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Publication of the U.S. version of a leading Japanese manga, with the layout in the Japanese reading format, may herald the start of a new Impressionist-like cultural era for the manga. Is "Shonen Jump," best-selling product in the history of American comic publishing, positioning manga on the edge of an Impressionist-like shift in tastes, or is it all just a kids fad?
The popularity of Japanese manga in Europe and the United States has remained undiminished for the past ten years. At first, manga were popular mainly with boys, but, in recent years, the introduction of "young girl comics" and other manga sub-genre have boosted the popularity of manga around the world. Even in Asia, where bootlegging is rampant, publication of legitimate editions is on the rise. Manga publications held a 20% share of all publication sales value (including books, magazines and manga) in the Japanese market in 2003. Deserving special mention here is the North American edition of "Shonen Jump." Surprisingly, the North American edition is printed with the text read right-to-left, just as in Japan. Until now, the rule in Europe and the United States was to publish books to be read horizontally, left-to-right, from the top-left page to the bottom-right of the page. Even Japanese manga, for overseas consumption, were printed in this "left-to-right" style. For this reason, the translated prints of Japanese manga were done by reversing the print block, resulting in all the characters in the story appearing left-handed. However, with strong demand from European and American fans eager to "see the real thing," right-to-left translations of Japanese manga are on the rise, and not just in the North American edition of "Shonen Jump." For Americans and Europeans who have always read horizontal characters only from left to right, it is not a stretch to characterize this as a small cultural revolution. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, Japanese-style books were combined with Western printing techniques, resulting in the creation of a unique "horizontal, right-to-left" publication culture and industry technique. However, Japanese manga are now setting off a comparable cultural revolution to the European and U.S. publishing industries. The scene of European and American children reading, for the first time, Japanese manga from top right to bottom left, is an event comparable to the 19th century French artists, who, upon seeing the Japanese "ukiyo-e," went on to create the Impressionist painting movement. Like the Impressionists creation of an art for the masses, the North American publication of "Weekly Shonen Jump" hints at the birth of a new global cultural form.
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| Source: Research Institute for Publications, 2004 Annual Publication Index. |
