Annual comic book sales set to sink amid dearth of popular titles
Comic books sales are expected to plunge about 12 percent for the year amid a dearth of popular titles and increasing demand for ebooks, a research institute said Monday. Sales of comic magazines targeted at adolescents are forecast to drop sharply, the Research Institute for ...
Kakao counting on Japan's love of manga to crack overseas market
Asia's messaging apps have a history of becoming huge in their home market before struggling to gain traction overseas. South Korea's Kakao Corp. is counting on the Japanese love of manga to break that trend. Amassing 43 million users at home has driven Kakao's market ...
New Kindai University library aims to lure manga lovers to academic works
A university in western Japan will open a library next month that has an unusually large proportion of manga in its collection, school officials say. The two-story Biblio Theater library at Kindai University in Osaka Prefecture is expected to have around 70,000 books, with about ...
Breaking the comic book glass ceiling
Four years ago, Chinese-American writer Marjorie Liu had a simple but persistent idea: create an epic fantasy comic book series about a classic Japanese kaijū (strange beast) movie monster that has a connection to a girl. She knew it should take place entirely in Asia, ...
Tokyo Comic Con calls on Hollywood's big guns for star power
As we sit down for an interview, Tokyo Comic Convention Committee Chairman Mitsuaki Munegumi casually points to a glass case in the center of the room. "There's actually a real 'Star Wars' lightsaber in there," he says, and reaches over. He pulls out a hilt ...
'Louvre Museum Exhibition: Louvre No. 9 — Manga, the 9th Art'
July 22-Sept. 25 Mention the Louvre, and most people will think of the "Mona Lisa" hanging in the hushed, historical surroundings. So it may come as a surprise to discover that the museum, famous for its collection of old masterpieces, also has a vested interest ...
Ambition and ego: Inside Nagamori's Nidec
Ambition matters more than brains in Shigenobu Nagamori's world. As chief executive officer of Japanese motor maker Nidec, Nagamori is known for his eccentric management style. Prospective employees have faced off against each other in eating and shouting competitions; new hires at headquarters in Kyoto ...
Japanese manga 'One Piece' exhibition opens in South Korea after court order
An exhibition of a popular Japanese manga series opened Saturday at Seoul's War Memorial of Korea after a court ruled the government-run facility was contractually obligated to run the show despite its objections. Around 80 fans, including families with children, lined up to await the ...
Cartoonist Ernst captured 'fish-out-of-water' gaijin as they floundered
Having often been told by the Japanese that he would "never understand" their culture because he was not one of them, American cartoonist Tim Ernst decided to embrace this notion and deploy it creatively.
Manga seek digital ground as print magazines languish
It wasn't too long ago that you couldn't ride a train or bus without seeing many of your fellow passengers engrossed in manga magazines. But smartphones and tablets are the ubiquitous sight these days, and in the past 15 years the manga magazine market has ...
North Korean missile launch draws 'strong' protest from Japan
Japan lodges a strong protest against Pyongyang over its test-firing of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
