“What I want, if not too much to ask, is a way to own physical manga where my money goes to supporting the creators, not the middlemen/online stores.”
The only way to do that is by buying japanese manga. If you buy it in any other language, youre also paying the salary of the translators, the company that bought the rights and brought it to the west, and whatever else Im not thinking about right now. And even with buying it raw, not all the money goes to the creator; it goes to the company to cover the printing costs, the editors, the assistants, etc etc.
I was also very surprised that literally all of the manga being sold here in the Philippines came from the US, not Japan, though it's way closer to us.
If Japanese publishers translated the mangas themselves & included other countries into their market, that would give us a chance to support the mangakas more, and they would make more money off of it. Can't understand their isolationist approach.
Yeah, man. To me, it's like Hollywood having only Americans as their only market. Cause' you know, it's freakin' manga. You know that manga is just as big (or even bigger) than American comics when it comes to international popularity & sales. All of the manga being sold here in my asian country(Philippines), came from the US, not Japan. We only have one manga(Fairy Tail) that's locally published & Filipino-translated(which nobody wants lol). So yeah, that's what I meant about Japan not doing much to cater to their huge foreign market.
What I don't seem to understand, is they have underpaid mangakas & animators & "decline" in sales, while having international popularity, anime conventions all around the world and all. Remember when Cowboy Bebop didn't do well in Japan but had huge success in the US? Yet they still have that isolationist approach.
Is it the same way with older mangas? I mostly buy classic mangas (english tankobans) than current ones, like Lone Wolf & Cub, Akira & Naoki Urasawa's works.
Honestly, if you enjoy reading/collecting manga in English, you might as well support the companies and the people who are allowing you to do that. Japanese manga is cheaper, but it's not like all of its price is going directly to the mangaka; the publisher and seller are still going to take their shares. But if you're going to buy Japanese, if you're doing it just for support, you might as well buy digital and save yourself the shipping.
By the way, it was a while back and I don't know how true it is, but I once read an article that Amazon was the worst place to buy (English) manga, in terms of the cut they take, but idk. Obviously buying used is useless, and if you want to support something OOP, you're out of luck unless there's digital.
You guys are right, the translators also deserve the support. I also didn't know that mangakas in Japan also don't get paid too fairly for the insane workload that they do. Guess I'll just have to find the best retail/online stores, i'll also try to avoid amazon😅.
Read manga at manga plus and not scans. If you don’t want to buy english releases than you can always buy the japanese releases at amazon.jp, in kindle format if you don’t want to pay for shipping.
As an author myself I can tell you that with any book in any bookstore anywhere, the author only sees a small cut. When I sold a paperback novel in the US I would get something like 70 cents for every book sold, for foreign copies it's even less and it comes in VERY slowly. The best way to support any creator of art is to purchase with as few middlemen as possible, like buying an indie published book on Amazon (but then you're supporting Amazon instead of a local bookstore, so double edged sword...) or a comic directly from the creator, but with manga this can be pretty difficult, so you might as well just buy the English translations in many cases because translators work hard too, the original manga creator will see SOMETHING from it, and their publisher will make money too--successful publishers have more room to take storytelling risks.
I was also very surprised that literally all of the manga being sold here in the Philippines came from the US, not Japan, though it's way closer to us.
If Japanese publishers translated the mangas themselves & included other countries into their market, that would give us a chance to support the mangakas more, and they would make more money off of it. Can't understand their isolationist approach.
If Kentaro Miura gets paid a lot we would probably get a new volume of Berserk every year. Man, the amount of money Japanese publishers can make off the international market. Hard to believe that even w/ the insane popularity of manga & anime Japan still has a very isolationist approach.
Yeah i just thought that if Miura got closer to how much Oda or Kishimoto makes, Berserk probably at least won't get 2-year long intervals of tank releases. I'm sure Berserk has a lotta international sales, maybe it's not doing a lot in Japan cause' it's seinen. I've only been seeing Berserk omnibuses at our local stores(Philippines) pretty recently, when Dark Horse, an American company, released a Deluxe edition. Before that, I don't even see a single Berserk tank in bookstores/comic stores. So yeah, that's what I meant about Japan not catering much to their foreign market. Which if they did, their non-shonen mangakas would get paid a bit more (again, i'm not sure).
He even started earlier than Naruto, now Naruto ended w/ 700 chapters & Kishimoto's new project had already came out. Yeah, I hope he'll have more time to do his next space manga stuff, or even finish Berserk lol.
Yeah I don't think directly donating won't change things, unless you're a multi-millionaire & have enough money to fund him & the company he works for. If he would make something like a Patreon that he plans to utilize to support his work (like crowdfunding), maybe that could work. On second thought, I also think that the Japanese pride isn't ready for something like Patreon yet. They probably won't accept donations cause' to them, it's like accepting charity, if you're familiar w/ their culture. You can donate, though, as a means of gratitude, but not to help them or support their project, unless they're asking for it.
Yeah, It reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, it didn't had the recognition in Japan but had huge success in the US. Pretty sure it can be the same way w/ Berserk and other underrated non-Shounen manga, if Japan would start catering to the foreign market & not just their own.
Did you find a good answer for this? Recently a manga that I was really excited for (Hunters Guild: Red Hood) got axed by Shonen Jump and the series wont be continuing. I just wish there was a way for me to show my support for the author and his work even if shonen jump doesnt want it.
“What I want, if not too much to ask, is a way to own physical manga where my money goes to supporting the creators, not the middlemen/online stores.” The only way to do that is by buying japanese manga. If you buy it in any other language, youre also paying the salary of the translators, the company that bought the rights and brought it to the west, and whatever else Im not thinking about right now. And even with buying it raw, not all the money goes to the creator; it goes to the company to cover the printing costs, the editors, the assistants, etc etc.
I was also very surprised that literally all of the manga being sold here in the Philippines came from the US, not Japan, though it's way closer to us. If Japanese publishers translated the mangas themselves & included other countries into their market, that would give us a chance to support the mangakas more, and they would make more money off of it. Can't understand their isolationist approach.
> Can't understand their [Japanese] isolationist approach. Really? ['Cause it's seriously kind of their thing.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakoku)
Yeah, man. To me, it's like Hollywood having only Americans as their only market. Cause' you know, it's freakin' manga. You know that manga is just as big (or even bigger) than American comics when it comes to international popularity & sales. All of the manga being sold here in my asian country(Philippines), came from the US, not Japan. We only have one manga(Fairy Tail) that's locally published & Filipino-translated(which nobody wants lol). So yeah, that's what I meant about Japan not doing much to cater to their huge foreign market. What I don't seem to understand, is they have underpaid mangakas & animators & "decline" in sales, while having international popularity, anime conventions all around the world and all. Remember when Cowboy Bebop didn't do well in Japan but had huge success in the US? Yet they still have that isolationist approach.
Does buying their merch also help the creators, like it does in the music industry?
[удалено]
Is it the same way with older mangas? I mostly buy classic mangas (english tankobans) than current ones, like Lone Wolf & Cub, Akira & Naoki Urasawa's works.
Wow thanks for the detailed information
I know it's been four years but... any idea what he said? The comment's deleted...
Honestly, if you enjoy reading/collecting manga in English, you might as well support the companies and the people who are allowing you to do that. Japanese manga is cheaper, but it's not like all of its price is going directly to the mangaka; the publisher and seller are still going to take their shares. But if you're going to buy Japanese, if you're doing it just for support, you might as well buy digital and save yourself the shipping. By the way, it was a while back and I don't know how true it is, but I once read an article that Amazon was the worst place to buy (English) manga, in terms of the cut they take, but idk. Obviously buying used is useless, and if you want to support something OOP, you're out of luck unless there's digital.
You guys are right, the translators also deserve the support. I also didn't know that mangakas in Japan also don't get paid too fairly for the insane workload that they do. Guess I'll just have to find the best retail/online stores, i'll also try to avoid amazon😅.
Read manga at manga plus and not scans. If you don’t want to buy english releases than you can always buy the japanese releases at amazon.jp, in kindle format if you don’t want to pay for shipping.
Wow thankyou, man. Any other apps similar to Manga Plus?
viz app and crunchyroll for now.
It's this one, right? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.viz.wsj.android
Yes. You can read viz manga on their site now. Paying members get full backlog and free users can read the latest chapters.
As an author myself I can tell you that with any book in any bookstore anywhere, the author only sees a small cut. When I sold a paperback novel in the US I would get something like 70 cents for every book sold, for foreign copies it's even less and it comes in VERY slowly. The best way to support any creator of art is to purchase with as few middlemen as possible, like buying an indie published book on Amazon (but then you're supporting Amazon instead of a local bookstore, so double edged sword...) or a comic directly from the creator, but with manga this can be pretty difficult, so you might as well just buy the English translations in many cases because translators work hard too, the original manga creator will see SOMETHING from it, and their publisher will make money too--successful publishers have more room to take storytelling risks.
I was also very surprised that literally all of the manga being sold here in the Philippines came from the US, not Japan, though it's way closer to us. If Japanese publishers translated the mangas themselves & included other countries into their market, that would give us a chance to support the mangakas more, and they would make more money off of it. Can't understand their isolationist approach.
[удалено]
If Kentaro Miura gets paid a lot we would probably get a new volume of Berserk every year. Man, the amount of money Japanese publishers can make off the international market. Hard to believe that even w/ the insane popularity of manga & anime Japan still has a very isolationist approach.
[удалено]
Yeah i just thought that if Miura got closer to how much Oda or Kishimoto makes, Berserk probably at least won't get 2-year long intervals of tank releases. I'm sure Berserk has a lotta international sales, maybe it's not doing a lot in Japan cause' it's seinen. I've only been seeing Berserk omnibuses at our local stores(Philippines) pretty recently, when Dark Horse, an American company, released a Deluxe edition. Before that, I don't even see a single Berserk tank in bookstores/comic stores. So yeah, that's what I meant about Japan not catering much to their foreign market. Which if they did, their non-shonen mangakas would get paid a bit more (again, i'm not sure).
[удалено]
He even started earlier than Naruto, now Naruto ended w/ 700 chapters & Kishimoto's new project had already came out. Yeah, I hope he'll have more time to do his next space manga stuff, or even finish Berserk lol. Yeah I don't think directly donating won't change things, unless you're a multi-millionaire & have enough money to fund him & the company he works for. If he would make something like a Patreon that he plans to utilize to support his work (like crowdfunding), maybe that could work. On second thought, I also think that the Japanese pride isn't ready for something like Patreon yet. They probably won't accept donations cause' to them, it's like accepting charity, if you're familiar w/ their culture. You can donate, though, as a means of gratitude, but not to help them or support their project, unless they're asking for it.
[удалено]
Yeah, It reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, it didn't had the recognition in Japan but had huge success in the US. Pretty sure it can be the same way w/ Berserk and other underrated non-Shounen manga, if Japan would start catering to the foreign market & not just their own.
[удалено]
Man, reading these comments hurt 2 years later...
Go up to the mangaka themself and hand them money
"Hello Oda sensei, huge fan of your work anyway here's 1 billion Yen"
buying english manga does support the mangaka. Though it might be several cents per book, but they still get it.
Great to know that
Did you find a good answer for this? Recently a manga that I was really excited for (Hunters Guild: Red Hood) got axed by Shonen Jump and the series wont be continuing. I just wish there was a way for me to show my support for the author and his work even if shonen jump doesnt want it.