Video interview with Gundam artist Hiro Sono

Starting New Manga Magazines in China

Starting New Manga Magazines in China

Aiko Komai wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun: “Kodansha and a local corporation in southern China established a joint publishing company to produce a manga magazine. Called Jin Manhua, the magazine features original stories drawn by local mangaka. Yoshiba said the magazine was launched in response to "tight restrictions on publishing Japanese manga abroad." [Source: Aiko Komai, Yomiuri Shimbun, October 19, 2012]

A dozen Kodansha staff were transferred to a Beijing office to teach Chinese mangaka Japanese editing style, which involves collaboration between mangaka and editors to develop storylines. Kodansha is also looking for talent in China by holding manga contests. An all-color comic magazine, Jin Manhua, is priced at 8 yuan (about $1.10) with a normal circulation of 300,000 copies. While the magazine operates in the red, Kodansha aims to create business opportunities by commercializing manga character goods or publishing comic books of individual series. [Ibid]

Elsewhere in China, Kadokawa Group Holdings Inc. established a joint venture company with a publishing group in Hunan Province for a monthly comic magazine Tian Man in September 2011. Tezuka Productions collaborated with a Beijing publisher to launch a monthly magazine that is 80 percent Osamu Tezuka works and 20 percent local manga. [Ibid]

Manga researcher Haruyuki Nakano says the trend has spread due to the limitations of the Japanese manga market in China. "Localization is an inseparable part of expanding business overseas. The Japanese manga industry is in a position to export not only the content, but the culture of manga itself," Nakano said. [Ibid]

http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

Mangaka interview & more, Felipe Smith

MANGAKA INTERVIEW & MORE 

s: Why Felipe Smith Is the Only Mangaka from America (So Far)

• 

  I’ve always been a big supporter of non-Japanese artists making manga. More people outside of Japan are using manga as a way to tell stories everyday and, as a manga editor in America, I want to see that number grow. Series like Bakumanmade kids around world want to become manga artists, but the truth is, it’s hard enough to become a professional mangaka (manga artist) in Japan, without even taking into consideration all the obstacles non-Japanese manga artists have to face.

  Yet…Felipe Smith had somehow made it through. He became the first American manga artist to be published by a major Japanese publisher. Felipe debuted in America with his graphic novel series MBQ and then moved to Japan to serialize his first title in a manga magazine, PEEPO CHOO, in Morning Twopublished by Kodansha.

  How’d he do it? I was just plain curious. So I shadowed him during Japan Expo. Here are my 7 observations on Felipe. His circumstances are unique, but knowing them might help others think of ways to make manga no matter where they are from.

  1. He’s Not a Nerd

  Weird but true. When Felipe told me he didn’t really grow up with manga or anime, I was surprised, but then understood why. Some of the biggest talents in the world of manga have told me the same thing. When you try to learn how to draw manga from other manga, it’s hard to shake their influence. Felipe names his real life experiences and observations as the biggest influences on his work.

  2. He Learned Japanese

  If you want your work to be published in a manga magazine by a Japanese publisher, you gotta learn Japanese. You need to work closely with editors, understand the demands of the native audience, and find the right expressions to convey your story. Felipe learned Japanese before he went to Japan by working at a karaoke joint in Los Angeles. He put himself in an environment where he was surrounded by Japanese language and culture every day. This is a very practical way to learn and proves that you don’t have to take classes or study abroad to learn a language.

  3. He’s Culturally Adaptable

  Manga is made for Japanese audiences. This is the hardest thing for international artists, or audiences for that matter, to get. Felipe is a Jamaican-Argentinian born in Ohio. He spent most of his childhood in Argentina, a country made up of people from various backgrounds with no dominant cultural standard. His views on cultural bias and stereotyping are an on-going theme in PEEPO CHOO. At the same time, his openness towards culture has gotten him as far as he has working and making stories for audiences in Japan.

  4. He Had an Agent

  After MBQ, an agent offered to represent his work in Japan. She arranged the meeting between Felipe and the editor-in-chief of Morning Two, facilitated communication in the meeting, and even helped early on in the series translating Felipe’s manga from English into Japanese. That’s great for anybody, but an agent would only invest his or her time like that into talent they truly believe in.

  5. He Can Really Draw

  Felipe went to The School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has solid grounding in perspective and figure drawing, which helps the audience get into his world. Then there’s something about the style of his characters; they have a cool quality that transcends logic. Having a distinguishable art style that comes from within, yet is grounded in fundamentals, is absolutely crucial for a mangaka to stand a chance of surviving in the world of manga.

  6. He Has Stories to Tell

  Manga isn’t just pretty pictures but a form of storytelling. To Felipe, it is an ideal medium for an artist to share his ideas and personal experiences with an audience. When he starts planning a series, he already has a concrete ending in mind, because the end of a story is a great place to get a message across and leave a lasting impression with the reader.  His use of graphic sex and violence is never gratuitous but actual character development, which moves the story forward.

  7. He Just Did It

  There are a ton of aspiring artists out there who can rattle off what’s wrong with the manga industry and why they won’t be able to become mangaka. But there’s always a way to keep from doing something. What’s not as well known is there’s always a way to just do it too. Seeing Felipe reassured me this is the case and gave me hope there are others who’ll find their own way into the world of manga.

  Is manga just getting your work published by a Japanese publisher? No, manga is a way to tell stories using images and words. The most important thing we all should be doing is to find new ways to deliver diverse stories by different artists to more people.

  The skills Felipe acquired working as a mangaka in Japan also apply to creative industries elsewhere. He currently works in Los Angeles as a character designer and storyboard artist for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated TV series on Nickelodeon. Very recently Marvel Comics announced that Felipe will be writing the All-New Ghost Rider monthly title, teaming up with artist Tradd Moore. He’s also planning his next graphic novel, this time specifically with a global audience in mind. I’ll be looking out for it.

  
  
  

  For More Info on Felipe Smith:
  Tumblr: felipesmithart.tumblr.comTwitter: @FelipeTweeters

  http://mckido.com/post/64912156166/7-reasons-why-felipe-smith-is-the-only-mangaka-from
• Watch Felipe Smith drawing Reiko Kawamori from PEEPO CHOO 
• 
  

Anime Fans in the United States

Anime Fans in the United States

 
Madonna in cosplay-like outfitThe 15th annual Anime Expo in the United States in 2006 attracted 55,000 fans, up from 1,750 its first year in 1992, including many who engaged in cos-play an dressed up like their favorite anime and manga characters. The event is sponsored by the nonprofit Society for the Promotion Japanese Animation. In 2009, more than 9,000 people showed up an the “Sakura Con” anime event in Seattle, twice the number as the previous year, and paid $30 to $60 to be there.

American anime fans tend to be teenagers and young adults aged 18 and 24 with a considerable number between 13 and 18 and some “tweenies” who are under 13. The fans are equally divided between males and females, with the younger groups embracing more females. The reason for this is thought to be related to the popularity ofSailor Moon among young girls.

The anime market in the United States is very girl driven. Naruto, Bleach and One Pieceare more popular among girls in the United States than in Japan. Death Note was popular with both genders and Gundam Wing is thought to be more popular with American girls than boys despite its “mecha” (giant robot warrior) theme. Escaflowne—“a mecha-magical girl series with a lot of elements of romance”—is bigger in the United States than it is in Japan.

http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

American Mangaka in Japan

American Mangaka in Japan

Japan Expo in 2011Roland Kelts wrote in the Daily Yomiuri, “Felipe Smith was born to a Jamaican father and Argentine mother in Ohio, raised in Buenos Aires, trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, and discovered while living in and creating comics about Los Angeles. At 32, he has lived in Tokyo for 2-1/2 years, publishing his series Peepo Choo (Pikachu rib-poke) first in Japanese with Kodansha Co., then in English with Vertical, Inc. [Source: Roland Kelts, Daily Yomiuri, October 29, 2010]

“It helps that he walks the walk: Smith is an autodidact who learned to speak Japanese fluently in Los Angeles via a Japanese roommate, a job in a karaoke bar, and sheer will. Now he writes at least some of his original text in the language, the rest of which is translated by Shiina. Smith discovered manga in a Japanese bookstore in Los Angeles, attracted to the size of the books and the scope and range of the stories, though he's hardly an avid fan.” "What drew me to manga was that there wasn't this template," he told Kelts. "It wasn't so much the content, but the diversity of styles. There is no single drawing style for manga. That's why I'm here. What's being sold to the rest of the world is very limited, but here [in Japan], you can do all kinds of things." [Ibid]

“In 2003, Smith won the "Rising Stars of Manga" contest, the brainchild of U.S. publisher and distributor TokyoPop's chief executive officer and founder, Stuart Levy. "Felipe's art really stood out," Levy recalls. "Each and every page was filled with details, from the backgrounds to the characters's facial expressions, and his line-work was polished." [Ibid]

TokyoPop published Smith's first series, the three-volume MBQ (which he now describes as a seinen, or young man's, manga set in Los Angeles), in 2005, garnering the attention of agent Shiina, who helped land his current editor at Kodansha. Smith's is an exceptional story, to be sure, as is the story of Peepo Choo itself—a U.S.-Japan culture clash comedy mocking and celebrating pop culture fans in both countries, drawn in riveting and sometimes surrealistically violent graphics. His achievement would seem many a foreign manga fan's dream.

“But unlike the salarymen in his adopted homeland, Smith is determined to transcend Japan's Galapagos mentality. He wants his work to be read and appreciated worldwide. "We have to get beyond these silly classifications of manga and comics, Japanese or American. The hardest thing is trying to make it a global thing, not just for the reader here, but everywhere. It's definitely possible, though, and I think it's necessary. It's just really hard." [Ibid]

http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

Manga in the United States

Manga in the United States

Manga sales in the United States topped $200 million in 2006, compared to $60 million in 2002. Japanese comics now account for 9 percent of the comic sales in the U.S. Best selling manga have a circulation of up to 5 million copies a week.

The number of titles released in 2008 was 1,700,compared to 1,008 in 2005. As of September 2006 over 40 syndicated newspaper, including the Los Angeles Times, had added manga to their funny pages.

In November 2002, English versions of two of Japan’s most popular manga magazines—Shonen Jump and Coamix—were published in the United States for the American audience. By 2003, Shonen Jump had a monthly circulation of 540,000. In 2004, DC Comics introduced manga-like publication called CMX.

The dominant publishers of manga in the United States are Tokyopop and Viz. Based in Los Angeles, Tokyopop produces both translations of Japanese favorites and American originals. It is the largest U.S.-owned creator and licensor of manga, with $40 million in sales in 2005. Its books read from back to front so as not compromise the artwork and the Japanese sound effects are spelled phonetically. Tokyopop signed had a deal with Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster and Random House are also aiming to get a piece of the manga action.

Manga has become very popular with American girls and teens. About 60 percent of manga readers are females. Magazines like CosmoGirl feature works by manga artists. Many girls and young women show up in cosplay costumes at anime and manga conventions. Many got their start with Sailor Moon and moved on to harder stuff. According to some sources 90 percent of yaoi (boy-boy soft-core erotic manga) is purchased by women

Offering a theory on the success of manga in the United States, one American manga artist said, young Americans “have grown up on...video gaming like PlayStation and all that, which is very much anime-manga style art...I think [manga] appealed to them because everything else they like is in this style.”

Hollywood and American publishers arguably made more money from anime and manga in the United States than Japanese companies have.

Peach Fuzz in a manga produced by American artists. It is about a 9-year-old girl and her pet ferret Peach.

http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html

Studying the Popularity of Manga Overseas

Studying the Popularity of Manga Overseas

Asako Kisui wrote in the Yomiuri Shimbun: “A group of researchers on Japanese subculture are delving into the minds of people in foreign countries to discover why exports like manga and anime have become so popular overseas. Kobe University Prof. Kiyomitsu Yui, 59, a sociology expert with the Japan Subculture Studies (JSS), said, "We're in the process of discovering how Japanese subculture has become so widespread by investigating the psychology of foreign people who embrace it." [Source: Asako Kisui, Yomiuri Shimbun, December 14, 2012]

JSS, which was established in 2010 at Kobe University's school of humanities, includes researchers from various Japanese universities. The group also collaborates with professors of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Yale University and the University of Hong Kong, and has partnered with research institutes in such countries as Italy, Poland and Mexico. [Ibid]

As part of its research the group conducts surveys at cosplay events in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with financial support from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. Participants are asked such questions as when they first discovered cosplay--the practice of dressing as a favorite character--what media led them to it, and how their families and friends reacted to their new interest in this aspect of Japanese culture. The group then compared the results with polls done in Europe. "Some people don't look highly upon the kind of research being done by state-run universities," Yui said. "But our efforts to heighten the quality of Japan's subculture would surely lead to an increase in the number of foreigners who understand Japan today.” [Ibid]

Researchers from 13 countries gathered at international meetings on Japanese subculture in Kobe and Kyoto in June. One researcher gave a presentation on the fan base for animation that depicts gay sexuality called "Boys love manga." "Research on Japanese subculture is a melange--crossing into the fields of sociology, philosophy, art, literature and media studies. To deepen the roots of subculture, we must first grope for its basis," Yui said. [Ibid]

http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat20/sub135/item1862.html