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Has The Internet Changed The Way You Think About Manga?
Here’s a scenario that I want everyone to imagine with me. Ready?
Think back to a time where computers didn’t exist yet. Think back to when it was very difficult to find information about anything you wanted. Think back to when sharing one’s interests over a huge communication channel was almost impossible without going to a big-name media outlet. Now, hold those thoughts and ask yourself if the Internet has the changed the way you think about manga. Regarding manga, the Internet has truly made it global, but with a price. I sometimes wonder if the Internet is both the creator and destroyer of manga fandom.
Before the Internet became popular, the only way I found out about manga news was through the defunct WIZARD Magazine. I remember the first manga I heard about from WIZARD was Masamune Shirow’s Ghost In The Shell. After reading about the controversy surrounding Ghost in the Shell (i.e. the cybersex scene), the whole idea of manga began to appeal to me. I was watching Chinese dubs of Dragon Ball Z at the time and my interest in Japanese media continued to grow. When I found out Dragon Ball was originally a manga, I browsed text summaries of the original manga series online back in 1999. You don’t know how obsessed I was with looking for information on DBZ at the time. Thankfully, VIZ Media released the Dragon Ball Z manga in America and I bought all the volumes. The same thing also happened when I followed Rurouni Kenshin in the early 2000s’. I was reading text summaries of chapters online, visiting fansites to satisfy my cravings, and later bought all the volumes because of my love for the samurai epic.
Fast forward to the proliferation of scanlations. I decided to follow BLEACH (during college around 2005) after hearing some of my friends watching the anime. I bought the first few volumes from VIZ and was hooked. What happened next was I began using the Internet to find out more information about the characters. I found out about what was currently going on in the BLEACH manga from a fansite at the time, which was Sosuke Aizen being revealed as the main villain. That just piqued my curiosity even more and I wanted to know what happens next. As a result, the world of scanlations entered my life. I was pretty ecstatic to know that I can keep up with what’s happening with BLEACH. I also discovered many other series through scanlations as well. I was still buying manga and didn’t really think about how scanlations affected the manga-publishing industry.
And now here we are with the manga industry in a huge state of flux. What does that tell me? The Internet (the power of the creator) is great for manga since it exposes everyone to a wide variety of series and creates passionate fan communities, but the Internet (the power of the destructor) gives off this illusion to certain people that manga easily grows on a tree and everything’s dandy, when things really aren’t fine.
I don’t know about you, but there is one thing that bugs me about scanlations. Scanlators and aggregator sites often put up a disclaimer message telling everyone to buy and support a manga series if it’s available in their region. But, what if the manga is not available in their region and possibly never will be? What if the reader is an 8-year old? Also, I know a few people who work full-time that read scanlations and are not even interested in buying physical copies of manga. Do scanlators even understand their intended audiences and their consequences as a whole?
The Internet has made me believe that manga will be an online-only interest globally and will stay that way (though it seems like it already is). Outside of Japan, manga is still very niche to a majority of people. Combine that with free scanlations and you have a recipe for “fun interest that appeals mostly to Internet folks”. Though part of me believes the Internet is perfect for manga because most people like to read things online these days and they LOVE images on the Internet.
Another thing was that before the Internet, I thought every manga title out there was godly. Since the increased popularity of the ‘Net, I realized that there’s a lot of “junk” to sort through before you even get to the good stuff. Sometimes, I wonder how certain titles became published in the first place. Such is the harshness of reality.
One question does plague me: should the manga community accept those that read scanlations of a certain series and don’t really buy any form of merchandise related to the series (yet are extremely passionate about it) as members of the community? Would someone care to enlighten me on how those fans should be viewed?
With these inner thoughts in mind, I continue to research the crazy world of manga online and offline (I still buy volumes of manga) as many series have worked their charm upon my visage. Oh Internet, you’re as tempting as a bishojo girl nagging her “big brother” to spend time with her and leaving him with a colorful array of conflicted feelings.
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A Look Back At 2010 (Part II: April to June)
Did you enjoy Part I of the 2010 year-in-review? Here’s what noteworthy Japanese pop culture events occurred during April 2010 to June 2010!
April 2010
Japan decides to set a 10 billion yen fund to promote Japanese entertainment overseas (including anime & manga). Fans still don’t care as they still try to find ways to download anime & manga illegally. On a related note, Shueisha asks fans to stop reading manga scans online.
Lucky Star gets serialized in the Saitama Shimbun newspaper in Japan on a monthly basis. The champions of moe rejoice in having one of their hits featured in a real newspaper read by real people.
Author Manabu Miyazaki sues the Fukuoka police for removing yakuza-related material from convenience stores. Miyazki says the police are suppressing free speech. Police say they were trying to lower the influence of yakuza around the area. Legal matters get so complicated, don’t they?
Super Street Fighter IV & Monster Hunter Tri get unleashed in the States. Juri brings the evil, greedy, & psychotic Korean girl to video games. Horny male nerds drool while Asian stereotypes are reinforced. Monster Hunter Tri would cause people to actually use their Wii for more than 1.5-2 hours.
A group made a manga app for iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products to download manga scanlations to it. Cue “ASKING FOR IT” line.
R.I.P. Carl Macek, Amy Forsyth
May 2010
Japan decides to invest more money (about 214.5 billion yen) in training the next generation of animators. Honestly, do something about their wages & working conditions. If you care so much about anime now, you should be more empathetic towards animators’ needs. I know there’s a lot of factors & issues involved regarding the state of the industry, but the point is to provide a great sense of motivation & accomplishment.
Death Note makes the news again when a proposed ban of the manga in Albuquerque, New Mexico gets rejected. I actually posted my thoughts about this, which you can read here.
Sports manga rocked the 34th Annual Kodansha Manga Awards. Will sports manga ever take off in the West?
Construction of a giant, life-size Neon Genesis Evangelion bust began at a Mount Fuji theme park. The next step will be to have the most psychologically draining & religiously controversial wedding ever conducted underneath that EVA-01 Unit. This will be recorded as 20 times more epic than the Gundam wedding.
The first-ever “boys-love” bar opens up in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, under the name of “MiraclejumP”. I’m sure female otaku love the place & vibe, but the guys don’t seem to be that great-looking. Maybe it’s just me. At least, there won’t be any dirty diseases running around.
VIZ Media lays off 40% of their workforce & closes down their New York office, which only consisted of 5 people. Somewhere in a corner, I cry over the fact that I won’t have a chance to work for a manga publisher here in New York.
June 2010
The adventures of Edward & Alphonse Elric finally end as Fullmetal Alchemist had its last chapter published in the June issue of Shonen Gangan. FMA will always be one of my favorite series ever and I thought the ending was great (You can read my thoughts about FMA here). I never thought I would see the end of a major popular shonen series so soon. Looking forward to the North American releases of Volumes 24-27 from VIZ soon.
BLEACH gets simulcasted on Crunchyroll. Took them long enough to put it there.
U.S. & Japanese publishers form a coalition to stop manga scanlations. MangaHelpers would create OpenManga in response. Other sites would start legal online manga initiatives. One site full of scanlations, MangaFox, removes 350 of their titles (even though they eventually return). This generates a lot of debate regarding the future of manga. I think there should be a summit meeting to settle things properly.
Anime News Network starts streaming anime from their website. Good to see ANN get in on the act.
A 14-year old Japanese middle-school student is arrested for uploading manga through YouTube. The kid even made money off of his blog which promoted his activities. Even better, he announced his leaks on Twitter. I hate to say this, but you never know who is watching you when you’re using social media.
R.I.P. Robert O. Smith
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Part III is now up and can be read here.
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Yana Toboso & The Slow Death of Society
(Sebastian is telling Ciel of Yana Toboso’s plans to get rid of all the manga pirates out there. Ciel noddingly approves.)
What a crazy time in the manga world this past week, huh?
Yana Toboso, mangaka of Kuroshitsuji (aka Black Butler), recently expressed her views on illegal scanlations/fansubs in a blog entry. In her entry, she stated that fans have been sending her crazy responses, telling her that they’ve seen her work illegally. Toboso has responded by saying that creators and voice actors are human beings as well. They need to eat and survive. Other mangakas have supported her view as well. An Anime News Network forum topic on Toboso’s entry has been filled with an overwhelming number of responses, from bashing her to supporting her.
(A translation of the blog entry can be found here.)
First off, why do people want to cause trouble by telling Toboso that they’ve seen her work illegally? Why are they asking for it? Maybe because some fans are just pessimistic at life. Who knows, their lives could be in a downward spiral and they’re just visibly jealous of other people’s successes. Can you blame them for feeling that way? You may also blame their peers or lack thereof. One problem this highlights is that the Internet allows most people to get away with saying things and not suffer any repercussions. It gives off the feeling that they are above the law. No enforcement -> higher temptation to cause trouble.
Regarding fans’ responses to her blog entry itself, I thought to myself it’s quite clear that the shock of reality is clearly confusing the hell out of most of the fanbase. I see that fans’ self-defense mechanisms are working on overdrive, trying to come up with reasons to justify watching/reading her works illegally. You can clearly see the lack of empathy in some of their responses. It’s unbelievable and disgusting for some fans to NOT think of mangaka as real human beings.
There was a response that said that Toboso should be grateful that people are reading/watching her work. FAIL.
This can apply to those who bought it, but not to those who’ve done it for free. Unless that is your intention, would you seriously be grateful to people who illegally make copies of your work for their own purposes? Put yourself in her shoes.
The big problem is that we’re living in a society that wants instant gratification. We’re all guilty of this (hell, I know I am). Our world is now a world where things are easy-to-find & accessible. People won’t let anything get in the way of their need for entertainment, even if it possibly means stealing. They tend to lack competence or self-efficacy. Also, some fans don’t seem to realize (or forgotten) the importance of working hard to achieve dreams.
Look at it this way. Mangakas were once dreamers. They wanted to do something they love and make money doing so, just like all of us. Do you realize how much crap mangakas go through just to get their work published? It’s not easy. Why is it that while we say that we like to support other people’s dreams, we try to crush other people’s dreams? I guess when those dreams become reality, people may have this view that those dreamers start becoming spoiled brats when it’s not always the case.
For those complaining on why Toboso took so long to complain, here’s the thing. In Japan, it’s considered really rude to talk back to someone publicly. Unless it’s something seriously important, then they usually don’t say anything. The culture in Japan is totally different from other countries. I’m sure you understand this if you consider yourself to be a Japanese culture aficionado.
Toboso’s speech has a deeper meaning beyond just complaining about scanlations and fansubs. It’s also a harsh reminder of the society we’re currently living in, where we take things for granted and not many people truly appreciate a hard day’s work. Unless society emphasizes a greater need for impulse control, the crazy conflicts & debates will never end & EVERYONE will lose.
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The End of OneManga
Home of manga no more, to be exact.
As all manga readers & enthusiasts know, the “king” of the aggregator sites, OneManga, have decided to pull off all manga scanlations on July 31, 2010. Cue fanboy/fangirl rage.
As manga journalist Deb Aoki pointed out, there has been an overwhelming backlash against the publishers for forcing OneManga to shut down. I even went to a OneManga fan page and there were users literally telling stories about how OneManga gave them hope. Someone even created a petition to let OneManga continue!
Honestly, I have very mixed feelings about this. I have to admit that I have gotten into a variety of series through OneManga. If it weren’t for the site, I wouldn’t have gotten to do a lot of research for my blog. I also have some favorite series that I love (through OneManga) like Bakuman, Air Gear, Hayate no Gotoku!, Katekyo Hitman REBORN!, and others. At the same time, I applaud OneManga’s decision to abide by the wishes of the publishers. I believe they are seeing the bigger picture unlike a majority of fans who don’t know.
I just wished publishers worked together with the fans more. Or possibly work with OneManga. The thing is OneManga actually takes down scanlations if publishers ask them to. One example would be Soul Eater. They actually do take into consideration the effect scanlations have on publishers, unlike other aggregator sites. Though I think it’s more important that publishers reached out to the fans. Publishers should’ve noticed that online content was going to be big when scanlations started to become popular during the early-to-mid 2000s’. In business, trend-spotting is one important tool businesses need to have to survive & evolve. Even social-media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk emphasized it in his book, “CRUSH IT!”. Manga publishers need to practice more of “reactionary business”. “Reactionary business” is when you immediately take advantage of new opportunities, adapt to current demand, and look ahead to what’s next. What we’re seeing right now with the scanlation issue is what happens when companies don’t practice “reactionary business”.
e.g. Publishers ignore scanlations -> recession hits -> publishers lose money -> rage on scanlators -> unhappy fans that publishers don’t bother to educate on their dilemma
It could’ve been:
Publishers see scanlations -> realize that online manga is the next big thing -> hop on the online bandwagon IMMEDIATELY -> talk to scanlators to find an agreeable solution -> create a legitimate online manga business model that works -> address fans & show they care -> PROFIT! -> happy, happy online manga fans
Seriously, what’s going on with the marketing dept. from the publishers!? Maybe they did know and they didn’t care. BIG MISTAKE.
I don’t know what’s going to happen right now. As for my blog, I’ll go to bookstores to read and watch more anime for research. Thank goodness for Crunchyroll & Hulu. Even though a manga service similar to those sites is on its way, the problem now is that most fans might not want to pay for such a service that might not have all the titles they want. What do you guys think is a good solution?
Face it, scanlations aren’t going to go away. Publishers should be more concerned with possibly the wrath of many online manga fans who they’ve probably ignored for a long time & could’ve captured.
Where shall the industry go from here? I guess we’ll find out whether it will be towards prosperity or chaos.
