Is There Adequate Manga Marketing for the Everyday Fan?

Last weekend, I went to visit my alma mater and hang out with some good friends. At brunch with two friends from my old anime club, we wound up talking about manga in depth. One friend was just a casual fan, picking up stuff that interested him here and there. He has a full-time job and the disposable income to pick up whatever he wanted regularly. The other friend was a scanlation reader largely by necessity as she doesn’t have a job and is a full-time student.
But as we discussed the manga industry in the local Barnes & Noble and I suggested manga they’d both like left and right, it became really clear to me that neither of them knew much about what the industry was offering. Neither of them had heard of SigIkki, Viz’s fantastic online serialization site for more mature titles. Neither of them knew about many great titles out in English, other digital offerings or even about the existence some of the smaller manga publishers. They were casual manga fans to a T.
It struck me, mostly because I think I’ve been living in an intense manga industry-focused bubble for the past year and a half or so, but also because it seems like such a spectacular failure on the industry’s part. Why the hell aren’t we doing more to tell these kinds of readers know what’s going on?
Some could argue that the industry is already doing all that it can. They’re reaching out to fans on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. There are in-book ads, company newsletters, even TV shows dedicated to reaching out to the fans. The only problem? I think they’re reaching out to only the hardcore fans, the otaku.
To be a hardcore fan of manga and anime means that you’re probably more than a little obsessed with the stuff. While these kinds of fans may know a lot about manga, there is certainly a focus on extremely popular manga and scanlations because both are easily accessible. There are lots of sites dedicated to both, lots of marketing put out (at least on the legal side of things) that’s devoted to Naruto (or Bleach or Vampire Knight, etc.) and almost no energy allotted for telling fans about the countless number of less popular manga out there. No wonder most fans don’t know they exist! (And sales are low.) Where’s the tweet reminding everyone that the next Butterflies, Flowers or Maid Sama is on sale? I really can’t recall much promotional information on such titles during the time I’ve been focusing on the manga industry. In fact, I think smaller pubs like DMP and Vertical Inc. are the only ones who really bother trying to give attention to each and every new volume of manga that comes out. But sometimes, for publishers like Vertical, the fans don’t even know they exist either because no one’s passed them an ANN article or because bookstore distribution for those publishers isn’t as heavy as it is for Viz, Yen Press or Tokyopop. I certainly knew nothing about tiny pubs like Fanfare/Ponent Mon before 2009, so it doesn’t surprise me almost no one else does either.
So how do we get back to the casual fan? Heavy distribution in large chain bookstores is a start. Certainly, the big American publishers take up most of the room, leaving the smaller pubs to fight for space or take their merchandise elsewhere. The problem with this is that I think a ton of casual manga readers find what they buy here in these Borders and Barnes & Nobles. So that leaves the responsibility of marketing to whatever is on the shelves. One thing that I always thought Viz did right is the in-book ads printed on the inside of the front cover listing the newest releases and when they’d hit the streets. They may have only done this with the Shojo Beat line, but hot damn it was effective when I wasn’t hyper-connected to manga news. What’s this? New volumes of Sand Chronicles, Love*Com, SA and Otomen are out? I WANT THEM ALL! Oh, and what’s this new series they have listed? I’ll see if they have it here and flip through it. A great, REALLY SIMPLE way to keep someone interested in buying your manga. It might be slightly more expensive because of where it’s printed, but at least the information has reached the fans right away.
Unfortunately, Viz doesn’t do this for some of the titles that probably need the most help selling– it’s Signature and SigIkki lines. Out of all the ones in my collection that I looked at, only one or two titles had these little inside front cover ads. More titles had ads in the very last pages. Many more had no ads at all, especially the SigIkki titles. The biggest shame is that the only places you could find the SigIkki URL were the places you were LEAST likely to look for pme, like underneath a barcode. Who looks there? Seriously?! Knowing Tokyopop’s process through my freelance work for them, I can tell you that the number of in-book ads depends on how many pages you have left over (page numbers go by increments of 16 unless you want to pay serious cash to do otherwise.)
If there are in-book ads, a lot of space is dedicated to showing off the shiniest new series that the publisher has with the shiniest art they can find that looks good in black and white and lots and lots of copy. As far as I can tell, pretty much every manga publisher is guilty of this. What I think would be more effective, an overall look at the new releases of the line or the company listed on one page with effective information like dates and websites, never actually happens. What the readers see is only what the publisher feels like pushing at the time. Again, energy is focused on the popular titles instead of showing off titles that readers might not even know about. No wonder there’s so much unloved manga out there. There’s not even any real marketing done for the shiny new digital venues that pubs are beginning to put out left and right. At least, not any that reaches all the fans!
I’m pretty sure I’ve only rambled on about part of the manga marketing process and so much more could be done. But for the sake of the length of this post and a fast-approaching bedtime, I’ll stop here with a few questions.
Imagine, if you will, that you don’t read up on the manga industry on a regular basis, that you don’t read any manga-related blogs and that you’re not following Viz or whomever on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. You get your news from your friends, maybe some livejournal communities and, most importantly, what you see in stores. What would be the most effective way of letting you know about other titles you’d be interested in? Do you even read the in-book ads at the end of manga you buy? Do you notice the websites and other information listed in odd places throughout the book? What, if anything, informs you about what else is out there? What do you think could be done to better impart that kind of information to you?

Traveling With Manga

As I leave for my trip tomorrow, I find myself with a bit of a dilemma. Do I pack manga or not? I wish I could bring enough for the entire trip, but doing so would probably mean packing more than one suitcase and nowadays that’s going to cost a lot of money.
Still, I’ve tried really hard to bring a good library to keep me entertained. Once I did it for a month I spent studying Spanish in Havana, Cuba. I wound up giving half of my library to a Cuban comic book fan in desperate need of more current material and the other half got ruined by rain leaking into my bedroom. If I’m lucky, I’ll stumble upon manga during my trip. I remember when I went to Argentina and wound up stumbling upon Cardcaptor Sakura being sold at ordinary new stands in the street. But I’ve tried to stop bringing much manga on my trips because it’s simply tough to bring so many heavy books when your trips are as active as the ones I usually go on…
Nevertheless, It’s tough to go without a manga fix for a long period of time, so here are my suggestions. I’m going to base them on the length and nature of the trip, but first, a suggestion that covers any sort of traveling you might do:
If you have an e-reader or other device that can play anime or allow you to read manga (without wireless handy), load it up and USE IT.
Man, I wish I had an e-reader. Maybe next year.

Now then!
For most trips, but especially if you’re flying:
-Try to avoid bringing more than 5-10 manga if you can manage it. Manga is heavy and airlines like to charge for luggage when they can. Domestic flights are usually the worst culprits, charging for every piece of luggage check, but international flights will also charge if you go overweight. You’ll also want to pack light if you expect to be doing a lot or expect to be shopping. You’ll want room in your luggage for all your goodies.
-Try paperback light novels. They’re lighter than manga, but are written in similar style. There are more than a few out in English including Twelve Kingdoms, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the more mature Haikasoru line from Viz.
-Heck, try reading normal novels. There are a number of splendid books out there. I’m particularly fond of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series at the moment, so I’ve gotten a bunch of his novels for my trip.
-If you’re studying Japanese, bring your dictionary and a couple of tankobon. It takes a lot longer when you’re trying to comprehend something in another language, so your entertainment value will be stretched further and you’ll improve your vocabulary!
For trips to conventions:
-I really only have one suggestion for this one- just bring some magazines for the trip over and then buy your fill of entertainment for the trip back. I always like to pack light for conventions anyway.
For boring trips to grandma’s:
-If you’ve got the space to do so, bring as much as you’d like to keep yourself entertained. But, if you can, see if you can’t get someone to take you to a local bookstore so you can stock up and only have to haul a heavy load one way.
-Sneak over to your cousin’s place, borrow their computer and read some digital manga. Oh, hey, look, here’s a bunch of FREE and LEGAL manga to read online.
That’s really it, there’s not a lot to packing manga for trips beyond common sense and a bit of cleverness.
And with that I’m off. You can look forward to a few guest posts in the next two weeks and perhaps a quick word from me when I can fit it in. Perhaps I’ll go looking for the Thai manga scene (I’ve been told they have one, but I’m not sure if Laos does) in between riding elephants and looking for tigers.
(Yeah, I’m excited for the tigers and the elephants too.)

The Emotional Power of Manga

I’ve been having a bit of a bad week and I’m not  able to do much about it. It’s times like these I REALLY really want some good manga to cheer me up and entertain me so I’m not caught up in worrying about myself.
Despite having a large stack of manga to read through and plenty of little things I could work on instead, I find myself wishing my copies of From Far Away (VIZ) weren’t at my mom’s house.

I guess my love for this series explains a lot of my tastes as manga fan, but From Far Away remains the best romance I have seen put to paper in manga and in novels. I never fail to get re-enraptured whenever I re-read the series and it always manages to make me calm down a bit.
That’s just one of the great things about manga -their power to make you feel different after you finish a volume. There’s manga that’s meant to cheer you up, meant to make you squeal with girlish delight, meant to make you sad and meant to make think ‘THAT WAS SO AWESOME.’ It’s what gets fans hooked and what someone who has never read manga will never been able to understand why it’s so well-liked. All those naysayers probably just haven’t found that series that they cannot connect to on a deeper level. I’m pretty sure there’s one out there for everyone.
With all this manga out there, inspiring all sorts of emotions, which manga inspires the most emotions from you?

Interview: F*X*T Magazine

As print magazines fold and eBook devices like the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle are gaining favor with readers, the conventional wisdom is that it's a lousy time to launch a manga/comics anthology magazine. 'Print is dead,' they say -- or is it?
From this time of uncertainty comes a new breed of do-it-yourself publishers who want to defy this industry trend by taking matters into their own hands. One such effort is F*X*T (pronounced "fix it"), a comic and art print magazine being developed by San Francisco-based graphic designer Fawn Lau, with a little help from the online microfunding site, Kickstarter.
As Lau envisions it, F*X*T will be quarterly magazine, featuring serialized and one-shot comics stories, illustrations and articles, to "to showcase the talents of creators that don't quite have the chance to realize their ideas in print." For the first issue, Lau has assembled a line-up of pro and semi-pro artists who'll be offering the first taste of what F*X*T will offer to fans: a variety of story and art styles presented in a "magazine that is substantial in content and reminds everyone about the awesomeness that is print."

"THERE'S SOMETHING JOYFUL ABOUT SEEING ART ON PAPER"

With a lifetime of love for comics, and over seven years of experience as a production artist and designer for publishing companies, including a few manga publishers (and a few smaller but cool publishing projects like le Grand Grimoire), Lau knows the hows and whys behind the industry's current reluctance to publish comics anthologies.
"I just see so much hesitation and basically good intentions from most people, but extreme caution from the rest," said Lau. "I think (that there's) so much potential, but I also fully understand why things are so slow," she said. "There's not enough people taking risks in print, but I LOVE print!"
While publishers, large and small are shying away from publishing work by up-and-coming, but unproven new artists, where do the comic stars of tomorrow hone their skills and get their first big break? Nowadays, mostly online through webcomics and artists community websites like Deviant Art -- but Lau and some of the F*X*T creators still see the value in print as a medium for comics.
"There's something official about a comic in print, something more joyful of seeing art on paper, which is why i wanted to have F*X*T as a magazine instead of a website," Lau explained.
The artists participating in the inaugural issue of F*X*T also mentioned that the promise of seeing their work in print was also part of the appeal of participating in this project.
When asked whether it makes a difference to see his comics in print rather than just online, Powflip, the creator of Tracks replied unequivocally, "Print is better. Ask a movie director, or a screenwriter - would they feel better if their movie got shown on YouTube or in a theater?" He continued, "There's nothing wrong with getting it out there on the Internet, but what's most convenient for distribution isn't always the best way to enjoy the medium. It's not just about the artist's ego either - it's better for the reader. Exponentially better."
Comics creator (and F*X*T cover artist) Christy Lijewski agreed, adding "There's just something about holding a finished book in your hands and seeing your months of hard work bound into a neat little volume that I can't explain. It's a great feeling." She continued, "Sure, with the Internet you have instant feedback and a large audience but it's still missing the feeling of satisfaction you get when you see your work in actual print. A book is something you can take anywhere, read anytime, as many times as you want, whenever you want, it pays respect to the work by making it permanent."

SHOWCASING NEW TALENT BEYOND BEING AN "AMERI-MANGA ANTHOLOGY"

So far, several creators answered Lau's call for stories and artwork, including published pros like Lijewski (RE:Play, Samurai Host Club) and up-and-coming talents like Mia Schwartz, Helen Cho, Anna Bongiovanni, and Sloane Leong. Some, like Lijewski, knew Lau from her work in the manga publishing industry, as a production artist and graphic designer for several companies. Others heard of F*X*T's call for artists through word-of-mouth or through the F*X*T Kickstarter page.
"Fawn has some serious truffle-hunting skills," said Schwartz. "She can uncover people who hide in the dark, moist corners of Deviant Art and make them do incredible things."

"I like that this project is reaching out to creators and giving them a chance they might not get without it," said Lijewski. "I also like the idea of spreading the work of independent artists and creators who may not be able to go a mainstream route with their non-mainstream ideas."
PowFlip also echoed this sentiment, mentioning that the current U.S. "indie" publishing scene hasn't quite embraced the fact that there's a generation of artists who are heavily influenced by Japanese and European comics, but aren't necessarily drawing "Ameri-manga" -- they're creating something that's different and new.
"There's a new wave of comic art and artists that is starting to gain momentum right now, and publishers are just not cued into what is going on so they don't tend to pay these new artists much attention," he said. "There's sort of this expectation of what "indy" or alternative comics look like, that draws heavily on the past of those genres in the U.S. - so now that kids are picking up and playing with conventions and styles that draw more from European and Japanese comics (instead of just copying R. Crumb) - they just don't get it."
He continued, "And while there's good reason to be afraid of psuedo-manga, nobody seems to get that this new wave of artists who've been inspired by foreign comics is what alternative American comics ARE these days. There's just no appreciation for it in the industry. Sure there have been a few artists taking these influences and running with them like Corey Lewis or Becky Cloonan, but there aren't much."
Anna Bongiovanni, Minneapolis-based creator of Gehenna had this to add about what makes F*X*T special. "Fawn is treating the artists with real respect. She's not trying to get us to make as much as possible for as little as possible. I think she's really concerned about quality when it comes to the magazine so when people buy it, they can be assured it's a worthy purchase."

KICKSTARTING F*X*T WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM ONLINE FRIENDS

"We've already confirmed our lineups both for the ongoing series and also the one-shots," said Lau, "but we are still accepting illustration applications for our illustration sections. If Kickstarter succeeds, I hope to be able to include more illustrators. If year one of F*X*T succeeds, I hope to include more creators for year two."
But before she can layout or publish a single page, Lau (and F*X*T) needed funds. So what did she do? She tapped into the power of an online micro-financing site, Kickstarter. She set a goal of $10,000, and asked for supporters to donate a few dollars to get this project going. In return for this initial infusion of capital, Lau is offering incentives to supporters, like buttons, prints and copies of the first issue when it gets printed. Pledge amounts start at $1 and provide different "thank you" gifts in return for various pledge amounts, from $10, $25, $50 and upwards to $300 as the top level.
She isn't the first comics creator to use Kickstarter to fund her project. James Kochalka (American Elf, Monkey vs. Robot), and Becky Dreistadt (Tigerbuttah) used Kickstarter to get their books published and Newsarama recently profiled Mitch Gerads and Mike Dillion (Johnny Recon) and Steve Bryant (Athena Voltaire), who also financed their respective comic book projects through Kickstarter.
If F*X*T reaches its fundraising goal, Kickstarter investors can expect to see the first issue appear in their mailboxes on or shortly before January 2011. Otherwise, readers can order issues of F*X*T online, purchase them from the participating artists at various comics shows, or look for them at select bookstores and comics shops.

"FIXING" FRUSTRATION WITH MAINSTREAM PUBLISHING, D.I.Y. STYLE

So why call it "F*X*T?" "This project has been in my head in one way or another for a couple of years but somehow I'm always the one waiting to be asked to do something," explained Lau. "I've always loved participating in projects when people ask me to, but getting older though, I realized I can't wait for someone to allow me to do it, I can't wait for someone to ask me to make this thing I want to make, so I forced myself to "fix" my way of thinking. I had to "fix it" myself to get it done."
"In life I make it a point not to curse, so the spelling of F*X*T came from the usual way of bleeping expletives since I would always 'bleep' myself," she laughed. "...plus it looks nice I think? It begins with an F! My name begins with an F! Decision made!"
The other decisions that have already been made for the first issue of F*X*T is its line-up of artists and stories. Here's what's scheduled for F*X*T issue 1:

• Creator spotlight/interview with Christy Lijewski
  Lijewski will also create the cover art for the first issue of F*X*T.


• Plastic by Mia Schwartz (continuing series)
  2 Girls, 1 Trip - When you live in a world of cartoon logic, what kind of life would you lead?


• Tracks by PowFlip (continuing series)
  A cliché story about love and death, and death. When Elise moves with her father into the family's old countryside bungalow - she finds herself a victim of unbearable ennui. The only thing within miles providing even the faintest amusement is the expired penny candies at the local general store. That is, until she meets a mysterious young man...


• Gehenna by Anna Bongiovanni (continuing series)
  Growing up is never easy, but Gehenna is not an escape. Rather than grow up, Erik's older sister Maddie's spirit flees to the underworld of Gehenna, but Erik must confront rats, ghosts and an Owl as well as his own fears of becoming an adult to rescue her.


• Musik Non Stop by Helen Cho / MBP (continuing series)
  Why do YOU rock? Four musicians, four lies, four different agendas and one big pile of money. Also, music!


• Beastie Lore by Sloane Leong (one-shot story)
  A few young, mythical creatures try to survive an era that has little imagination by attempting to live and pass as plain ol' humans themselves. Transgressinal cuteness abounds.

You can still support F*X*T by dropping by their KickStarter page, or visiting their website at www.fixit-mag.com/ for more information about how to order your copy of this new magazine, or how you can contribute artwork to upcoming issues.

Manga Colaborate With Traditional Culture

Comics About Calligraphy and Tea Ceremony Prove Popular

"Tomehane!"

"Ocha Nigosu." (C)Nishimori Hiroyuki/Shogakukan Inc.

Autumn has long been considered a season for cultural pursuits in Japan. With its cool, pleasant weather, this is the perfect time of year for getting involved in the arts. In the past few years, a series of manga about school students enjoying traditional pastimes such as the tea ceremony and calligraphy as part of their extracurricular activities have become bestsellers, and more young people are becoming interested in traditional pursuits as a result.

As Passionate as SportsUntil recently, a typical manga aimed at young readers would be set in a school sports club, its storyline focusing on the friendships and rivalries among team members. Over the past two or three years, however, comics have started to appear whose main characters are involved not in baseball or basketball but in traditional cultural pursuits not usually associated with teenagers. These include shodo (brush and ink calligraphy), the tea ceremony (in which green tea is prepared and served according to strict rules of etiquette), and rakugo (traditional comic storytelling).

The manga "Tomehane! Suzuri Koko Shodobu" (Suzuri High School Calligraphy Club) currently being serialized in the magazine Big Comic Spirits (Shogakukan Inc.), is a comedy featuring a high school student who returns to Japan from overseas and joins the calligraphy club at his new school. The story follows the students' determined efforts to be chosen for the International High School Shodo Exhibition, known as the "Koshien of Calligraphy" after the prestigious high school baseball tournament held every summer at the Koshien stadium near Kobe.

As well as showing the students learning the basics of their hobby, there are also scenes featuring innovative "performance calligraphy," in which the students dance as they use thick brushes to daub characters onto huge sheets of paper. Real students from schools regularly nominated for the International High School Shodo Exhibition help draw the calligraphy that appears in the comics, and the students themselves appear in the performance scenes. The exhibition takes place every year; this year students from 23 foreign countries took part, as well as budding calligraphers from schools throughout Japan. Performance calligraphy is a world away from the quiet image of traditional calligraphy, and some youngsters become deeply engrossed in it. The popularity of performance calligraphy has spawned national competitions and led to performances being shown on TV. The calligraphy manga will be serialized as a TV drama starting January 2010.

Card CultureAnother bestselling manga is "Chihayafuru," winner of the 2009 Manga Taisho (manga of the year prize) voted for by manga-loving bookstore employees around Japan. "Chihayafuru" has been serialized in the Be Love women's manga magazine published by Kodansha since 2008. The manga tells the story of a high school girl and her friends in the after-school karuta (Japanese playing cards) club.

The story's heroine becomes engrossed with a traditional karuta game played with cards featuring the One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, a famous compilation of Japanese waka poems compiled in the thirteenth century. In the game, one person reads the opening line of a poem while everyone else competes to find and pick up the card inscribed with the rest of the poem as quickly as possible.

"Ochiken." (C)Kawashima Yoshio, Futabasha Publishers Ltd.

As well as being an entertaining story of the friendships and rivalries that develop as the girls pit their skills against one another, the manga is also a mine of information on the meaning and history of waka poetry and a fun way for readers to learn about classical Japanese literature. Karuta games can get extremely competitive, with players trying desperately to outpace each other. It is enjoyed by people of all ages, and keenly fought championships to find the "king" and "queen" of karuta are televised every January. Competition is so intense that competitive karuta has been described as a martial art fought on tatami instead of judo mats.

Another example of a popular manga dealing with an unlikely traditional subject is "Ocha Nigosu" (A Bad Boy Drinks Tea!), about a school rebel who learns maturity and good behavior thanks to the tea ceremony. One of the pinnacles of traditional Japanese culture, the tea ceremony teaches the tenets of proper etiquette and respect for others.

"Ochiken" (Storytelling Club), meanwhile, is a four-panel comic strip that has also been anthologized in book form. The story depicts three college girls who join their university rakugoclub. Manga such as these are providing a new perspective on traditional culture and bringing ancient pursuits to life for a new generation.

The Creation of Japan’s Manga

The Japanese System That Keeps the Hits Coming

Japan’s manga culture has legions of fans around the world. One thing overseas readers often want to know is: Why Japan? What is it about the Japanese system that has enabled it to produce one high-quality hit after another? We take a look behind the scenes at some of the factors that have made Japanese manga an artistic genre with the diversity and depth to stand alongside novels and movies.

Close Collaboration between Artist and Editor.

One reason often given for the high quality of Japanese manga is the prominent role played by the editor. The first stage in the serialization of any manga starts with the artist and editor sitting down together to confer on a story. The artist then draws up a rough storyboard called the “name.” At this stage, the manga is just a crude sketch featuring simple drawings with dialogue. Once the editor gives this draft the go-ahead, work gets started on the real thing. This is the stage when decisions need to be taken on plot and characters development. Depending on the type of manga, the artist may carry out research interviews at this stage. If the artist gets stuck, the editor is the perfect person to provide advice. Many manga works have been lifted to a higher level by a touch of timely advice from the editor. From the artist’s point of view, the editor is a creative partner and close friend, sharing the artist’s anxieties and making sure that work proceeds smoothly. It has been said that the editor contributes around 30 percent of what makes a manga successful.

In Japan, the editor also acts as a link between artists and readers, visiting bookstores to sound out readers’ opinions in person and

conducting surveys to find out how readers are reacting to each episode as it appears. Often this feedback can have a direct effect on how the manga unfolds. The editor also acts as a promoter, organizing reader events, offering autographed gifts, and coming up with ideas to boost sales. Another important part of the editor’s job is to unearth and nurture new talent.

A Japanese System for Producing Outstanding Manga

The unique editorial system in place at Japanese manga magazines has played a crucial part in making manga a global success. One good example of how this system works can be seen in the voting system introduced by the Shonen Jump manga magazine. Each issue of the magazine includes a postcard that asks readers to vote for their favorite series. The editors then rank the various series by popularity in the next issue, with the most popular stories appearing closer to the front of the magazine. Unpopular series are often cut based on the results of these surveys. Editorial departments at other magazines are similarly ruthless. Once readers lose interest in a story, a magazine is highly unlikely to continue with its serialization—no matter how well known its writer happens to be.

Nakada Kenichi, a Japanese manga editor with many years’ experience at Shogakukan, one of Japan’s major publishers, says that Japan’s unique editorial infrastructure is one of the major strengths of the Japanese manga industry. “I’d say it took almost half a century to build the system we have today, capable of producing such a volume of high-quality manga. The huge stock of old manga is another strength for the industry in Japan. We have a long history of trial and error—all kinds of different ideas have been tried in every kind of genre. It goes without saying that having such a huge stock of ideas has been a huge benefit for manga in Japan.”

Competition is another important element in Japan, according to Kumagai Kyoko, one of Nakada’s popular manga artists. “There’s an urge to be better than the next person, to come up with a big hit. This sense of competition spurs people on and helps refine their skills” she says. “The presence of talented assistants is also important. I have two series on the go at the moment—with an installment due every two weeks. Each episode is 30 pages. It would be impossible for me to come up with that much material on my own, so I always work with the help of five assistants. Little details are important—the background to a panel, things that the characters are holding in their hands, and so on. The quality of the overall product suffers if you neglect the details, so I always insist on getting every just right, down to the smallest details.”

It is thanks to Japan’s unique editorial system and the work of the passionate artists and writers who have dedicated their lives to their craft that Japanese manga have become a global phenomenon.

Shonen Jump Q & A with Joel Enos

In Japan, Weekly Shonen Jump is one of the most popular manga magazines, featuring some of the biggest selling manga series in the world, including One Piece, Bleach and Naruto. In North America, VIZ Media has been publishing an English language edition since its January 2003 debut issue.
Now almost eight years later, Shonen Jump Magazine is re-launching with a new look in the January 2011 issue, and the Shonen Jump website will also debut new, subscriber-only features in December 2010. I spoke with Shonen Jump Senior Editor Joel Enos about these changes to this manga monthly, and how fans can help shape its future, both in print and online.
Q: For readers who might not be familiar with you, can you explain a little bit about your role and the kind of work you do at VIZ Media.
Joel Enos: My title is Senior Editor, and I’m the Senior Editor for the Shonen Jump imprint. I edit Naruto and for the last year, I’ve been editing Ultimo, the manga by Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei. I recently handed that title to another editor, and now most of my position for the last year has been actually been running Shonen Jump Magazine.
So, I still have a very strong hand in the manga, but only related to how it runs in the magazine. I work with the other editors to oversee the general structure for my own series, Naruto, but also One Piece and anything that we preview or showcase in Shonen Jump Magazine.

SHONEN JUMP REVAMP: NEW LOOK AND NEW MANGA

Q: You, and the other editors have been hinting at a reboot of Shonen Jump Magazine for a while now — most explicitly at your panel at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer. So what does this change mean, specifically? What can readers expect to see?
Joel Enos: It means a lot of different things, really. But specifically, the most exciting thing for us, the editorial team is that we're able to show off a different look to the magazine after eight years. Visually, it looks different, it looks fresh. It looks very organized.
The original version of Shonen Jump looked good for the time when it came out, but you've got to keep current, and keep up with what's out there. I think this change makes the magazine look more contemporary.
The most exciting thing for the fans is that we're bringing back Yu-Gi-Oh. We'll be serializing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's every month. We're also launching a new series by a relatively new manga-ka; it's called Psyren. It's a science fiction adventure story. It's really, really cool. The first two chapters will be featured in the January 2011 issue too.
Q: You've been getting feedback from fans over the years. What are the top two or three requests from fans that you're addressing with this redesign?
Joel Enos: One of the things we've heard from readers… well, I wouldn't say that they've been saying that the mix of manga has been getting stale, but that they'd like to have access to more variety, more series, more stories.
I've been the editor for Naruto for almost five years now. I can't tell you how much I appreciate how much fans enjoy reading it, but it is on chapter 500 now. But I also think it's important to make it easy for new readers to get into a story.
Honestly, we haven't had a new series in the magazine in a while. We hadn't found stories that were the perfect fit for the magazine, but I think we have now with Psyren, and with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. We also want to offer more manga, so that's one reason why we're doing the online serialization.
Now, of course, we won't be taking Bleach, or Naruto or One Piece out of the print magazine. Those are the fan favorites, and our favorites as well. But with a print magazine, we're restricted by page count. We just can't go bigger than 300 pages. With online serialization, the possibilities are endless. We can feature all kinds of content, all kind of manga series. So we can give readers more manga in more ways.
Q: Speaking of more manga, there’s a ton of Shonen Jump titles in Japan that haven't been released yet in North America. How do you decide what gets published in the U.S.? Are there certain factors that you take into account?
Joel Enos: Well, first and foremost, if any of the editors here on the team look at something and they are very enthusiastic about it, they'll champion that title to acquire it here. We pretty much look at everything and then it’s pretty much a huge ongoing pow-wow where we editors explain why we think it would work. We’re using our experience and expertise as editors, as far as what’s going on in the U.S., what’s going on with manga, which manga are working (here). We ask questions like, 'Are we getting a little too far into the intellectual stuff?' Is there a really good action?' So we definitely consider the variety (of our line-up) too.
Q: In the first five years of Shonen Jump Magazine, there were several long-running series that stayed there for years. Now, it seems like you're doing a more cyclical rotation, where you have some mainstays stories like Bleach and One Piece, then previews of new stories cycle in to appear for an issue or two.
Joel Enos: Well, the reason why we're doing that is exactly what you said. The magazine has been around for almost eight years now. It’s not a new magazine anymore, but there are new readers coming to the magazine, as well as to manga all the time.
When Shonen Jump first launched as a magazine here in the States, it caught the interest of a lot of people who not only weren’t so much into magazines because this kind of manga magazine hadn’t existed in the U.S. before. We introduced a lot of readers to these manga series. I think Naruto started in the second issue. And now, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece… I mean, the success of those titles is astronomical. They’re now a part of American pop culture as well.
Since then, I think the audience has changed, pop culture has changed. The "manga trend" may be on the decline, but manga's place in mainstream popular culture is firm now. That changes the way people read the magazine, and that it makes it a little bit more exciting.