing amount of high-quality, mature titles, I'd expect the manga market in North America to continue to grow (as many have seen for the long-term). Manga will continue to do well in Japan, and as long as North American companies continue to pick up more of the high-quality titles, I can't complain. |
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asura_wings
Posts: 31 |
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It is good that those two have an online store,so that those who want to buy manga at those stores but very far can buy. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18359 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Sorry, DomFortress, but while Hellkorn was out of line with how he said it, he's right that your comments are not very coherent, and using the wrong words in several places doesn't help. I think I get the basics of what you're trying to say - that unwise decisions on the parts of some companies have flooded the market with a lot of lower-quality titles that didn't make it through in the earlier days of the manga rush - but please also make sure you're staying on-topic with the thread. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7390 Location: Maine |
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Aside from being woefully incoherent you failed to realize two things: 1) Anime and manga are Japanese culture. Isn't saying culture lacks culture a little ridiculous? 2) Anime and manga are made for the Japanese. They don't care if some random guy from Canada doesn't get the references. And I like how in one sentence you seem to be complaining about the lack of cultural relevance in manga while in the next complaining about how manga contains too many cultural references making it hard to follow. That's some brilliant self contradiction right there. On topic, I don't believe the sky will ever fall for manga. The economy is certainly the 900 pound gorilla sitting on the back of the manga (and anime) industry right now, but really, the same can be said about a lot of luxuries right now. Both the distributors and the fan-base are being extra cautious for the time being, however I do think that once the economy picks up again and we resume spending money for fun we could see the start of a second bubble. I do think the industry will learn its lesson and be a bit more cautious about only licensing sure things and titles they can properly market the next time around. Until the book stores start scaling back shelf space (I haven't seen or heard of this happening yet) I think the manga industry will remain on the "safe side". Manga is pretty cheap entertainment (as most books are) and easily portable so it's in a pretty good position. Emerje |
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ninjapet
 Posts: 1517 |
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As far as I know Yen Press and Del Ray are going strong.
Del Ray is doing some really speedy releases on the Negima! series with a new volume every 2 to 3 months. But there slowing down due to the fact there like three volumes behide the Japanese now. I mean there Negima!?:Neo release is a volume every three months. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is getting a fairly speedy release as well. Then again Del Ray now has Fairy Tail along with there other to same magazine series. Yen Press has it's TMoHS releases and Black Butler and Soul Eater. Popular titles with ok release speeds. TMoHS comes out slow do to the fact there pacing it with the novel release. Soul Eater was pushed back again, but it's still being released monthly I think that if they sell things that people want to read, with good translations and with a good price they will be fine. |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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The thing about bubbles is that, regardless of the economy, they eventually burst. I don't think manga will be disappearing any time soon and nor do I think that any of the major players (with the possible exception of Tokyopop) are likely to be going anywhere in the foreseeable future but I do think there will be a fairly major shake-up over the next few years and that the market will look quite different at the end of that period. The real question is how many of the smaller operators will make it through? ADV Manga and CPM are already out of business; DrMaster's website doesn't look to have been updated since last September; Infinity Studios abandoned the print medium last year and their website also doesn't look to have been updated since shortly after that; DMP might survive by concentrating on their yaoi stuff but their desperation to get into e-publishing as fast as possible (and their outsourcing of their only two big titles) looks a little desperate; Aurora hasn't published anything since March and I can't imagine Seven Seas or Udon are making any real money. Which other minor players am I forgetting and how are they holding up? |
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