Along with everything else in the world, the future of manga in the US is being examined — not that it’s going anywhere, but a few of the weaker companies may get picked off during the tough times ahead. Ed Chavez has a loooong list of manga titles from many, many publishers that are MIA, and examines part of the bigger picture:
One shocking trend of note is how many shoujo titles have been dropped. Shoujo appeared to be the safest demographic but with TOKYOPOP and UDON’s additions it is now showing much more weakness. Even titles from the Kings of Shoujo Hakusensha have found their way to the list. Hakusensha is by far the most popular choice for shoujo by publishers, as CMX, Viz, and TOKYOPOP have gone to their well in the past (Digital Manga and Comics One have as well for non-shoujo titles).
Ed notes that the charming and accessible YOTSUBA&! is one title that everyone would like to see come back — it was last published by ADV, who say they are eventually going to publish manga again, but no firm dates have been announced.
In other news, Johanna reports that at least one publisher is cutting out sending out review copies, although they will send them out if reviewers pay postage, which doesn’t sound all that encouraging. While we don’t know which company it is, the one that we’d guess it ISN’T — despite what one commenter guesses — is CMX. CMX is owned by DC and they are not very shy about sending out review copies, although where CMX is concerned, they prefer to send out galleys.
