Forum - View topicManga Answerman - Does Manga Need An Anime Adaptation To Hit In The West?
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Яeverse
 Posts: 1147 Location: Indianapolis |
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Feel like the mangaplus and viz jump start (you know the platforms starting and continuing manga as soon as they start in jpn), give lots of evidence to support that anime can make some series big.
Jujutsu is kind of still unknown, but looks prime to take off when it gets an anime. Promised neverland was already big before the anime, same for HeroAca as if I recall it was a top seller on the manga sales chart preanime in america anyway. Light novels seem to need anime more, like Shield Hero wasnt really that known beyond just he usual LN crowd, same for SAO and others until anime. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3019 |
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Yeah, although I feel that part of that may be that even though western audiences generally know what "manga" is (it had its own huge section at Borders, afterall), a significant number of people (even people who casually watch anime) still don't really know what a "light novel" is. Light novels also don't have as large an online translation/scanlation scene, which tends to be how a lot of people "stumble on" popular titles these days. |
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zenbud
Posts: 96 |
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Unfortunately, it's true. It's one of the reasons I wished to live in Japan as I'm more of a manga and light novel reader even if I watch anime.
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Morry
Posts: 756 |
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From a western perspective, I agree that light novels need anime more to get exposure. Audiences are more willing to read through a crappy to okay fan translation of a manga than a light novel of the same quality. The manga art carries a good 70% of the product, light novels rely almost entirely on their prose. This leads to generally more people being fans of the manga prior to the anime airing than the light novel.
This is ignoring the fact that people are less inclined to read books over comics and comics over animated media. That trend alone can explain the behavior. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 947 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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It isn't a necessity for an anime adaptation to exist for a manga to be a hit in the West; as noted, there are plenty of manga that do pretty well without. On the other hand, I'd say those are outnumbered by the titles that leap from middling to good sales once the anime starts airing. And series that were already big get massive when the anime comes out.
As an aside, it seems to me like there are a fair few instances where the manga starting English publication happens more-or-less just after an anime adaptation has been announced, so I think at least a few people in the US manga publishing companies think there's something to this idea. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Obviously it's not universally true, but that wasn't the question. Most of the time, yes, at least in the US, a Japanese series doesn't get much traction until an anime comes out. Often the manga or light novel doesn't even get translated until an anime is announced, or just doesn't get any advertising to speak of, so only the small minority of fans who either can read Japanese or go to the trouble to hunt down scanlations will even have the opportunity to read it.
There are exceptions... but, are there, really? I've never heard of 2 of the 3 examples given in the article. And if you look at ones that do have adaptations, you probably won't find any that didn't at least double in popularity after the anime came out. The internet is riddled with anime videos (both legal and illegal) and some are even on TV or Netflix, but you're not likely to just stumble into a manga. In Japan, where apparently 25% (more than I would have guessed!) of printed media is manga, and streaming/blu-rays are less popular, it's much more plausible that someone would discover something that way. The cynical explanation is that Americans hate reading, but I think it's really just that they're focused on other things. They wouldn't be cranking out all those superhero movies if the comics weren't popular. ...Well, the movies might have their own inertia by now, but Barnes&Noble still has a huge shelf of "graphic novels" that's 95% DC/Marvel. With so much local entertainment, and a ton of anime on top of that, manga is a niche within a niche that most people don't have much interest in on its own. |
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1017 Location: mitten-state |
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But people love anime! All the time online I see people wishing for additional seasons of some series, so they can "know how it ends" or some such reason, and these are very often for series that have an official English manga release either running or complete. As a manga person myself, I really wish more people took a wider interest in that format and didn't act like anime was all there is. There's so much great manga, and lots of it will never have an anime... and that's okay. But you're missing out if you ignore the medium!! |
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Nonaka Machine Gun B
 Posts: 825 |
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It's always kind of annoyed me how transparent some companies are about this. I understand it's a business, but Viz would have never, ever, ever, EVER touched JoJo's Bizarre Adventure had there not been an anime to do all the marketing for them. Now it's the biggest thing ever, and they've (almost)taken full advantage.
I can't wait until Saint Seiya gets a real, well-received remake, and they jump on that again. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2700 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Viz released all of the Stardust Crusaders part of the manga years before the anime ever debuted, and it notably bombed hard (especially after it was put on hiatus for a year, following that whole stupid "Quran & mosques" controversy). If anything, JoJo is proof positive that having an anime adaptation can notably boost sales & reception for a manga. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1261 |
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Interestingly, they nearly did it before on two other previous occasions as well, as noted in Jason Thompson's old House of 1000 Manga column here:
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El Hermano
 Posts: 450 Location: Texas |
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That explains why movies and shows like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones have completely eclipsed the books to the point the live-action versions are the definitive versions in pop culture, and if you prefer the books then you're a bit out of luck there since all the merchandise and new media will focus on the TV and movie versions. Then of course there's comic book movies doing super well while the comic industry itself is on life support. I remember when I was in high school they us to have a mandatory reading period and forced us to add reading to our everyday lives. Not sure if it was just my school district or it was a country-wide thing, but they really wanted to counter that notion that Americans don't read. I guess I'm a bit guilty of this myself since I prefer anime to manga, and only read the manga if it really catches my eye or the anime ends before the manga finishes and I want to read the rest of the series |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13626 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I am curious about the following: say a manga series and its anime version both flopped in sales in Japan. However, at least the manga sold decent to really well in the U.S. Anyone know of such a situation? I will even take a series that is rumored to have done better in the U.S.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10038 Location: Virginia |
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@Kadmos1
If a manga flops in Japan it is cancelled by the magazine as soon as that becomes apparent by reader response cards, likely before it would be republished in book form. There would be no anime version and in most cases no English language version. The closest to your question would be a series that was popular for a long period and then fails the ending. |
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Thaumana
 Posts: 121 |
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It strikes me recently on ANN that shortly after an aired pilot episode of an anime adaptation the release is often followed by the the announcement of the upcoming final arc or end of a manga or light novel. Which makes me wonder why the publishers and the creator would decide to end the project already that soon since the airing anime can still achieve a good reception over the time.
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Re:SOUL
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I think it's obvious that the west is more focused on anime than manga. Most of the time I see people talking about a Japanese IP it's the anime and they only read the manga to stay ahead or up to date with the story. These same people usually only read scanlations as well rather than buying the books.
Many fans these days seem to care more about what's current and popular rather than having an interest in anime and manga as a whole. If an anime interests me I at least read it's Wikipedia entry and if the anime is good I'll track down the manga to see what's the same or different. I find it strange that people can cosplay as a character but not even know the origins of the show in question. |
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