At the start of 2008, U.S. publishers planned to release over 1,700 new volumes of manga. By the end of the year, the worldwide economic slump hit the manga industry and forced several publishers to cut staff and schedules, and one closed up shop.
But all is not gloom and doom in manga land. There's lots of noteworthy changes in the air and trends worth watching. While I'm at it, there's also five burning questions that I'm hoping to see some answers to in 2009.
UPDATE: Check out Chris Butcher's response and commentary on this 2009 trends list!11. Burning Question: What's Up With Kodansha America?
© Kodansha International Ltd.
This tidbit about Japanese publisher Kodansha opening up their own U.S. publishing division for their manga offerings arose in Summer 2008, and quickly burned up the blogosphere with rumors, hearsay and theories. It's been months since anyone has heard much new news on this front, but when it does, I'm hopin' it'll be verrry interesting.
12. Burning Question: Will Anyone Get Cell Phone Manga Right?
© TokyoPop
TokyoPop announced their cell phone manga initiatives with Verizon last year, CMX Manga demoed mobile manga from their partner, Flex Comics at Comic-Con 2007, and VIZ showed off Shonen Jump cell phone manga at Comic-Con 2008.
But quick show of hands: how many of you read manga on your phone in 2008? Huh. Me neither.
UPDATE: Uclick added Dramacon to their comics on the iPhone lineup in February 2009. See a review of Dramacon Volume 1 on the iPhone.
13. Burning Question: What's Goin' On With VIZ's Original Manga Program?
© VIZ Media LLC
I know that they're talking with local manga creators, and they're keen to do things differently than other American manga publishers... but what is this all leading up to?
Last I heard at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, VIZ Editor Eric Searleman mentioned that the first of their original manga stories would start showing up in the pages of Shojo Beat magazine in 2009. We'll see how things shake out when more details emerge about this provocative project.
14. Burning Question: Where For Art Thou, Yotsuba?
© Kiyohiko Azuma / MediaWorks Inc.
If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear it: the collective moans of manga fans as they look in vain at the bookstore shelves for Yotsuba&! Volume 6.
ADV has been sitting on the latest volumes of Kiyohiko Azuma's infectiously fun manga for a while, but with no new volumes out in 2008 and no word of any others to come in 2009, we might be in for a looong wait. I'm starting to think it might be faster to learn read Japanese instead.
UPDATE: Yen Press picked up the license for Yotsuba&! and will release Volume 6 in September 2009.
15. Burning Question: Will Light Novels Hit the Bestseller Lists?
2008 saw the arrival of Faust, a manga/lit anthology from Del Rey Manga, as well as several notable light novels from TokyoPop, Dark Horse, Seven Seas Manga, VIZ Media, Bandai Entertainment, and Vertical. Go Comi took the lit trend in a new direction with Golden Vampires, their interactive blog-lit creation. But has there been that big breakthrough hit? Not yet -- but that's not for a lack of trying.
Yen Press is jumping into the fray with their Haruhi Suzumiya and Spice and Wolf light novels, and VIZ Media is hard at work on their upcoming launch of Haikasoru, their new sci-fi literary imprint.
It's a long shot at this point, but who's to say that these manga-inspired novels can't break through and find a mainstream readership?
