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FLOPPING Since Japanese is usually written from right to left in works of fiction, manga is drawn and published this way in Japan. When various titles were first translated to other languages, the artwork and layouts were flipped and reversed in a process known as "flopping", so that the book could be read from left-to-right. However, various creators (such as Akira Toriyama ) did not approve of their work being modified this way, and requested that foreign versions retain the right-to-left format of the originals. Soon, due to both fan demand and the requests of creators, more publishers began offering the option of right-to-left formatting, which has now become commonplace in North America. Left-to-right formatting has gone from the rule to the exception. Translated manga often includes cultural notes for details of Japanese Culture that may not be familiar to foreign audiences. Another company, TOKYOPOP , is producing manga widely in the United States, with the right-to-left format as a highly publicized point. They are widely credited with starting the current boom in manga sales, particularly amongst teenage girls. Some critics have complained that their aggressive publishing schedule emphasizes quantity over quality, and might be responsible for translations which many feel to be of sub-optimal quality. Many also frown upon the company for their frequent localization changes, including additions such as American slang, excessive swearing that is not to be found in the Japanese originals of the same titles, and joke rewrites, among others. The critics tend to admit that their contributions to the success of manga in America have been considerable. FRANCE France is noted for having a particularly strong and diverse manga market. Many works that are published in France fall into genres that aren't well represented outside of Japan, such as adult oriented drama, or experimental and avant garde works. Authors such as Jiro Taniguchi who are relatively unknown in other western countries have received much acclaim in France. Part of the reason for the sheer popularity and diversity of manga in this country is due to it having a well established and respected comics market of its own. GERMANY Although the German comic market is rather small and usually reacts slowly in comparison to other European countries, manga created a new boom. After an unimpressive start in the early 1990s, the "manga movement" picked up speed with the publication of '' Dragon Ball '' in 1997. Today, manga account for approximately 75-80% of all comics published in Germany, with female readers outnumbering male manga fans. CHINESE LANGUAGE The company Chuang Yi publishes manga in English and Chinese in Singapore ; some of Chuang Yi's English-language titles are also imported to Australia and New Zealand . OCEANIA In Australia and New Zealand, many popular Japanese and Chinese language manga and Anime are distributed by Madman Entertainment . In Indonesia , manga has become one of fastest growing consumer industries, and Indonesia is now one of the biggest manga markets outside of Japan. Manga in Indonesia is published by Elex Media Komputindo , Acolyte and Gramedia , and has greatly influenced Indonesia's original comic industry. SOUTH KOREA In Korea, manga can be found in most bookstores. However it is also common to read manga online for a much cheaper price than a concrete copy of the comic. Publishers such as Daiwon and Seoul Munhwasa give out most of the popular manga in Korea. THAILAND In Thailand , before 1992, almost all available manga was fast, unlicensed, poor quality bootlegs. More recently, licensed translations have begun to appear, but are still inexpensive compared to other countries. Thailand's manga publishers include Nation Edutainment, Siam Inter Comics, Vibulkij, and Bongkoch. Thai society about manga, the parents are not support their children to be interested in Japanese manga. Actually, the parents would rather guard their children away from reading any manga. October 2005, there was a television programme (aired at 11pm Saturday), broadcasted about the dark side about manga contents, with exaggerated details. It was resulted in many banned manga in Thailand, causing many complaints towards that television programme. The problem was continuing on many major websites and magazines, and then finally stopped after the producer of the programme had made an apology to audiences. In this time, still exist many of unlicensed manga, in which the copyright issue are usually to be ignored by the Thai government, so as many pirates music CDs and movie VDCs and DVDs. OTHER DISTRIBUTION METHODS Another popular form of manga distribution outside of Japan is through the Internet Scanlation s, (or ''scanslations''). Typically, a small group of people scan the original version of a series with no current license in the language which they wish to translate it to, translate it, and freely distribute it; usually through the use of IRC or BitTorrent . Most Scanlation Groups request that downloaders cease distribution and purchase official copies in the event that their projects become licensed, though it is a common concern that readers will continue to use these unauthorized copies. Many readers prefer scanslations due to the frequent changes found in official translations, though scanslations are more likely to have some unintentional mistakes due to the varying degrees of skill employed by the unpaid translators. Some scanslators do make edits, though it is rare, especially compared to the official manga translation industry. MANGA INFLUENCES Manga has proved so popular that it has led to other companies such as Antarctic Press , Oni Press , Seven Seas Entertainment , TOKYOPOP and even Archie Comics to release their own manga-inspired works that apply the same artist stylings and story pacing commonly seen in Japanese manga. One of the first of these such works came in 1985 when Ben Dunn , founder of Antarctic Press , released '' Mangazine '' and '' Ninja High School ''. While '' and '' Amazing Agent Luna '' are Filipino and TOKYOPOP has hired a variety of Korean and Japanese artists to work on titles such as '' Warcraft '' and '' Princess Ai ''. Many of these works have been classified on the Internet with titles such as OEL Manga , MIC , and World Manga , though, none of these terms have actually been used by manga companies to describe these works on the books themselves. SEE ALSO |
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