It has been an interesting week in the manga publishing world. Friday saw the demise of the North American division of the publisher, Tokyopop. I came to be a fan of manga pretty late in the game so I missed experiencing Tokyopop in its heyday. I understand that they were largely responsible for introducing manga to North America and for keeping it in its current “flipped” format. I am grateful for that.
The collapse of Tokyopop has brought to mind something I’ve noticed since January: there has been a dramatic reduction in the amount of manga available in the major books stores here in Canada; I have watched the Graphic Novel section shrink from a whole area of the store to a single shelf. Now that Tokyopop is out of the game I am afraid that the shelf space will shrink even further. New releases are becoming more difficult to find in stores; for instance, nowhere in this city is Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato (VizMedia), available for purchase off the shelf. Thank goodness for online retailers, because soon that may be my only source to purchase manga in this city.
This lack of visibility for manga and graphic novels makes it much more difficult for them to reach new audiences and that is tragic. I think that if more people tried them they would like them. There is still a general lack of understanding of what manga is, and I believe there must be a way to grow the readership to be wider than just teens and young adults. I see one untapped potential audience: young mothers, who are too pressed for time to read long novels but still long for sources of escapism. Manga is a perfect fit because the books are a quick read with enough of an emotional impact to make the effort satisfying. They are portable, low tech and are perfect for filling the time while waiting for the kids to finish their various extracurricular activities.
I want the industry to survive and I think that they need to start thinking outside the box to keep building audiences.That being said, I have a few Tokyopop mangas to read and review this week and do so, knowing the series will be discontinued.
You can see what others are saying about Tokyopop at the Manga Critic Here
You can see what others are saying about Tokyopop at the Manga Critic Here