When it comes to comic, a lot of people may regard it as children’s stuff and don not take it seriously. But along with the booming of the animes and 3D movies, we cannot deny that comic has generated a solid market not only just for kids, it entertains people for all age. Talking about the comic industry, Japan seems to be a great example for analyzing. In my view, the Japanese comic industry can be divided to three main parts as follws:
- Manga
Manga is a Japanese word means comic book.In Japan, manga constituted an annual 406 billion yen (approximately $3.6 billion USD) publication-industry by 2007. Manga is closely related to Japanese people’s daily life and people in all ages read manga. There are various kinds of manga such as action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce. Manga is always serializing in magazine and also publicizing as book-sized volume. Since the 1950s, manga have steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry. The most popular manga magazine in Japan is called Shonan Jump. It contains some most famous mangas that have been serialized for years. Recently, Shonan Jump has expanded worldwide, where distribution companies license and reprint manga into their native languages. Here is a picture of the English version of Shonan Jump.
2.Anime
Talking about anime, with the advancing in technology, it has becomes an visual arts that generates big revenues in movie industry. However, in Japan, the anime is not simply means “anime movie”. Anime is as popular as drama that appears on TV all the time. All the popular manga series all have their TV anime version or the special movie version. Speaking of Japanese anime movie, the Oscar Best Anime winner Hayao Miyazaki is really worth-mention. He is the most well-known anime master in Japen and all his movies are regarded as national treatures of Japan.
3. Comic-Related Products
In Japan, the selling of comic-related products is also a huge number. Stuff like toys, stationeries and costums are pretty popular among comic fans. Sometimes, the limited edision products can generate great reserve values in the future.
Besides that, cosplaying the comic characters by dressing and acting like them has became a job in Japan. People regards cosplay as a visual arts and it is very popular among young people.
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