Animanga in the News: 4/23/11

Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything major happened the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translators and global moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)




The 2chan.us fan blog posted a five-part English translation of a discussion between Love Hina/Negima creator Ken Akamatsu and Kentaro Takekuma, co-creator of the Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga manga series and of the ComiPo! manga creation software. In the conversation, originally posted on the Japanese ITmedia website, the two men discuss what they see as the future of manga. Japanese writer Masahiro Yamaguchi conducted the interview.

Highlights from the conversation include:

• Akamatsu and Takekuma agree that publishers seem to look down on using a free ad-supported model, instead seeing the print business as the sale of publications. However, both see the ad-supported model as a potential opportunity.
  
• Akamatsu revealed that J-Comi, his free ad-supported manga distribution project, brought in 525,000 yen (about US$6,370) for creator Mayu Shinjo, and that he is currently working with Google to create a web viewer with "dynamic advertising" for the project. Akamatsu also acknowledged that while the "big names" might make considerably more than this, he still feels that for most, "even 50,000 yen" (about US$607) per volume would be "something to celebrate."
  
• Akamatsu notes that the Wonder Festival model kit event uses one-day licenses to deal with copyright issues involving fan projects based on other works, and that Comiket dōjinshi (self-published works) event does not do the same.
  
• Akamatsu indicated that translated versions of J-Comi! are currently in the works.
  
• Takekuma noted that J-Comi! is primarily restricted to manga series that are no longer in print with a mainstream publisher, and then revealed that 10 years after Shogakukan canceled Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga he asked them to officially declare the series "out of print" so that he could publish it elsewhere. Shogakukan responded by reprinting the series.
  
• Takekuma revealed that he had a stroke shortly after the reprinting of Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga.
  
• Takekuma discusses how manga artists' page rates — the fees charged for creating a single page of manga material for a magazine — generally stayed constant over the decades despite the rising costs of living. He also revealed that one unnamed publisher currently does not pay higher than a 50,000 yen (US$610) page rate.
  
• Takekuma notes that publishers and editors are noticing individual talents at conventions like Comiket and online websites like Pixiv.
  
• Akamatsu claims that editors at magazines running major titles are too fearful of making corrections to those major titles. As a result, the editors are not developing the necessary skills to guide new artists.
  
• Akamatsu said that he has “no intention in betraying” his print publisher Kodansha by releasing a new manga series through his J-Comi service.

The full translations can be read here: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

original source





In a Searchina survey of 3000 mainland Chinese, it was found that a large number of them liked Japanese anime. 24% of them "really like" anime, while 53.5% "somewhat like" anime, adding up to nearly a whopping 80% of respondents who like Japanese animation.

In response to the question "Which country's animation have you watched before?", 100% of respondents listed Japanese animation, with Chinese animation coming in second at 86.3%, American animation third with 54.9%, Korean animation fourth at 27.9%, Hong Kong animation fifth at 27%, Taiwanese animation sixth at 22%, European animation seventh at 16.8% and South-East Asian animation last at 6%.

Despite the immense popularity of Chinese anime "Xi Yang Yang Yu Hui Tai Lang", not every one of the respondents had watched it. With an astounding 100% of respondents saying they had watched Japanese anime before, the presence of Japanese anime and manga in China is clearly immense.

original source



Please note that there may be delays in the broadcasts or releases of certain anime and manga following the quake. You may see a list of affected publications here, here, here and here.



If you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact saladesu via PM ^^ Feel free to PM me any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.