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Interview with Stuart Levy, President, Inc. COVER STORY • 4 What Lies Behind the Global Success of ? By JEF Editorial Section

APANESE animation is widely rec- as well as the popularity of video much more than boys. But the tradi- J ognized as one of the leading content games, especially among teenagers. tional American comics tend to be dark businesses of the country, but it is When they were younger, four or five heroes, evil people and some crazy guys manga, or Japanese comics licensed for years ago, Pokémon and first getting into a big fight, which is not foreign-language publication (graphic started coming out, so these young peo- really interesting to girls. Girls tend to novels), that have recently shown dra- ple have grown up very comfortable be more interested in fantasy. And matic growth in the world market. with anime and this kind of design. there are a lot of fantasy stories in Especially in the , sales of Manga is the origin of anime and video manga. So if you combine the populari- manga have exploded at a remarkable games so these young people have a nat- ty of Sailor Moon and this tendency of pace; the figure was $50-60 million in ural tendency towards being interested young people, manga is perfect for girls. 2002, then climbed to $90-110 million in the content of manga.” We started to publish stories for readers in 2003.1 The increasing number of female who are a little bit older after the initial “The biggest jump was between 2002 readers is playing a significant leading success of Sailor Moon, and those who and 2003; it grew over 100%, more role in this boom, and 60% of graduated from Sailor Moon started than doubled,” Stuart Levy, who founded TOKYOPOP’s buyers are young women. reading them.” the market-leading company TOKYOPOP This is noteworthy as traditional The content of manga varies from in 1996 and triggered the boom, American comics are historically unpop- romance to adventure, history, sports explains in our interview. “But in ular among them. According to Levy, and even politics, succeeding in grab- 2003-2004, growth was more about the influence of Sailor Moon characters bing a broad range of readers. 40% and was slowing some. This year was quite strong. There is another factor which has we are only looking at about 20% “In general in America, girls read helped to make manga so popular in the growth. What is happening is just as same as in any industry, for any con- sumer product, you have early adaptors and the early adaptors are all now manga readers. The next step is to try to convert casual users and this is going to take some more investment.” In fact, the market is continuing to grow, and several publish- ing companies have started their own manga lines. Del Rey, an imprint of in partnership with , entered the market in May 2004, Penguin Group USA will publish some titles this spring and Hyperion Books for Children, a division of Disney Publishing Worldwide, is also expected to start publishing this year. Established manga publisher VIZ, a joint company of and , announced in January that it would merge with ShoPro Entertainment, creating a new venture in San Francisco to promote Japanese manga and animation in North America. “We have seen a tremendous increase in manga readers over the past five years,” Levy says. “It is very much in relation to the increasing awareness of Stuart Levy helped to trigger the global manga boom

Note : 1) Chicago Tribune, Jan. 5, 2005

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United States. Instead of comic hobby very subtle and rich. You find it very the graphics. So we came up with a shops, the main distributor of the ordi- simple yet at the same time very com- campaign of 100% authentic Manga in nary American comic books, which are plex. This balance, I think, just hits the the year of 2002.” usually located in off-street areas, Levy right emotional chord in the young peo- With this style, publishers can avoid chose high-street book chains as the ple.” the trouble of reversing each plate so sales channel. This groundbreaking Levy sees the base of these distin- they can offer a competitive price. Now marketing method hit a jackpot, and guishing designs in traditional Japanese all manga in America follow this style. these big national book chains recorded paintings, such as those of Hokusai, and For new readers, there is an explanation the largest sales growth in 2003 among praises manga for a beautiful combina- of how to read the manga on its last the other manga retailers such as inde- tion of Japanese traditional simple page (the first page if it is a regular pendent stores and music/video chains.2 design and American comic expression. American book). Some manga even add “The hardest thing was,” Levy recalls, “Hokusai is famous for influencing explanations for the sound effects. “to get the stores to understand that the European Impressionists, and “Most of the readers,” Levy smiles, there is a market for manga. Big chains and the Western world have been influ- “cannot understand them but they can are very conservative – they want the encing each other back and forth for get the feeling from the way they are hip product that everyone knows. If many centuries.” drawn. Even when you are reading in you bring them something new, they Levy regards TOKYOPOP as a bridge Japanese, you are not really reading the generally say, ‘No, no, we’re not inter- between the East and the West, and so sound effects, are you?” ested.’ So getting them to try some- he introduced the current standard Now he has gone a step further, diver- thing new was very hard. We had to manga format, read from the right to sifying his business into making animat- make many, many presentations about the left, just the same as the Sailor Moon and luckily it was on TV. Japanese original, to the Once they saw it worked well, we could world. get them to try another one.” “At first we had to Since 2004, Levy has expanded its change all the content to go sales channels to mass retailers such as backwards, to left-to-right, Wal-Mart and SHOPCO. He explains because retailers did not this is needed to develop new readers. want to try the Japanese “Now we have found the first group style. But we really wanted of manga fans, but those early adaptors to keep the Japanese style, are the kinds of people that are very so that we could keep the proactive, searching for something new. sound effects in Japanese. Most of the population just want to It looks cooler, and also the wait until something comes to them. artists are much happier if Manga is starting to be kind of main- we don’t have to change stream but is still niche. So, our next challenge is to go from niche to more mainstream; to find the break-out titles.” So, what is the attractiveness of Japanese manga in the eyes of American people? Levy thinks it is foremost the design. “Its very fresh design is significantly more important than any other factors,” he speaks passionately. “The next would, of course, be the characters themselves, and the third would be sto- ries and dialogue. But the design, the look, the visual stimulation of the excit- ing design style and the talent of the artist are absolutely the most important. Unlike traditional American comics, the A TOKYOPOP bookshelf (right) and lines of manga are much simpler but explanations for foreign readers

Notes : 2) Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 9, 2004

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Photo: TOKYOPOP Inc. ed versions of manga, selling DVDs and base of the current the merchandising, all very popular worldwide marketing styles in the Japanese enter- Japanese anime/ tainment business, to make the maxi- manga boom, Levy mum use of manga content. He also does not agree hosts a competition “the Rising Stars of with them at all. Manga” to search for new comic talent “It is all excuses, in the United States. “We found that this is what the one of the favorite things manga readers bootleggers say to like to do besides reading manga is justify what they drawing manga. They are not yet very do,” Levy states talented but they try and we can flatly. “In reality encourage this kind of manga culture by they are just tak- providing an opportunity for these ing away the prof- young talents to get published under the its from the cre- TOKYOPOP brand. We have held the ators. For all contest five times so far and the quality entertainment A new series: “” keeps getting better and better. This businesses, pro- year, we are actually going to publish tecting rights is a big problem and right that some smaller publishers have been 5,000 pages of original manga created now there is no easy answer. I think the facing tough times since last year and a by young Americans who love Japanese best thing is to try to provide value that shakeout has begun.3 On another front, manga. Our business is in diversifica- is hard to copy, and we are lucky to have new talent from Asian countries as well tion from licensing to original creation books because right now books still can- as the US will continue to emerge. That with the young people who are growing not be duplicated digitally. But music means even though Japanese content up with Japanese culture.” and animation are hard to protect so this still keeps its edge, as Levy says, we can As he explains, TOKYOPOP has is an issue for everybody.” not just sit on its reputation and early launched a new series, Princess Ai, a Another concern is the rise of Asian success. He adds a suggestion that there joint project of American and Japanese content with strong official support for should be some ups and downs in this artists to make an original manga. The their domestic content industries. It has market. series is also teaming up with a Japanese long been pointed out that Japanese ani- “Some of the Japanese content will be animation company to make a TV ani- mation skills are flowing out to these extremely successful worldwide, but just mation. “This is an exciting co-enter- countries. Levy thinks, though, that the like other businesses, many things fail. prise for us,” Levy says with enthusiasm. situation is not so critical. So, there will be some hits and some The Japanese government is begin- “It is more apparent in animation failures, and the people in the business, ning to seriously tackle the content busi- than manga, because animation takes a the entertainment companies, should ness. Although Levy is only used to team and there is a lot of manual work. not just think about making quick work with the private sector, and is not This manual work is outsourced to money in the short term. You have to sure whether it helps the content busi- South Korea, lately to China and India, have a long-term perspective.” ness as a whole, he seems to welcome where the labor costs are lower. But the Levy declares he believes in Japanese the move. “Usually in America, when creative control is maintained by content and its power to influence the the government gets involved, it is a Japanese creators. Now South Korea is creation of Western content. As he men- very bad sign as they are causing prob- actually starting to get more active in tions, manga could be one of the most lems. But Japan has had a much better trying to become very creative and their fascinating cultures in the world. We history of the government helping economy has faced some challenging Japanese of course, can be proud of it, industry’s efforts, as has been the case times, some of them are getting pretty but at the same time, it is also signifi- with automobiles and consumer elec- good, but they still have to learn and get cantly important to search for new possi- tronics. It is interesting to see.” more experience.” bilities and get new ideas which were cre- However, if you view the content busi- Some view the current worldwide ated by foreign talent. It will be best to ness as the national strategy for the manga market explosion as just “a bub- put ideas together from our manga cul- industry, addressing the issue of protect- ble,” and while manga distributors eye ture and the US and Asian new power, ing production rights from bootlegging Europe and as the next big like “the East and the West mixing back and illegal downloading is inevitable. markets, the sales figures in the United and forth working with each other” in While there are still some strong opin- States indicate the market is becoming Levy’s words, then manga’s future will be ions that such fanatics have created the more selective. Actually it is reported as bright as ever.

3) ICv2 News, Feb. 4, 2005.

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