10 Major Manga Trends for 2009

Major U.S. bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble felt the effects of the economic slump, and passed along the pain to manga publishers. The impact was almost immediate, as publishers like TokyoPop and Digital Manga Publishing made cuts to their staff and publishing schedules. Rumors swirl about the fiscal health of ADV and Drama Queen, and Broccoli Books closed up shop at the end of 2008.

The immediate impact to manga readers was that the release dates for some titles got pushed back or got put on indefinite hiatus, including one of my personal faves, Suppli by Mari Okazaki. Time will tell if some of these orphaned titles will find new homes with other publishers, but given the current climate, things don’t look promising.

Fans have long bemoaned the lag time between an anime series' air time in Japan and its U.S. release dates. Illegal scanlations fulfilled fans' hunger for this content, but left the creators out in the cold, as they got no compensation for their work. Do the math and it's pretty simple to see why a lot of U.S. and Japanese anime companies have been feeling the pain.

So will digital distribution site Crunchyroll's deals with Japanese anime studios and publishers to broadcast fresh episodes of Naruto, Skip Beat and Eyeshield 21 become anime's version of iTunes; a website that it makes it palatable for fans to pay for what they usually consume for free? Money talks and we'll see what it has to say by the end of '09.

I complained about the lack of manga for kids last year, and voila, there's a lot more to choose from in 2009. VIZ pumped up their VIZ Kids line-up with Legend of Zelda and Pokemon manga, plus Naruto chapter books in late 2008. On top of that, VIZ is planning to give young 'uns more to enjoy with Byakegamon and Leave It to PET in 2009.

Del Rey Manga partnered with Cartoon Network to publish manga based on Bakugan Battle Brawlers and Ben 10 Alien Force. Both series will be published as full-color 'ani-manga' and as original manga graphic novels.

The out-of-left-field entry into the all-ages manga market is Udon, who announced four new kid-friendly manga releases for 2009. Will other companies follow suit?

With the yen-to-dollar exchange rate at ridiculous highs and many Japanese publishers in semi-exclusive relationships with a few U.S. publishers, competition can be fierce to license popular manga.

So what did TokyoPop, Yen Press and Fanfare-Ponent Mon do? They looked for other sources of comics content in Europe and China. TokyoPop picked up full-color graphic novels by Chinese talent Benjamin and two manga-esque European titles, Pixie and Luuna. Yen Press published Chinese title Wild Animals in '08 and has European eco-comic Toxic Planet slated for release in '09. UK/Spain publisher Fanfare-Ponent Mon added a French title, My Mommy is in America and Met Buffalo Bill and a Belgian graphic novel, Year of the Elephant to their '09 lineup.

Digital Manga Publishing started their eManga rental service in Fall 2008 and TokyoPop has been offering fans online manga as samples or in full volumes. Dark Horse has been showcasing their underappreciated manhwa titles Shaman Warrior and Banya The Explosive Delivery Man online on Dark Horse Presents. Japanese publisher Shueisha has been offering translated chapters of new manga like Bakuman, and new anime like Tegami Bachi on their Jumpland website.

But the $10,000 question is: Can anyone figure out a way to make fans pay for this?

Both DC Comics and Marvel are trying once more to entice readers who love shonen and shojo manga into the capes-and-tights side of the comics shop. But there are good reasons to believe that they just might get it right this time.

Marvel teamed up with Del Rey Manga to develop two X-Men manga mash-ups that take significant liberties with the merry mutants' universe. Add to that CMX Manga playing matchmaker by getting Togari artist Yoshinori Natsume to create Batman: Death Mask, and Ultimo, Stan Lee's collaboration with Hiroyuki Takei, well... it's only a few books, but still, it's a trend worth watching if these new graphic novels actually manage to find that elusive mix that pleases rather than just panders to manga readers.

Is it just me or did there used to be a lot more original English language manga published in the U.S.? Well, from what I can see on the horizon, most of the new English-language manga that's due out in 2009 has that little something extra -- be it a TV show tie-in, like TokyoPop's Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: The Next Generation manga anthologies, or best-selling lit like Yen Press' manga adaptations of James Patterson's Maximum Ride.

Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan's manga-lit collaboration In Odd We Trust also racked up strong sales in 2008 as did TokyoPop's Warriors and Warcraft manga so we may see even more of these manga crossover match-ups in 2009.

This was on my 2008 Trends List, and it's back for more this year, as the live action Dragon Ball movie and the animated Astro Boy film are due to hit the big screens.

Imagi Studios is presenting Astro Boy, and while Mighty Atom looks vaguely like an extra from Meet the Robinsons it'll be interesting to see this Japanese manga icon re-interpreted for American audiences.

Twentieth Century Fox has been fairly secretive about Dragon Ball Evolution, which leaves many wondering if their Westernized version of Akira Toriyama's mega-selling manga adventure will land with a thud instead of bang in April.

There are more manga movies in the works, such as Cowboy BeBop with Keanu Reaves, Oldboy starring Will Smith and Akira with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Alternative manga has been published in America before -- but many concede that anthologies like Secret Comics Japan, Comics Underground Japan and Sake Jock were just a bit too far ahead of the curve when they came out prior to 2000.

But 2008 saw the arrival of the raw and exhuberantly violent Tokyo Zombie and the cryptic and avant-garde Travel by Yuichi Yokoyama, two decidedly unconventional manga that won critical acclaim.

In 2009, we can look forward to seeing AX, a new anthology of cutting-edge manga from Top Shelf in Summer 2009, and with any luck, even more manga that pushes the envelope in the months to come.

UPDATE: Release date for AX moved to December 2009.

As manga and anime have become a bigger part of the mainstream, museums and galleries are keen to show off this artistic and cultural phenomenon. Here are a few notable exhibits on tap for 2009:

• KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games
  March 13 - June 14, 2008 | Japan Society, New York City
• Manga!
  May - October 2009 | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California
  
• Yuichi Yokoyama: Ourselves
  April 25 - May 30, 2009 | Benjamin Trigano Gallery, Los Angeles, California
• The Many Faces of Manga
  January 10 - June 30, 2009 | National Japanese American Historical Society, San Francisco, California