Manga Is Not Your Pop Culture Savior

I’m seeing these videos all the time: “Manga’s kicking US comics’ ass!” “They can’t stop the rise of manga!” “Manga sales outpace all of US comics’ sales!” This triumphant shouting was amplified by a Bounding Into Comics article stating that anime studio JC Staff does not cater to foreign censorship demands.

While I’m happy that Japanese manga is doing well in the US, I won’t be so quick to hail it as some savior of pop culture.

First, there’s the cold math of demographics. The Japanese fertility rate remains quite low, meaning that the domestic market for this stuff is shrinking. This alone would force an attempt to reach out overseas, and it has. Just under half of the anime industry’s revenue now comes from outside Japan, and these overseas revenues will prove increasingly vital. (Anime and manga are closely linked, with many manga becoming popular only after they receive an anime.) While overseas audiences generally like anime and manga the way it is, there may be a temptation to take “global norms” into account in future productions (for example, expect fanservice to disappear entirely.)

Second, JC Staff may have a backbone, but hostile ideologies don’t take over by convincing individuals; instead, they seize chokepoints. We already see this partially with Funimation, where some anime have been misdubbed on purpose to score internet points, and some video games have also been mistranslated for this reason. It’s a safe bet that the same can happen to manga.

As for Japan’s own industry, if either Shogakukan or Shueisha become woke, the rest of the manga industry will follow, as will the anime industry. There will be no heroic resistance and no stands for free expression, only the ruthless culling of experienced artists and editors to the applause of Twitter. Big companies set the tone since everyone wants to work there, and if “standing up for free expression” means you won’t get published or animated, no one will stand. They’ll just make little manga on the side, where no one will read them.

And this is no hypothetical threat. Kadokawa’s CEO has stated that he is open to censoring manga:

We are flooded by mangas that are way more extreme than gravures. Including all that the japanese manga are unable to pass the examination of google and apple.

So we must create a new standard for what can be shown in public and what isn’t for this era of internet.

The publishing industry where I work is full of people that sides with liberty but I feel a lot that we must pull back a bit.

That said, Japanese industry observer On Takahashi adds some needed context:

Regarding Kadokawa’s CEO’s comments, I have a feeling it’s more talking the talk than walking the walk.

The main discussion was about teenage Gravure idols and how some of them are often “pressured” into photo shoots, or are body shamed as being “lewd”. (Some are minors)

The way I read it, Takeshi Natsuno inserted himself in that “feminist space” (the topic at hand), by referring to sexual content in manga and broached the idea of “redefining what content is acceptable”, using the example of Google and Apple’s policies.

The reality though, is that Kadokawa doesn’t need Google or Apple to sell their manga. They are a behemoth in the industry and Bookwalker dominates both domestic and overseas.

Kadokawa is a “Media Mix” company that also has a stake in anime and games for their IP.

What most tweets aren’t covering is the fact that the CEO is currently in a media shitstorm because of remarks he made 2 days ago justifying events other than the Olympics being cancelled due to Covid because “they’re boring as shit like a kid’s piano performance”.

I personally think that his “We should maybe redefine sexual content” was some sort of last-ditch pro-feminism statement to try and dig his way out of the current media criticism and curry favor with the press (Backfired, obviously, from the response of manga fans).

Kadokawa makes too much money from sexually-themed LNs (pretty much most LNs) and media to ditch it. It’s their golden egg-laying goose. Shareholders will most likely be seething from this latest gaffe too. It’ll probably just blow over and nothing will happen.

JP manga pubs have seen what “constant censuring” has done to the Western comics scene. In order to remain a bastion of “creative freedom”, men in suits will be smart to back off and just let things continue to be. More and more “teen” manga are embracing sexual themes.

JP manga publishers have been more experimental than ever. Take something like “My Dress-Up Darling” for example. That’s a manga about cosplay and traditional Japanese dress-making. But you’d be blind to miss the “sexual undertones” that simmer just below the surface.

And a lot of recent manga have this, because that’s what sells. That’s the content people like and what people are buying. And that’s further proven to publishers via digital sales of manga.

In the past, people had to buy whole ass magazines or tankoubons.

As publishers, it was kinda hard to gauge which work in a particular magazine did better etc. For example, with Weekly Shounen Jump, series like Naruto, One Piece etc did a lot of the carrying for magazine sales, but we weren’t able to tell *exactly how much*.

Now, with digital consumption, publishers can see *exactly* which genres, which tropes, which series perform well and to which paying demographic.

This recent trend in a lot of works embracing lewdness isn’t an accident. It comes from all the data of preferences.

Big publishers are raking it with the data they have and the semi-sexual works they pump out. It’ll be corporate suicide to pull out of that market. Even if Kadokawa did, and that’s a big as IF, other publishers will simply fill in the space.

And if there’s anything a big Japanese publisher hates, it’s other Japanese publishers making money in an area they could have thrived in 😂 (One of the reasons JManga failed all those years ago was because no one wanted to bring their Sunday Best for the whole group).

What foreign fans also have to remember is that Japanese companies tend to have an extremely conservative business culture compared to Western companies. That is, one CEO can’t and won’t call the shots for big changes. Maybe a founder might, but an appointed CEO? Nah.

An appointed CEO’s job is to report to stakeholders. Doing things that damage their bottom-line is the last thing on their mind. It’s why “progress and change” for Japanese companies are always so slow. No one wants to rattle the system for change. Baby steps preferred.

Kadokawa will continue to grow their presence in the Anime, live action, and gaming space via their existing IP. And those forms of media don’t rely on Google or Apple at all. Kadokawa already has platforms they can sell those at.

While his comments might sound scary at first, I don’t think it’s a reason to panic like some are. With 2 big gaffes back to back, the stakeholders will keep the CEO in check, and he’ll be quiet until everyone forgets about it.

I honestly think it was a poor attempt at getting some brownie points to help him out of his first media “scandal”.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens, but I have a feeling things won’t be changing much.

After all, sex sells.

So stay alert, and watch for any announcements or alterations. Pay attention to what Kadokawa is publishing; Bookwalker is your friend here. And if the above is any indication, Japan’s professional creatives and publishers are still sympathetic to free expression. I hope Takahashi is right, but there are no guarantees.

Thus, my prediction hasn’t changed.

Unlike Kadokawa, I will not compromise on my artistic vision. Read “The Perils of Sasha Reed” right now!