Ed Chavez of Mangacast uses the PW article on manga-ka Kiriko Nananan as a springboard for a discussion of josei manga. Ed points out that there’s actually a lot of josei out there, but it’s not being marketed as such, and to prove his point he offers a long list of manga that appears in josei magazines in Japan. The list shows the breadth of the category—Alichino, Paradise Kiss, Nodame Cantabile, Reiko the Zombie Shop—yet it’s not really marketed to the target audience.
I guess my point in the end is that while I know some publishers like the idea of just publishing manga without labels, sometimes the labels can work. Look at Shonen Jump or Yaoi Manga (for Viz and DMP respectively). With more exposure to more josei, it might be about time to start specifically targetting that market.
I agree, and I also agree with Ed that this is an essential step toward finding a broader market for manga.
I have long said it is the final step before finding out if manga has made it here. Not just releasing it but properly marketing it. And if CPM and others try to get that point across, I seriously don’t see how this train can be stopped. Manga will have a voice for everyone. A flavor for every pallate. So from that point on it would be easy to see yanki manga, sports manga, magical girl manga and so on because the manga creep would cover it all.
That’s interesting. I’m not as familiar with the magazines the manga are originally serialized in so I had no idea so many of the series on that list could be considered josei.
[...] Add Precocious Curmudgeon’s David Welsh to the list of those who think josei manga is an idea whose time has come. “I’ve been wondering when someone would make a concentrated appeal to the potential audience for josei works,” he says, then points out a few efforts that have fallen short: Dark Horse’s Harlequin line, which appeals almost exclusively to people who like Harlequin Romances, and Tokyopop’s Manga After Hours line, which never seems to have gotten off the ground. [...]