Howdy my fellow weebs and otaku!! The manga landscape has undergone numerous changes post pandemic. For a manga reader that got into the game just on the cusp of the pandemic, I look back on the near satanic age when some pagans were buying out Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen volumes and scalping them for obscene amounts. Fans of manga were constantly being hit by FOMO and being taken advantage of. But as the sun rises on the horizon heralding the dawn of a new day, so did the manga industry experience a resurgence and clawed its way out of the depths of despair.
As an avid manga reader I have observed the industry undergoing several transformations. One among them being digitalization. Now, I’m not talking about scanlations and stuff. Though that is often the option for those who are unable to obtain physical or legal digital copies of series. I shall reserve my personal thoughts on the topic of scanlations for another day. I refer to the various apps and services provided by publishers that allow a reader to consume digital manga. The Shonen Jump app has been in the game for a while but the past year saw Kodansha (and Vertical conglomerate) and Viz Media launch their own manga reading apps called the Viz Manga App and K Manga App respectively. These are basically subscription apps that allow users to access and read manga digitally from their vast catalogues.
The popularity of manga has skyrocketed over the past few years. Gone are the days when people kept the fact that they were otaku a secret as they has not many others to identify with. As a matter of fact, originally the term “Otaku” was not something one would want to be associated with and had a negative connotation. Heck I’ll even go on to say that being into comic books was just asking for ridicule and trouble. Considering I belong to an older demographic, I would know. The point is as anime and in turn manga has become popular publishers have begun expanding their international presence and catering to diverse audiences worldwide. In most cases outside Japan, anime was the gateway to manga. I will accept that when I first heard of manga being the source material for anime being the ignoramus I was I had the inane opinion of who wants to read pictures that don’t even have colour. Blind was I to the glory of manga! But Prior to pandemic I had gotten back into anime after a significant break and was reliving my wonder years by binging through Fairy Tail. To all you brutes out there who dare trample on my childhood by calling it mid, I say save it for another day! But I digress. The fact is a lot more people across the world (not just Japan) are now consuming manga in some various forms and the industry will only grow in 2024 to accommodate them.
While in manga was primarily divided into shonen, josei, shojo and seinen, nowadays manga has evolved beyond these traditional genres to include (the oversaturated) isekai, slice of life, BL, GL and such. There are even more niche sub genres my personal favorite being the villainess isekai. This shows the diverse mindset and tastes of readers. I do see more fantasy, adventure and romantasy (for the slightly dense that refers to romance+fantasy) isekai becoming popular. Partly due to the massive market that webtoons and manhwa have proven to be.
That brings me to another trend that seems to have taken the manga community by storm. So much so that the mainstream publisher Yen Press has started it’s own inprint titled IZE Press that publishes full colour manhwa and webtoons. This is taking the shoujo and shonen community by storm. Solo Leveling, the Boxer, Why Raelianna Ended up at the Duke’s Mansion, Remarried Empress, etc. are only some of the offerings on the table. With the wealth of Korean manhwa and webtoons just waiting to be mined that other prominent publishers will also join the game is only as the Mad Titian Thanos would say, inevitable.
It is worth noting that manga publishers seem to be listening to the pulse of their customers and bringing back into print some long out of print manga, case in point, Red River. There was great fanfare and joyous celebration as shoujo fans across the globe cried out with one voice in jubilation when Shojo Beat announced that it was bringing back Red River in 3-in-1 onminbus editions. The hope in the community is that profitable sales of this title will encourage publishers to bring back and reprint other severely out of print and rare manga. Fans are particularily clamouring for Basara reprints next. Even more recent manga such as Nana, Kamisama Kiss and Yona of the Dawn are all getting reprints.
However, there have been increase in prices of manga volumes particularly the infamous hike in viz media manga prices. This will translate across the board and result in other publishers upping their prices as well. In a way I guess they are going to see how far they can push consumers before they give up and stop buying manga and choose to go the way of scanlations. I will admit that I am in no way an oracle of the manga industry and one can never truly know what the future holds but from the trajectories that manga publishers and consumers are following I think that the aforementioned points are safe bets. With that I will close out my arguments and bid you adieu for it is time to turn off my computer and head to bed. Rest assured as and when my brain spews out thoughts and opinions however random as they may be I will be sure to put them into words and possibly bore you till death. Till next time my lovelies. Ciao!!!
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