Present and future of the manga industry #2

Sean Michael Wilson's opinion

Sean Michael Wilson tells it like it is (here pictured with some of his works).

Dear readers, my post about recent developments in the manga and anime industry generated a few comments, among them one from Sean Michael Wilson. Sean knows a thing or two about this subject because he has worked for many years as a comic book writer. So without further ado, here’s Wilson-san’s reply to the roundtable report.

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Most reports on manga and graphic novels focus on the increased sales nowadays. It comes from publishers, marketing people, sales people. As a professional comic book writer myself I'm happy to see the growth of sales, and my own books need that. However, in relation to manga we should mention various problems which very much need mentioned, rather than thinking everything is great and going in a good direction. 

1. Most of the sales are with mainstream manga tied to anime. That leaves a huge amount of much more interesting and intelligent manga still largely unknown.  

 
 2. Actual manga creators often benefit only moderately or very little from such large overseas sales. The vast majority of people, like me, who create comic books and manga earn quite a small amount. Far more attention should be given to getting more of this money to the creators who do the work. Is the Japanese business federation, the Keidanren, in its plan to use manga more to attract business to Japan, thinking of that aspect at all? Or is it just about getting more money to already huge companies?

 
 3. Another major problem I have never seen anyone mention is that the cultural flow is 99% one way, with almost no cultural exchange going on here. Though manga and anime are flowing FROM Japan to many other countries, there is almost nothing coming TO Japan. The vast majority of Japanese have never read a comic book from the UK or France or even the USA and show little interest in doing so. This is a great lost chance to increase international connections in Japan. Again, is the Keidanren thinking of that aspect at all?

I noted in another article that they wished to encourage non-Japanese experts to come to Japan and get more involved. Great. But I have been here working in the manga industry for 15 years and no one from the Keidanren or the government has ever asked me to do anything, or any of the artists I work with who do international work.  

I also saw that the Keidanren announced that they want foreign creators of manga/anime to be involved in their plan. So, I contacted them (politely, in Japanese and English) to tell them about my manga and comic book work in Japan ... Three months have passed and no reply so far! I'm 90% sure they never will reply. So much for their desire to have foreign people involved. And that is a significant related issue: with the strong focus on diversity in comic books nowadays, why is there a massive lack of international diversity among creators working for the huge Japanese manga industry? A tiny handful of non-Japanese creators work at a professional level for an industry that I estimate to be 20 times larger than the UK comic book industry. Apart from myself I can only think of 3 or 4 others. Why does no one mention this tiny amount as being problematic in an age of diversity and inclusion?

Yet another point to add: while artists and writers are mostly forgotten in regard to this issue of low payment, translators and letterers almost always are! Yet those steps are very important ones. The short-term change needed is greater awareness of the bad money situation of people involved in manga and anime. Fans should be pushing against that in the same way that they push against gender/racial abuse or environmental damage nowadays.  

 
But the long-term and fundamental problem is that nearly no one is talking about what the actual cause of the problem is: the basic economic system. And then almost nobody (basically, no one apart from me, it seems!), is focusing on suggesting in-depth solutions. This is my article exploring what that better system could be for creative artists of all types:

https://newint.org/2017/08/16/free-comics 

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It’s the same old story: those who actually create the works that so many people enjoy, are those who get the smallest piece of the pie. Speaking of which (and paraphrasing something I read in the Guardian,

… there is a good reason why not to support Tokyo Calling.

Not everyone can afford to pay for these stories right now. That is why I keep my writing open for everyone to read. If this is you, please continue to read for free. 

But if you are able to, then there are three good reasons to support Tokyo Calling today.

1. Quality writing and (hopefully) thought-provoking and entertaining stories.

2. I am independent and have no billionaire owner pulling the strings.

3. It doesn’t cost much - only 30 measly bucks for one year. I must be out of my mind!