| While Japanese manga is still widely popular all over the world, print media is dying and its impact on manga is not insignificant. Current options for global readers of Japanese manga are lacking to say the least. A majority of manga websites are illegal scan-lation websites without copyright licensing while more legitimate and affordable options are practically nonexistent. Not to mention the formatting of manga is not very suitable for online consumption, especially for mobile users. There has been a recent surge in popularity for webcomics/webtoons which has been widely adopted as the main comic format in countries like South Korea and China. While this seems to be the trend for these countries, in countries like Japan there are still deep roots with traditional comic publishing methods. With that said, I pose a few questions. Do you think that webcomics will be the future of all comics or do you think that fans of paper manga will be able to keep the traditional format alive for years to come? If Japan does not make a fast enough transition to the online comic format, how do you think it will impact the industry? As a fan of manga, are you willing to accept a transition to the webcomic format? |
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RightwingMilluki said: Would not be so bad if there the gatekeepers die away like they did in other areas. I am sure there are fine manga artists who just could not get published via the jump route. Now they can get an audience on the internet. I'm guessing it could be the rise of something similar to gekiga in the aspect of being popular and unhinged by the politically correct? |
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juicemanga said: Not sure what you are talking about, one full manga page easily fits on my mobile screen. I find it easier to read manga on my mobile as compared to my laptop. I often buy manga digitally which makes it cheaper since I don't have to pay for shipping.Not to mention the formatting of manga is not very suitable for online consumption, especially for mobile users. |
juicemanga said: While Japanese manga is still widely popular all over the world, print media is dying and its impact on manga is not insignificant. Current options for global readers of Japanese manga are lacking to say the least. A majority of manga websites are illegal scan-lation websites without copyright licensing while more legitimate and affordable options are practically nonexistent. I cant really fully agree with that. Yes print media sales have been hit hard recently but Manga sales over the last few years have gone up and up. When I started collecting Manga at the dawn of the millennium nobody could of ever imagined a Manga series could make the New York times best selling graphic novels, yet last weeks best selling graphics novels include My hero Academia Vol 1, 2 and 25. It has been like this almost every week for the last 5 or 6 years with Manga constantly being listed. Also the selection of manga was relatively limited. Who remembers such classics such as Secret Chaser and Kenja no Nagaki Fuzai It is also worth noting there are now many publishers in English and other languages with a huge variety of titles to chooses from in both print and digital format. Mal, Crunchroll and comixology to name a few all have a pretty large selection of officially licensed English Manga. The license to a popular series costs a lot of money to purchase not to mention that some long running series may have only been licensed for print release only. If a publisher wants to publish an already existing title in digital format they will need to negotiate the terms and conditions of that contract again or take out a brand new contract for the digital rights. A lot of webtoons and webcomics are self published and most of the authors and artists are generally looking to get signed with a publisher. There is a whole new wave of content creators in both comics and Manga that have come from an online self published background. A publisher can do so much more for the content creator such as putting books on store shelves, advertising to huge audiences and has access to a wide variety of other powerful contacts. I definitely think there will be an incoming crash for the English Language print Manga market in the future and when that does happen we may see a huge drop off in available print titles because the publishers will slowly shift all their resources and efforts towards digital manga in the incoming years. |
| i'm not sure that it will die, i think stuff like tankobon always has it place for the fans eventho they already read the chapters from web/online. it become something like collectible item. though i prefer to read weekly updates on the web/apps, i still would like to read volumes in physical form. and i love the extra page where the author would doodle some stuff |
| I'll try and keep it alive myself lol, since I love collecting physical volumes of manga I love. Even have a volume of Kingdom in Japanese and I can't even read it since I love owning it. But seriously, I don't think it'll die out soon. Maybe the situation will get significantly worse in the future but I'm not expecting that, since I still know a lot of people buying volumes physically to read stuff or just collect. |
| No I don't believe it will die. Print media will decline but will still exist similar to records/vinyls for music. CDs decimated record sales and streaming walloped cd sales and would have indicated a complete end to records but they've actually seen an increase in recent years as collectors items. Print books won't sell as much but for some of us they will always remain the best way to read. |
| "Few, but ripe." - C.F. Gauss |
juicemanga said: While Japanese manga is still widely popular all over the world, print media is dying and its impact on manga is not insignificant. Current options for global readers of Japanese manga are lacking to say the least. A majority of manga websites are illegal scan-lation websites without copyright licensing while more legitimate and affordable options are practically nonexistent. Not to mention the formatting of manga is not very suitable for online consumption, especially for mobile users. There has been a recent surge in popularity for webcomics/webtoons which has been widely adopted as the main comic format in countries like South Korea and China. While this seems to be the trend for these countries, in countries like Japan there are still deep roots with traditional comic publishing methods. With that said, I pose a few questions. Do you think that webcomics will be the future of all comics or do you think that fans of paper manga will be able to keep the traditional format alive for years to come? If Japan does not make a fast enough transition to the online comic format, how do you think it will impact the industry? As a fan of manga, are you willing to accept a transition to the webcomic format? Thing is if manga as a whole dies, then that would be due to the fact that China is making more from Chinese anime and manga than the Japanese. South Korean manwhas are not quite as popular as anime, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it replaced the American comics and manga from Japan as a whole. |
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| I haven't seen any evidence of this in the USA (although I can't say it's something I keep a close eye on). All reporting I've seen has shown relatively significant growth in the past 2-3 years. For example, this report from a large market research company. One of the bigger western manga and light novel publishers, Seven Seas Entertainment, just announced this publishing agreement with an arm of Penguin Random House. And the week before that, they announced a new imprint specifically for light novels. I'm guessing the manga market will continue to grow, at least in the short term. |
| I occasionally write blog posts and reviews. |
| While print media will probably die, manga won't. Yeah, yeah, some people won't like it but manga and other print media will go fully digital eventually (and already have in some cases). It won't die, it will just transform. |
| Hmm.. that's a good question.. I think it will at some point in the future, not anytime soon but in a decade or so, things might be entirely different. |
| A while ago there was a thread about mangaka's income, and it seems that nowadays they are getting similar percentage from selling digital copies. Still below printed copies, but it's getting closer.. so it seems Japan has shifted as well. A lot of manga magazine has webcomic versions too, now. Printed media along with printed manga would probably decline and online comics may become the future, but I don't think manga itself will die. |
| I completely agree with @Quazar. Physical media will probably become less and less over the years (even tho manga sales have been going through the roof lately) but I think it will increase in value similar to Vynl and will be considered a collector's item. I personally hope physcial manga or books in general will never die out. I know owning manga digitally is very comfortable and easy but there's something so unparalleled and satisfying about owning a manga volume you can touch and showcase with pride. |
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| With the recent success of mangas like Kny, jjk, chainsaw man, tokyp revengers, bnha etc, I think mangas will still be available in print cause there is alot of demand for physical copies of manga not only in japan, but it is rising in US and other countries as well, so I dont think we need to worry about that. |
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