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State of the US Manga Industry 2019

Viz Media massively upgrading to the digital era, Seven Seas becoming one of the most beloved publishers, and newcomers and comebacks in the physical/digital manga scene.

*DISCLAIMER* I am just a fan doing general observations about the manga industry and chiming in with my thoughts; I have no insight into the inner workings of manga licensing.

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Analyzing the US Manga Industry with BookScan 2017

I would like to focus on the manga portion of The Beat’s thorough analysis of BookScan 2017. NPD BookScan tracks between 80% and 85% of print sales according to Publisher’s Weekly. FYI Brian Hibbs did an amazing job on this report and went crazy into the numbers portion in a way that more casual readers could understand. He kept mentioning “long tail,” which is “used to refer to the large number of products that sell in small quantities, as contrasted with the small number of best-selling products.” Apparently, manga has a long tail? I only skimmed the article since it’s about 15K+ words (90 min read) and focused my attention on the manga portion. If you want to check out last month’s BookScan chart, see Feb 2018 Top 20 Manga Chart.

With over 10,248 items listed, 5.9 million sold for a total of $85.6M, manga seems to be selling well! However, compared to 2008 when 7842 items listed, 10.2 million sold for a total of $100.8M during the manga boom, it pales in comparison. Remember that Borders closed in 2011, which led to many US manga companies to shut down.

Let’s see the top 6 manga publishers of 2017 and analyze the numbers after the break!

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Finding new legal manga releases online in English is sometimes complex, since the big name publishers offer their series on various online services. Most people will pay to support their favorite artist and series though! Here’s a list of simulpub manga and where to find them~

I’m including only websites/services that offer simulpub (released on same day as Japanese or up to a week later). They are: Weekly Shonen Jump, Yen Press Digital, Kodansha Comics, Crunchyroll Manga, Manga Box, ComicWalker, and Comic Zenon International. The series that they host are listed below the cut!

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Ballroom e Youkoso

「ボールルームへようこそ」

by TAKEUCHI Tomo

Published in Monthly Shonen Magazine by Shodansha.
Licensed in English by Kodansha USA
BUY / READ: Amazon JP, eBookJapan, Kodansha Comics Plus
(English) Kodansha USA (ch1 free), Amazon, RightStuf

My first review on this blog has to be dedicated to Ballroom e Youkoso by Takeuchi Tomo, also known as Welcome to the Ballroom. I found this series during a search for new sports manga, as I wasn’t up to catching up to popular series like YowaPeda, Daiya no Ace, or Haikyuu!! at the moment. I think I fell in love with dance manga after reading Swan by Ariyoshi Kyouko when it was released by CMX in 2005 and I read it at the downtown library. However, this particular manga was nominated in the prestigious 6th and 8th Taisho Awards in 2013 and 2015, which lists the best manga series in Japan for that year.

The mangaka introduces the main character of Ballroom, Fujita Tatara, as an average student who stumbles into the world of sports dance and becomes enraptured after watching a performance by his mentor.

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