Do international fans find it difficult to read right-open manga?

nls__ said:
I'm Japanese, and just a question out of mere curiosity...

Most Japanese manga are right-open (read from right to left).
But American comics, as well as books from English-speaking countries, basically open left, don't they?

Not so long ago, translated manga were left-open by inverting the picture to suit overseas fans, I heared.
However, I hear that this kind of "processing" is not done much these days.

So, do you find it difficult to read right-open Japanese manga?

nls__ said:
I'm Japanese, and just a question out of mere curiosity...

Most Japanese manga are right-open (read from right to left).
But American comics, as well as books from English-speaking countries, basically open left, don't they?

So, do you find it difficult to read right-open Japanese manga?

mdo7 said:

今日のアメリカ人が漫画を右から左に読むことができなかった理由は何だと思いますか? 現在翻訳されているマンガの多くは、90 年代や 2000 年代初頭にマンガが左右逆向きになっていたのとは異なり、右から左に読まれます。

あなたは日本人なので、日本の漫画本に関するトピック外の質問をしてもよろしいですか:

Reddit の 7 年前のスレッド: 日本では西洋の漫画はどのように扱われていますか?

Anime News Network の記事: アニメにおけるアメリカのスーパーヒーロー コミックの歴史

Anime News Network Answerman: アメリカン コミックは日本で人気がありますか?

では、私の質問

は次のとおりです。上でリンクした記事とリンクの中に、日本のアメコミに関するあなたの見解と一致するものはありますか?

日本の洋画が左右反転していないことを確認できますか?

日本のフランチャイズのアメコミのいくつかの適応が日本語に翻訳されるかどうか知っていますか、または考えがありますか?   たとえば、UDON のストリート ファイター コミックやトランスフォーマーのコミック(特にIDW のコミック ライン) は日本で翻訳されていますか? UDON の Darkstalkers コミックについてはどうですか? これらは日本語の翻訳を受け取ることはありますか? ダーティペアはどうですか、これらのアメコミの適応は日本語の翻訳/リリースを受けましたか?  If they do, how much awareness is there in Japan about American comic book adaptation of certain Japanese franchise?

Beside DC & Marvel Comic, do you see any other American comic book publisher having publishing office(s) in Japan, if so who are they?

Do manga companies like Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, Kadokawa Shoten, Houbunsha, etc.... ever license any American comic book for translation & release in Japan?  If so, how often & common is this in Japan?

nls__ said:
However, I have a question about the following part.
"Much like in the US, most people don't read the original comics, but know the major characters and stories through various other media that have come out over the decades."
Movies like "Spider-Man," "The Dark Knight (Batman)," and "The Avengers" were hits all over the world, including Japan, so there aren't many people who don't know that these heroes exist. However, most Japanese people do not know the original plot because they vaguely remember the synopsis of the movie or have not even seen the movie.

nls__ said:
Yes, most of them will remain left to right as in the original.
Or, conversely, it would be more difficult to find one that dares to reverse it.
The reason for this is obvious: when American comics are translated, they are written "horizontally" in Japanese.
(Traditional Japanese writing is "vertical writing," but Japanese people use both vertical and horizontal writing, which does not mean that horizontal writing, which is written from left to right, does not exist.)

nls__ said:
As far as I know, Dark Horse Comics titles are available in Japan.

nls__ said:
> Do you know or have any idea if some of our American comic book adaptation of Japanese franchise get translated to Japanese? 

I tried to find the work you gave as an example on the Japanese Amazon, but could not find anything like it. I am sorry, but I think the recognition of franchise American comic works in Japan is very low. I myself know only to the extent that there are such things.

nls__ said:
> Do manga companies like Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, Kadokawa Shoten, Houbunsha, etc.... ever license any American comic book for translation & release in Japan?  If so, how often & common is this in Japan?

I did not know this, but there are several companies in Japan that translate and publish American comics into Japanese, and one of them is called ShoPro Books.
Shopro is a company jointly owned by Shogakukan and Shueisha, and currently has an exclusive translation contract with Marvel and seems to be the largest company in Japan in terms of translating and publishing American comics.

nls__ said:
And...

私の結論は、「日本人の間にアメコミのファンは確かにいるが、規模は小さい」です。です。
その理由として、私がすぐに思いつくのは次の3つです（他にもあるかもしれません）。

主演俳優の年齢層が高い。
ほとんどの日本の漫画は（現代であれファンタジーであれ）、主人公として男の子と女の子が登場します.

パターンとタッチ
キャラクター、特に女の子はかわいくなければなりません。意外かもしれませんが、かわいい女の子キャラは男性読者だけでなく女性読者からも人気！

コンテンツの過負荷
このように「日本人に好かれやすい」コンテンツは日々膨大に生み出されているため、日本人があえてアメコミに手を伸ばすことは非常にまれです。

My conclusion is that there are certainly fans of American comics among Japanese people, but the scale is small. am.
Here are three reasons I can think of right away (there may be others).

The lead actors are older.
Most Japanese manga (whether contemporary or fantasy) feature boys and girls as main characters.

pattern and touch
Characters, especially girls, should be cute. It may come as a surprise, but cute girl characters are popular not only with male readers, but also with female readers!

content overload
In this way, a huge amount of content that is “easy to be liked by Japanese people” is created every day, so it is extremely rare for Japanese people to dare to reach for American comics.

mdo7 said:
Here's one question: Would people in Japan read the American comic book if they watch a anime adaptation of it became popular mainstream in Japan?

 I like to also point out that there are American comic book that feels a lot like a manga out there, several of them have potential to become Japanese anime in the near future.  As a matter of fact, you can read this.  We've seen Megatokyo getting a Japanese translation in late 2000's.  So it's possible there maybe other American comic book with a "manga" feel that could appeal to Japanese market like for example, Wayward, Snotgirl, Fence, Vampire Cheerleaders, Amazing Agent Luna....

My 2nd question: Would people in Japan read those American Comic book I listed above if they feel a lot like a manga in term of artwork, similarities, or stories not found in Japanese manga?

nls__ said:
First of all, I apologize for my poor English and forgetting to translate...

nls__ said:
> Would people in Japan read the American comic book if they watch an anime adaptation of it became popular mainstream in Japan?

The answer to this would be "not zero. But I think the number is small".
The reason is that we know the current status of the audience for the film version.
Even if Japanese know about Tom Holland's "Spider-Man" or Robert Downey Jr.'s "Iron Man" movies, very few people will pick up the original American comic book from there.
Of course, the fan base for live-action movies and animated films is different, but even so, it is expected that not many people will reach out to the original work.
(Apparently, many anime fans need to be ANIMEs. I love Japanese manga and rarely watch anime, but many Japanese anime fans don't even read the original Japanese manga.)

And If it does become an animated film, it remains to be seen if it will attract many fans.
In Japan, quite a lot of anime is broadcast every quarter.
(For example, in the fall quarter of 2022, a total of approximately 70 works were aired. )
Among them, some gained a large number of fans and became extremely popular, while others were even cancelled in the middle of the broadcast.

nls__ said:
> Would people in Japan read those American Comic book I listed above if they feel a lot like a manga in term of artwork, similarities, or stories not found in Japanese manga?

This, too, is not out of the realm of possibility, but a pattern of natural fan growth through word of mouth would be difficult to achieve.

After all, the public reads "works for which major publishers have spent enormous amounts of money on advertising. Unfortunately.
I honestly dislike most of Shonen Jump's works, however, at present, "Shonen Jump" is the king of manga in Japan.

So, if American comic publishers approached Shueisha and Kodansha and spent huge amounts of money on advertising and publicity, and if their works were published in Shonen Jump and Shonen Magazine with a big announcement, they would gain a lot of Japanese fans.
"Shonen Jump" is a vested interest in the Japanese manga world. It is no small feat to try to take even a portion of it away from the rest of the world.

However, many Japanese manga fans have accounts on Twitter.
So, if you translate American comics into Japanese (*first of all, the majority of Japanese are allergic to English and will NEVER read anything unexpectedly written in Japanese, despite the fact that 99% of Japanese study English for 6 years during their school years. It would be a real shame), and if it could catch the attention of Japanese influencers and create a "buzz", it would lead to fan acquisition. This may be the most likely way to increase the number of Japanese American comics fans.