Last week’s rumor that the Dark Horse manga Eden might be going on hiatus (a rumor that turned out to be false) sparked an interesting discussion on whether or not seinen manga — that is, manga for young, college-age men — has any chance in hell of selling reasonably well in the U.S. The conclusion? Not bloody likely:
This is not new news. The overaged fanboys can lament the demise of Raijin Comics and the failure of DMP to follow through with the seinen side of their initial “mandate” all they want. It just doesn’t change anything. They might be the ones to protesteth loudest on the Internet, and they might be the ones in control of the manga industry, but they’re not the ones with the buying power. And if it’s not clear to you by now who IS the demographic with the buying power, I’ll spell it out for you–Girls and Women. Who do not, surprise surprise, flock to Blood and Breasts in satisfyingly large numbers.
That’s not the only voice of doom. David Welsh, Johanna Draper-Carlson and Brigid all offer their thoughts. The concensus seems to be: publshing manga for any type of older audience, be it men or women is a tough sell. There may be a million different genres catering to a wide swath of ages in Japan, but so far it seems only a narrow selection has proven to be (immensely) popular on these shores.
