MANGA MANIA OR MANGA MAYHEM?

The Boom in the UK Manga Market and the Impact of Unprecedented Print Shortages

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Manga are comics or graphic novels that originate from Japan ‘with direct derivative traditions in both China/Chinese (manhua), Korea/Korean (manhwa) and, more recently, English’ (Grennan, p.321-2, 2018). The global market for YA graphic novels saw sales spikes of 123% from 2020-21 with manga sales soaring throughout the pandemic (Johnston, 2021). Until recently, manga was a niche industry in the UK with a small but passionate fan-base. Before the 1970s you could only find manga on newsstands, and after that in small, specialised stores like Forbidden Planet. Now, manga can be found in most Waterstones, and Forbidden Planet has become a national chain. Once synonymous with geekiness and considered low-brow culture, the manga market was largely unexplored by UK publishers, but as sales rise and the hunger for Japanese content increases nationally, the manga industry is set to become an established part of UK publishing. Data from ‘Total Sales for Comic Books and Manga Each Year’ demonstrates that there have been sales increases year-on-year since 2017 in the UK, with the decrease at the start of 2020 most likely attributable to the closure of shops (Ferreyra, 2021). As the year continued, sales spiked and have continued their upward trajectory ever since. During the pandemic, more people read and bought manga than ever before, resulting in the highest sales the UK industry has ever seen. But is the manga industry ready to become mainstream or is it completely out of its depth?

The pandemic has caused print shortages across the board for publishers, causing significant delays for the manga industry (Milliot, 2021). There are very few UK manga publishers and therefore most of the manga sold here is published by US companies. As the price of overseas shipping has sky-rocketed and container costs have grown, the manga industry has faced unprecedented shortages (Wolf, 2021). This, combined with the boom in the UK manga market, has meant that the demand for manga has overwhelmingly outweighed its supply.

As the fan-base becomes more populated and the words ‘out of stock’ and ‘out-of-print’ become more commonplace, it seems that there is not enough manga to go around. Shelves are barren, displaying incomplete collections, with fans struggling to find even the most popular series. Anime and manga fan podcast, Between the Shelves, stipulated that the sales boom is ‘simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to the manga industry’ (Between the Shelves, 2021). Though the manga market is making more money than ever, the print shortage is forcing fans to look outside of traditional purchase routes. In 2020, the traffic to the top three piracy websites reached 12.5-million, which increased to 326-million in 2021. This has lost the manga market a projected ¥780 billion Yuan which translates to just under £5 billion GBP (Jiji Press, 2021). Many of these sites operate by using manga ‘scanlation’, where fans scan, translate and distribute manga illegally. Hye-Kyng Lee expresses that ‘scanlation succinctly demonstrates how fans outside Japan engage with Japanese popular culture in the age of globalisation and digitisation’ and that it exposes the ‘considerable gaps [that] exist between what the industry currently offers and what the fans demand’ (Lee, 2009). Though manga fans are passionate collectors and exhibitors of physical editions, the industry must improve and expand its distribution channels if it is to survive the threat piracy poses.

Print delays are causing anxiety amongst consumers, as shown by Between the Shelves’ discussion of the ‘Great Manga Shortage of 2021’ (Between the Shelves, 2021). The hosts expressed that they ‘would never start a series unless [they] knew [they] could finish it’, demonstrating how supply chain issues can alienate fans and deter them from making purchases. In April, Ben Applegate, publisher of graphic novels and manga in the US, warned fans of the print crisis. He tweeted:

If you see a manga that you want to read in a store (or online and that manga is ‘In Stock’) You should buy it NOW. The reprint situation is unexaggeratedly apocalyptic, and you might not see that manga in stock again for months.

This has fed into the panic-buying culture of the last few years and opened the door to ‘scalpers’ who buy in bulk and sell products for a higher market price. Desperate fans are paying triple the price on eBay for editions which should sell at £17.99 RRP. While this proves that publishers are unable to satisfy their market, it also reflects the dedication of its fans.

Once the dust of the pandemic has settled, the growing UK interest in manga could result in better licences, editions, and swifter release times. France, who make up 40% of the European market, have a diverse range of products, with access to genres that are not readily available outside Japan, and earlier release dates than the rest of Europe and the USA (Macdonald, 2004). If the UK manga market continues its upward trajectory it could begin to reflect the accessibility and extensivity of manga hubs like France. It could even establish more manga publishers within its territory which would result in fewer delays and higher profits. While the timing of the manga boom has been disruptive, its entrance into popular culture is momentous. So, hold on tight manga fans, the scope of the market is growing and we haven’t seen the last of it yet!

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Bibliography

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