Mainstream Manga is All VIZ’s Fault
Dated: 3 Sep 2007
From ComiPress comes this article from the Asahi Shimbun, which places much the blame credit on the shoulders of VIZ head honcho Seiji Horibuchi.
Okay, they’re probably right to some extent– they brought over a fair few of the titles that got people into manga, like Ranma 1/2. But honestly? I’d credit the anime and manga explosion largely to the Internet. Still, a neat article– Horibuchi has some interesting history. Homeboy was a hermit with his buddies for a year and a half? Groovy.
Tags: ranma-1/2, seiji-horibuchi, viz
September 4th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Just giving this a casual read (I was linked from TP) I would have to say that since nearly half the stuff on my shelf is from Viz, (and none of it’s Ranma 1/2, DBZ, Naruto, FMA or Inuyasha)that I can’t see why people look down on Viz so much for getting lucky with the liscenses to these manga. It’s because they’re rolling in the dough with popular titles that stuff like Phoenix, Nausicaa, and Monster get decent distribuion, so instead be thankful that Viz has enough money to put some into the really great stuff.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Well, first off, I don’t look down on VIZ at all; they publish some of my favorite manga (Host Club, Monster, etc), and I certainly didn’t mean to diminish their accomplishments. However, the Internet really did have an immense impact on the fandom in terms of connecting it, getting people interested and started reading, and therefore buying. It continues impacting the industry with tastemaking, promotion, and with keeping people interested via the many online communities. Not to mention continually attracting newbies…
That said, it’s also a little unfair to call VIZ “lucky” with licenses– they are co-owned by two of Japan’s biggest publishers, Shueisha and Shogakukan, so they have first dibs on anything those companies do. Generally they have the ONLY dibs. (Go ahead, ask any yaoi fan about a Shueisha or Shogakukan title and they’ll cry– VIZ doesn’t do yaoi, but no one else is really able to get their hands on those titles, so they sit unlicensed instead.)