With the inundation of Streaming services and the exodus of content from broadcast television to the internet I ask what is the current state of the Manga industry?
With no Internet access I have to order physical copies of my favorite Manga. I have a subscription to Otaku USA, and will often make purchases based off of their recommendations. Luckily I have family members willing to order books for me from Amazon and I am able to enjoy storied that I otherwise wouldn't have access too.
Now that I am approaching the end of my sentence and will have the option to view Manga online I find myself still wanting to hold and read a physical book so I ask: are Manga still readily available out there?
What do you prefer physical or digital? Where do you find the Manga of your choice? I'd love to hear recommendations for stores or sites to check out as well as any series you would consider a "Must Read".
A favorite series I have read recently is "City" by Keiichi Arwaii. (Apologies for misspelling Arwaii san's name I'm going off of memory right now.) Does anyone know if this has been made into an Anime or if there are plans to do so? Thanks.
[EDIT: Made thread title a little more specific. Moved the thread to the Manga sub-forum, but left a shadow of the thread in Anime, since hardly anyone posts in Manga anymore. -TK]
Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9861
Location: Virginia
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:49 pm
State of the industry? Hot, really hot. Volumes of manga routinely show up on monthly top ten lists of graphic novel sales. It is one of the few areas of book stores that is growing. You can get manga from most sources that sell books. Many comic shops also carry a selection.
You can get manga online from Amazon, Right Stuf! and Roberts Anime Corner Store. They carry most titles with some limits on Hentai (X rated) stuff from Amazon and Right Stuf!. Right Stuf! and Roberts publish lists of upcoming titles for pre order and both list each weeks arrivals on Tuesday.
Comic shops get volumes through Diamond's Previews Catalog. Each shop will have their own policies about what they carry, special orders, pre orders etc. My local shop is my primary source as I get a 30% discount from MSRP because I pay when I order and buy a lot. To give you an idea of the amount of titles, the July Previews Catalog manga section had about 40 pages of listings with six to 10 titles per page. So two to three hundred volumes a month.
Of book stores, Barnes and Noble have a large selection. Books a Million used to but they left town and I can't confirm they still do. Bookstores do tend to get picked over for new releases rather quickly. Unfortunately, physical book stores are dying out.
Most publishers and online shops keep a reasonable backlog of earlier volumes. If a volume had gone out of print there Amazon and E-Bay have a lot of third party sellers that can get what you want. May be costly for some volumes. Almost every long running series has one or two volumes that are hard to find.
I can't tell you much about digital manga because I don't buy them if I have a choice. There are several companies which supply digital copies in addition to the physical ones and some that sell manga not available otherwise. Someone else will have to jump in on that topic.
I don't know if you have encountered Japanese light novels. They are an expanding source of IP for anime. Most of the sources listed above carry them along with the manga and they come from the same publishers. I do have several titles in digital form as they are not available in physical copies. I use Amazon Kindle for these.
Last I counted, which was a couple three years ago, I had over 4000 volumes of manga. It has gotten a bit out of hand since then and lack the energy to count currently. Add to that a couple hundred volumes of light novels.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!?― Why Aren't You Watching This Anime Yet? Yeah, yeah, Kaiju No. 8 has all the great action scenes, but Yatagarasu is chewing up the scenery as the royal ladies absolutely lose their minds!? The ANN After Show streams live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitte...
Here we have a from-the-ground-up remake, but does this beloved classic still hold up in a modern sense, or is that praise just nostalgia talking?― It's nice when Nintendo surprises us with a remaster or re-release of one of their more difficult-to-obtain games. The original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube is a classic for many. However, since the game was never re-rele...
Miles Atherton crunched Netflix's latest numbers for some surprising anime discoveries, from the popularity of My Happy Marriage to the One Piece juggernaut.― Since the advent of streaming, it's been notoriously difficult to gauge how popular a specific anime is with international audiences, both for publishers looking to make informed decisions for a market that generates most of its revenue outsi...
Haruka Shiraishi, Jun Fukuyama star in EMT Squared anime― The official website for the television anime of Izumi Sawano's I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons (Kisaki Kyōiku kara Nigetai Watashi) light novel series opened on Wednesday and revealed the anime's teaser visuals, main cast, main staff, and 2025 premiere. The anime stars: Haruka Shiraishi as Leticia Jun Fukuyama as Clarke Uri Sugata, th...
Nakao had roles in Sega's Judgement games, live-action GTO, Godzilla films― Actor Akira Nakao died of heart failure on May 16. He was 81. The actor's health was fluctuating in the last years of his life. A close funeral was held by his wife, actress Shino Ikenami, for close relatives. Nakao was born on August 11, 1942 in Chiba prefecture. Nakao played Ryuzo Genda in Sega's Judgement games, which ar...
With seven full routes and one mini-route with a character from the previous game, if you enjoyed Cupid Paradise, Sweet & Spicy Darling is worth playing.― The first order of business is this: if you haven't played the original Cupid Parasite otome game, there isn't much point in picking up Sweet & Spicy Darling. There is one new route for this sequel, but even that relies on you knowing the backgrou...
With the release of Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction, Nick and Steve take a look at it and some other manga that were thought to be "unadaptable"—and see if that was truly the case.― With the release of Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, Nick and Steve take a look at it and some other manga that were thought to be "unadaptable"—and see if that was truly the case. Disclaimer: The views and...
LiSA performs 'Black Box' opening theme― The official website for NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a, the television anime of Square Enix and Platinum Games' NieR:Automata action role-playing game, started streaming its "promotion file 11" on Tuesday. The video previews the opening theme song "Black Box" by LiSA, and reveals the premiere of the anime's second cours (quarter of year) in July. (The video below re...
When even the author says this story will hurt, you know it will be bad.― When even the author says this story will hurt, you know it will be bad. That's assuming, of course, that you weren't prepared for it going in. The fate of Astrea Familia is well-known to readers and viewers (and players) of the various Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon iterations, and the most recent season of ...
The documentary was full of cool tidbits about the 82-year-old producer and the anime he's worked on—including Ninja Scroll, Pluto, and In This Corner of the World.― Late last month, Japanese television network NHK put out a documentary on anime producer Masao Maruyama as part of their Anime Manga Explosion series. In it, the show delves into the now 82-year-old producer's life, philosophies, and so...
This is where the series earns its place in anime history, setting a precedent that other magical girl shows will follow.― It's a moment of magical girl history, right there on the screen: in episode forty-six of Fairy Princess Minky Momo's original 1982-83 television series, Momo is hit by a truck and dies. Even putting aside the question of whether or not this is Truck-kun's first victim, this is ...
Teaser video streamed― Bandai Namco Filmworks announced on Saturday that the Ghost in the Shell franchise is getting a new television anime series in 2026. Science Saru will produce the anime, which is tentatively titled Kōkaku Kidōtai (The Ghost in the Shell). Bandai Namco Filmworks, Kodansha, Science Saru, and Production I.G are on the production committee for the series. Bandai Namco Filmworks al...