Looking Ahead: 10 Manga Trends and 5 Burning Questions for 2009

With layoffs, Gothic Lolitas, Bat-manga, Death Note and Nana movies and visits from top manga-ka like Tite Kubo, Hiro Mashima and Yoshitaka Amano, 2008 was a pretty interesting year in manga. But there's also lots to look forward to in 2009. I already gave you the 20 most-anticipated manga of the coming year -- but here's a look at the top 10 manga trends, and 5 burning questions that may (or may not) be answered in 2009.

So what's the top trend that's got the blogosphere and manga watchers buzzing? Well, pretty much what has the rest of the world worrying: the slumping U.S. economy and how it's affecting the manga biz. We've already seen numerous layoffs and schedule cutbacks from publishers big and small. Are there more to come in 2009?

Another trend is how the manga and anime biz is responding to fan scanlations with their 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' efforts. Scanlation site Crunchyroll is making the move toward legitmacy by penning deals with some of Japan's top animation studios to offer online pay-per-view / freeviews of some popular anime series.

VIZ is also jumpin' on the bandwagon by accelerating Naruto manga and anime releases, and even offering free-views of the latest episodes of Naruto on Naruto.com just days after they air in Japan, starting in January. Shueisha is also offering freeviews of translated Shonen Jump anime and manga on Jumpland.com. But will these online efforts eventually prove profitable in that iTunes kind of way or is it just another way to bleed money?

Check out the rest of the top 10 manga trends of 2009 and the five burning questions, then chime in below with your predictions for the year. And just for giggles, check out the 2008 top 10 manga trends list and see if I got it right, or my aim was way, way off the mark.

© Masashi Kishimoto