Forum - View topicSo, what's the difference?
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zgripţuroicǎ
 Posts: 140 Location: Newburgh, NY |
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I see a lot of people say that one of the reasons volumes of manga are more expensive in the US than in Japan is because of paper quality. I have several Japanese books, and many US volumes. I've got to say, the only difference I notice is the Japanese books are maybe 1"x1" smaller than the US version. I don't see this "horrible, newspaper quality paper" in the Japanese editions, nor do I see much superior in the "pure white paper" that some people think of so highly in the US versions. Now, am I just missing something, or are there really not that many differences aside from the books being a bit smaller in Japan?
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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Japanese releases come in different levels of quality depending on the title (and the edition) and so do US releases. It's not one size fits all. That's not really all that relevant though - the chief reason for lower prices in Japan is economies of scale, not production quality. |
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Jaymie
Posts: 915 |
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US Editions are more expensive because of licensing costs and the translation costs. It makes sense.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Like everyone has said, there's various reasons why US editions cost more. Japanese releases cost less than that of the foreign releases because you have to pay everyone in Japan, as well as everyone working on editing/translating/publishing, etc with the foreign release, where in Japan you just have the initial staff to release and publish the comic. They also get the nifty ability of writing off a magazine release as a advertising/promotional expense.
And paper quality in Japan isn't the same across the board like Moomintroll states. Several Japanese manga I have from Square Enix and Flower comics are cheap, almost newsprint quality paper that you can see straight through to the other side of the paper on. More popular authors and titles usually automatically get the nicer quality paper from the get-go. |
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zgripţuroicǎ
Posts: 140 Location: Newburgh, NY |
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Yeah, I'm in agreement with what you guys are saying. It only seems natural that the costs would be more when there's licensing, translating and a niche market involved. I just feel like I've been seeing paper quality brought up as a partial justification for the price differences (could have sworn I saw it in a column or talk-back bit this week), and I was just wondering if I was being a bit dense. I've seen a fair amount of Japanese volumes, but some guys here and elsewhere make it sound like manga gets published on the discarded scraps left over from the newspapers, while they paint the US as printing on the most perfect white paper you'll ever find. Seemed silly to me, but I thought maybe there was something to it I was missing.
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bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
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As far as "newspaper quality", I'm not sure about the tankobon, but the anthologies (Weekly Jump, etc.) do have really poor quality paper and printing(newspaper level), but that's mostly because they're meant to be disposable I guess.
As for why manga is cheaper in Japan, it's because manga alone accounts for a HUGE percentage of all Japanese publishing. I've read a statistic that said it was 40% in the mid 90's (that's almost half of all books...think about that). I'm sure that percentage is different now, but still much much larger than the US comic industry will ever be. So yea, Japan can afford to keep manga prices pretty low. Manga is a really niche market in the US, so they can't make the prices too low if they want to make a decent profit. |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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Now I'm wondering about the price differences between countries that are not Japan...
Back in 2000-2003 I bought a lot of German manga simply because it cost half or even a third of what you had to pay for English manga (€5 versus $15). Manga from France was equally cheap. Manga in both countries have gotten a bit more expensive (though I could still buy Naruto or Detective Conan for less than €5 if I wanted to), but it's still cheaper than in the US. Why is that? I mean, ask a French mangafan and he/she will have the same complaints about the French industry as American fans have about theirs. Saturation to the point that titles need to be dropped and whole companies go under, too many people read scanlations, that kind of stuff. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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There are a few reasons for that, probably more than I can guess at. With France at least, I'm under the impression that their manga industry is much more established and possibly has a larger share of the market than it does here.
But I suspect the number one reason is going to be one completely economical: shipping. The U.S. companies have to pay to get their books all over the country as well as Canada, while France and German companies have much less ground to cover. This is also one of the reasons that books cost more in Canada than they do in the U.S., since the population is much more spread out here. |
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Moomintroll
Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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French publishers are heavily subsidised by the government (though I don't know if that applies to French editions of foreign material).
Different countries also have different laws regarding taxing books (they're VAT free in the UK, for example, though it evens out for us because of the cost of importing). If French and German books are also free of sales taxes (and I have no idea if they are or not), that might help to explain the price difference. |
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Peroxid
 Posts: 210 |
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Also I think it's important to refer that the French are the largest manga consumer excluding Japan. I believe that this a consequence from the fact that many manga is inspired in Franco-Belgian Comics, and people like to read stuff they already feel familiarized to.
Also I believe that the issue of scanlations is not as big as in the US. |
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OLady
Posts: 163 Location: Texas |
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Peroxid, where have you been these last couple of months?!! Scanlations not a big issue in the US?!!! It was large enough for the American and Japanese publishers to unite on the legal front to stop them. Even the strictly American comics moved to protect themselves from scanlators.
 Please explain to me why you say that.
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Peroxid said that scanlation issues were big in the US, but probably not as large a problem in France. 
"Also I believe that the issue of scanlations is not as big as in the US." |
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zgripţuroicǎ
Posts: 140 Location: Newburgh, NY |
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Eh, I don't know about the last bit. It's actually cheap enough in France, that after the exchange rate from € to $, plus shipping, I still pay a little bit less if I just make a few large orders from France every year, than if I were to buy them here in the US. It seems like it's a better deal for me in many ways, for example, they manage to not have obscene lags behind Japanese releases. I guess that would help with minimizing scans of the biggest series. It's less of a difference on monsters like Bleach, where they have 38 out to our 32, but for some things it's quite significant. Gantz they're already up to 23 or 24 last I checked, while we may have just seen 12 squeezed out here. I've also been wondering why Viz, Tokyopop and the like tell us here that they're putting things out as fast as the can without running out of titles to release, yet so many other markets don't seem to have this issue. Korea and China, it seems only normal to me since they have some of the longest established markets outside Japan. But looking at European languages, or for some series Arabic ones, they don't seem to have nearly as much trouble with keeping up. I always hear people say you don't have to have the latest thing from Japan, but I can stay pretty current just by using the French versions. Maybe they also have those heavy subsidies for manga, and that's the difference. Either way, I'm looking at just buying in English things that haven't been picked up in France, and sticking to French for most of my manga purchases from now on. |
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Peroxid
Posts: 210 |
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Couldn't said it better.
And this was back on '03. I don't think that the US will ever reach these numbers. Also success brings in more success, and with this kind of sales they can get more licenses, and have the luxury to sell all the books for a lower price.
Same here. EDIT:
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OLady
Posts: 163 Location: Texas |
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 Apologies, Peroxid. Misread the sentence.
Thank you, Restless One, for pointing it out. It's pretty bad when your Eyes mishear things. |
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