Manga and its Rise to Popularity in the US

Introduction:

Manga has become a popular form of entertainment in the last few years.

Here are some major factors that helped manga grow internationally to what it is today.

1. History of manga (Japan):

1.1: What is manga

Manga is a form of comic book that originated in Japan. In addition, it has a typical and distinctive style.

The word \'manga\' comprises two kanji characters; \'man\' (漫) and \'ga\' (画), \'Man\' refers to a cartoon, and \'ga\' refers to a brushstroke or picture, roughly meaning: a quick sketch.

1.2: The origin of manga

The origins of manga can be traced back to ancient Japan with a piece called \'Choju jiujutsu giga\' (12th century), translated into English as \'scrolls of frolicking animals and humans'. These scrolls emerged initially as emakimino (the first narrative illustration scrolls), which are the foundation of manga. These scrolls depicted various stories, combining illustrations and text. Over the centuries, the art form has evolved and was adapted to different cultural influences.

Over time, \'manga\' (in its first stage) evolved through picture books and woodblock printing.

1.3: The expansion of the manga industry in Japan

In the late 19th century, the manga industry shifted due to the influence of Western art and culture. The introduction of woodblock printing techniques enabled the mass production of illustrated books and newspapers. Manga magazines started to flourish since they enhanced the utilization of the combination of text and illustrations, therefore the storytelling attracted more people.

However, manga flourished during the post-war time, when Japan was occupied by the U.S. (1945-1952). Artistic creativity was abundant and evolved into its modern form.

Since then, manga has become a significant part of Japanese culture and continues to diversify across genres and gain international recognition, captivating readers worldwide with its unique art and compelling narratives.

2. Internationalization (specifically within the US):

2.1: From anime to manga

Manga has always been quite popular in Japan, but it wasn't until the 1990s that its popularity spread across the globe, specifically in the US. Japanese comic books first appeared in the 1970s, although they had little success. The rise of interest occurred thanks to the popularity of anime in the 1990s. Most millennials grew up watching anime on television. That being so, manga adaptations of well-known anime like Dragon Ball and One Piece started to sell incredibly well and are still to this day present in American bookstores. We could certainly say that the popularity of anime had a significant impact on the public interest of Japanese manga in the US. []{.mark}

2.2: Internet

Additionally, the internet played an extensive role in the internationalization. Manga became available online, which made it easier for publishers to distribute them worldwide, without any need for physical copies. Fan translations, also known as 'scanlations' started emerging on the internet and made it possible for non-Japanese speakers to easily read the most recent manga on the market.

3. Modern day manga:

In this day and age, manga has changed considerably compared to its beginning and rise to popularity. With the emergence of the internet, manga changed with it. According to Kadokawa, Shueisha, and other sales reports, digital manga overtook physical copies in 2019. As of today, more than 70% of the manga market is digital and is still rising at an exponential rate. Digital manga in general have become more popular since they\'re more easily accessible. There is no need to carry the weight of books everywhere, and some are even freely available.

As a result of globalization, manga has already spread to every corner of the world. Needless to say, not everyone can read Japanese. That's why there was a need for translation. This led to the emergence of fan translations. Fan translations are unofficial translations of manga made by fans. These translations are consecutively posted on sites for free, which is illegal. But these free manga also led to the rise of the popularity of digital manga, as people could come into contact with manga in their native language.

4. Manga industry in the US:

4.1 Comparing

In this research, we will elaborate more on the popularity of manga in the US by comparing it to its US sales. We narrowed our research by choosing two popular manga: Naruto Volume 1 and Death Note Volume 1, and comparing them in a 10-year span from 2006 until 2016.{width="3.25667760279965in" height="1.8862204724409448in"}{width="3.6718755468066493in" height="1.7547911198600175in"}

Naruto (written by Masashi Kishimoto) is one of the most famous manga in the industry. It was serialized from 1999 to 2014.

We can analyze that the sales are at their highest point in the first column, in the beginning of Naruto's publication. The further we move in time, the more the sales value decreases. In the latter half of the table, the sales value increased again. We can thus conclude that the popularity of Naruto Volume 1 in the U.S., was at its peak at the beginning of its release. Later on, the popularity started to decrease, but would eventually increase again.

Death Note (written by Ohba Tsugumi) is also known by many. The original publication dates back from 2003 to 2006.

In Death Note's case, we examine a different story. The sales value experienced a more prominent change, differentiating from year to year. In the more broad sight, the popularity of Death Note v1 has a generally decreasing rate, with some expansions in the beginning years.

4.2 How did Manga get popular in the US?

According to Kara Allison Stambach in interviews with editors at Tokyopop and Viz media, undertaken from 2006 until 2007, "Americans recognize a good thing when they see it. Manga became popular in the United States when Sailor Moon broke out on the scene in the mid-nineties, and there was a swell of interest. In the last few years, that bubble burst." (Jeffery Klaehn,2021)

As we discussed previously, we can see a drop in the manga sales. This, however, as we thought was the case, does not relate to the decrement in popularity. It is more so the cause of an increase in piracy. People would scan books and share copies online. Today, however, the manga industry is bouncing back. One of the biggest reasons for that is, that: "North American publishers are releasing a wide variety of titles. No matter your preferences, you'll probably be able to find a title you like. Better yet, companies have worked hard to increase accessibility. In addition to print, fans can read manga via digital apps, budget-friendly subscription services, and their local library. Even longtime manga readers can now legally acquire series once considered commercially unviable a decade ago." (Vernieda,2021)

4.3 The Top 5 best-selling manga

Using Openrefine, we created a list of the top 5 best-selling manga in the US from 2013 to 2016. In the first part of this research component, we compared two manga and their sales value in a span of 10 years. We discovered that in the rather big picture, the sales of our two chosen manga decreased every year.

In the tables below, we can see that the number one best-selling manga of each year has a much greater value than the sales value of our chosen manga. And on top of that, it keeps increasing as we pass further in time.

{width="7.68667760279965in" height="1.3557786526684164in"}{width="7.723721566054243in" height="1.5104166666666667in"}{width="7.8125in" height="1.65625in"}{width="7.815807086614173in" height="1.5104166666666667in"}

5 The influence of the pandemic:

The Covid-19 outbreak was a worldwide disaster and shook up the world as we know it. Almost every aspect of our life was impacted, and all that was also the case for manga sales and popularity.

The pandemic had both a positive and negative influence on the manga industry. On one hand, a lot of people had to stay home and had more time on their hands, which led to people trying out more new stuff like for example reading manga. On the other hand, the COVID-19 outbreak saw to it that the production and development of most of the manga was disrupted.

Due to closing of the bookstores during the pandemic, the sales of physical copies declined. The closure of physical bookstores led to a change in purchasing behavior. People who used to read physical copies, now increasingly relied on online platforms such as e-commerce websites, digital reading platforms, and official publisher websites to purchase and read manga.

Another consequence of the pandemic was that due to the release of new titles being disrupted or delayed, a lot more were being bought and read. This led to more popularity to already well established titles.

Conclusion:

The rise in popularity of manga in America is partially because of Anime, which became popular in the United States during the 90s. Technological evolutions and the internet also played an extensive role in the growth of popularity. More so, digital manga even overtook physical copies in 2019. Currently, more than 70% of the manga market is digitalized, since online manga are more accessible than ever.

Translation of Japanese comic books also made way for more globalization. Thus becoming even more accessible to the world.

When we look at the sale values of our two chosen Japanese comic books, we first concluded that the popularity of manga was decreasing, since the sale values of those comic books were declining as well.

The drop in sales value is more so the cause of piracy in the industry rather than a decline in popularity.

The top 5 best-selling manga from 2013 to 2016 have higher sales values than our manga of choice. Throughout those four years, the number 1 best-selling manga of each year, would consistently gain higher sales.

During the pandemic, the manga market reached an all-time high in 2020. People were looking for a new form of entertainment and wanted to discover new forms of art.

When we take a look at the future, we may expect manga sales to contract back to their pre-2020 levels, which were stable and hefty. Even though we may never know what will happen in the future, we can be sure that manga is here and will be around for quite some time.

Bronvermelding:

Admin, J. A. (2023). The History of Manga and its Origins. Japan Avenue. https://japan-avenue.com/blog

Aoki, D. (2022, april 29). Opgehaald van PW: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/89184-manga-is-booming.html

Brienza, C. (2016). Manga in America;. Bloomsberry academy.

Chojnacki, R. (2023d). Manga's Momentum. The NPD Group. https://www.npd.com/news/infographics/2023/mangas-momentum/

Dahlan, H. A. (2022). The Publishing and Distribution System of Japanese Manga and Doujinshi. Publishing Research Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-022-09919-9

Global Manga Market Size, Share & Growth Analysis Report, 2023-2032. (z.d.-a). Polaris. https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/manga-market

Facts and details. (2019). FACTS AND DETAILS. Opgehaald van Manga and anime outside of Japan : https://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

Hanus, J. (2019, September 24). H&R Group. Opgehaald van When did Manga Become so popular: https://morethanrelo.com/en/when-did-manga-become-so-popular/

Hays, J. (2019). Manga and anime outside of Japan | Facts and Details. https://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

Inverted Mind. (2022, December 7). Digital Manga Covers Up To 70% Of Manga Market, Rakes In Profit For Japanese Publishers. Opgehaald van Anime Hunch: https://animehunch.com/digital-manga-covers-up-to-70-of-manga-market-rakes-in-profit-for-japanese-publishers/

Japan avenue. (2021, Januari 27). Opgehaald van The history of manga and it\'s origins: https://japan-avenue.com/en-be/blogs/japan/history-of-manga

Japan: manga reading frequency by age group 2022 | Statista. (2023, maart 21). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1328732/japan-manga-reading-frequency-by-age-group/?locale=en

JSTOR. (2006). Review: Historicizing Anime and Manga: From Japan to the World. In P. Gravette, Emerging worlds of Anime and Manga (pp. 180-183). University of Minnesota Press.

Klaehn, J. (2021). In Talking manga: bringing Japanese pop culture to the North American mainstream (pp. 119-133). Journal of grafic novels and comics.

Mind, I. (2022, december 7). Digital Manga Covers Up To 70% Of Manga Market, Rakes In Profit For Japanese Publishers - Animehunch. Animehunch. https://animehunch.com/digital-manga-covers-up-to-70-of-manga-market-rakes-in-profit-for-japanese-publishers/

Neil, S. (2022, augustus 27). 10 Oldest Manga Ever Released - Oldest.org. Oldest.org. https://www.oldest.org/entertainment/oldest-manga/

Northrop, D. (2016, september 23). Manga and anime go to Hollywood. New York: Bloomsbury academic. Opgehaald van The publishing and distribution System of Japanese Manga and Doujinshi: https://link-springer-com.kuleuven.e-bronnen.be/\ article/10.1007/s12109-022-09919-9

Oldest.org. (2010). 10 oldest manga ever released. Opgehaald van https://www.oldest.org/entertainment/oldest-manga/

Schwartz, A. J., & Rubinstein-Avila, E. (2006). Understanding the Manga Hype: Uncovering the Multimodality of Comic-Book Literacies. International literacy assosiation, 50(1), 40--49. https://doi.org/10.1598/jaal.50.1.5

Statista. (2023, maart 2). Digital manga market size Japan FY 2014-2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1119858/japan-e-comics-market-size/

Statista. (2023, maart 2). Printed manga magazines market size in Japan, 2014-2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/688451/japan-manga-magazines-sales-value/

Vergara, V. (2021, Augustus 13). Book riot. Opgehaald van Today's North American Manga Market: The Wins, The Losses, and Everything Else : https://bookriot.com/todays-north-american-manga-market/

Widewalls. (2016, September 24). Opgehaald van A short history of manga: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/japanese-manga-comics-history

2003-2016 US Manga Print Sales Statistics. (2017, March 31). Animetics. https://animetics.net/us-manga-print-sales-statistics/