Hi Vertical Comics, thanks for putting out such great series
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:04 pm
Hi Vertical Comics, thanks for putting out such great series and providing such great production quality. I just have a couple of questions. Is volume 6 of Wolfsmund the final volume? What do you think is the reason for sports manga not selling well in English? And finally is it difficult to spot/predict trends in the English manga market (in terms of what's going popular)? As high sales and popularity in Japan doesn't always ensure success when sold in English. Thanks!
Hi!! And Happy 2015!
>Is volume 6 of Wolfsmund the final volume?
Nope. Contrary to initial Japanese internet rumors volume 6 is not the last volume. The story of the Wolfsmund ends there, but the origins of the Swiss Confederation will continue for at least another volume. So expect volume 7 in early 2016 (as the Japanese edition should be published in Nov 2015).
>What do you think is the reason for sports manga not selling well in English?
Cool question. Ultimately to me it comes down to marketing.
Sports as an industry is huge in English. TV revenue is gigantic. Ad revenue is also huge. Viewership for TV is down but with streaming and PPV money is still there. Attendance at events are stable.
But when sports turns into fiction the shift is completely different. Sports movies are often flops. Often the most popular sports movies are sports themed comedies (Adam Sandler and Will Farrell seem to enjoy making those). Fictional sports TV programming is equally tough. And the more successful TV shows tend to also be sitcoms that never take place on the field like the 90’s comedy Coach.
Live sports have a lot of narratives to them. Fans are connected to their favorite teams. Fantasy sports and video games give fans a chance to enjoy individual players more as they begin to appreciate the value players have on their respective games. Announcers add nuance to watching games on TV. The live experience for sports is often amazing.
But that live element is does not translate well to tape-delay. NBC has really repurposed the Olympics (poorly in my opinion) to try to keep some of it live cause that’s what fans want. The World Cup is a great example of the power of live sports, as this year American fans turned out to see those games at times of day that worked perfectly for US TV viewing.
Switch that to a book. And well if a book is a biography of a famous athlete people might read it. People might buy copies with hopes of learning about those stars. Maybe get them autographed (a custom still enjoyed in the sports merch market). But buying a book on a fictional team… Sports fiction is a tiny tiny market that occasionally gets a break thru.
Transition that to manga… And it is a bigger challenge. So while there is a sports audience getting them into sports manga… Is a stretch.
Viz tried promoting Slam Dunk with the NBA. That didn’t work. They marketed Whistle! with US Soccer before a World Cup. That didn’t work. They partnered with the NFL for Eyeshield. That didn’t work. Were their plans perfect? No. But they sure tried and with some of the biggest brands in sports. Sports anime rarely seems to work in English. So tying in anime fans to their respective manga is almost pointless.
Story-wise most sports anime are high school based. That poses a problem cause the structure is different for sports in Japan vs the US. Sports in the US are league based, so teams play full seasons before a playoff tournament. In Japan high schools are almost entirely tournament only. So where in the US kids train thru playing games; in Japan they train to play games. Also as these works are fiction there is a lack of familiarity with characters and teams. It may be hard for casual readers to understand the rules of certain games if they aren’t already fans of that sport.
I would also say there might be some social resistance as faces and names are not what people see from their heroes in the US.
That’s just a start. Length for sports titles are also painful. IPPO is almost the perfect sports manga. It actually could be transcendent in how it presents boxing at times. But I cannot imagine a publisher, through normal means, printing all 100+ volumes of that. Stores would literally laugh at a publisher who even considered such a plan.
Ultimately, it is up to publishers to find the right stories and for true fans of sports manga and manga culture to prop these works up. That’s tough cause there is fragmentation within sports fandom (let alone sports anime/manga fandom). But a united word of mouth/publicity foundation could prop up title now and then. I mean Prince of Tennis did okay… But fans weren’t reading for the tennis. Those fans united for those characters. So that’s one angle.
>And finally is it difficult to spot/predict trends in the English manga market (in terms of what’s going popular)?
Yeah it is. Trends are tougher to figure out than titles. But that’s the fun part. It’s a challenge, but that, to me, is why I’m in this business. I wanna create trends, as well as spot them.
Hi!! And Happy 2015!
>Is volume 6 of Wolfsmund the final volume?
Nope. Contrary to initial Japanese internet rumors volume 6 is not the last volume. The story of the Wolfsmund ends there, but the origins of the Swiss Confederation will continue for at least another volume. So expect volume 7 in early 2016 (as the Japanese edition should be published in Nov 2015).
>What do you think is the reason for sports manga not selling well in English?
Cool question. Ultimately to me it comes down to marketing.
Sports as an industry is huge in English. TV revenue is gigantic. Ad revenue is also huge. Viewership for TV is down but with streaming and PPV money is still there. Attendance at events are stable.
But when sports turns into fiction the shift is completely different. Sports movies are often flops. Often the most popular sports movies are sports themed comedies (Adam Sandler and Will Farrell seem to enjoy making those). Fictional sports TV programming is equally tough. And the more successful TV shows tend to also be sitcoms that never take place on the field like the 90’s comedy Coach.
Live sports have a lot of narratives to them. Fans are connected to their favorite teams. Fantasy sports and video games give fans a chance to enjoy individual players more as they begin to appreciate the value players have on their respective games. Announcers add nuance to watching games on TV. The live experience for sports is often amazing.
But that live element is does not translate well to tape-delay. NBC has really repurposed the Olympics (poorly in my opinion) to try to keep some of it live cause that’s what fans want. The World Cup is a great example of the power of live sports, as this year American fans turned out to see those games at times of day that worked perfectly for US TV viewing.
Switch that to a book. And well if a book is a biography of a famous athlete people might read it. People might buy copies with hopes of learning about those stars. Maybe get them autographed (a custom still enjoyed in the sports merch market). But buying a book on a fictional team… Sports fiction is a tiny tiny market that occasionally gets a break thru.
Transition that to manga… And it is a bigger challenge. So while there is a sports audience getting them into sports manga… Is a stretch.
Viz tried promoting Slam Dunk with the NBA. That didn’t work. They marketed Whistle! with US Soccer before a World Cup. That didn’t work. They partnered with the NFL for Eyeshield. That didn’t work. Were their plans perfect? No. But they sure tried and with some of the biggest brands in sports. Sports anime rarely seems to work in English. So tying in anime fans to their respective manga is almost pointless.
Story-wise most sports anime are high school based. That poses a problem cause the structure is different for sports in Japan vs the US. Sports in the US are league based, so teams play full seasons before a playoff tournament. In Japan high schools are almost entirely tournament only. So where in the US kids train thru playing games; in Japan they train to play games. Also as these works are fiction there is a lack of familiarity with characters and teams. It may be hard for casual readers to understand the rules of certain games if they aren’t already fans of that sport.
I would also say there might be some social resistance as faces and names are not what people see from their heroes in the US.
That’s just a start. Length for sports titles are also painful. IPPO is almost the perfect sports manga. It actually could be transcendent in how it presents boxing at times. But I cannot imagine a publisher, through normal means, printing all 100+ volumes of that. Stores would literally laugh at a publisher who even considered such a plan.
Ultimately, it is up to publishers to find the right stories and for true fans of sports manga and manga culture to prop these works up. That’s tough cause there is fragmentation within sports fandom (let alone sports anime/manga fandom). But a united word of mouth/publicity foundation could prop up title now and then. I mean Prince of Tennis did okay… But fans weren’t reading for the tennis. Those fans united for those characters. So that’s one angle.
>And finally is it difficult to spot/predict trends in the English manga market (in terms of what’s going popular)?
Yeah it is. Trends are tougher to figure out than titles. But that’s the fun part. It’s a challenge, but that, to me, is why I’m in this business. I wanna create trends, as well as spot them.