Manga Implosion

Now DC's CMX line has closed down with many solicited titles being canceled. Another blow fo Manga with Viz laying of 40% of its staff and the apparent closing of Go! Comi. While this does look bad its not like its the death of manga. So put your hands down comic geek.

First off, a lot of this is attributed to the internet. Scanalation sites have become the free way to read your manga online. The fanbase exists but they're choosing to forgo buying for free material.

Secondly this also has to do with a glut of material. Tokyopop took a serious blow a few years back when their general sales were not what they were across the board. many titles being licensed were just not finding the audience. The same can be said of a lot of books. There are top titles but there are manga that makes you scratch your head as to the reason its being published here. Yes, I'm sure a badly selling manga has fans but in the end sales do matter.

However I'm optimistic here. Viz, despite the layoffs, still is publishing lots of books. Dark Horse , Yen Press, and Del Rey are still open for business. Tokyopop cut scaled their releases back and are still publishing, plus Kodansha is doing their own English translations now. I think these blows are more an adjustment to the buying audience and a reaction to the scanalation sites taking up potential customers. They're going to adjust to the market and, while this might mean less books being published, I believe this will give titles mroe room to breath and develop a fanbase without fighting for shelf room.

Manga's going to be perfectly fine.