It seems that free online scanlations and a lack of big name T.V anime titles are the major contributing factors to the shrinking manga industry;

The ICv2 retail news source reports in its “State of the Comics Industry” white paper that North American sales for manga fell from US$175 million in 2008 to US$140 million in 2009 — a decrease of 20 percent. Manga sales in 2007 were US$210 million, which means that sales have decreased by a third between 2007 and 2009. ICv2 also wrote that the decline was more pronounced in standard bookstores than in direct market retailers such as comic stores.

ICv2 attributed this decline in manga sales to several factors. The first is that young teenage fans of shōjo manga who created the manga boom in bookstores have aged. According to ICv2, attempts to get shōjo fans to read josei manga have failed, and so these fans are turning to other activities as a result. ICv2 also attributed the decline to the lack of TV exposure for shōnen hits that accompanied the Naruto, Bleach, and Death Note manga releases. ICv2 also mentioned the problem of the availability of scanlations online, and the lack of “collector mentality” that manga fans have when compared to comic book fans.

The number of volumes of manga sold also declined from 1,513 in 2007 to 1,115 in 2009, and ICv2 projects around 968 different volumes for 2010. However, manga represented 35 percent of graphic novels release in the U.S. for 2009, and accounted for 38 percent of sales.

Source

I am somewhat surprised by this, but I shouldn’t be, manga is a big industry so why shouldn’t a 4 year degree be more common?

For some people, manga may not stack up as a high-brow subject like Chinese classics or nuclear physics, but universities in Japan are increasingly offering courses on comic culture as part of their curriculum.

The first attempts to set up manga departments were greeted skeptically because universities were considered unsuited to fostering manga artists who needed creative ideas and drawing ability to be successful.

Despite the doubts, a few graduates of manga departments have moved on to professional careers.

The universities offer various courses to help prospective manga artists.

At Kobe Design University, a special class held in February offered students the opportunity to present their work to editors of manga magazines.

The one-on-one sessions often involved direct criticism of a student’s work.

One editor said, “You have to make your story understandable to everyone.”

Another student was told, “Your idea is a good one, but the story kind of fizzles out part of the way through.”

Some students got teary-eyed during the session.

The special class was for sophomores majoring in manga in the Department of Media Arts of the School of Progressive Arts.

Since January, editors from at least 10 manga magazines have visited the campus for sessions with the students.

One traditional way manga artists have gotten a break has been to visit publishing companies and show their work to editors.

Those considered talented by the editors have had their work published, and others are often given advice on how to improve their work.

The special class was designed to train the students in selling their works to editors.

Not only do the students become accustomed to dealing with editors, they also receive advice from professionals.

Naoto Hashimoto, 20, appreciated the feedback he got by attending the special class.

“We are shown where we are weak and other things are pointed out that we may never have considered. I really appreciated being able to meet an editor.”

Such practical help has benefited the first class of manga majors who graduated this spring. Of the 20 in that first cohort, 16 have won some kind of award for newcomers or have been in regular contact with an editor.

Eiji Otsuka, the professor in charge of the manga program, said, “While it is like a bonus, it is the result of thoroughly thinking about how a manga story develops and also about movie-like story lines and the relationship between a plot and characters.”

The curriculum for a manga major is not easy.

Students have to produce the equivalent of about 400 pages of storyboard over a year. In every class, students are trained to create stories and characters.

There are also projects to create anime and movies.

Even students who entered as freshmen without ever having written a manga develop a certain level of skill after four years.

Some students have made their debut while still in university.

Masato Yamaguchi, 21, a junior in the Department of Manga of the Faculty of Arts at Tokyo Polytechnic University, had his work, “Uchu rescue” (Outer space rescue) published in the Shukan Shonen Magazine (Weekly youth magazine) Special by Kodansha Ltd.

At least 10 universities offer majors or courses on manga and animation.

The pioneer was Kyoto Seika University, which established what is the only manga faculty in Japan in 2006. The faculty is fairly large. It has a capacity of 200 students per year.

When the predecessor to Kyoto Seika University began as a junior college in 1968, it was already offering classes on manga.

They were upgraded to manga courses in 1973 and a manga department was established in 2000.

The central government’s white paper on education took notice of the university’s endeavor “as one doing research on manga as a scholarly field.”

In the 2010 school year, a master’s program in manga studies starts at Kyoto Seika.

“As a university, we want to provide a path that will allow graduates to become connected to society,” said Keiko Takemiya, head of the manga faculty.

Full article source

Warner Brothers wants the rights to bleach;

The Hollywood Reporter newspaper’s Heat Vision blog reports that the American film studio Warner Brothers “is in the process of securing the movie rights to” Tite Kubo’s Bleach supernatural action manga series.Director Peter Segal (Get Smart, The Longest Yard, Anger Management) is lining himself up to produce, but not direct. The manga’s North American publisher Viz Media and Segal’s Callahan Filmworks partner Michael Ewing would also produce the proposed project.

By all means though this doesn’t guarantee that a film will be made, just that Warner Brothers wants the rights to able to create the movie if they decided to. Warner Brothers already has the rights to Death Note, but no word yet on anything about if it’s going to be made or not.

Source

Manga sales have dipped an historic 6.6% in Japan this year;

The Research Institute for Publications, a Tokyo-based industry group, reports that sales of manga magazines and compiled book volumes dropped 6.6% to 418.7 billion yen (about US$4.63 billion) in 2009 — the largest yearly drop in sales in the market segment’s history. In particular, sales of manga magazines fell 9.4% to 191.3 billion yen (US$2.12 billion). Manga magazines sales had not been below the 200-billion-yen mark in at least 18 years. Sales of print manga overall peaked in 1995. According to the research institute, manga fans have been tightening their budgets in the economic recession by reading in manga cafés instead of buying in bookstores, and there are fewer big hit titles.

Not all manga is doing bad though One Piece has been selling record numbers with it’s latest volume’s.

Source

With a One Piece theme park already made, ideas are being thrown around to create the going merry, the ship used by characters in the super popular series One Piece.

Citizens from the town of Kumamoto prefecture Japan have been pushing a plan on the local town goverment to create a replica of the going merry. If the goverment agread to the proposal the the ship would be constructed at Karashima Park in the prefectural capital of Kumamoto City, which also happens to be the birthplace of Eiichiro Oda the creator of One Piece.

Assembly Member Seiichi Nishi asserted that the plan will stimulate the local economy. Kumamoto Governor Ikuo Kabashima expressed his approval of the plan and his willingness to explore ways that the prefectural government can support the civic group’s “dream.”

The local TKU television station noted in its news coverage of the assembly meeting that it airs the One Piece anime every Saturday. It also noted that the most recent volume of Oda’s original manga set a Japanese record on March 4 with a first printing of 3 million copies — topping Harry Potter. 185.6 million copies of the manga have been sold so far.

Source

Nick Simmons son of Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons is a Cartoon artist; his comic Book Incarnate was delt a sever blow after allegation’s that the comic book was nothing more then a rip off of bleach and other anime’s;

The American company Radical Publishing has announced that it halted the production and distribution of Nick Simmons’ Incarnate comic book series on Wednesday evening, amid allegations that the comic plagiarized Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga. According to Radical, “We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter.” Shueisha publishes Bleach in its Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan, while Viz Media publishes the manga in North America.

Can you spot the similarities? Of course you can their completely obvious…

Whats your opinion on this?

Tite kubo, creator of bleach tweets about this;

“I don’t know whether or not I should seriousl feel uneasy about Gene Simmon’s Son the Manga-ka…”

“A LOT of foreign fans have contacted me overnight about a comic book plagiarizing BLEACH. I don’t really understand English, but I went and looked at the website, and apparently it was something about a comic that Gene Simmons’ son is writing.” And: “I’m more interested in the fact that Gene Simmons’ son is a mangaka than whether he’s plagiarizing me or not

Source Picture Source Source 2

According to anime news network there may be some hope for a manga release of love plus;

The Japanese publisher Kodansha has announced that it will launch five new manga series in five different magazines in connection with an unnamed “super-big title” this spring. The advertisement for the five new titles includes silhouettes of the female characters from Loveplus, Konami’s “virtual girlfriend” simulator for the Nintendo DS game console.

The five tie-in manga will launch in Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Rival on April 3, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine on April 9, Monthly Young Magazine on April 14, Magazine E-no on April 20, and good! Afternoon on May 7. More details about the special joint project will be provided in Monthly Shonen Rival on March 4.

I can see why they would create a manga, the game has sold over 180,000 copies and has become well known throughout the otaku community.

The 57th volume of One Piece has hit a record, most copies in its first printing.  The publisher Shueisha will print 3 million copies of the 57th volume; One Piece’s 56th volume previously held the record at 2.85 million printings.

So far, Shueisha has published over 176 million copies of the books in the series, and 14.7 million of them were sold from November 17, 2008 to November 22, 2009. This made One Piece the top-selling series of 2009. The four top-selling manga books published in 2009 were One Piece volumes 52 to 55. (Volume 56 was not included since it shipped after the survey cutoff date.)

If One Piece continues at this pace it is sure to become the top selling series of 2010 as well.

Source

Via Anime News Network

The justice ministry has distributed 2,000 copies of the Japanese manga “Love” based on the true story of how a bereaved mother reconciled with a family whose sixth-grader son killed her boy.

The touching story was made into a critically acclaimed television series in Japan that was aired on the island last year.

The reading assignment is part of the ministry’s efforts to promote “restorative justice” — which seeks to encourage repair and reconciliation between the victims and the offenders, said Gloria Fei.

The Taiwanese government hopes to create more compassionate prosecutor’s so that they may be better able to deal with confrontation and to help them understand the people. Whether or not the manga is helping to create more compassionate prosecutor is still unknown.

Via Google news

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