It should come as no surprise to you that I am a proponent for collecting physical media whether it be DVDs, Blu-rays, novels, manga etc. In an age where streaming services have rapidly grown and with the rise of eBooks, many people have questioned me on my preference for physical media. Allow me to explain. The first and most obvious answer is that I like to collect. While I can collect eBooks and digital film and TV shows, I feel a great satisfaction from having a physical collection that I can reliably pick up. Apple’s terms of service for iTunes…
Category: Manga
You may or may not already be aware of how manga is marketed in Japan but allow me to explain it. Typically, most manga is published in manga magazines aimed at specific demographics. A manga magazine publishes chapters from a variety of series on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis. The demographics that these manga magazines tend to target are Kodomo (children), Shonen (teen males), Shojo (teen females), Seinen (adult males) and Josei (adult females). Even a cursory glance at the circulation of these magazines will show that all of these demographics have representation in the top 20 except for…
Usually when I’m discussing manga with people, the easy path to conversation is to discuss recent manga. It’s natural with any medium that most people will be far more familiar with recent releases than older ones. Think about when you talk to people about film, television, music etc. It’s usually about recent releases isn’t it? Personally, I feel that manga fans tend to be a little resistant to the notion of pursuing the classics. This was the feeling I got when I established the 24 Hour Manga Marathon several years ago. In it, there was a mandatory category of reading…
A common issue I hear when discussing the topic of manga with people is the sheer length of most series. To be fair, when thinking of how many volumes there are in many popular series such as Naruto (72), One Piece (93-), Fairy Tail (63) or Detective Conan (96-), it is no wonder that many people can find the prospect of reading and (heaven forbid) collecting manga to be intimidating. However, I would point out the myriad of manga that consist of only a single volume. As with any industry, releasing continuous content in a franchise typically has diminishing returns.…