An article on the history of shojo-demographic manga.
Via Anime Insider: Shojo History (June 2007)
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Tag Archives: Manga
Via Anime Insider: Media Blasters Manga (June 2007)
A short article on the contemporary state of Media Blasters’ manga line, which, wit the exception of yaoi titles, largely closed up shop.
Via Anime Insider: Buddha in the US (May 2007)
Anne Ishi, marketing director for Vertical, mentions Buddha as a title that did well (well enough to encourage them to localize other, similar titles).
This is an interesting statement because none of the 4 volumes of Buddha that came out in 2006 made the bookscan charts for that year (with a cutoff a bit under 5000 volumes sold). Probably helped that the volumes were a few dollars more expensive than similar titles at the time ($15 per, compare with Monster’s $10 per).
Via Anime Insider: Illegal Doraemon Doujinshi (April 2007)
A short blurb describing a copyright snafu between the authors of an unlicensed Doraemon doujinshi (which sold over 15,000 copies) and Shogakukan.
Via Anime Insider: US Anime Distribution (January 2007)
An article on the changing contemporary methods US companies were using to distribute anime and manga.
Via Anime Insider: Japanese Copyright Laws (December 2006)
A short article mentioning debate around a possible extension of the protections afforded by Japanese copyright laws.
Fun With Numbers: A Good Summer for Hot Cocoa
This past week was a pretty unambiguously good one for Square Enix’s publishing division, featuring sales of over 95,000 for previously-unranked Isshukan Friends, a boost for the old volumes of Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun, and the final volume of Cocoa Fujiwara’s Inu x Boku SS topping the list with over 250,000 copies sold. That last part might not even be the most impressive thing Fujiwara did this week, either. While the 250,000 in IxB sales is, in large part, in keeping with previous volumes of the series, Fujiwara also saw her brand new manga, Katsute Mahou Shoujo to Aku wa Tekitai shite Ita, notch first week sales of over 80,000. While not unprecedented by any means, that level of early sales puts her on a pretty exclusive list.
Fun With Numbers: Dragonball, Naruto, Love Live, and the Importance of Second-Tier Hits
Weekly Shonen Jump is Japan’s most successful manga magazine, something that’s been true, excluding a brief early-aughts blip, for upwards of 20 years. But the brand didn’t get there by some fluke – it earned notability by harnessing a number of talented artists in many eras; Go Nagai in the late 60s, Buichi Terasawa and Osamu Akimoto in the 70s, Hirohiko Araki, Masami Kurumada, and countless others in the 80s.
But that doesn’t mean the past 2 decades were free of uncertainty or bad luck for Shueisha. In actuality, in between the early-nineties peak where the magazine’s circulation topped 6 million copies and the modern era of Oda Eiichiro breaking his own volumes’ records on a regular basis, they experienced one of the biggest misfortunes that can befall a publishing empire: two franchise cornerstone series ending withing 13 months of each other.
Via Anime Insider: Viz’s 20th Anniversary (July 2006)
Viz VP Alvin Lu talks briefly about the company’s history.
Via Anime Insider: Reader Mail (July 2006)
This is included because of a mention for plans for a Princess Ai movie on the last page.
Animetics 