This might seem like an unusual topic for an article but hear me out. One of my most fond but unusual memories comes from when a friend and I went into a bookstore called Waterstones. We went over to their manga section and quickly realized that many of the manga titles were organized incorrectly (at the time my thoughts accused the staff although, thinking back on it, it’s likely that other customers were the ones who had ruined the arrangement).
We began to correct this, moving titles around so that volumes 1 to so-so were arranged from left to right. We must have seemed very strange to any other customers that were watching at the time. Afterwards we laughed at how ridiculous this was but, at the time, it was very important that we correct this problem. I tell this story to illustrate how important the order of manga was to me (and to the friend). It was around then that I realized how important the way I arranged my manga was.
In general, the order I have for my manga are western publisher, demographic and original release date in Japan in descending order of importance. There are a few exceptions and variations to these rules but in most cases, this is how I choose to arrange my manga.
Starting with the first part of my arrangement process, you are probably aware that there are a variety of publishers of manga in the west and, although they all have the same goal of selling manga, the types of manga that they publish can feel very different and unique to each other. Part of this is due to the fact that some of them are restricted to certain Japanese distributors. Viz Media, for example, is co-owned by Shueisha and Shogakukan, which gives them access to their vast catalogs. In contrast, Kodansha releases manga through their western imprint Kodansha Comics but also releases titles through Vertical Comics in which they also have a large stake.
As I mentioned in “Josei Manga: Why you should be reading it“, manga is typically broken up into demographics. These are Shonen, Shojo, Seinen, Josei and Kodomo. While these demographics don’t necessarily define the stories told, they do tend to define the content and style of the stories told. Most publishers at least dabble in most of these demographics so breaking up my collection into these categories helps. While the vast majority of manga are released with the demographics defined, some manga such as Nausicaa, which was serialized in an entertainment magazine, and experimental manga such as the kind released in Manga Erotics F do not have a demographic associated with them. In these cases, I go with the demographic I most associate them with but, in contrast with the majority of my collection, this conclusion is subjective rather than objective.
The last part of my arrangement is the original release date in Japan. I chose the release date in Japan over the release date in the west because a work can take years, potentially decades, to get released in the west. Ideally, the date will represent when the first chapter was published but, most of the time, this order is no different to when the volumes were published.
The last thing to go over are the exceptions. Viz Media has a variety of imprints with which it releases manga. A few examples are Shonen Jump, Shonen Jump Advanced, Shojo Beat, Signature etc. I tend to collect these titles in these imprints, meaning for instance that I separate my Shonen Jump from my Shonen Jump Advanced. Again, the release dates rule holds. Besides this, I have also dedicated a section exclusively to manga by Osamu Tezuka. Many of his works have been released by a variety of publishers but I have chosen, to instead, order them purely by original release date.
I don’t know how important the arrangement of manga is to some people but it’s very important to me. I do know that there are many ways that manga can be arranged and, as always, I’d love to hear what parameters you use to arrange your manga.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use bookdepository.com for all of your needs!