Manga
Manga (漫画, IPA: [maŋga] ⓘ[a]) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan.[1] Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century,[2] and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art.[3] The term manga is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in Japan and published in translation, i.e. a Japanese comic book with English text.
This article is about Japanese comics. For Chinese comics, see Manhua. For Korean comics, see Manhwa.
In Japan, people of all ages and walks of life read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy, detective, drama, historical, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotica (hentai and ecchi), sports and games, and suspense, among others.[4][5] Many manga are translated into other languages.[6][7]
Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry.[8] By 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued at ¥586.4 billion ($6–7 billion),[9] with annual sales of 1.9 billion manga books and manga magazines (also known as manga anthologies) in Japan (equivalent to 15 issues per person).[10] In 2020 Japan's manga market value hit a new record of ¥612.6 billion due to the fast growth of digital manga sales as well as increase of print sales.[11][12] In 2022 Japan's manga market hit yet another record value of ¥675.9 billion.[13][14] Manga have also gained a significant worldwide readership.[15][16][17][18] Beginning with the late 2010s manga started massively outselling American comics.[19]
As of 2021, the top four comics publishers in the world are manga publishers Shueisha, Kodansha, Kadokawa, and Shogakukan.[20] In 2020 the North American manga market was valued at almost $250 million.[21] According to NPD BookScan manga made up 76% of overall comics and graphic novel sales in the US in 2021.[22] The fast growth of the North American manga market is attributed to manga's wide availability on digital reading apps, book retailer chains such as Barnes & Noble and online retailers such as Amazon as well as the increased streaming of anime.[23][24][25] Manga represented 38% of the French comics market in 2005.[26] This is equivalent to approximately three times that of the United States and was valued at about €460 million ($640 million).[27] In Europe and the Middle East, the market was valued at $250 million in 2012.[28] In April 2023, the Japan Business Federation laid out a proposal aiming to spur the economic growth of Japan by further promoting the contents industry abroad, primarily anime, manga and video games, for measures to invite industry experts from abroad to come to Japan to work, and to link with the tourism sector to help foreign fans of manga and anime visit sites across the country associated with particular manga stories. The federation seeks on quadrupling the sales of Japanese content in overseas markets within the upcoming 10 years.[29][30]
Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white—due to time constraints, artistic reasons (as coloring could lessen the impact of the artwork)[31] and to keep printing costs low[32]—although some full-color manga exist (e.g., Colorful). In Japan, manga are usually serialized in large manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. A single manga story is almost always longer than a single issue from a Western comic.[33] Collected chapters are usually republished in tankōbon volumes, frequently but not exclusively paperback books.[34] A manga artist (mangaka in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company.[35] If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or during its run.[36] Sometimes, manga are based on previous live-action or animated films.[37]
Manga-influenced comics, among original works, exist in other parts of the world, particularly in those places that speak Chinese ("manhua"), Korean ("manhwa"), English ("OEL manga"), and French ("manfra"), as well as in the nation of Algeria ("DZ-manga").[38][39]
The Japanese manga industry grants a large number of awards, mostly sponsored by publishers, with the winning prize usually including publication of the winning stories in magazines released by the sponsoring publisher. Examples of these awards include:
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded the International Manga Award annually since May 2007.[161]
University education
Kyoto Seika University in Japan has offered a highly competitive course in manga since 2000.[162][163] Then, several established universities and vocational schools (専門学校: Semmon gakkou) established a training curriculum.
Shuho Sato, who wrote Umizaru and Say Hello to Black Jack, has created some controversy on Twitter. Sato says, "Manga school is meaningless because those schools have very low success rates. Then, I could teach novices required skills on the job in three months. Meanwhile, those school students spend several million yen, and four years, yet they are good for nothing." and that, "For instance, Keiko Takemiya, the then professor of Seika Univ., remarked in the Government Council that 'A complete novice will be able to understand where is "Tachikiri" (i.e., margin section) during four years.' On the other hand, I would imagine that, It takes about thirty minutes to completely understand that at work."[164]