Jump is taking Shojo Manga Readers by storm
On November 14th, the Chuokoron website published an interview between a manga author and a critic, which raised interesting points about the current state of the manga industry.
The interview was between Tokushige Kawakatsu, manga author and editor, and Japanese critic Yoshiharu Ishioka. So let’s go to the summary of what was said in this interview between the two parties, just the interesting points.
For them, Jump is taking over the Manga Industry, especially Jump+, which is dominating young manga readers.
To get an idea, new manga creators previously participated more in the Shikisho award, which is an award for new mangakas, but most of them have changed and given preference to Jump +.
Jump is taking Shojo Manga Readers
Jump + is Jump’s online manga platform, apart from this change, the two also believe that nowadays women are reading less shojo manga than in previous years, they have completely switched to Shonen manga and that is why Jump + is so popular .
They cited for example SPY x FAMILY, which has a lot of women reading.
Regarding Webtoons, the famous Korean comics, yes, they are becoming more and more popular, but that doesn’t mean that Webtoons are going to replace current Japanese manga, the two can live together.
Social Networks INFLUENCE too much!
Attention to this point, the popularity of a manga author on social networks is something important today, it even influences the decision of publishers.
Self-presentation by creators has become a much more important factor nowadays, and due to this influence of social networks, the characteristics of each magazine are now of little importance to creators.
Finally, could editors’ jobs be at risk? According to what has been said, there is an expectation nowadays that creators no longer need the help of editors to become professional mangakas.
However, according to what has been said, the current situation of the Industry only reinforces the importance of editors for mangakas.
You can read the whole interview (in Japanese) here