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Square Enix Eplains Why Manga Sales in America Suck. Apparently, piracy has nothing to do with it.

By brownkidd on October 12th, 2009 in Otaku

mangacollection

Kouji Taguchi, the head of Square Enix’s manga division, was recently asked why manga sales in America pretty much suck when compared to sales in Japan. He replied by saying:

“The best sellers in the US were Full Metal Alchemist and Naruto, but these only sold a tenth to a twentieth of what they sold in Japan.

I think the main reasons are as follows:

1. Fewer copies are printed and those that are get sold at a much higher price, from $8.99 to $12.99.

2. Children don’t get as much money, their allowances are just smaller.

3. The other reason is location. If you live in Tokyo there will be 3 bookshops nearby, which you can easily cycle to. In the US there aren’t any, they can only buy on a weekly trip to the mall. Even if anime is highly popular, they just don’t visit the stores to buy manga often.”

It’s interesting that piracy wasn’t brought up.

Think about it, some manga series take up to a year to make their way over to the states. Instead of waiting for U.S. licensing deals and distribution, most hardcore otaku are just reading scanlations on sites like OneManga.com where english translations are uploaded within 24 hours after a chapter is released in Japan.

Why wait and pay when you can have it now for free?

[Via Sankaku Complex]

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    Actually, that's not the reason. The reason is because in America, adults don't read comic books. I have 3 bookstores within a 5 minute bike ride of my house (Los Angeles), including one that sells manga in both Japanese and English. The only people buying manga are little kids. In Japan, stores like Book Off are full of adults from pen till close. It has nothing to do with kids' allowances or whatever.
  • I think I can agree with that to an extent. I guess I still don't really consider myself an adult, but the truth is I'll be 26 next year. I know a lot of people my age and up who read manga and watch anime, but they mostly just download it.

    While titles like naruto are big sellers in the U.S., most of my friends are already caught up with the Japanese chapters that haven't been released in the U.S. yet. This is all thanks to scanlation sites like OneManga.com.

    Another big problem is that (and this is where I agree with you) manga and anime just aren't advertised enough towards adults in the U.S. most of the adult perception of anime is Pokemon and Bakugan, primarily kids shows.

    It seems like most american Adults look down on grown-up anime and manga fans. Maybe this makes people look down on manga and anime in general. Who knows, maybe the same people are ashamed to go into a store and buy manga, so they read it for free online.

    Maybe things would be different if companies targeted their marketing towards your average adult and not just the cliche, introverted otaku.
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