Why are we always behind Germany and Italy with physical printing and releases?

It could mean that manga is more popular in those places, but I never hear my overseas family talk about it. Then again, my anecdotal knowledge on the subject may not be trustworthy. I too am annoyed by the backwards nature of English licenses.

I wanted a blu-ray box set released in Europe a couple of years ago. It had English subs to its credit, along with Spanish and French. But it was never sold outside Europe.

@Lucifrost how can it be more popular in Italy than USA? Germany I can understand to a degree, though still.

I feel many European nations have strong comic cultures like Franco-Belgian comic scene. Additionally, I have the anecdotal experience that manga licensed in German ends up available illegally less often because of Germany's robust anti-piracy laws, which may mean more people need to buy it to consume it leading to higher payer-to-reader ratio.

I wonder if manga outgrew bande desinee in fr or bel

@Auron That doesn't explain exposition though?, just popularity. We tend to be behind on some shows even for years, while Germany had/s em.

@kalepf22 How could it not be? Have you ever been to Italy before?
Just a potentially larger customer base does not necessarily explain everything.

What I found to be odd about the english release is that I encountered many discontinued series