It seems that mobile manga has given the manga industry the boost it needs from its small slump since 1995.

Since the industry’s peak of 586 billion yen in 1995, manga revenues have steadily declined to 448 billion yen in 2008 according to the Research Institute for Publication in Tokyo. However mobile manga has raked in 32.9 billion yen for the year ending in March. That’s 43 percent higher from the previous year. Analysts have even dubbed the cellphone “the savior” of manga.

Manga publishers have not publicly reveal the percentage of their revenue that comes from mobile manga. However many have privately said that it makes up approximately 10 percent. For now it is unclear whether mobile sales will make up for lost revenue.

The appeal of mobile manga has included its convenience and visual experience. People can read manga on a whim and just flip out their cellphones rather than carrying around the books. People have also stated that the lit up screen against the darkness made the graphics look more stimulating.

Females seem to have an attraction for mobile manga as they make up 70 percent of the readers. The best selling titles on mobile comic sites all involve romance. The most popular manga on the mobile are love stories involving sexually explicit content for women (not exactly porn but smut). Women who do not want to be seen reading these titles in public helped boost the mobile manga market. Cellphones can give one privacy that books and magazines lack.

Even though mobile manga has helped the industry, many analysts and fans have doubts to this form of distribution. Once translated to the small screen, the artists’ intent is lost and can not be portrayed properly. In magazines and books, comic strips come in all sizes and shapes and are placed in certain sequences to have a special visual effect allowing a smooth flow of reading. “That’s lost when each strip is displayed on the screen one by one,” stated manga professor, Mr. Rokuda.

It’s great that mobile manga is lifting the industy up from its slump but I prefer to have the actual book in my hands. It would be hard for me to read from a small screen and I would have to worry about battery life too (I’m a pretty slow reader). On the plus side it is cheaper to buy manga on the cellphone rather than in book form. Take Eiko Moori for example. She was able to buy the entire series of the shojo manga Mischievous Kiss, for 1,600 yen (~$17). That’s about 23 volumes and over 70 chapters!

[Source:New York Times]