Japan artist breaks manga publishing mold with simultaneous 3-country release

BEIJING (Mainichi) -- After having led the global comic market, the Japanese manga business is coming under pressure to adapt to the internet age. With this in mind, one popular Japanese author is testing a new publishing strategy, releasing a new science fiction title simultaneously in Japan, China and South Korea.

Yasuo Otagaki, author of the popular manga "Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt," released his new title "Diana & Artemis" in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, with formats including a vertical scrolling version for smartphones, which got its big break in South Korea and spread worldwide from there.

The new approach has "hidden potential to remove the borders of manga," Otagaki says, adding, "Until now, if a work wasn't a hit in Japan, we couldn't take it overseas. But if we release it in multiple countries at the same time, then it could first become popular overseas, creating more chances for manga authors."

"Diana & Artemis" is a science fiction story set in a city on the moon, depicting a pair of female investigators who track the theft of water resources, and the commotion the two cause. Science fiction is Otagaki's specialty, and he decided to experiment with the use of women in the lead roles as well as dashes of comedy.

The manga is being carried as a series in the Japanese magazine "Manga Action," published by Futabasha Publishers Ltd. It has also been released online though Mecha Comic in Japan, Xinmanhua in China, and Peanutoon in South Korea, among other outlets. The new title is available in four language scripts: Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Unlike typical Japanese manga, which use vertical text, the characters' lines are written horizontally to make it easier to publish the titles in multiple languages.

In print, the manga appears in black and white, but online it is in full color. On the web the layout comes in two formats: the conventional one in which users flip from page to page sideways, and the South Korean vertical scrolling "Webtoon" style -- a portmanteau of "web" and "cartoon." It is like an extended version of the vertical four-panel comic strip that is well-known in Japan.

It difficult to use conventional artistic techniques with this style, such as varying the sizes of panels and using double-page spreads. However, "Diana & Artemis" brings new tools to heighten reader satisfaction, such as the full colorization plus embedded videos.

The complicated process of dividing up languages and the screen formats has been made possible thanks to digital technology and cross-border cooperation. Otagaki sketches the comics as usual, and the data is sent to an image processing business in South Korea, where it is colorized and put into a Webtoon format. Otagaki then checks the finished product.

Otagaki's new approach was sparked by a tough period he faced as a manga author. In September last year, inflammation in his writing hand forced him to suspend "Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt." Three months later he resumed the series with an altered drawing style, and divided up some of the work to improve efficiency.

Around this time, Otagaki began talking with Futabasha about launching a new sci-fi title. A South Korean business involved in producing a colored version of Otagaki's new work suggested that image processing technology could be used to produce a "Webtoon" version. Otagaki then suggested to his publisher that this technology could be used to simultaneously release the work overseas, and the company was all in.

The domestic Japanese manga market has been in decline as it deals with the shift from printed to digital comic books. According to estimates from the All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association, the share of digital sales outpaced those of printed comic books for the first time in 2017. The following year, digital comic book sales reached 196.5 billion yen (about $1.8 billion), while sales of printed titles stood at just 158.8 billion yen.

"The common sense that applied to Japanese manga until now, as well as my own traditional approach, doesn't necessarily hold true anymore," Otagaki says. "I want to continue moving forward with the feeling a newcomer would have."

He is now waiting to see how readers in three countries will react to his new title, all at the same time.

(Japanese original by Keisuke Kawazu, China General Bureau)