U.S. Manga Sales More Than Doubled In 2021 - NPD Reports Sales Up 160% in Units 2 2

[Jayman]

On the third book of this, enjoying it very much!

[WolverineX]

One of my LCS owners has been asking if I think adding a manga section would help  his store.  he did a lot of magic the gathering but is moving out of that.

I see kids at Barnes and Noble all the time but what do you all think?  Has anyone seen manga be successful in a LCS setting or would it just be extra inventory?

[Jayman]

On 4/11/2022 at 2:21 PM, Wolverinex said:

One of my LCS owners has been asking if I think adding a manga section would help  his store.  he did a lot of magic the gathering but is moving out of that.

I see kids at Barnes and Noble all the time but what do you all think?  Has anyone seen manga be successful in a LCS setting or would it just be extra inventory?

 Not really sure. It’s probably more popular in different areas. Tell your LCS guy to start a poll or just ask the customers would an Anime section be of any interest? If yes he could maybe even sell some Gundam models and kits. My nephew loves to build them with his son.

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 4/11/2022 at 2:21 PM, Wolverinex said:

One of my LCS owners has been asking if I think adding a manga section would help  his store.  he did a lot of magic the gathering but is moving out of that.

I see kids at Barnes and Noble all the time but what do you all think?  Has anyone seen manga be successful in a LCS setting or would it just be extra inventory?

It sells at all of the book stores around me, but IDK how many people are waltzing into comic book stores looking for manga. IST sells it, though, too. Could be worth the investment.

Edited April 12, 2022 by theCapraAegagrus

[WolverineX]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:38 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

It sells at all of the book stores around me, but IDK how many people are waltzing into comic book stores looking for manga. IST sells it, though, too. Could be worth the investment.

I know! Everytime i was into barnes and noble,  there are always kids staying around the manga section.  One of my friends thinks it's because there is no agenda in them like comics these days... ofcourse,  he is also grumpy and old

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 4/12/2022 at 7:41 AM, Wolverinex said:

I know! Everytime i was into barnes and noble,  there are always kids staying around the manga section.  One of my friends thinks it's because there is no agenda in them like comics these days... ofcourse,  he is also grumpy and old

I simply avoid most of the comics that are clearly agenda-driven. Manga is definitely more simple than comics, though. Thinking about it, I likely did read more DBZ/Shonen as an adolescent. I was into the animated shows/movies and live-action comic properties than the books themselves. If I was a kid, I would rather watch Goku beat Buu's ace for hours than Lex Luthor create an island out of Kryptonite.

[lighthouse]

On 4/11/2022 at 2:21 PM, Wolverinex said:

One of my LCS owners has been asking if I think adding a manga section would help  his store.  he did a lot of magic the gathering but is moving out of that.

I see kids at Barnes and Noble all the time but what do you all think?  Has anyone seen manga be successful in a LCS setting or would it just be extra inventory?

It depends on how much casual foot traffic the store gets.

But I can tell you that for my store, all manga sells. All of it. My distributor only has volumes 4, 9, and 16 in stock? Order four copies of each. They will all sell. Volume 1 of (insert important title) is back in stock? Put me down for 40 of them.

I have eight linear feet of wall devoted to manga. Starting at knee height and going to about 7’ 6” up the wall. That section generated over four months rent in sales in 2021. And it generated about 1.5 months rent during the first quarter of 2022 so the pace is still accelerating.

Yes the obvious choices like My Hero and Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man all sell. And anything Junji Ito will sell forever. But I ask customers all the time “what else should I carry”. One of them mentions Blue Period (new manga currently on volume 5 or 6). I order it in, gone in two weeks. I’m now on my fourth reorder.

Manga sells.

[WolverineX]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:19 AM, lighthouse said:

It depends on how much casual foot traffic the store gets.

But I can tell you that for my store, all manga sells. All of it. My distributor only has volumes 4, 9, and 16 in stock? Order four copies of each. They will all sell. Volume 1 of (insert important title) is back in stock? Put me down for 40 of them.

I have eight linear feet of wall devoted to manga. Starting at knee height and going to about 7’ 6” up the wall. That section generated over four months rent in sales in 2021. And it generated about 1.5 months rent during the first quarter of 2022 so the pace is still accelerating.

Yes the obvious choices like My Hero and Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man all sell. And anything Junji Ito will sell forever. But I ask customers all the time “what else should I carry”. One of them mentions Blue Period (new manga currently on volume 5 or 6). I order it in, gone in two weeks. I’m now on my fourth reorder.

Manga sells.

Incredible. Glad to hear it's working out for you. That's my thought too because I saw my nieces and nephews all reading manga Christma8s morning and thinking it was such  a generational shift.

Did you advertise at all or did the news of manga at your store travel by world of month?  

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Wolverinex

[lighthouse]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:46 AM, Wolverinex said:

Incredible. Glad to hear it's working out for you. That's my thought too because I saw my nieces and nephews all reading manga Christma8s morning and thinking it was such  a generational shift.

Did you advertise at all or did the news of manga at your store travel by world of month?  

 

I think it’s briefly mentioned on our website. But usually it’s just people calling and asking if we have a manga section.

Barnes and Noble is still far and away the area leader for them. And I redirect folks there all the time. (We’ve taken a Macy’s Gimbels Miracle on 34th Street approach from day one. I send people to my competition all the time.)

I can’t compete with B&N on inventory. They have preferred arrangements with Viz so that if production runs are limited, B&N will get their entire order and other dealers get nothing. So if My Hero comes back in print and my distributors have seven random volumes out of the first twenty? I don’t wait around hoping for volume 1. I just order whatever is available. And it sells anyway.

[WolverineX]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:06 AM, lighthouse said:

I think it’s briefly mentioned on our website. But usually it’s just people calling and asking if we have a manga section.

Barnes and Noble is still far and away the area leader for them. And I redirect folks there all the time. (We’ve taken a Macy’s Gimbels Miracle on 34th Street approach from day one. I send people to my competition all the time.)

I can’t compete with B&N on inventory. They have preferred arrangements with Viz so that if production runs are limited, B&N will get their entire order and other dealers get nothing. So if My Hero comes back in print and my distributors have seven random volumes out of the first twenty? I don’t wait around hoping for volume 1. I just order whatever is available. And it sells anyway.

Thank you for the info.  That's very helpful. 

Are you holding onto any books yourself as speculation for the future? 

[WolverineX]

On 3/15/2022 at 11:12 PM, Jayman said:

On the third book of this, enjoying it very much!

What's it about?  Do I pick this up at Barnes and Noble?

[lighthouse]

On 4/12/2022 at 10:19 AM, Wolverinex said:

Thank you for the info.  That's very helpful. 

Are you holding onto any books yourself as speculation for the future? 

I haven’t done much. But there are a LOT of manga selling at 3x-8x cover price on eBay. Random titles go out of print for a few months and prices skyrocket. I’ve had customers tell me “yeah I just bought volume 1 on eBay for $80, I was so happy you guys still had volume 3 at cover price”.

[lighthouse]

Someday slabbed manga will be a thing.

And some people are going to get rich.

[Ken Aldred]

This small British chain sells a lot of manga, and has done for a couple of decades...

https://travellingman.com/collections/frontpage

https://travellingman.com/collections/manga?page=1

So, success with it is possible.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Ken Aldred

[awakeintheashes]

I purchased a large collection last year, which was from the 80s. It included a lot of the Viz versions of the Manga popular back then (Fist of the North Star, Justy, Pineapple Army). Wonder if any of that stuff will get love with the recent interest boom in Manga. 

[Rob]

Sounds like an area I need to research for flipping, and keep an eye out for.

[lighthouse]

On 4/12/2022 at 11:21 AM, awakeintheashes said:

I purchased a large collection last year, which was from the 80s. It included a lot of the Viz versions of the Manga popular back then (Fist of the North Star, Justy, Pineapple Army). Wonder if any of that stuff will get love with the recent interest boom in Manga. 

It may in the future. But right now it’s absolutely dead.

I can sell Akira. And I can sell a little bit of Lone Wolf and Cub. But literally any other comic-size manga there is no traction at all from manga customers. In their eyes it’s just not manga. I’ve tried putting out boxes of that stuff and encouraging folks to check it out. I may as well be offering 8-track tapes for the blank looks I get.

[awakeintheashes]

On 4/12/2022 at 11:42 AM, lighthouse said:

It may in the future. But right now it’s absolutely dead.

I can sell Akira. And I can sell a little bit of Lone Wolf and Cub. But literally any other comic-size manga there is no traction at all from manga customers. In their eyes it’s just not manga. I’ve tried putting out boxes of that stuff and encouraging folks to check it out. I may as well be offering 8-track tapes for the blank looks I get.

So dead. I sold and still sell all the Akira stuff pretty easily, but everything else won’t move. I did sell a set of Area 88 issues, but that was an outlier.

For as influential as Fist of the Northstar was, I thought it would have a few more fans of the Viz stuff.  

Edited April 12, 2022 by awakeintheashes

[lighthouse]

Greggy reacted to multiple posts in this thread with something other than confused. Can we have someone go do a welfare check? I’m worried he might be in trouble.

[Prince Namor]

From Wikipedia: Berserk is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, a lone mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the "Band of the Hawk"... As of May 2021, the Berserk manga had over 50 million copies in circulation, including digital versions, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

From me: I've finished the fourth (of ten so far) of the deluxe hard back collections, and this is amazing. Brutal and beautiful. The art and the story get better with each volume. It would make an awesome Game of Thrones type series or even Lord of the Rings type movie trilogy...

And for those who think all manga art is the same: