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Manga, or comics, have appeared in translation in many different languages in different countries.France represents about 40% of the European comic market and in 2011, manga represented 40% of the comics being published in the country.[1] In 2007, 70% of the comics sold in Germany were manga. In the United States, manga comprises a small (but growing) industry, especially when compared to the inroads thatJapanese animation orJapanese video games have made in the USA.[2] One example of a manga publisher in the United States,VIZ Media, functions as the American affiliate of the Japanese publishersShogakukan andShueisha. Though theUnited Kingdom has some manga publishers likeTitan Manga and formerlyTanoshimi most manga sold in the United Kingdom are published by U.S. publishing companies like Viz Media andKodansha Comics which are in turn owned by their Japanese counterparts. Alongside the United Kingdom, the U.S. manga publishers also sell their English translated manga in other English speaking nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand with manga being quite popular inAustralia compared to other English speaking countries.
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Since written Japanese fiction usually flows from right to left, manga artists draw and publish this way in Japan. When first translating various titles into Western languages, publishers reversed the artwork and layouts in a process known as "flipping", so that readers could follow the books from left-to-right. However, various creators (such asAkira Toriyama) did not approve of the modification of their work in this way, and requested that foreign versions retain the right-to-left format of the originals. Soon, due both to fan demand and to the requests of creators, more publishers began offering the option of right-to-left formatting, which has now become commonplace in North America. Left-to-right formatting has gone from the rule to the exception.
Translated manga often includes notes on details ofJapanese culture that foreign audiences may not find familiar.
One company,Tokyopop (founded 1997), produces manga in the United States with the right-to-left format as a highly publicised point-of-difference.
Few Bangladeshi Publishers, Editors and Comic Book Artists came up with an idea of native manga called Bangladeshi Manga which is solely created by Bangladeshi Publishers, Editors and Comic Book Artists, sometimes only by Bangladeshi Publications, distinctly inspired by the art form of Japanese Manga (Facial expression and Screenplay), story is mostly set in Bangladesh or fusion with Bengali culture and customs; published mostly in Bengali language and printing-reading method follows Bangladeshi publication standards (color, reading direction etc.).[3]
The first Bangladeshi manga is Kinsa Khyong[4] which was published by monthly juvenile magazineKishor Alo in 2016, October edition. An artist duo named Shantona Shantuma created this manga. The idea of Bangladeshi manga was initiated by them and because of the concept of Bangladeshi manga and for creating the first published manga of Bangladesh, Shantona Shantuma is known as the first professional manga artist of Bangladesh.[5]
In August 2018, Shantona Shantuma started a manga publication known as Manga Stage[6] to promote and popularize Bangladeshi manga. Manga Stage is the first manga publication which is dedicated only to publish Bangladeshi Manga.[7] Few manga artists of Bangladesh joined Manga Stage to publish their own works. Dewan Inzamam Adib (Made for Each Other), Michiko Rahman (14 days), Syed Irfan Ahmed (Game On) are among the prominent manga artists of Manga Stage.[8]
While working on Bashap manga series[9](2018-2019), Shantona Shantuma started a new Bangladeshi manga series called Agnijoddha from Panjeree Publications Ltd. It is a commercial success as it has sold over a few thousand copies. Later, Panjeree Publications published a few other manga titles.[10][5]
In December 2022, NRB Scholars Publishers Limited. published a left to right biography manga.[11] It was unveiled in April 2023 with an enormous ceremony. The manga was authored by ME Chowdhury Shameem and Iwamoto Keita. The book won a Bronze award in 17th JapanInternational Manga Award, this prestigious manga award is arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan every year.[12]
In February 2023, a new manga publication named Fournetsha Bangladesh Limited launched a manga magazine named Source which received huge public appreciation. In the following year, the publication published a few book titles as well.[13]
Aside from local publishers, some distributors like PBS,Batighar andRokomari distributes Japanese Manga in Bangladesh.[14]
China has censorship laws for manga. In 2015 TheChinese Ministry of Culture announced that it has blacklisted 38 Japanese anime and manga titles from distribution in China, including popular series likeDeath Note andAttack on Titan online or in print, citing "scenes of violence, pornography, terrorism and crimes against public morality."[15]
A 2015 research report showed that out of 31 thousand surveyed users, 85% were manga enthusiasts.[16]
Manga in India is published byVIZ Media.[17]
Manga in Indonesia is published byElex Media Komputindo,Acolyte,Level Comic,M&C andGramedia. It has influenced Indonesia's original comic industry.[citation needed]
The wide distribution ofscanlations contributes to the growth of bootleg manga. Seventh Heaven publishes bootleg versions ofOne Piece titles.[citation needed] Many popular titles, such asBleach,Loki,Magister Nagi,Rose Hip Zero, andKingdom Hearts, have been pirated.[citation needed]
Prior to 2016, there were two major homegrown authorised distributors forMalay language-translated manga which areComics House, which operated from 1995 to 2016,[18] andTora Aman which operated from 1993 to 2017.[19] As of date, only Kadokawa Gempak Starz survives following Japanese companyKadokawa's 80% share acquisition in local comic company Art Square Group in 2015, among which owns popular comic magazineGempak.[20]
Manga in the Philippines were imported from the US and were sold only in specialty stores and in limited copies. The first manga in Filipino language wasDoraemon which was published byJ-Line Comics and was then followed byCase Closed.
A few local publishing companies likeVIVA-PSICOM Publishing feature manga created by local artists whose stories are usually based from popular written books from the writing siteWattpad and are read from left to right instead of the usual right-to-left format for Japanese manga. The very first commercial local manga isShe Died, an adaptation of the book written by Wattpad writer HaveYouSeenThisGirl. The art was done by Enjelicious.
In 2015,VIVA-PSICOM Publishing has announced that they will start publishing manga titles in the Filipino language with the line-up starting withHiro Mashima'sFairy Tail andIsayama Hajime'sAttack on Titan.
In 2015,Boys' Love manga became popular through the introduction of BL manga by printing company BLACKink. Among the first BL titles to be printed were Poster Boy, Tagila, and Sprinters, all were written inFilipino. BL manga have become bestsellers in the top three bookstore companies in the Philippines since their introduction in 2015.
The companyChuang Yi publishes manga in English and Chinese in Singapore; some of Chuang Yi's English-language titles are also imported into Australia, New Zealand and thePhilippines byMadman Entertainment.[citation needed] Singapore also has its own official Comics Society, led by manga artistWee Tian Beng, illustrator of theDream Walker series.[citation needed]
InThailand, before 1992, almost all available manga were fast, unlicensed, poor quality bootlegs. However, due to copyright laws, this has changed and copyrights protect nearly all published manga. Thailand's prominent manga publishers includeNation Edutainment,Siam Inter Comics, Vibulkij, andBongkoch.[citation needed]
Many parents in Thai society are not supportive of manga. In October 2005, there was a television programme broadcast about the dark side of manga with exaggerated details, resulted in many manga being banned. The programme received many complaints and issued an apology to the audience.[citation needed]
In 2015,Boys' Love manga have become popular in mainstream Thai consumers, leading to television series adapted from BL manga stories since 2016.[citation needed]
France has a particularly strong and diverse manga market. Many works published in France belong to genres not well represented outside Japan, such as too adult-oriented drama, or too experimental andavant-garde works. Early editors likeTonkam have published Hong-Kong authors (Andy Seto, Yu & Lau) or Korean authors (Kim Jae-hwan, Soo & Il, Wan & Weol andHyun Se Lee) in theirmanga collection during 1995/1996 which is quite uncommon. Also, some Japanese authors, such asJiro Taniguchi, are relatively unknown in other western countries but received much acclaim in France.
Since its introduction in the 1990s,manga publishing andanime broadcasting have become intertwined in France, where the most popular and exploitedshōnen,shōjo andseinen TV series were imported in their paper version. Therefore, Japanese books ("manga") were naturally and readily accepted by a large juvenile public who was already familiar with the series and received themanga as part of their own culture. A strong parallel backup was the emergence of Japanese video games,Nintendo/Sega, which were mostly based onmanga andanime series.
ProducerJean Chalopin contacted some Japanese studios, such as Toei[21] (who didGrendizer); andTokyo Movie Shinsha,Studio Pierrot andStudio Junio produced French-Japanese series. Even though made completely in Japan by character-designers such asShingo Araki, the first Chalopin production of this type,Ulysses 31 took thematic inspiration from the GreekOdyssey and graphic influence fromStanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey.Ulysses 31 went on sale in 1981, other shows produced byDiC Entertainment followed in 1982,Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors,Mysterious Cities of Gold, laterM.A.S.K., etc. Such series were popular enough to allow the introduction of licensed products such as tee shirts, toys, stickers, mustard glass, mugs orkeshi. Also followed a wave ofanime adaptations of European tales by Studio Pierrot and mostly by theNippon Animation studio,e.g.Johanna Spyri'sHeidi, Girl of the Alps (1974),Waldemar Bonsels'sMaya the Honey Bee (1975),Hector Malot'sNobody's Boy: Remi (1977),Cécile Aubry'sBelle and Sebastian (1980), orJules Verne'sAround the World with Willy Fog (1983), notable adaptation of American works wereMark Twain'sAdventures of Tom Sawyer (1980) andAlexander Key'sFuture Boy Conan. Interesting cases areAlexandre Dumas, père'sThe Three Musketeers adapted toDogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (1981) andSir Arthur Conan Doyle'sSherlock Holmes becomeSherlock Hound (1984), both turned human characters intoanthropomorph animals.
Such anthropomorphism in tales comes from old and common storytelling traditions in both Japanese and French cultures, including theChōjū gigaemaki (the true origins ofmanga) ofToba Sōjō (1053–1140), and the animal fables ofJean de La Fontaine (1621–1695). Changing humans to anthropomorphized dogs reflects a known form ofCynicism: etymologically speaking, the bite of theCynic comes from the fact he is a dog (cyno means "dog" in Greek). The adaptations of these popular tales made easier the acceptance and assimilation of semi-Japanese cultural products in European countries such as Portugal and Spain. The localization including credits removal bySaban orDiC, was such that even today, twenty or thirty years later, most of French adults who have watched series likeCalimero (1974) adapted from an Italian novel,Wanpaku Omukashi Kum Kum (1975),Barbapapa (1977) adapted from a French novel, orMonchichi (1980) as kids don't even know they were not local animation but "Japananimation" created in Japan.
In 1986 and 1987 three new private or privatized television channels appeared on French airwaves. An aggressive struggle for audience, especially on children television shows, started between the two public and the two private channels. After the private channels lost market share, they counter-attacked with a non-Japanese lineup, mostly American productions such asHanna-Barbera. This ploy failed, and TF1 remained pre-eminent in children's TV shows with its Japanese licenses.
In 1991 French theaters showed ananime feature-film for the first time:Katsuhiro Otomo'sAkira, a teen-rated, SF movie supported by manga publisher Glénat. TF1 Video edited the video (VHS) version for the French market, andAkira quickly became ananime reference. However, Japanese animation genre became massively exploited by TV shows from the late 1980s onwards, most notably the cultClub Dorothée show (mostly dedicated toToeianime andtokusatsu series). In fact, the commercial relationship between the Japanese studio and the French show producers were so good, that the French presenter was even featured in aSuper Sentai (Choujyu Sentai Liveman),Kamen Rider (Kamen Rider BLACK) andMetal Hero Series (Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya) episodes as guest star.
Just as in a Japanesemanga series magazine, the Club Dorothée audience voted by phone orminitel to select and rank their favourite series. Top-ranked series continued the following week, others stopped. The most popular series wereDragon Ball and later its sequel,Dragon Ball Z, which became number one, and was nicknamedle chouchou ("the favorite") by the show presenter, Dorothée. As the series kept number one for several months, Dorothée invitedAkira Toriyama (Toei Animation), creator of the series, on the TV show studio to introduce him to the French audience and award him a prize in the name of the TV show.
Saint Seiya was anotheranime series to achieve popularity in France. It showed more violence – directed towards an older audience – than the Nippon Animation studioshōnen/shōjo series of the 1970s and 1980s. Notable Toei and non-Toeianime series broadcast by that time on French TV includedCaptain Tsubasa,Robotech,High School! Kimengumi andKinnikuman. This cult TV show ran from 1987 to 1997.
Glénat published the first manga issued in France,Akira, in 1990 – supported by the respected newspaperLibération and by the national TV channelAntenne 2. Followers includedDragon Ball (1993),Appleseed (1994),Ranma ½ (1994) and five others. In the mid-1990s,manga magazines in B5 size likeKameha (Glénat) andManga Player (MSE) were available.
At the same time a controversy arose among some parents. In particular, the conservative associationFamilles de France started a media polemic about the undesirable contents, such as violence, portrayed in the Club Dorothée, a kids' TV show. By this time, a generational conflict had arisen between the young fans of "Japanimation" (in use untilanime became mainstream) and the olderJaponiaiseries (a pejorative pun forJaponaiseries, literally "Japanese stuff" and "niaiseries", "simpleton stuff").Ségolène Royal even published a book,Le Ras le bol des bébés zappeurs, in which manga are described as decadent, dangerous and violent. She hasn't changed her position on that topic yet. The same adult content controversy was applied tohentai manga, including the notorious, "forbidden",Shin Angel byU-Jin, published by pioneers such asSamourai Editions orKatsumi Editions and later to magazines. The firsthentai series magazine, "Yoko", featured softcore series like Yuuki'sTropical Eyes. It was first issued in late 1995. The same year, the noir and ultra-violent series,Gunnm (akaBattle Angel Alita), was serialized in a slim, monthly edition. Around the same period a hardcore version of Yoko magazineOkaz was issued.
In 1996 the production group of Club Dorothée, broadcast on private channelTF1, set up a cable/satellite channel dedicated tomanga andanime. The new channel changed its name toMangas in 1998: the concepts ofanime andmanga have become intertwined in France, andmanga actually became the mainstream generic term to designate the two media. The channel broadcasts former discontinued series from the Club Dorothée both to nostalgic adults and to new and younger generations.
In late 1999 respected newspapers such asLe Monde gave critical acclaim toHiroyuki Okiura'sJin-Roh, and in 2000,Hayao Miyazaki'sPrincess Mononoke became a commercial success.
In 2004,Mamoru Oshii'sInnocence: Ghost in the Shell 2 became the first animation finalist in the prestigiousInternational Film Festival of Cannes, which demonstrates a radical perspective change and a social acceptance of Japaneseanime/manga. Since 2005, contemporary Japanese series such asNaruto,Initial D,Great Teacher Onizuka,Blue Gender orGunslinger Girl appeared on new, analog/digital terrestrial (public) and on satellite/broadband (private) channels. As the highly aggressive competition who raged once between, the sole two or three available channels no more exists in the new, vast, and segmented French TV offer, theanime is doing a revival in France. In 2011, 40% of the comics published in France were manga.[22][23] In 2013, there were 41 publishers of manga in France and, together with other Asian comics, manga represented around 40% of new comics releases in the country,[24] surpassingFranco-Belgian comics for the first time.[25]By mid-2021, 75 percent of the €300 value ofCulture Pass accounts given to French 18 year-olds was spent on manga.[26] In December 2021 France made the biggest ever manga launch in Europe by printing 250 000 copies of the 100th volume ofOne Piece within its first day of publishing.[27]
A surge in the growth of manga publishing circa 1996 coincided with theClub Dorothée show losing its audience – which eventually led to the show going off the air. Some early publishers likeGlénat, adapted manga using the Western reading direction and its induced work of mirroring each panel and graphical signs, and also using a quality paper standard to the Franco-Belgian comics, while others, like J'ai Lu, were faithful to the original manga culture and not only kept the original, inverted, Japanese direction reading but also used a newspaper standard, cheap quality, paper just like in Japan. The Japanese manga was such an important cultural phenomenon that it quickly influenced French comics authors. A new "French manga" genre emerged, known as "La nouvelle manga" ("lit. the new manga") in reference to the FrenchNouvelle Vague.
Much like France, television had a large part in influencing the popularity of Japanese Manga, particularly withDragon Ball andSaint Seiya showing up in the early nineties. Manga shook up the Spanish comics industry with new publishers taking in different directions with mostly publishing up manga instead of European comics.[28]
The first manga title came in Italy, as a part of an anthology (I primi eroi - Antologia storica del fumetto mondiale), wasSon-Goku byShifumi Yamane, published in 1962.[29] In late 1970s, because of great success, as in France, of the animated series imported from Japan, some publishers released many successful issues (such asIl grande Mazinga,Candy Candy andLady Oscar) containing prettified versions of the original manga, sometimes with stories made by Spanish or Italian authors. In early 1980s,Eureka, a magazine edited byAlfredo Castelli andSilver, printedBlack Jack byOsamu Tezuka andGolgo 13 byTakao Saitō.[29]
The publishing of Akira took an interest in older readers picking up other manga in the same vein. Italy had a high acceptance of comics with violence and nudity which contributed to this development. The very first un-flipped version of a manga wasDragon Ball released for the very first time in a tankōbon format byStar Comics (Italy). Italy's major manga publishers arePanini Comics through the Planet Manga publishing division andStar Comics (Italy), followed by J-POP.[28]
Unlike neighboring countries, Germany never had a vibrant local comic production.[30] A volume ofBarefoot Gen was licensed in Germany in the 1980s, as wasJapan Inc., published by small presses.Akira's first volume was not very popular. Paul Malone attributes the wider distribution of manga in the late 1990s to the fledgling commercial television stations showing dubbedanime, which led to the popularity of manga. Malone also notes that the native German comics market collapsed at the end of the 1990s.[31] Manga began outselling other comics in 2000.[32]
With a few other series likeAppleseed in the following years, the "manga movement" picked up speed with the publication ofDragon Ball, an un-flipped German manga, in late 1996. In 2007, manga accounted for approximately 70–75% of all comics published in Germany.[33]
InPortugal, manga has been published by Bertrand, Devir, Mangaline, Meribérica/Líber,Planeta DeAgostini andTexto Editora.[34] The first manga published in Portugal wereRanma ½ andSpriggan, both in 1995.[35] There is a magazine of manga-inspiredPortuguese comics,Banzai.[36]
Comics never gained high popularity in Russia, only fewMarvel's titles being a moderate success.[37] Russian readers traditionally considered them children's literature, so the manga market developed late.[38][39] A strong movement of anime fans helped to spread manga.[40] Thegeneral director ofEgmont Russia Lev Yelin commented that the most popular manga series in Japan are comics which "contain sex and violence", so they probably won't be published in Russia.[39] A representative ofSakura Press (the licensor and publisher ofRanma ½,Gunslinger Girl and some other titles) noted that although this niche is promising, it's hard to advance on the market, because "in Russia comics are considered children's literature".[39] It is also impossible for publishers to predict the success or failure of any specific title.[40] On the contrary,Rosmen's general director Mikhail Markotkin said the whole popularity of comics doesn't matter, as only artistic talent and good story make a successful project, and only such manga "will work" on the market.[40]
The first officially licensed and published manga series in Russia wasRanma ½.[41] Sakura Press released the first volume in 2005.[40] Since then several legal companies appeared, includingComics Factory andComix-ART. Comix-ART, which is working in collaboration withEksmo, one of the largest publishing houses in Russia,[42][43] was the first company to publishOriginal English-language manga (usually called "manga" or just "comics"), such asBizenghast,Shutterbox andVan Von Hunter.
Manga has been published in Poland since the 1990s when the owner (a Japanese person) of one of the biggest publishers (J.P.F.) translatedTen no Hate Made - Poland Hishi into Polish to practice the language. Later, he decided to publish his work. The publisher is known from series like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Bleach and many others includingJunji Ito horrors or well-known, old josei manga. Next to JPF, there are publishers such as Waneko or Studio JG known as the two other publishers making up the top three biggest in Poland. Waneko is well known for publishing the largest number of manga monthly and series likeGreat Teacher Onizuka, Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts, and Bakuman. They are also very known for publishing less popular series likeBokura no Kiseki. Studio JG makes a lot of controversy by taking long breaks between manga volumes, leading many fans to express frustration at their attitude. They are known from series like Toradora, and Spice and Wolf. Behind that, there are publishers like Yumegari (though manhwa mainly), Kotori (known from Sword Art Light Novel and many yaoi manga), and Dango, which is the youngest of all Polish publishers. Dango is very much appreciated by fans due to good quality of volumes and the many extra free gadgets included. Yaoi manga sell well in Poland. Another publisher which deserves attention is Hanami, known for more mature manga like Monster and Pluto.
Manga has been published in Lithuania since the mid-2000s when the Lithuanian press company–Obuolys made a collaboration withTokyopop by releasing the titlesVampire Hunter D,Hellsing,Dragon Ball,Naruto andSpeed Racer translated into theLithuanian language. A lot of manga is imported from the United States manga publishers and sold by various Lithuanian bookstores and retailers such as "Fujidream" - an online store founded in 2021 and solely dedicated to selling manga andlight novels in the country.[44]
Manga in the United Kingdom is sold by various online retailers and book retail chains such asWaterstones.
In 2019The British Museum heldThe Citi Exhibition: Manga, an exhibition dedicated to manga.[45][46][47]
The growth of manga translation and publishing in the United States has been a slow progression over several decades but became much faster later on. The earliest manga-derived series to be released in the United States was a redrawn American adaptation ofOsamu Tezuka'sAstro Boy published byGold Key Comics starting in 1965.[48]
In 1979, the Gold Key published the comic bookBattle of Planets, based on a television seriesof the same name.[49] Marvel published a series basedShogun Warriors, bringing characters of themecha anime and manga series:Brave Raideen,Chodenji Robo Combattler V andWakusei Robo Danguard Ace.[50]
One of the first manga to be distributed in English in the US with its original artwork intact was Keiji Nakazawa's major workBarefoot Gen in 1978, which was originally translated and printed under the auspices of Project Gen in Japan (by volunteers) to spread Nakazawa's message to the world, and then sent overseas and distributed in the U.S. by New Society Publishers. The second volume was translated byFrederik Schodt and Jared Cook.[51][52] In December 1982 the San Francisco-based publisher Educomics released a colorized and translated version ofKeiji Nakazawa'sI Saw It. Four translated volumes of Barefoot Gen were initially distributed in the U.S. in the early 1980s, especially with the help of Alan Gleason, who served as the local coordinator for the Barefoot Gen project.[53] Short works by severalGaro-affiliated artists includingYoshiharu Tsuge andTerry Yumura appeared in May 1985 inRAW's no. 7 "Tokyo Raw" special.
In 1987,Viz Comics, an American subsidiary of the Japanese publishersShogakukan andShueisha, began publishing translations of three manga series –Area 88,Mai the Psychic Girl, andThe Legend of Kamui – in the U.S. in association with the American publisherEclipse Comics.[54][55] Viz went on to bring English translations of popular series such asRanma ½ andNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some other American publishers released notable translations of Japanese comics in this period, such asFirst Comics' serialization ofLone Wolf and Cub which started in May 1987. However, the first manga to make a strong impression on American audiences wasKatsuhiro Otomo'sAkira, which was brought to the United States in colorized form in 1988 byEpic Comics, a division ofMarvel.[56]
Throughout the 1990s, manga slowly gained popularity as Viz Media,Dark Horse and Mixx (nowTokyopop) released more titles for the US market. Both Mixx and Viz published manga anthologies:MixxZine (1997–1999) ran serialized manga such asSailor Moon,Magic Knight Rayearth andIce Blade, while Viz'sAnimerica Extra (1998–2004) featured series includingFushigi Yugi,Banana Fish andUtena: Revolutionary Girl. In 2002 Viz began publishing a monthly American edition of the famous Japanese "phone book"-style manga anthologyShōnen Jump featuring some of the most popular manga titles from Japan, includingDragon Ball Z,Naruto,Bleach andOne Piece. Its circulation far surpassed that of previous American manga anthologies, reaching 180,000 in 2005.[57] Also in 2005, Viz launchedShojo Beat, a successful counterpart toShonen Jump aimed at female readers.
In 2002, Tokyopop introduced its "100% Authentic Manga" line, which featured unflipped pages and were smaller in size than most other translated graphic novels. This allowed them be retailed at a price lower than that of comparable publications by Viz and others. The line was also made widely available in mainstream bookstores such asBorders andBarnes & Noble, which greatly increased manga's visibility among the book-buying public.[58] After Tokyopop's success, most of the other manga companies switched to the smaller unflipped format and offered their titles at similar prices.
In the following years, manga became increasingly popular, and new publishers entered the field while the established publishers greatly expanded their catalogues.[59] ThePokémon mangaElectric Tale of Pikachu issue #1 sold over 1 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling singlecomic book in the United States since 1993.[60] By 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales.[61] Simultaneously, mainstream U.S. media began to discuss manga, with articles inThe New York Times,Time magazine,The Wall Street Journal, andWired magazine.[62]
A large number of small companies in the United States publish manga. Several large publishers have also released, or expressed interest in releasing manga.Del Rey translated and published several Japanese series includingxxxHolic,Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and,Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, whileHarlequin has brought its Ginger Blossom line of manga, originally released only in Japan, to the United States as well.
As of January 2020 manga is the second largest category in the US comic book and graphic novel market, accounting for 27% of the entire market share.[63]
As of 2022[update], each of the largest manga publishers own a North American subsidiary that license their parent company's manga:
In Australia and New Zealand, many popular Japanese andKorean-language manga andanime are distributed byMadman Entertainment.
Before the 1990s some trial marketing of manga took place in Brazil, includingLone Wolf and Cub, the first one published in the country in 1988,[64]Mai, the Psychic Girl,Akira,Cobra,[65]Crying Freeman, andThe Legend of Kamui. The Brazilianshōnen market started in the mid-1990s withRanma ½ published by Animangá, although the publication did not prove successful (due to the fact that it was released in the American format and contained only two chapters per issue, roughly equivalent to one fourth of atankohon).[66] It was followed byPokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, released by Conrad in 1999, during thePokémon boom.
In 2000, Conrad publishedSaint Seiya andDragon Ball (both titles already well known, since the equivalent anime had been highly successful in the 1990s).[66] After the success of these titles, Conrad released not only trendy manga likeOne Piece,Vagabond,Neon Genesis Evangelion, andSlam Dunk, but also classic manga likeOsamu Tezuka titles (includingAdolf andBuddha),Nausicaä, and less known titles likeBambi and Her Pink Gun andSade.
In 2001, the Japanese-Brazilian company Japan Brazil Communication (JBC) started publishing manga, releasingRurouni Kenshin,Magic Knight Rayearth,Cardcaptor Sakura andVideo Girl Ai. In 2009, JBC published Clamp titles likeX/1999,Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle andxxxHolic, and popular titles likeInuyasha,Negima!,Fruits Basket,Death Note,Fullmetal Alchemist,Yu-Gi-Oh!,Shaman King,Love Hina andBakuman, having also picked up the publishing rights forRanma ½ andNeon Genesis Evangelion in the same year.
In 2004, Panini started publishing manga, with the release ofPeach Girl andEden. In 2012, Panini published the most popular manga in Brazil:Naruto andBleach, as well as titles likeBlack Lagoon,Highschool of the Dead,Full Metal Panic! andWelcome to the N.H.K.. Panini has also, in 2012, acquired the publishing rights toOne Piece in Brazil, continuing publication from where Conrad had stopped (Japanese volume 37) as well as reprinting earlier volumes in the original Japanese format.
Originally, Brazilian manga appeared with about half the size of a tankoubon (about 100 pages of stories and two to eight pages of extras), but almost all of the manga is released in the original format.
After years of negotiation, JBC finally releasedSailor Moon in early 2014. The edition, regarded as the most important release ever done by the company, was reportedly praised by creatorNaoko Takeuchi andKodansha employees, thanks to its good quality.
Between 2023 and 2024, manga sales in Brazil were listed among the best-selling comics in the country, with One Piece being the second best-selling title, behind only the solo comic of the character Monica.[67]
Another popular form of manga distribution outside Japan involves Internetscanlations (orscanslations). Typically, a small group of people scan the original version of a series with no current license in the language which they wish to translate it to, translate it, and freely distribute it; usually through the use ofIRC orBitTorrent.
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Manga has proved so popular that it has led to other companies such asAntarctic Press,Oni Press,Seven Seas Entertainment and Tokyopop, as well as long-established publishers likeMarvel andArchie Comics, to release their own manga-inspired works that apply the same artistic stylings and story pacing commonly seen in Japanese manga. One of the first of these such works came in 1985 whenBen Dunn, founder ofAntarctic Press, releasedMangazine andNinja High School. In other Asian countries, Manga influenced KoreanManhwa and ChineseManhua.[citation needed]
WhileAntarctic Press actively refers to its works as "American Manga", it does not source all of these manga-inspired works from the United States. Many of the artists working onSeven Seas Entertainment series such asLast Hope (manga) andAmazing Agent Luna areFilipino and TOKYOPOP has hired a variety of Korean and Japanese artists to work on titles such asWarcraft andPrincess Ai. Many of these works have been classified on the Internet with titles such asOEL Manga,MIC, andWorld Manga, although none of these terms have actually been used by manga companies to describe these works on the books themselves.[citation needed]
In Brazil, the popularity of manga is marked also by the large number of Japanese and descendants in the country. In the 1960s, some of Japanese descent, such as Minami Keizi andClaudio Seto, started using graphic influences, narratives or manga themes in their work in EDREL publisher founded by Keizi.[68]
In Germany, as manga began outselling domestic comics in 2000, German publishers began supporting German creators of manga-styled comics. Jürgen Seebeck'sBloody Circus was not popular amongst German manga readers due to its European style, and other early German manga artists were affected by cancellations. After this, German publishers began focussing on female creators, due to the popularity of shōjo manga, leading to what Paul Malone describes as a "home-grown shōjo boom", and "more female German comics artists in print than ever before". However, genuinely manga-influenced stylistic conventions, such as sweatdrops, are employed to ensure "authenticity", original German works are flipped to read in a right-to-left style familiar to manga readers, author's afterwords and sidebars are common, and many German manga take place in Asia.[32]
The Arabic language manga "Canary 1001" is by a group calling themselves Amateam, whose director is Wahid Jodar, from the United Arab Emirates.[69][70] Another Arab language manga isGold Ring, by Qais Sedeki, from 2009, also from the United Arab Emirates.[71][72][73] Both groups of artists use the word "manga" for their work.[69][73]
In May 2010,Glenat Spain introduced their new line of works known asLinea Gaijin[74] which showcases the works of several Spanish and Latin American comic book artists. This is an effort on the part of Glenat to bring fresh new content and breed a new generation of manga-inspired artists that grew up reading manga. The line began with titles such asBakemono,Dos Espadas, andLettera that were shown on theSalón del Manga de Barcelona[75] in October 2010, but it would later introduce other works as well.
Even maintaining the same spelling of the robots' names between the toys and the comics didn't seem to be a top priority. Fans will find multiple versions of the word 'Combatra', sometimes as 'Combattra' and 'Raydeen', at times as 'Raideen', adorning the boxes of some of the figures.