Happy Saturday, everyone! I don’t know about you, but winter has truly arrived here in the Mid-Atlantic and I’m having a difficult time rousing my energy. Hopefully, it’ll pass soon because I have things to do! It’s been a relatively slow news week in the manga world — probably because everyone is enthralled by the prospect of veteran Japanese idol group SMAP leaving their management agency, Johnny’s and Associates. If you’re not familiar with Japanese pop culture, you may not understand why this is such a big deal but trust me when I say: it’s big. Really, really big.
But the Japanese idol scene is not manga news so let’s move on.
It being January, bestseller lists from 2015 are still trickling in. The latest is the Top 100 Manga of 2015. The usual suspects make up the top 10: Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, and One-Punch Man. The #1 slot, however, went to the Legend of Zelda adaptation. Surprising in some ways but maybe not in others. The adaptation was penned by Shotaro Ishinomori, the influential mangaka of Cyborg 009 fame. I do think the list confirms some suspicions I’ve had for a while — namely that Attack on Titan is starting to see real competition from other titles in North America. Both Tokyo Ghoul and One-Punch Man made a respectable showing in December’s Bookscan list for adult graphic novels.
Speaking of Attack on Titan, how about that latest chapter?! I personally didn’t find the revelations to be very surprising, but they still hit me in the gut. It’s been a long time since the manga has done that, so kudos to Hajime Isayama for reminding me why Attack on Titan became so popular in the first place.
Moving on from bestselling manga, let’s talk about the manga market as a whole. It looks like the industry is beginning to understand that the future of manga is digital. Sales of manga magazines have decreased significantly over the past decade, but reading on digital devices has boomed. Is this really a surprise, though? Look at how scanlations have flourished! Yes, accessibility and cost (read: free) have contributed to that but remember: people are reading these bootlegs online. Clearly, being electronic versus print has not been a deterrent!
And for something fun, the Yokote Masuda Manga Museum in Akita aims to house the world’s largest manga collection. It sounds like they have big plans. Not only do they want to exhibit original manga artwork, they want to host discussion sessions with mangaka as well as an international manga convention. Guess time will tell if it all comes to pass.
