But I do ask, what manga do you refer to that got movie rights? DBZ was clearly on the success of the tv show, and the final product was an incredible embarrassment to the original source material and arguably disturbingly racial as the main character was white for no other reason than him being white…

It’s noticeable enough to get movie rights to certain titles. So it must be doing somewhat well.

BTW, I have to add that the person who asked John is probably right, in the case of the sped-up release of the One Piece manga. That series is nowhere near Naruto in terms of popularity, even if FUNi’s handling it, instead of 4Kids. So Viz would do better to discount those upcoming volumes and get them out of stores, because they risk taking a real loss from unsold copies. But, really, what the company should have done is sped up the release gradually, since it’s not even close to finished in Japan yet. [Or is it?]

Doujins are a different animal, so it doesn’t really apply to the market discussion of manga here. Manga generally is as low as $3 to $9.($1 = Y100 math here) There are the occasional $12 to $18 but its incredibly rare.

“You’ve got it backwards. Manga in Japan is cheap, because it’s popular.”

They’re both right. Its the hen and egg argument. Its able to be cheap because its popular, its popular and therefore cheaper, making it more popular.

“So the genre must be at least beyond the “niche” market by now.”

It’s still really niche. Maybe in a generation or 2 it will change. But until then, good luck calling it ‘mainstream’

“Anyway, while you think this is pricey, at least it’s not as bad as the American comic book industry…”

You can’t even create series with a beggining and an end in the US. Other people constantly drawing other peoples super heroes with new spin off stories that may not relate to each other officially or may with 100′s of different artists and books and pasts and etc…. and to top it off it all stems from the fact that the publisher has the artist by the balls….. how sad.

Actually, that varies, depending on the manga. For example, they’ll charge whatever the hell they want on doujin at Japanese cons. But if it makes you feel better, English-translated manga used to be a minimum of $15 a volume, up until the mid-to-late 90s.

“I know that when a manga is printed in the United States there is some effort for translation and research, but it seems like the profit margin on US printed manga must be very high. ”

Actually, depending on the title, companies might barely break even on it.

“One of the reasons manga is so popular in Japan is that it is very cheap.”

You’ve got it backwards. Manga in Japan is cheap, because it’s popular.

“Only otaku are willing to pay $10 per volume, so manga will always be just a niche market.”

Manga’s still out-selling the American comic book market and it’s still cheaper than the average text-only Harry Potter and Dan Brown books. Not to mention that SJ’s survived in an almost-dead market. So the genre must be at least beyond the “niche” market by now.

John: You also have to take into account that one of the reasons manga is published so cheaply in Japan is because the artists and/or authors are paid according to how many copies they sell, not according to the popularity of the publisher. And it seems like the industry over there is actually losing money on manga in general right now, which might force similar price-hikes in the near future, just to keep up with inflation.

Anyway, while you think this is pricey, at least it’s not as bad as the American comic book industry, where you’re forced to cough up $20 for less than 80 pages of the likes of “The Killing Joke”, just because they decided to sell it in HC. And even if it sells, the publishers will still look for ways to dick you out of your share of the revenue.