So there I was, minding my own business on Twitter Sunday morning when Christopher Butcher (of The Beguiling, Toronto Comic Arts Festival and Comics212.net fame) asked me a simple question:
"Hey @debaoki, any thoughts on Manga Milestones of the last decade?"
The next thing I knew, I was tweeting him back with thoughts about what I thought were the most significant manga moments of the past 10 years. Which lead to this: my list of 25 Manga Milestones and Trends from 2000 - 2009.
Thanks to input from other smart folks on Twitter, like:
- Scott Green (@aicnanime) of Ain't It Cool News
- David Welsh (@precur) from Precocious Curmudgeon and The Comics Reporter)
- Sean Gaffney (@Toukochan) from A Case Suitable for Treatment)
- Clarissa Graffeo (@ClarissaG) from Anime World Order)
this list came together really quickly, and almost immediately got a life of its own. I didn't realize it until I sat down to write this list how amazing the last decade was for manga in America.
But hey, this list is just my take on the subject -- what's your thoughts on the biggest manga milestones, news stories and trends of the last 10 years? Add your comments below, or send me a note on Twitter @debaoki, and keep the conversation going!
Image credit: NARUTO © 1999 by Masashi Kishimoto/SHUEISHA Inc.
Comments
Great list! There were a bunch of things I had forgotten about, and even more that got me thinking of their overall significance. I thought I’d chip in my two cents, if that’s all right.
I know I owe Kurt Hassler a drink. I mail-ordered all my manga from Viz and the Right Stuf until I moved to a city with a Borders and it was all there for me. I think I had tears in my eyes the first time I saw the manga shelves. It was beautiful. And it was right when Tokyopop started coming out with shoujo manga, so that’s where my shoujo habit started, too. It was all just… right there.
I feel like the advances in digital distribution are worth mentioning. There’s the early efforts of ComicsOne and their proprietary readers, but then there are more successful efforts, like the Netcomics website being up and running since 2006. Now we’ve got iPhone and (if I’m not mistaken) Kindle distribution, and Ikki and whatnot.
It always makes me sad when the historic success of Naruto is mentioned without the success of Dragonball. Shonen Jump USA launched entirely with the strength of that series (I remember the early buzz being that the cover price was only a dollar or two more than you were already paying for the monthly Dragonball issues, plus you got several hundred other pages). A lot of the Dragonball stuff happened in the late ’90s, but it was still super-huge at the beginning of the decade, and I don’t think we’d have Naruto without the money and fans that Dragonball brought in first.
I also feel like Smile and Animerica Extra are worth mentioning along with Shojo Beat. It’s a shame we’ve gone through three shoujo anthologies this decade. When will our time come?
I always thought it was less the unflopped format and more the $9.99 price point and direct-to-graphic novel format, along with the release speed, that made the Tokyopop “100% Authentic” line work. Viz had some unflopped series (at least Dragonball), but each series only released 2-3 graphic novels a year at a $15.95 price point. I know the thought of bimonthly shoujo manga was what sold me at the time.
I probably wouldn’t have thought to list Kodansha’s bizarre activities in the US as a milestone, but reading through your mention of it, it is kind of weird. It ranks up there with the BeBeautiful scandal with weird Japanese publisher activity related to US distribution. Actually, perhaps “ranks up there” is less appropriate than “those two are the only instances.” Still, both are weird. Another good debacle, though a memory that should probably stay buried, is that whole Seven Seas/Kodomo no Jikan mess a few years back. Maybe censorship in general is a good topic too, since there have been fan uprisings over things like Tenjho Tenge and a few Viz series covering up nipples and whatnot. Those discussions always make me sad, though, due to the unreasonable fan aspect.
Aww, I’m still holding out hope for DrMaster and (vaguely) DramaQueen. DrMaster more because they had so few releases I hope they can just resume, but DramaQueen more out of a sense that I’d hate to see them go down, Ironcat-like, with a ton of stuff I’d love to read. Of course, there’s always license rescues, in the case of DQ. I can always hope.
You forgot to mention CPM in the Manhwa section! They had a bunch of good early series, but especially a few rare titles for male readers. I’m still sad that there weren’t more people that picked up their titles, they had a great catalog in general.
The exit of Studio Proteus is a good mention. It’s a shame the market outgrew them, because their adaptations were quite amazing. CLAMP coming to the US is a good one too, and I think it’s hard to over-state the importance of the Chris Handley case. I was sad that there wasn’t more discussion popping up over it, a lot of the consensus at the forums I went to seemed to be that they were just happy it hadn’t been them.
This was much longer than I intended, I’m sorry. ^_^; Great article again, thank you very much for compiling it!
How about librarians recognizing the impact/potential of manga with their Great Graphic Novels for Teens list?
That list helped put a lot of manga on the shelves of libraries, giving readers a free pass to check out their favorite series or give manga a try.