Underpinning the massively popular anime industry is an even more popular industry that feeds it—Japanese graphic novels, commonly known as manga. And manga is hotter than ever.

Action-fantasy powerhouse Demon Slayer, animal romance Beastars and comedy series Spy X Family all originated as manga. And while it has been massively successful in foreign markets for nearly two decades, manga is really flourishing in North America right now, with US based publishers such as VIZ Media and Square Enix Manga reporting that sales in the region have more than doubled in the last two years.

Manga is now the number-one graphic novel format in North America, beating the likes of Marvel and DC Comics on their home turf. In a February 2022 report, the NPD Group noted that manga was responsible for one-quarter of all growth in the US book market in 2021, and the publishing category’s annual sales were up by US$218 million year over year.

Several factors are at play that have helped Japanese graphic novels skyrocket to these new heights, according to Masaaki Shimizu, GM and publisher of Square Enix’s manga and books imprint. “The driver behind the unprecedented growth for manga is a chain-reaction effect, triggered during the early stage of the pandemic and amplified throughout it,” he says. “It began with major video streaming services experiencing a surge in their subscriber numbers, which led to anime gaining more and more attention, and increased consumer interest in the original manga series.”

When physical stores began reopening in 2021, major book retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million started dedicating more shelf space to manga, while independent bookstores, comic book shops and even retail giants like Walmart and Target began carrying manga titles for the first time, adds Shimizu.

Despite being a new competitor in the market, Square Enix Manga has experienced growth each year since it was founded in 2019, driven by titles such as action-fantasy saga Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, wholesome slice-of-life series A Man and His Cat and the LGBTQ+-targeted I Think Our Son Is Gay.

Set in a fictional Death City, Soul Eater is a manga, anime and video game series licensed for distribution in North America by Square Enix Manga

In its first year alone, Square Enix released 24 manga titles and five tie-in books based on video games. Its annual output has expanded significantly since—the imprint currently has 59 publications expected to drop by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, the largest manga publisher in North America, VIZ Media, continues to hold steady, publishing between 300 and 325 volumes a year. Founded in 1986 and owned by Japanese publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan, VIZ publishes six of the fastest-growing manga series in North America, according to the NPD Group’s February 2022 report.

In addition to Demon Slayer, these titles include long-running graphic novel series such as Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Promised Neverland and several horror graphic novels created by author Junji Ito. Each of these series has spawned an anime series that is currently airing on a streaming platform; and another—dark fantasy Chainsaw Man—is set to premiere on Crunchyroll in October.

While an anime adaptation launch or announcement can result in huge sales spikes for the company’s manga titles, it isn’t required for a publishing rollout in North America, says Kevin Hamric, VIZ’s VP of publishing sales.

“Manga just needs to have a good story and good art,” Hamric tells Kidscreen. “We have the luxury of being owned by the two largest publishers in Japan, so we get to see how a manga performs there and what kind of success it has, but it also has to be able to be translated and understood in English. There are many manga series that we do not bring over or translate because they wouldn’t work in a Western setting.”

Manga is no longer a niche category in North America like it was in the early 2000s, adds Hamric. “Manga is mainstream now—it’s a mass-market category,” he says. “People who grew up with manga, hearing from mom and dad that it’s taboo, now have kids of their own. So now they’re very accepting of it and encourage their kids to read it as well.”

To increase the accessibility of its titles, VIZ launched a digital Shonen Jump subscription service in 2018 for US$1.99 per month. The platform features more than 15,000 manga chapters that readers can download, ranging from long-running series such as 1987’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and pirate-themed One Piece, to titles that have yet to be released in print in North America, such as four-panel comic strip Lucky Star and sci-fi comedy Agravity Boys.
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Hamric says this is the most economical way for newbies to get into reading manga for the first time. And for experienced readers, the benefit of the subscription is the ability to access day-and-date releases of newly translated chapters in sync with their Japanese launches.

While it took manga nearly two decades to become a mainstream category, an emerging trend in the graphic novel industry is the rapid adoption of webtoons and Korean graphic novels known as manhwa.

LA-based digital manhwa publisher WEBTOON reported a global user count of 82 million readers in January—an increase of 10 million since the company’s last tally in 2020, according to Statista.

Looking to tap into the budding success of WEBTOON’s online platform, New York’s Surge Licensing inked a deal with the publisher this year to develop brand licensing strategies and design new licensing and merchandise programs for its original IPs in North America.

Many of WEBTOON’s titles aren’t associated with an anime or live-action series adaptation, but the size and feedback of the manhwa community means there’s enough potential to support diverse CP programs, says Elan Freedman, Surge’s entertainment brand strategist.

“We’re always looking at chatter—whatever we can scour from our own data—and what we’re seeing online and at conventions,” Freedman adds. “And the beauty of WEBTOON being a primarily app-based business is that you can create a dialogue [with fans] and learn a lot about what your audience wants.”

Surge will target three core pillars as it maps out CP programs for the publisher: fashion, home goods and toys. Freedman says it’s an exciting opportunity for the licensing agency because of the potential to develop new, untapped audiences for the genre.

“Compared to the rest of the anime and manga world, what makes WEBTOON so unique is its Gen Z audience,” he notes. “Seventy-five percent of our viewers are 12 to 24 years old, and the platform has a massive female audience, which traditionally has not been served in this space.”

Manga’s ability to continue to spawn sub-genres geared to new audiences is a good indicator of its staying power. And where there is original content to be made, there is opportunity to be had.