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Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are
comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
or graphic novels originating from
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late
19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...
, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier
Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...
. The term ''manga'' is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country. In Japan, people of all ages and walks of life read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy,
detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
, drama,
historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotica (''
hentai Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...
'' and '' ecchi''), sports and games, and suspense, among others. Many manga are translated into other languages. Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry. By 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued at (), with annual sales of 1.9billion manga books and manga magazines in Japan (equivalent to 15issues per person). In 2020 Japan's manga market value hit a new record of ¥612.6 billion due to the fast growth of digital manga sales as well as increase of print sales. Manga have also gained a significant worldwide audience., Beginning with the late 2010s manga started massively outselling American comics. In 2020 the North American manga market was valued at almost $250 million. According to NPD BookScan manga made up 76% of overall comics and graphic novel sales in the US in 2021. The fast growth of the North American manga market has been attributed to manga's wide availability on digital reading apps, book retailer chains such as
Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
and online retailers such as Amazon as well as the increased streaming of anime. According to Jean-Marie Bouissou, manga represented 38% of the French comics market in 2005. This is equivalent to approximately 3 times that of the United States and was valued at about ($million). In Europe and the Middle East, the market was valued at $250 million in 2012. Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white—due to time constraints, artistic reasons (as coloring could lessen the impact of the artwork) and to keep printing costs low—although some full-color manga exist (e.g., ''
Colorful Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...
''). In Japan, manga are usually serialized in large manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. Collected chapters are usually republished in '' tankōbon'' volumes, frequently but not exclusively
paperback books A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, lea ...
., A
manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...
(''mangaka'' in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company. If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or during its run. Sometimes, manga are based on previous live-action or animated films. Manga-influenced comics, among original works, exist in other parts of the world, particularly in those places that speak Chinese (" manhua"), Korean (" manhwa"), English ("
OEL manga An original English-language manga or OEL manga is a comic book or graphic novel drawn in the style of manga and originally published in English. The term "international manga", as used by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, encompasses all ...
"), and French ("
manfra ''Manfra'' are French ''bandes dessinées'' that draw inspiration from Japanese manga. Nomenclature They are also known as ''franga'', ''manga français'' and ''global manga'' (the latter a more general term that includes other Western manga- ...
"), as well as in the nation of Algeria ("DZ-manga").


Etymology

The word "manga" comes from the Japanese word 漫画 ( katakana: ; hiragana: ), composed of the two kanji 漫 (man) meaning "whimsical or impromptu" and 画 (ga) meaning "pictures". The same term is the root of the Korean word for comics, ''" manhwa"'', and the Chinese word ''" manhua"''. The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century, with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook ''Shiji no yukikai'' (1798), and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's ''Manga hyakujo'' (1814) and the celebrated '' Hokusai Manga'' books (1814–1834) containing assorted drawings from the sketchbooks of the famous ukiyo-e artist
Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...
. Rakuten Kitazawa (1876–1955) first used the word "manga" in the modern sense. In Japanese, "manga" refers to all kinds of cartooning, comics, and animation. Among English speakers, "manga" has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics", in parallel to the usage of " anime" in and outside Japan. The term "
ani-manga A or is a Japanese manga volume which uses illustrated images from an anime series, film, or video release, rather than original custom art. They generally contain the full dialog from the anime from which they are adapted. While usually publi ...
" is used to describe comics produced from animation cels.


History and characteristics

According to art resource Widewalls manga originated from '' emakimono'' (scrolls), '' Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga'', dating back to the 12th century. During the Edo period (1603–1867), a book of drawings titled ''Toba Ehon'' further developed what would later be called manga. The word itself first came into common usage in 1798, with the publication of works such as Santō Kyōden's picturebook ''Shiji no yukikai'' (1798), and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's ''Manga hyakujo'' (1814) and the '' Hokusai Manga'' books (1814–1834). Adam L. Kern has suggested that '' kibyoshi'', picture books from the late 18th century, may have been the world's first comic books. These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes. Some works were mass-produced as serials using woodblock printing. however Eastern comics are generally held separate from the evolution of Western comics and Western comic art probably originated in 17th Italy, Writers on manga history have described two broad and complementary processes shaping modern manga. One view represented by other writers such as
Frederik L. Schodt Frederik L. Schodt (born January 22, 1950) is an American translator, interpreter and writer. Biography Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 wh ...
, Kinko Ito, and Adam L. Kern, stress continuity of Japanese cultural and aesthetic traditions, including pre-war, Meiji, and pre-Meiji culture and art. The other view, emphasizes events occurring during and after the Allied occupation of Japan (1945–1952), and stresses U.S. cultural influences, including U.S. comics (brought to Japan by the
GIs A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...
) and images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoons (especially Disney). Regardless of its source, an explosion of artistic creativity occurred in the post-war period, involving manga artists such as
Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...
('' Astro Boy'') and Machiko Hasegawa ('' Sazae-san''). ''Astro Boy'' quickly became (and remains) immensely popular in Japan and elsewhere, and the anime adaptation of ''Sazae-san'' drew more viewers than any other anime on Japanese television in 2011. Tezuka and Hasegawa both made stylistic innovations. In Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique, the panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots. This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists. Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later '' shōjo manga''. Between 1950 and 1969, an increasingly large readership for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, '' shōnen manga'' aimed at boys and '' shōjo manga'' aimed at girls. In 1969 a group of female manga artists (later called the '' Year 24 Group'', also known as ''Magnificent 24s'') made their ''shōjo'' manga debut ("year 24" comes from the Japanese name for the year 1949, the birth-year of many of these artists). The group included
Moto Hagio is a Japanese manga artist. Regarded for her contributions to ''shōjo'' manga ( manga aimed at young and adolescent women), Hagio is considered the most significant artist in the demographic and among the most influential manga artists of a ...
, Riyoko Ikeda,
Yumiko Ōshima is a Japanese manga artist and is associated with the Year 24 group that heavily influenced the development of shōjo manga in the 1970s. Career She made her debut as a professional manga artist in 1968 with the short story "Paula no Namida" ...
, Keiko Takemiya, and Ryoko Yamagishi. Thereafter, primarily female manga artists would draw ''shōjo'' for a readership of girls and young women. In the following decades (1975–present), ''shōjo'' manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously evolving different but overlapping subgenres. Major subgenres include romance, superheroines, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, ''redisu'' , ''redikomi'' , and ''josei'' ). Modern ''shōjo'' manga romance features love as a major theme set into emotionally intense narratives of self-realization. With the superheroines, ''shōjo'' manga saw releases such as
Pink Hanamori is a Japanese manga artist known for illustrating the manga ''Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'' which was written by Michiko Yokote. Michiyo Kikuta (''Mamotte! Lollipop'') once worked under Hanamori as an assistant. Hanamori is a fan of Shōnen ...
's '' Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch'', Reiko Yoshida's '' Tokyo Mew Mew'', and
Naoko Takeuchi is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known as the author of ''Sailor Moon'', one of the most popular manga series of all time. She has won several awards, including the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for ''Sailor Moon''. Takeuchi is married to ...
's '' Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon'', which became internationally popular in both manga and anime formats. Groups (or '' sentais'') of girls working together have also been popular within this genre. Like Lucia, Hanon, and Rina singing together, and Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus working together. Manga for male readers sub-divides according to the age of its intended readership: boys up to 18 years old (''shōnen'' manga) and young men 18 to 30 years old ('' seinen'' manga); as well as by content, including action-adventure often involving male heroes, slapstick humor, themes of honor, and sometimes explicit sex. The Japanese use different kanji for two closely allied meanings of "seinen"— for "youth, young man" and for "adult, majority"—the second referring to pornographic manga aimed at grown men and also called ''seijin'' ("adult" ) manga. ''Shōnen'', ''seinen'', and ''seijin'' manga share a number of features in common. Boys and young men became some of the earliest readers of manga after World War II. From the 1950s on, ''shōnen'' manga focused on topics thought to interest the archetypal boy, including subjects like robots, space-travel, and heroic action-adventure. Popular themes include science fiction, technology, sports, and supernatural settings. Manga with solitary costumed superheroes like
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
,
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
, and
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
generally did not become as popular. The role of girls and women in manga produced for male readers has evolved considerably over time to include those featuring single pretty girls ('' bishōjo'') such as Belldandy from '' Oh My Goddess!'', stories where such girls and women surround the hero, as in '' Negima'' and '' Hanaukyo Maid Team'', or groups of heavily armed female warriors (''sentō bishōjo'') With the relaxation of censorship in Japan in the 1990s, an assortment of explicit sexual material appeared in manga intended for male readers, and correspondingly continued into the English translations. In 2010, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government considered a bill to restrict minors' access to such content. The '' gekiga'' style of storytelling—thematically somber, adult-oriented, and sometimes deeply violent—focuses on the day-in, day-out grim realities of life, often drawn in a gritty and unvarnished fashion. ''Gekiga'' such as Sampei Shirato's 1959–1962 ''Chronicles of a Ninja's Military Accomplishments'' (''Ninja Bugeichō'') arose in the late 1950s and 1960s partly from left-wing student and working-class political activism,, , and partly from the aesthetic dissatisfaction of young manga artists like Yoshihiro Tatsumi with existing manga.


Publications and exhibition

In Japan, manga constituted an annual 40.6 billion yen (approximately US$395 million) publication-industry by 2007. In 2006 sales of manga books made up for about 27% of total book-sales, and sale of manga magazines, for 20% of total magazine-sales. The manga industry has expanded worldwide, where distribution companies license and reprint manga into their native languages. Marketeers primarily classify manga by the age and gender of the target readership. In particular, books and magazines sold to boys (''shōnen'') and girls (''shōjo'') have distinctive cover-art, and most bookstores place them on different shelves. Due to cross-readership, consumer response is not limited by demographics. For example, male readers may subscribe to a series intended for female readers, and so on. Japan has
manga café A is a type of café, originating from Japan, where people can read manga. People pay for the amount of time they stay in the café. Most manga cafés also offer internet access like and vice versa, making the two terms mostly interchangeab ...
s, or ''manga kissa'' (''kissa'' is an abbreviation of '' kissaten''). At a ''manga kissa'', people drink coffee, read manga and sometimes stay overnight. The Kyoto International Manga Museum maintains a very large website listing manga published in Japanese.


Magazines

usually have many series running concurrently with approximately 20–40 pages allocated to each series per issue. Other magazines such as the anime fandom magazine '' Newtype'' featured single chapters within their monthly periodicals. Other magazines like '' Nakayoshi'' feature many stories written by many different artists; these magazines, or "anthology magazines", as they are also known (colloquially "phone books"), are usually printed on low-quality newsprint and can be anywhere from 200 to more than 850 pages thick. Manga magazines also contain one-shot comics and various four-panel '' yonkoma'' (equivalent to
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
s). Manga series can run for many years if they are successful. Popular shonen magazines include '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'', '' Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' and '' Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' - Popular shoujo manga include ''
Ciao ''Ciao'' ( , ) is an informal salutation in the Italian language that is used for both "hello" and "goodbye". Originally from the Venetian language, it has entered the vocabulary of English and of many other languages around the world. Its du ...
'', '' Nakayoshi'' and ''
Ribon is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Shueisha on the third of each month. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are ''Nakayoshi'' and '' Ciao''. Its target audience is girls roughly 8–14 years old. It is one of the best-s ...
''. Manga artists sometimes start out with a few "one-shot" manga projects just to try to get their name out. If these are successful and receive good reviews, they are continued. Magazines often have a short life.


Collected volumes

After a series has run for a while, publishers often collect the chapters and print them in dedicated book-sized volumes, called ''tankōbon''. These can be hardcover, or more usually softcover books, and are the equivalent of U.S. trade paperbacks or graphic novels. These volumes often use higher-quality paper, and are useful to those who want to "catch up" with a series so they can follow it in the magazines or if they find the cost of the weeklies or monthlies to be prohibitive. "Deluxe" versions have also been printed as readers have gotten older and the need for something special grew. Old manga have also been reprinted using somewhat lesser quality paper and sold for 100 yen (about $1 U.S. dollar) each to compete with the used book market.


History

Kanagaki Robun was the pen name of (1829–1894), a Japanese author and journalist. Career Kanagaki Robun, the son of a fishmonger, was originally known for light fiction in the ''gesaku'' genre. He is said to have met painter Kawanabe Kyosai while writ ...
and Kawanabe Kyōsai created the first manga magazine in 1874: ''Eshinbun Nipponchi''. The magazine was heavily influenced by '' Japan Punch'', founded in 1862 by Charles Wirgman, a British cartoonist. ''Eshinbun Nipponchi'' had a very simple style of drawings and did not become popular with many people. ''Eshinbun Nipponchi'' ended after three issues. The magazine ''Kisho Shimbun'' in 1875 was inspired by ''Eshinbun Nipponchi'', which was followed by ''Marumaru Chinbun'' in 1877, and then ''Garakuta Chinpo'' in 1879. '' Shōnen Sekai'' was the first ''shōnen'' magazine created in 1895 by Iwaya Sazanami, a famous writer of Japanese children's literature back then. ''Shōnen Sekai'' had a strong focus on the First Sino-Japanese War. In 1905 the manga-magazine publishing boom started with the Russo-Japanese War,
Poten 4Ten (, formerly POTEN), commonly stylized as 4TEN, is a South Korean girl group formed by Jungle Entertainment in 2014. The group currently consists of three members: Hyeji, Hyejin and Heeo. Name The group debuted under the name 4TEN in 2014. T ...
'' Tokyo Pakku'' was created and became a huge hit. Shonen Pakku After ''Tokyo Pakku'' in 1905, a female version of ''Shōnen Sekai'' was created and named ''
Shōjo Sekai was one of the first '' shōjo'' magazines in Japan. It was published by Hakubunkan beginning in 1906 and was initially edited by renowned children′s author , better known by the pen name . ''Shōnen Pakku'' was made and is considered the first children's manga magazine. The children's demographic was in an early stage of development in the Meiji period. ''Shōnen Pakku'' was influenced from foreign children's magazines such as ''Puck'' which an employee of Jitsugyō no Nihon (publisher of the magazine) saw and decided to emulate. In 1924, ''Kodomo Pakku'' was launched as another children's manga magazine after ''Shōnen Pakku''. During the boom, ''Poten'' (derived from the French "potin") was published in 1908. All the pages were in full color with influences from ''Tokyo Pakku'' and '' Osaka Puck''. It is unknown if there were any more issues besides the first one. ''Kodomo Pakku'' was launched May 1924 by Tokyosha and featured high-quality art by many members of the manga artistry like Takei Takeo, Takehisa Yumeji and Aso Yutaka. Some of the manga featured
speech balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...
, where other manga from the previous eras did not use speech balloons and were silent. Published from May 1935 to January 1941, ''Manga no Kuni'' coincided with the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). ''Manga no Kuni'' featured information on becoming a
mangaka A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...
and on other comics industries around the world. ''Manga no Kuni'' handed its title to ''Sashie Manga Kenkyū'' in August 1940. Manga no Kuni


''Dōjinshi''

''Dōjinshi'', produced by small publishers outside of the mainstream commercial market, resemble in their publishing
small-press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...
independently published comic books in the United States.
Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
, the largest comic book
convention Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...
in the world with around 500,000 visitors gathering over three days, is devoted to ''dōjinshi''. While they most often contain original stories, many are parodies of or include characters from popular manga and anime series. Some ''dōjinshi'' continue with a series' story or write an entirely new one using its characters, much like
fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...
. In 2007, ''dōjinshi'' sales amounted to 27.73 billion yen (US$245 million). In 2006 they represented about a tenth of manga books and magazines sales.


Digital manga

Thanks to the advent of the internet, there have been new ways for aspiring mangaka to upload and sell their manga online. Before, there were two main ways in which a mangaka's work could be published: taking their manga drawn on paper to a publisher themselves, or submitting their work to competitions run by magazines.


Web manga

In recent years, there has been a rise in manga released digitally. Web manga, as it is known in Japan, has seen an increase thanks in part to image hosting websites where anyone can upload pages from their works for free. Although released digitally, almost all web manga sticks to the conventional black-and-white format despite some never getting physical publication. Pixiv is the most popular site where amateur and professional work gets published on the site. It has grown to be the most visited site for artwork in Japan. Twitter has also become a popular place for web manga with many artists releasing pages weekly on their accounts in the hope of their work getting picked up or published professionally. One of the best examples of an amateur work becoming professional is '' One-Punch Man'' which was released online and later received a professional remake released digitally and an anime adaptation soon thereafter. Many of the big print publishers have also released digital only magazines and websites where web manga get published alongside their serialized magazines. Shogakukan for instance has two websites, Sunday Webry and Ura Sunday, that release weekly chapters for web manga and even offer contests for mangaka to submit their work. Both Sunday Webry and Ura Sunday have become one of the top web manga sites in Japan. Some have even released apps that teach how to draw professional manga and learn how to create them. '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'' released ''Jump Paint'', an app that guides users on how to make their own manga from making storyboards to digitally inking lines. It also offers more than 120 types of pen tips and more than 1,000 screentones for artists to practice.
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
has also used the popularity of web manga to launch more series and also offer better distribution of their officially translated works under Kodansha Comics thanks in part to the titles being released digitally first before being published physically. The rise web manga has also been credited to smartphones and computers as more and more readers read manga on their phones rather than from a print publication. While paper manga has seen a decrease over time, digital manga have been growing in sales each year. The Research Institute for Publications reports that sales of digital manga books excluding magazines jumped 27.1 percent to ¥146 billion in 2016 from the year before while sales of paper manga saw a record year-on-year decline of 7.4 percent to ¥194.7 billion. They have also said that if the digital and paper keep the same growth and drop rates, web manga would exceed their paper counterparts. In 2020 manga sales topped the ¥600 billion mark for the first time in history, beating the 1995 peak due to a fast growth of the digital manga market which rose by ¥82.7 billion from a previous year, surpassing print manga sales which have also increased.


Webtoons

While webtoons have caught on in popularity as a new medium for comics in Asia, Japan has been slow to adopt webtoons as the traditional format and print publication still dominate the way manga is created and consumed(although this is beginning to change). Despite this, one of the biggest webtoon publishers in the world, Comico, has had success in the traditional Japanese manga market. Comico was launched by NHN Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Korean company, NHN Entertainment. As of now, there are only two webtoon publishers that publish Japanese webtoons: Comico and Naver Webtoon (under the name XOY in Japan). Kakao has also had success by offering licensed manga and translated Korean webtoons with their service Piccoma. All three companies credit their success to the webtoon pay model where users can purchase each chapter individually instead of having to buy the whole book while also offering some chapters for free for a period of time allowing anyone to read a whole series for free if they wait long enough. The added benefit of having all of their titles in color and some with special animations and effects have also helped them succeed. Some popular Japanese webtoons have also gotten anime adaptations and print releases, the most notable being '' ReLIFE'' and '' Recovery of an MMO Junkie''.


International markets

By 2007, the influence of manga on international comics had grown considerably over the past two decades. "Influence" is used here to refer to effects on the comics markets outside Japan and to
aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
effects on comics artists internationally. Traditionally, manga stories flow from top to bottom and from right to left. Some publishers of translated manga keep to this original format. Other publishers mirror the pages horizontally before printing the translation, changing the reading direction to a more "Western" left to right, so as not to confuse foreign readers or traditional comics-consumers. This practice is known as "flipping". For the most part, criticism suggests that flipping goes against the original intentions of the creator (for example, if a person wears a shirt that reads "MAY" on it, and gets flipped, then the word is altered to "YAM"), who may be ignorant of how awkward it is to read comics when the eyes must flow through the pages and text in opposite directions, resulting in an experience that's quite distinct from reading something that flows homogeneously. If the translation is not adapted to the flipped artwork carefully enough it is also possible for the text to go against the picture, such as a person referring to something on their left in the text while pointing to their right in the graphic. Characters shown writing with their right hands, the majority of them, would become left-handed when a series is flipped. Flipping may also cause oddities with familiar asymmetrical objects or layouts, such as a car being depicted with the gas pedal on the left and the brake on the right, or a shirt with the buttons on the wrong side, however these issues are minor when compared to the unnatural reading flow, and some of them could be solved with an adaptation work that goes beyond just translation and blind flipping.


Asia

Manga has highly influenced the art styles of manhwa and manhua. Manga in Indonesia is published by Elex Media Komputindo,
Level Comic {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Established in 2005, Level Comics is a division of Elex Media Komputindo that publishes ''seinen'', shonen with a strong violence, and also ''josei'' manga in Indonesia. Elex Media Komputindo has been publishing ...
, M&C and Gramedia. Manga has influenced Indonesia's original comic industry. Manga in the Philippines were imported from the US and were sold only in specialty stores and in limited copies. The first manga in Filipino language is Doraemon which was published by J-Line Comics and was then followed by
Case Closed ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its ch ...
. In 2015, Boy's Love manga became popular through the introduction of BL manga by printing company BLACKink. Among the first BL titles to be printed were Poster Boy, Tagila, and Sprinters, all were written in Filipino. BL manga have become bestsellers in the top three bookstore companies in the Philippines since their introduction in 2015. During the same year, Boy's Love manga have become a popular mainstream with
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
consumers, leading to television series adapted from BL manga stories since 2016.


Europe

Manga has influenced European cartooning in a way that is somewhat different from in the U.S. Broadcast anime in France and Italy opened the European market to manga during the 1970s. French art has borrowed from Japan since the 19th century ( Japonism) and has its own highly developed tradition of bande dessinée cartooning. In France, beginning in the mid-1990s, manga has proven very popular to a wide readership, accounting for about one-third of comics sales in France since 2004. By mid-2021, 75 percent of the €300 value of Culture Pass accounts given to French 18 year-olds was spent on manga. According to the Japan External Trade Organization, sales of manga reached $212.6 million within France and Germany alone in 2006. France represents about 50% of the European market and is the second worldwide market, behind Japan. In 2013, there were 41 publishers of manga in France and, together with other Asian comics, manga represented around 40% of new comics releases in the country, surpassing Franco-Belgian comics for the first time. European publishers marketing manga translated into French include Asuka, Casterman, Glénat, Kana, and Pika Édition, among others. European publishers also translate manga into Dutch, German, Italian, and other languages. In 2007, about 70% of all comics sold in Germany were manga. Manga publishers based in the United Kingdom include
Gollancz Gollancz may refer to: * Gollancz (surname), a Polish-Jewish surname * Victor Gollancz Ltd, a former British publishing house, now used as an imprint by the Orion Publishing Group See also * Gołańcz Gołańcz (german: Gollantsch) is a town ...
and Titan Books. Manga publishers from the United States have a strong marketing presence in the United Kingdom: for example, the
Tanoshimi Tanoshimi was the United Kingdom arm of US publisher Random House and was responsible for the publication of their English Language, English-language manga titles. Its relationship with Random House was the same as Del Rey Manga, Del Rey, which re ...
line from Random House. In 2019 The British Museum held a mass exhibition dedicated to manga.


United States

Manga made their way only gradually into U.S. markets, first in association with anime and then independently. Some U.S. fans became aware of manga in the 1970s and early 1980s.In 1987, "...Japanese comics were more legendary than accessible to American readers", However, anime was initially more accessible than manga to U.S. fans, many of whom were college-age young people who found it easier to obtain, subtitle, and exhibit video tapes of anime than translate, reproduce, and distribute ''tankōbon''-style manga books. One of the first manga translated into English and marketed in the U.S. was Keiji Nakazawa's '' Barefoot Gen'', an autobiographical story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima issued by
Leonard Rifas Leonard Rifas (b. April 16, 1951) is an American cartoonist, critic, editor, and publisher associated with underground comix, comics journalism, left-wing politics, and the anti-nuclear movement. He is notable for his contributions to the form of ...
and Educomics (1980–1982). More manga were translated between the mid-1980s and 1990s, including '' Golgo 13'' in 1986, '' Lone Wolf and Cub'' from First Comics in 1987, and ''
Kamui A ''kamuy'' ( ain, カムィ; ja, カムイ, kamui) is a spiritual or divine being in Ainu mythology, a term denoting a supernatural entity composed of or possessing spiritual energy. The Ainu people have many myths about the ''kamuy'', passed ...
'', '' Area 88'', and ''
Mai the Psychic Girl is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuya Kudō and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from March 1985 to April 1986, with its chapters collected in six '' ...
'', also in 1987 and all from Viz Media- Eclipse Comics. Others soon followed, including '' Akira'' from Marvel Comics' Epic Comics imprint, ''
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind may refer to * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (manga), ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (manga), a manga series by Hayao Miyazaki * Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film), ''Nausicaä of the Valle ...
'' from Viz Media, and '' Appleseed'' from Eclipse Comics in 1988, and later ''Iczer-1'' ( Antarctic Press, 1994) and
Ippongi Bang is a multimedia and manga artist,. She has been called "one of the most well-known manga artists in America in the mid-1990s." Life and career Ippongi was born in Yokohama City, and attended Den-En Chofu Hikiba High School, then Tamagawa Univer ...
's ''F-111 Bandit'' (Antarctic Press, 1995). In the 1980s to the mid-1990s, Japanese animation, like '' Akira'', ''
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...
'', ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known simply as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko, directed by Hideaki Anno and broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. ''Evangelion' ...
'', and ''
Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...
'', made a bigger impact on the fan experience and in the market than manga. Matters changed when translator-entrepreneur Toren Smith founded
Studio Proteus Studio Proteus is a Japanese manga import, translation and lettering company, founded in 1986 by Toren Smith and based in San Francisco. Other staff included translators Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason, and Frederik Schodt, letterer Tom Orzechowski a ...
in 1986. Smith and Studio Proteus acted as an agent and translator of many Japanese manga, including Masamune Shirow's ''Appleseed'' and Kōsuke Fujishima's '' Oh My Goddess!'', for
Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...
and Eros Comix, eliminating the need for these publishers to seek their own contacts in Japan. Simultaneously, the Japanese publisher Shogakukan opened a U.S. market initiative with their U.S. subsidiary Viz, enabling Viz to draw directly on Shogakukan's catalogue and translation skills. Japanese publishers began pursuing a U.S. market in the mid-1990s due to a stagnation in the domestic market for manga. The U.S. manga market took an upturn with mid-1990s anime and manga versions of Masamune Shirow's '' Ghost in the Shell'' (translated by
Frederik L. Schodt Frederik L. Schodt (born January 22, 1950) is an American translator, interpreter and writer. Biography Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 wh ...
and Toren Smith) becoming very popular among fans. An extremely successful manga and anime translated and dubbed in English in the mid-1990s was ''
Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 52 individual chapters were published in 18 volumes. The seri ...
''. By 1995–1998, the ''Sailor Moon'' manga had been exported to over 23 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, North America and most of Europe. In 1997, Mixx Entertainment began publishing ''Sailor Moon'', along with CLAMP's '' Magic Knight Rayearth'', Hitoshi Iwaaki's '' Parasyte'' and Tsutomu Takahashi's '' Ice Blade'' in the monthly manga magazine '' MixxZine''. Mixx Entertainment, later renamed Tokyopop, also published manga in trade paperbacks and, like Viz, began aggressive marketing of manga to both young male and young female demographics. During this period, Dark Horse Manga was a major publisher of translated manga. In addition to '' Oh My Goddess!'', the company published '' Akira'', '' Astro Boy'', ''
Berserk Berserk (meaning "very angry" or "out of control") may refer to: * ''Berserk'' (manga), a 1989 Japanese manga by Kentaro Miura ** ''Berserk'' (1997 TV series), the first anime adaption of the manga ** ''Berserk'' (2016 TV series), a second adap ...
'', '' Blade of the Immortal'', '' Ghost in the Shell'', '' Lone Wolf and Cub'', Yasuhiro Nightow's '' Trigun'' and '' Blood Blockade Battlefront'', '' Gantz'', Kouta Hirano's '' Hellsing'' and '' Drifters'', '' Blood+'', ''
Multiple Personality Detective Psycho ''MPD Psycho'', short for , is a manga series written by Eiji Ōtsuka and illustrated by Shou Tajima, published by Kadokawa Shoten from 1997 to 2016. The series follows a police detective suffering from multiple personality disorder. ''MPD Ps ...
'', '' FLCL'', '' Mob Psycho 100'', and '' Oreimo''. The company received 13
Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...
nominations for its manga titles, and three of the four manga creators admitted to
The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame The following is a list of winners of the Eisner Award, sorted by category. The Eisner Awards have been presented since 1988, but there were no Eisner Awards in 1990 due to balloting mix-ups."Eisners Cancelled," ''The Comics Journal'' #137 (Sept. ...
Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...
, Kazuo Koike, and Goseki Kojima — were published in Dark Horse translations. In the following years, manga became increasingly popular, and new publishers entered the field while the established publishers greatly expanded their catalogues. The ''Pokémon'' manga ''
Electric Tale of Pikachu Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
'' issue #1 sold over 1million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling single comic book in the United States since 1993. By 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales. Simultaneously, mainstream U.S. media began to discuss manga, with articles in '' The New York Times'', ''Time'' magazine, '' The Wall Street Journal'', and '' Wired'' magazine. As of 2017, manga distributor Viz Media is the largest publisher of graphic novels and comic books in the United States, with a 23% share of the market.
BookScan BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry that compiles point of sale data for book sales, owned by The NPD Group in the United States and the Nielsen Company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, South ...
sales show that manga is one of the fastest-growing areas of the comic book and narrative fiction markets. From January 2019 to May 2019, the manga market grew 16%, compared to the overall comic book market's 5% growth. The NPD Group noted that, compared to other comic book readers, manga readers are younger (76% under 30) and more diverse, including a higher female readership (16% higher than other comic books). As of January 2020 manga is the second largest category in the US comic book and graphic novel market, accounting for 27% of the entire market share. During the COVID-19 pandemic some stores of the American bookseller
Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
saw up to a 500% increase in sales from graphic novel and manga sales due to the younger generations showing a high interest in the medium. Sales of print manga titles in the U.S. increased by 3.6 million units in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. In 2021 24.4 million units of manga were sold in the United States. This is an increase of about 15 million(160%) more sales than in 2020.


Localized manga

A number of artists in the United States have drawn comics and cartoons influenced by manga. As an early example,
Vernon Grant Vernon Ethelbert Grant (February 14, 1935 – July 23, 2006) was a cartoonist who did graphic novels, and is also known for his digest-sized comic book series, ''The Love Rangers''. Usually referred to as Vern Grant, he is often credited as the ...
drew manga-influenced comics while living in Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Others include Frank Miller's mid-1980s '' Ronin'', Adam Warren and Toren Smith's 1988 ''
The Dirty Pair ''The Dirty Pair'' is an original English-language manga written and illustrated by Adam Warren, based on the original ''Dirty Pair'' characters created by Haruka Takachiho. The American comic company and manga translator Studio Proteus acqu ...
'', Ben Dunn's 1987 '' Ninja High School'' and ''Manga Shi 2000'' from Crusade Comics (1997). By the 21st century several U.S. manga publishers had begun to produce work by U.S. artists under the broad marketing-label of manga. In 2002 I.C. Entertainment, formerly Studio Ironcat and now out of business, launched a series of manga by U.S. artists called '' Amerimanga''. In 2004 eigoMANGA launched the '' Rumble Pak'' and '' Sakura Pakk'' anthology series. Seven Seas Entertainment followed suit with '' World Manga''. Simultaneously, TokyoPop introduced original English-language manga (OEL manga) later renamed ''Global Manga''. Francophone artists have also developed their own versions of manga (''
manfra ''Manfra'' are French ''bandes dessinées'' that draw inspiration from Japanese manga. Nomenclature They are also known as ''franga'', ''manga français'' and ''global manga'' (the latter a more general term that includes other Western manga- ...
''), like Frédéric Boilet's '' la nouvelle manga''. Boilet has worked in France and in Japan, sometimes collaborating with Japanese artists. ,


Awards

The Japanese manga industry grants a large number of awards, mostly sponsored by publishers, with the winning prize usually including publication of the winning stories in magazines released by the sponsoring publisher. Examples of these awards include: * The Akatsuka Award for humorous manga * The Dengeki Comic Grand Prix for one-shot manga * The
Japan Cartoonists Association Award is an annual award for manga, sponsored by the Japan Cartoonists Association. The prize was first awarded in 1972. Prizes Recipients of the Grand Prize receive a gold plaque, a medal, and a cash prize of ¥500,000. Recipients of the Excellence P ...
various categories * The
Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...
(multiple genre awards) * The Seiun Award for best science fiction comic of the year * The Shogakukan Manga Award (multiple genres) * The Tezuka Award for best new serial manga * The
Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after Osamu Tezuka, the is a yearly manga prize awarded to manga artists or their works that follow the Osamu Tezuka manga approach founded and sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. The prize has been awarded since 1997, in Tokyo, Japan. Current ...
(multiple genres) The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded the International Manga Award annually since May 2007.


University education

Kyoto Seika University in Japan has offered a highly competitive course in manga since 2000. Then, several established universities and vocational schools (専門学校: ''Semmon gakkou'') established a training curriculum. Shuho Sato, who wrote '' Umizaru'' and ''Say Hello to Black Jack'', has created some controversy on Twitter. Sato says, "Manga school is meaningless because those schools have very low success rates. Then, I could teach novices required skills on the job in three months. Meanwhile, those school students spend several million yen, and four years, yet they are good for nothing." and that, "For instance, Keiko Takemiya, the then professor of Seika Univ., remarked in the Government Council that 'A complete novice will be able to understand where is "Tachikiri" (i.e., margin section) during four years.' On the other hand, I would imagine that, It takes about thirty minutes to completely understand that at work."


See also

*
ACG (subculture) ACG ("Animation, Comics, and Games") is a term used in some subcultures of Greater China and Southeast Asia. Because a strong economic and cultural connection exists between anime, manga and games in the Japanese market, ACG is used to describe ...
* Alternative manga * Anime * Anime and manga fandom * Cinema of Japan * Cool Japan * Culture of Japan * Emakimono *
E-toki refers to a Japanese Buddhist practice of using an emaki (hand picture, a painted hand scroll) or picture halls (rooms with pictures either painted onto the walls, or containing a series of hanging scrolls) to explain a Buddhist principle. His ...
(horizontal, illustrated narrative form) * Japanese language * Japanese popular culture * Kamishibai *
Lianhuanhua ''Lianhuanhua'' () is a type of palm-size picture books of sequential drawings popular in China in the 20th century. It influenced modern manhua.Wong, Wendy Siuyi. 002(2001) Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Princeton Architectural Press. N ...
(small Chinese picture book) * Light novel *
List of best-selling manga The following is a list of the best-selling Japanese manga series to date in terms of the number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes sold. All series in this list have at least 20 million copies in circulation. This list is limited to Japanese m ...
* List of films based on manga * List of licensed manga in English *
List of manga distributors This article lists distributors of manga in various markets worldwide. Chinese Traditional Chinese *Daran Comics (defunct) (Taiwan) * Kadokawa Comics Taiwan (Taiwan) *Tong Li Comics (Taiwan) *Ever Glory Publishing (Taiwan) * Sharp Point Publis ...
*
List of manga magazines This is a list of manga magazines or published in Japan. The majority of manga magazines are categorized into one of five demographics, which correspond to the age and gender of their readership: * '' Kodomo'' – aimed at young children. * '' ...
* List of Japanese manga magazines by circulation * Manga iconography * Manga outside Japan *
Truyện tranh Truyện tranh (Chữ Hán: 傳幀) means comic in Vietnamese (aka Vietnamese Comics). This term has the English name Viet comics created by '':vi:Bán nguyệt san Tuổi Hoa, Floral Age Bimonthly'' magazine in the 1960s to refer to comics orig ...
* Manhua * Manhwa *
Q-version Chibi, also known as super deformation, or S.D. is a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, an ...
(cartoonification) * Ukiyo-e * Visual novel * Webtoon * '' Weekly Shōnen Jump''


Notes


References


Inline citations


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * Hattie Jones, "Manga girls: Sex, love, comedy and crime in recent boy's manga and anime," in Brigitte Steger and Angelika Koch (2013 eds): Manga Girl Seeks Herbivore Boy. Studying Japanese Gender at Cambridge. Lit Publisher, pp. 24–81. * Marcella Zaccagnino and Sebastiano Contrari.
Manga: il Giappone alla conquista del mondo

Archive
''
Limes, rivista italiana di geopolitica ''Limes'' (pronounced ) is a monthly Italian geopolitical magazine published in Rome, Italy. History and profile ''Limes'' was established in 1993. The magazine, published every month, is owned by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso. Lucio Caracciolo is ...
''. 31 October 2007. *


External links

* * {{Authority control Anime and manga terminology Comics formats Entertainment in Japan Illustration Japanese culture