It is the year 2019, and it looks like manga is back on track in the United States. It has been a bit since the industry peaked in sales back in 2007, but a brand-new announcement has gone live confirming that manga is on the rise once more.
Recently, a new paper was published in North America by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation. Dallas Middaugh gathered data from all of the United States’ big manga publishers, and it was there they discovered sales are still on the up (via ANN).
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According to the report, manga sales are growing year over year even today. The trend began back in 2013 and has continued well through the last year. As such, the gross revenue of manga has risen by about 7.2% between 2017 to 2018 with shonen bringing in the bulk of money.
As a point to note, the report does say that manga sales are closely tied to anime adaptations and foreign licensing. An anime adaptation gives an automatic lift to manga sales for that series in North America, so titles like Dr. Stone are in for a treat this year.
Not only is the sale of manga on a rise in North America, but the report reveals that about 25% of the entire graphic novel market belongs to manga in the United States. A solid 23% of the industry’s entire gross revenue is bolstered by manga sales with Viz Media leading the charge. The publisher prints 47 of the 50 top-selling manga titles such as My Hero Academia, One Piece, and more.
This report is an encouraging one for fans as manga has continued to dominate Book Scan lists in the United States. Titles like Attack on Titan and The Promised Neverland have become juggernauts in their own rights. Both of these titles also have highly popular anime adaptations to boot, lending evidence to the report’s note about how anime and manga volley off one another. With Hollywood continuing to embrace Japanese pop culture, titles like Pokemon and Akira will only grow in popularity as the next few years roll on, so fans are hoping overall manga sales will near their 2007 peak before long and then surpass them.
So, are you excited about this up tick in manga sales? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
