Manga Industry Tailspin
In his Flipped column, David Welsh discusses the state of the manga industry. He points out a few causes: teens spending their money on the popular Twilight series, Diamond “raising its profit standards” and new technology like the Kindle not offering manga titles. Whatever the reason, there’s not likely to be a new mange surge like in past years. I just hope the whole industry doesn’t go away!
I’ve said before I don’t think manga is just a trend but if it’s going to find a permanent spot on shelves something has to give. Better titles? Expanding to *gulp* Wal-Mart? I don’t know. I do hope more stuff comes out that’s not geared toward just teenagers. I love them but they are a fickle bunch. When I was a teenager, pulp horror for teens (think Christopher Pike) was huge! Now, you can’t find a decent blood soaked teenager unless it’s attached to a vampire with a soul. So the industry will have to grow up somewhat if it wants to stay around. Or maybe that’s just me wanting it to cater to my own personal tastes…
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You never know with teens. One generation’s obsession can be “so over” to the next generation. Comics in general have certainly grown up over the years. How many times do you see a kid in a comic book store these days? And then we have that whole economic crash thing and it could be affecting manga sales. I guess we’ll need to stay tuned!