The retailer site ICv2 has had a new sit down talk with the man behind Viz Media, as well as the CEO of New People, to talk about the state of the live action, anime and manga markets when it comes to Viz Media. You can read all three parts starting here, though in the end there’s not a lot really new said here about things that hasn’t already been figured out. There are some good takeaway moments here and there though worth talking about.
On the topic of the manga market and the challenges it faces, Horibuchi says:
The decline of manga sales is due to many reasons. As you know, one of the largest bookstore chains, Borders, has closed, and it had a huge effect on the industry. The continued flat economy has also depressed consumer buying. And generally speaking, many publishers are in the process of the transition to digital books, media and distribution, which is an expensive and often unpredictable proposition. This is a period of major transition and re-strategizing and I think overall sales will start to rise again as this transformation evolves and is more widely integrated.
Piracy also has played an unfortunate but significant role and both American and Japanese companies have had to work hard to stay profitable in such an unpredictable market and protect their intellectual property. On the other hand, I definitely feel that the popularity of Japanese pop culture and the overall number of people interested has increased steadily. I think people’s interest in global pop culture, and in Japanese pop culture specifically, is broadening to include fashion, film, music, and art. I hope to foster a real global community of fans and artists influenced by many facets of what is called Japanese pop culture.
Which is pretty much dead on, but also goes to the problem that he brings up when it comes to the problems with anime in its downward spiral as well. There simply isn’t a lot of compelling mainstream content, which when you add in the lower number of venues as you have companies like Cartoon Network focusing on their own creations, you end up going back to the small word where you started out in. And that, of course, reduces sales. This goes back to the place where while everyone can access everything on the Internet, if you don’t know about it, odds are you can’t find it. And word of mouth becomes even more important, but it takes a lot for it to truly rise to a mainstream level. With fewer avenues for real national distribution and access for younger audiences, both anime and manga are going to face similar problems. Which is why his talk of digital distribution is important as well.
Going digital is a natural evolution for the publishing industry. Viz Media has definitely focused on moving in that direction, and they have been very successful. But I think this transition will take time to set in completely with both publishers and customers, and we’re bound to continue to see some big changes in the market.
U.S. publishers and distributors of Japanese content always face an added challenge in that they must secure the endorsement of the creators and rights holders back in Japan and this process can be slow and expensive and further impede the speed at which this digital transformation has taken place. But this convergence will continue regardless, and there will likely be an even bigger move to digital comics as a whole in North America over the next year for sure as the prices on tablet devices continue to go down and more choices are made available.