Sunday, April 13, 2008

"Manga on the Way Down?"

There was a special on a weekly news program last night about how sales of manga magazines (typically weekly publications with ongoing bits of several different manga) have been falling. Apparently books sales of specific manga - like the long-running "Conan the Detective" - are still selling well, but people seem to be losing interest in the formerly hugely successful weekly magazines (printed on very cheap paper and looking almost like small phone books).

Maybe this ties in with dismal book sales in general - people are getting used to getting reading material off the Internet, and many don't buy any books at all. Whatever - I just felt sort of vindicated when I saw the report though, as I've been thinking that newer manga have gotten worse, so maybe others agree....

Somewhat related in how time relentlessly flows on, for both good and otherwise - here is a video showing both the modern face of Gotanda and a narrow backstreet from the past:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1223182558781752766

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/

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