Continuing a pattern that has marked the 2020s thus far at New York Comic-Con, manga, anime and webtoons dominated the 2023 present flooring at Javits Center in New York City in mid-October.
In addition to the enormous One Piece Luffy in Gear 5 mode balloons, there was an enormous inflatable Goku poised to set off a Kamehameha blast, alongside different characters from Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super dominating the primary few rows as you entered the present. As you wandered in additional, you may see Mobile Suit Gundam mannequin kits; Bandai Namco and Toho Entertainment’s Godzilla shows; VIZ Media’s ZOM 100 shark; Crunchyroll’s Jujutsu Kaisen anime orb; Yen Press/Kadokawa World Entertainment’s mega sales space; Shueisha XR’s eye-popping Manga Dive immersive multimedia video expertise; and Shueisha’s Manga Plus exhibit for his or her digital manga service that includes reproduction artwork pages and shows from 3x Harvey Award-winning sequence Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto, My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi and new fan fave Oshi no Ko by Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari.
In the Javits Center atrium previous the safety verify space, there have been rows of gatchapon toy merchandising machines. If you regarded up, there have been enormous banners for perennial tokusatsu hero Ultraman and the most recent Naruto Shippuden recreation from Bandai Namco. New anime hits like Bocchi the Rock and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End outnumbered adverts for the return of Chucky on SYFY and The Walking Dead on AMC. Heck, the overflow line for Foot Locker’s sales space that includes particular Demon Slayer Crocs was a transparent signal that it was one of the crucial widespread merch choices on the NYCC exhibit flooring. People lining up to purchase CROCS! At a comics conference! Go determine!
With a lot manga, anime and online game displays bombarding the senses upon entry to NYCC, you may blink and suppose you stepped into an anime conference, not one of many East Coast’s largest American comics conventions.
Sure, there have been folks dressed up in Spider-Man and Deadpool outfits, however they have been far outnumbered by the anime and manga-inspired cosplayers. And these cosplayers and followers lining up for Demon Slayer Crocs, One Piece t-shirts, Gundam mannequin kits and Bleach skate decks? On common, they have been most likely 10-20 years youthful than their fellow con attendees there to purchase superhero comics, fan gear and memorabilia. But that’s the place we are actually. We’re seeing a generational shift in comics fandom, and it’s largely pushed by manga, anime and webtoons.
Possibly due to the recognition and vast availability of anime on streaming channels like Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll, alongside an explosion of on-line manga and webtoon apps, it’s now simpler than ever to find and get pleasure from manga, anime and webtoons from Japan, Korea and even China in English.
This is mirrored within the present gross sales developments for comics and graphic novels, too. As this 12 months’s ICV2 whitepaper offered on Thursday confirmed, manga from Japan (together with the expansion of webtoons from S. Korea) are outselling American comics and graphic novels by a major margin.
According to the statistics offered by Milton Griepp, “Manga extends its lead in 2022,” by representing 45% of graphic novel gross sales in N. America, up by 9% in comparison with 2021, whereas Superhero Comics symbolize 14% of the market.
Longtime comics business watchers are justifiably skeptical about this newest “manga boom.” After all, the final interval of manga’s gross sales success within the early 2000s was deflated with the “bust” cycle set off by the 2008 Recession and the closure of the Borders Books and Music chain in 2011. But whereas manga gross sales have leveled off in 2023 after just a few years of explosive progress, they’re nonetheless over 300% larger than pre-2019 ranges. No one is aware of what’s going to occur subsequent, and nobody can assure that manga and anime’s gross sales power within the North American market will proceed at its present tempo. But if NY Comic-Con is a number one indicator of the place the popular culture leisure business is now, it’s honest to say that manga and anime can’t be dismissed as only a pattern or a distinct segment class anymore.
Where are North American comics exhibiting robust gross sales? Mostly in children/YA graphic novels, which symbolize 26% of general graphic novel gross sales, largely due to the unbeatable Dog Man together with tween-friendly comics by Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Alice Oseman (Heartstopper) and Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet). This is compounded by the relative shortage of manga and superhero comics which are appropriate for readers beneath age 12, plus the recognition and accessibility of video and on-line video games for this age group.
That’s to not say that the North American comics scene lacks the expertise or creativity to evolve or hold up right here. The vibrant and bustling NYCC Artists Alley was filled with gifted artists and storytellers who did brisk enterprise all weekend lengthy, promoting prints, authentic paintings and signed books. But what if extra of them had the liberty to make, management, personal, and revenue from their authentic creations as Eiichiro Oda does with One Piece or Tatsuki Fujimoto does with Chainsaw Man, as a substitute of taking part in within the superhero sandbox 12 months after 12 months? New, authentic comics tales and characters are continually being created in North America, however what retains most of them from reaching the extent of publicity and enduring worldwide success that’s extra widespread for brand spanking new, authentic sequence which are being created now in Japan and S. Korea?
An intriguing bit of stories that maybe acquired overshadowed a bit by NYCC was the announcement that Hisashi Sasaki, the previous Editor-in-Chief at Weekly Shonen Jump could be a part of a brand new program designed to assist new comics creators publish their authentic one-shot manga tales by means of VIZ Media’s VIZ Originals initiative. This is simply the most recent try to copy the star-making comics creation construction that has made manga so profitable worldwide, so this can be very attention-grabbing to observe over the subsequent few months.
I do know that it’s most likely not honest to match the Japanese manga publishing ecosystem with the N. American comics biz. It’s not like Japanese manga publishers don’t have their very own set of challenges and shortcomings, as they take care of a shift towards digital publishing (which is now over 50% of manga gross sales in Japan) and a a lot smaller general inhabitants of younger folks studying manga at present.
Back in 1995, Weekly Shonen Jump hit its all-time gross sales peak of a whopping 6.5 million copies bought in a single week. Sales of the print version of this widespread shonen manga journal at the moment common about 1.2 million/week in Japan, which remains to be fairly good, however a far cry from its glory days. Also, what are among the most worthwhile, widespread comics apps in Japan at present? Piccoma, owned by S. Korean content material/tech firm Kakao (which additionally owns Tapas Media) and LINE Webtoon, owned by S. Korean tech large Naver (which runs WEBTOON / Wattpad in N. America).
But by any normal, the fast progress of the manga/anime presence at NYCC previously three years has been gorgeous. It’s an unbelievable about-face from prior years, when the “anime stuff” was handled as an afterthought or at worst, shunted away in a drafty waterfront warehouse a number of blocks away from the conference heart.
The reps from Japanese manga writer Shueisha that I spoke with at NYCC talked about the present could be very totally different from what they remembered once they final got here seven years in the past, when it was rather more targeted on American comics, films, toys and films. Even they appeared stunned at the shift towards manga and anime tradition at the present, and the keenness from followers that they skilled this time round.
Why is that this shift towards manga, anime and webtoons extra obvious at New York Comic-Con than at San Diego Comic-Con, which is arguably the opposite main N. American comics occasion? Well, probably due to showrunner ReedPop’s coverage about promoting sales space areas to firms and passes to attendees in comparison with non-profit Comic-Con International.
For firms to exhibit at San Diego Comic-Con, they should have a sales space house already. If they need an even bigger house or in the event that they don’t have already got one, nicely, they’re out of luck, or have to attend for an additional exhibitor to provide up their piece of the ground. SDCC is a giant present and San Diego Convention Center is a big facility, nevertheless it’s fairly clear that demand for exhibit house is way higher than its capability.
Same goes for attending SDCC. If you’ve attended the present previously, you get first crack at shopping for a 4-day or single day badge. If not, nicely, take your probabilities and hope you get fortunate within the lottery for the badges that stay. After getting your badge, the subsequent problem is to get a lodge room – and these could be onerous to return by or are very expensive. It’s not low cost or simple to attend San Diego Comic-Con these days, and that eliminates most informal, budget-conscious, or youthful followers who wish to take a look at the present however won’t have the sources or the endurance to take care of the preparation and procedures required right here.
As a outcome, lately, most Japanese and S. Korean manga, recreation, toy/merch and media firms have shifted their focus (and promotional budgets) towards Anime Expo, which occurs each 4th of July weekend in Los Angeles, typically two weeks or so earlier than SDCC.
I attend each exhibits yearly, and have seen (even earlier than the pandemic) that the anime and manga publishers’ cubicles at Anime Expo have gotten greater and greater, whereas fewer and fewer even trouble coming to San Diego, a lot much less having a sales space to showcase or promote their stuff. And the demographic distinction between the attendees at each exhibits? It’s not stunning that AX tends to draw a better proportion of teenagers and 20-somethings than SDCC.
Meanwhile, it looks as if the sales space and badge scenario is a little more fluid at NY Comic-Con. While tickets for attendees have been bought out weeks upfront and it regarded like virtually all the exhibit corridor areas have been bought, I noticed many extra new exhibitors, massive and small, on the present flooring (which was packed all weekend), together with a big sales space for newcomer Penta Comix, which is debuting a brand new Spanish webtoon app later this 12 months, and a desk for Aloha Comics, which have been selling their Kickstarter for manhua, or comics from China.
The two enormous Shueisha cubicles on either side of the exhibit corridor have been fairly astonishing to see too. By most accounts, they finalized their plans to be part of NYCC inside 3 months previous to the present. Both cubicles had nothing on the market, but when their objectives have been to introduce what they needed to provide to new followers, and to really feel the heart beat of the N. American fan neighborhood for themselves, it’s fairly clear that their efforts paid off.
While anime, recreation and toy firms like Bandai Namco, Good Smile, Konami, Tamashii Nations and Toei Animation had enormous displays (together with some shows that have been carry-overs from commerce present Toy Fair, which was held at Javits just a few weeks earlier), it was a little bit stunning that comparatively few manga publishers had a major presence on the present flooring. Kodansha, Square Enix Manga and Books, Dark Horse and Udon Entertainment didn’t have cubicles at NYCC this 12 months, and Seven Seas Entertainment was absent from each the Anime Expo and SDCC exhibit halls in 2023. But a number of firms that opted out of NYCC are maybe saving their time, vitality and sources for Anime NYC, a extra manga/anime-focused present scheduled for Nov. 17–19, 2023 at the Javits Center.
Some firms, like toy/collectible determine firm Tamashii Nations, have opted to develop their footprint in N. America by opening their first retail retailer in NYC, close to Times Square at 1500 Broadway.
Kadokawa Worldwide Entertainment had a mushy opening for his or her first retail retailer, Manga Spot, a manga-centric bookstore positioned at Turnstyle Underground Market at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, with former Barnes & Noble graphic novels purchaser James Killen at the helm.
The skilled programming monitor at NYCC devoted all of Friday to manga, with panels that includes representatives from Kodansha, Scholastic, VI]]
VIZ Media, Yen Press and Saturday AM, organized by Jillian Rudes, NY public college librarian and creator of Manga in Libraries: A Guide for Teen Librarians (ALA Editions).
While manga and anime had an enormous presence at the present, NYCC 2023 didn’t have the sort of headlining, featured visitor from Japan which have come to the present in prior years, corresponding to Masashi Kishimoto (creator of Naruto) who got here in 2015, and Hiro Mashima (creator of Fairy Tail) who got here in 2017.
Meanwhile, VIZ Media hosted a Naruto Shippuden celebration with Maile Flanagan, the English voice actor for Naruto and supplied a bunch of unique DanDaDan, Junji Ito and Bleach merch at their sales space, together with their ZOM 100 shark photograph opp. Just a guess, however VIZ is presumably targeted as a substitute on bringing Yoshifumi Tozuka, the creator of new-ish Shonen Jump manga sequence Undead Unluck as their featured visitor for Anime NYC.
The Korean comics / webtoon presence was actually felt on the ground and within the panel rooms at NYCC too.
Yen Press / Kadokawa World Entertainment introduced out their mega sales space from Anime Expo to showcase their Yen Press manga, IZE Press webtoon/graphic novels, J-Novel Club and Yen On gentle novels, and preview their trio of graphic novels that includes Ok-Pop superstars like BTS and ENHYPHEN from mega leisure company HYBE, hitting cabinets in Fall 2023. By noon Friday, they introduced they have been bought out of all their Korean webtoon/graphic novels. By early Sunday, they have been fully cleaned out of the whole lot – manga, gentle novels… barely just a few freebie postcards and posters remained for followers to seize to take house.
The Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) returned this 12 months with a “house of Korean Comics” to showcase sequence by a number of webtoon studios and hand out freebies like stickers and comics samplers to curious attendees.
Webtoon app Manta didn’t have a sales space on the exhibit corridor flooring, however they have been there as a part of Rocketship Entertainment’s announcement of Dragon King Oath, a brand new fantasy sequence by Let’s Play creator Leeann M. Krecic that’s set to debut on Manta in 2024; and to have fun the upcoming print launch of one in every of their flagship webtoon and gentle novel fantasy-romance sequence, Under the Oak Tree, as a part of Penguin Random House’s new Inklore imprint.
The Friday HYBE / WEBTOON panel gave attendees a glimpse into the multi-media technique behind their graphic novels, revealed in print by Ize Press and featured on-line on WEBTOON.
The 7Fates: Chakho story incorporates music by Ok-Pop superstars BTS that performs as readers scroll by means of the action-fantasy story about tiger hunters on their cellphones or computer systems.
The HYBE crew additionally confirmed music movies that integrated animated sequences from the webtoons, together with images and music movies of Dark Moon, that includes boy band ENHYPHEN as college students in a non-public academy, the place the vampire college students are pitted towards werewolves from a rival college.
In S. Korea, Dark Moon promos took over Lotte World, one in every of S. Korea’s largest amusement parks, and a pop-up store in Tokyo that includes clothes and fan gear impressed by Dark Moon drew over 500 folks to queue up earlier than the shop opened its doorways. From these examples, it was clear that the dimensions and scope of HYBE’s ambitions for his or her comics creations are so past any music x comics crossover taking place in N. American comics at present, it’d as nicely be from one other dimension … and possibly it’s?
Dark Moon promotions at Lotte World Amusement Park in Seoul | Photo courtesy of HYBE
Dark Moon ENHYPHEN playing cards at the Korean Comics sales space at NY Comic-Con 2023 | Photo: Deb Aoki
For the Japanese and S. Korean firms exhibiting at NY Comic-Con 2023, their ambitions lengthen far past the Javits Center, New York City and even N. America – they’re aiming to achieve followers worldwide by providing extra tales, in additional languages (Spanish, Thai, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese) and in additional codecs, (like cellular apps, animated interactive content material and AR/VR experiences) past simply printed comedian books. Keep a watch on these developments, as a result of there’s undoubtedly so much taking place on quite a few fronts past what we’re seeing at exhibits like NYCC.
It stays to be seen whether or not this 12 months’s present is a number one indicator of a bigger general seismic shift within the N. American comics scene. But one factor appears fairly clear: the times of treating the “manga and anime stuff” as an afterthought or second class attraction at NYCC are over, and it’s about time.
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