What If Manga like One Piece, Naruto & Bleach End?

01.05.2012 13:24

Top mangaka Akamatsu Ken has stated his misgivings about the reliance of the manga industry on the shonen holy trinity of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach, and what would befall publishers if these series were to conclude.

After describing some of the worsening financial results posted by top manga publishers, he describes his uneasiness about the situation:

^{It’s all pretty dire, although manga won’t drop dead just yet.}

^{However, they are relying on the bubble-like sales of a few titles – we have to wonder what would happen if in 3 years this bubble were to pop.}

^{For example, will Jump’s One Piece, Naruto and Bleach continue for 3 years? We can’t really predict what will happen to them (and even if the publisher wants to continue them, the authors aren’t always able to).}

^{The recent conclusion of the hugely popular Full Metal Alchemist brings this issue sharply into focus – not all series can be expected to continue indefinitely (Naruto in particular appears to have an eventual ending planned), and blockbuster successors for those which conclude have so far been conspicuously absent.}

Other mangaka have complained the industry is not developing new talent – a particularly 

precarious state of affairs when considered in conjunction with reliance on a few 

blockbuster titles which could end with no replacement in sight.

More than likely something else will come out in the meantime that will be just as popular and fill in the gap when the hot mangas end.

For me, I look forward to a few weekly mangas, but then I just read others to fill in my week while I am waiting. It is always sad to see one end, but there is always a new one to take its place, "The new superseding the old", truth of our life, right?

As far as the economy affecting the manga sales, I suspect people will still buy what they 

want to buy...I don't have a lot of money to spend (being that I was laid off) but here I 

am spending money on One Piece for every volume. 

^{Then there must be some friends would ask me: If you buy the manga books, then why you read} 

^{manga here? Ok, here is my answer: I keeps buying the books because I love the manga and I} 

^{want to collect them,  I keeps reading manga here because I want to read the new chapter} 

^{earlier, problem?}

So I don't think the economy stops manga sales as much as the availability in certain areas, or the inability to really know if you want to spend money on something new you don't know the content of (sort of like walking into Barnes&Noble and picking something randomly off the shelf).

I am hoping that some mangakas will be looking into just publishing their works online, 

instead of paper versions (and have them translated upon publishing). It is the wave of the 

future where people would rather shop from the comfort of home - the mangakas would be 

better served to put this into practice instead of having their works pirated. 

Anyways, I feel that whichever mangaka does this will probably make a killing in sales just because of ready availability of their works, even if the storyline isn't as interesting as others on the market.

Every industry has to adapt to changes and overcome hurdles, I am sure the manga industry is no different. I am sure they already have measures in place and I look forward to seeing them. 

Now, what's your opinion? 

Note: This article is written by Constantin, one of the fans of Mangahere, and we post this for a better communication for our fans or manga lovers, so the points of this article has nothing to do with Mangahere.