Christopher Butcher Comics.212.net, is musing about a possible shakeout in the manga industry, a thought triggered by a “fairly well-sourced rumour” that ADV and Geneon* are suffering because of truckloads of returns from a chain store that has dropped manga. Some skepticism is expressed in the comments section, but everyone seems to agree that things are rocky at ADV right now.
If this is the first sign of a market contraction, Chris predicts that companies hit with a cash crunch will not keep older titles, even earlier volumes of a current series, in print. In fact, he says, that is already happening, and it’s going to hurt retailers and the industry as a whole.
if you’re ADV and you can get orders for 5,000 copies of a new volume of Full Metal Panic, or you can fill the accumulated 500 copy back order of a previous volume of Full Metal Panic, you go where the money is and try to forget that you’re in the business of selling backlist.
This would be bad for retailers and readers alike, but I see an opportunity for a savvy entrepreneur to pick up the licenses on out-of-print titles and do cheap reprints, the way Dover does for scholarly books and classics. Manga are black and white, so the production costs must be fairly low (except for the cover), and fans who have been reading scanlations and manga printed on pulp paper can’t be too picky about things like paper quality.
I’d also like to see a market for used manga, which would cut the cost of trying out a new series and help keep older volumes circulating. I’m guessing retailers would reject that idea, though.
Chris also notes that Viz and Tokyopop are shipping fewer titles this year than last, which may be a sign that the correction is already under way and doing what it is supposed to do. But it doesn’t take away the temptation to ignore the backlist.
*UPDATE: Thanks to reader Za for pointing out what I should have known all along, that Geneon doesn’t publish manga.
“fairly well-sourced rumour” that ADV and Geneon are suffering because of truckloads of returns from a chain store that has dropped manga”
Please, Please tell me you read that line and know what is wrong with it. Geneon does NOT publish manga. What chain ? I think that would be big news.
The retailer Target is no longer carrying ANIME. Source Animenation
Target Stores to Cease Carrying Anime
AnimeNation has been informed by a reliable source that Target discount stores nationwide will cease carrying anime DVDs on October 16. Occasional exceptions will be made thereafter for high profile, primarily self contained movie releases. Between now and October, Target stores will be reducing the number of new anime DVDs that they choose to carry.
[posted: Tue 05.17.2005 11:26 AM]
Ok, so this is old news and not related to MANGA.
I really like your blog but not when you copy and paste erroneous facts.
Za,
That’s why I called it a “rumor” and noted the skepticism. I’m a reader, not an industry insider, and I’m not qualified to fact-check other people’s blogs. This entry was simply commenting on something that could affect readers.
Thanks,
Brigid
I want to apologize if my previous post sounded kind of rude.
Also, I think that you and your kids sharing an interest of manga is very cool and I wish other people were the same.
You were right to state that readers should be informed about the companies.
In regrades in ADV, yes they are in trouble and that is one of the reasons why I will not buy any manga from them ( they dropped most of their titles). At one point ADV stated that they were not going to release Kaleidostar season 2 and there was an uproar on AOD forums and soon after ADV said they were going to release season 2 but no second season for the Supergals anime.