本日はCurtis講師の「海外での漫画ビジネス」に関する
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Manga as a growing global phenomenon
by Curtis Hoffmann
Many Japanese people are surprised to learn that I like manga and anime (in part because I’m so old and should be playing golf instead) but mostly because conventional wisdom sees the market for Manga as a purely Japanese. However, both manga and anime have become very popular overseas, and I’ll take this opportunity to talk about this from the point of view of the U.S. market.
The top 4 global Manga markets by dollar amount, as of 2003 (approx.):
Japan $4.4 billion
France $280 million
U.S. $40 million
Germany $20 million
Manga has long been available in the U.S. in English. One of the earliest titles was “Mai the Psychic Girl” which was launched in the U.S. in 1987 by Eclipse Comics. However, the variety of manga titles and market penetration for translated manga remained small, limited to a small number of western-style comic book stores. The initial publishers included Eclipse Comics, Studio Proteus (“Outlanders” by Johji Manabe, and “3x3 Eyes”, by Yuzo Takada), and Viz Publishing (“Nausicaa .of the Valley of the Wind” by Hayao Miyazaki).
In the mid-1990’s, anime started becoming more popular on TV, with the rise of “Pokemon.” This really broke the market open. As a result, manga gained popularity as well and the number of titles being translated into English quickly multiplied. Publishers like Broccoli, A.D. Vision, Go! Comi, TokyoPop and US Manga Corp sprung up to tap into this lucrative market. Del Rey an established U.S. publisher created a new arm devited to exclusively distribute manga. Market saturation and exposure was further enhanced when general-interest bookstores like Borders, and Barnes and Noble succumbed to demand and set aside entire sections of bookshelves to carry the expanding number of manga titles.
However, the U.S. market is currently shrinking as the economy stalls. Broccoli recently announced that it will be closing its doors, and TokyoPop is forecasting dramatically lower sales for 2009. Only time will tell how well manga will continue to sell in the U.S. According to one article on Wikipedia, over 1000 titles have been translated into English for licensing outside of Japan, reflecting the growth in popularity manga has experienced in the west over the last 20 years, and indicating that it still may have some staying power. That’s for the U.S. ? France still hasn’t lost its love for manga and the market there remains strong.
For the third quarter in 2008, the top 10 manga titles were (according to ICV2):
Rank Title Publisher
1 Naruto Viz Media
2 Fruits Basket TokyoPop
3 Vampire Knight Viz Media
4 Death Note Viz Media
5 Bleach Viz Media
6 In Odd We Trust Del Rey
7 Negima! Del Rey
8 Gentleman’s Alliance Viz Media
9 Tsubasa Reservoir Del Rey
10 Rosario & Vampire Viz Media
References:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/2953.html
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13691.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai,_the_Psychic_Girl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_licensed_manga_in_English
＜本日の単語＞
phenomenon 【名】 現象
launch 【他動】 発売する
penetration 【名】 〔商品などの〕普及率
market saturation 市場浸透
succumbed 【自動】 屈する
shrinking 【自動】 縮小する
dramatically 【副】 劇的に
staying power 持久力、耐久力、スタミナ
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