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Look! It Moves! #50 by Adi Tantimedh: Too Much Of The Old And Not Enough Of The New

Yes, it's time for me to talk about manga again.

When I heard that DC's manga line CMX was shutting down, the only surprise I felt was that it didn't happen sooner. It was like Macbeth hearing his wife had finally dropped dead: "She should have died hereafter…"

CMX always had a strange vibe to me, like DC was jumping on the manga boom bandwagon a little late, and rather half-heartedly. I'm sure the editors and licensers in the company were passionate about the titles, but the line had the feeling of being an also-ran. The biggest manga and anime titles and franchises had already been snapped up by Viz and Tokyopop, and with the latter already saturating the market with all sorts of Shoujo manga aimed at the teen girl market that dominates the American manga market, CMX' predominantly Shoujo list felt indifferent at best, and it didn't help that the line's reputation was tarnished very early on when they chose to censor the popular TENJO TENGE to the fury of hardcore manga fans, and perhaps they never quite recovered from that taint on their reputation.

It wasn't that the CMX line was bad, the vast majority of the books were perfectly decent, and upon examination, I think the editors actually made much smarter and more discriminating choices than Tokyopop did when they picked titles to publish. The problem is the majority of the books weren't that exciting. CMX never carried the charge of heat or buzz the way a hot title from Viz or Tokyopop did. Apart from Shoujo, they did have action adventure, thriller and Sci Fi/Fantasy manga as well, but not enough people seemed to notice. It was hard to notice if you're not actively looking. Some of the titles were hidden and neglected gems, like Kaoru Mori's Victorian England class romance EMMA or THE ASTRAL PROJECT, written by the creator of OLD BOY, the latter of which was the type of story aimed at smart 20somethings, unlike the majority of CMX' shoujo and shonen titles meant for younger girls and kids. It had all the story elements that would have made a perfect Vertigo comic, having a scientific-supernatural element combined with social commentary and character-driven drama about a 20something outsider hero whose life is changed by the psychic mystery the drives the plot, and if Vertigo had published it instead of CMX, it probably would have gotten some – ANY – promotion and better sales. I only stumbled upon it because I was browsing the shop at the time. It's a proper adult manga that's been completely dumped on the market. MUSASHI 9 was a decent but not overwhelmingly great teen secret agent series about an androgynous girl who's sent undercover to various schools to either protect the children of important people or foil terrorist plots (yeah, I'm damning it with faint praise here, but hey…). SWAN and FROM EROICA WITH LOVE are considered classics of the Shoujo genre in Japan. KIKAIDER is a 21st Century reboot of a popular android action series from the 1970s, but its fans were from the 70s, and current teenage manga fans in America probably didn't care about it. I'm just speculating, but perhaps from Time Warner's perspective, it really doesn't do them much good to be licensing franchises fully owned by major publishers in Japan when they would rather completely own and control their own franchises like Superman and Batman and the Vertigo titles that they can exploit and not have to share the movie profits with someone else. From a business point of view, I can't fault them for that.

Given that Viz and Tokyopop spent a lot of time and money promoting their titles the market, it seems strange that CMX, being part of DC and Time Warner with much deeper pockets, was barely promoted at all. It was as if DC willfully let the line die from neglect the same way they did with the girl-oriented Minx line. I have my own suspicions that DC really didn't want a manga line and grudgingly let CMX give it a go without giving it any real support, and probably felt validated in their belief that they really should stick to superhero comics for 40-year-old fans rather than try to appeal to the female or manga market. CMX' death and the downsizing of titles and staff at both Viz and Tokyopop, not to mention shuttering of other, smalle, manga publishers, Del Rey quietly canceling low-selling titles without any warning, would also indicate an implosion of the American manga market after years of market over-saturation with the same types of books over and over again. Not unlike the US superhero market, really.

What Viz and Tokyopop did right in their marketing was to promote not just manga and anime, but the idea of manga and anime as a lifestyle, an entire pop culture scene and community, which CMX didn't seem to try. The problem with pop culture is that it's transitory, especially when it's aimed at teenagers. Kids grow out of stuff, and the American market has not bothered to adapt to the fans growing older by promoting more mature and adult (by 'Adult" I don't mean nudity, sex or porn, by they way) titles for fans to grow into. That's how a market dies, and a major wasted opportunity. In Japan, every demographic is catered to. One of the biggest markets there is the 20something female market, or the josei genre. These are books aimed at professional women who think about relationships and work, and here in the West, with SEX AND THE CITY and the chicklit market going strong, you'd think publishers would have at least given it a try. Tokyopop just tossed out josei titles like SUPPLI, HAPPY MANIA and Erica Sakurazawa's books without any real promotion and they got buried under the avalanche of middling shoujo titles Tokyopop was pumping out to build its entire target audience out of. Again, no promotion or marketing so that the people who would actually read and like them knew they existed. At least Viz are making a proper stab at it with titles like NANA and some of the new Ikki line like RESTAURANTE PARADISO and ALL MY DARLING DAUGHTERS, packaging them in a way that makes them distinctive, though I wonder about the marketing or lack thereof.

I still wonder why Mayoco Anno's brilliant and funny HATARAKI MAN, a comedy-drama about a workaholic magazine journalist-junior editor who is really, really good at her job, so good that she earns the nickname (which means "working man') that makes up the series' title, and her navigating the minefields of work and how to relate to other women and men. The franchise was so big it spawned an anime, a live action series and a series of fashion tip and self-help books, remains unlicensed… maybe there's a conflict of interest between publishers, or it's because the series hasn't ended and Anno is currently on hiatus due to health issues (though the same issue hasn't stopped Viz from publishing NANA), or the publishers are asking for too much money. Who knows. The thing is, I still don't see manga or comics aimed young women being promoted enough, and American and British publishers haven't really made any real effort in commissioning graphic novels for the market. The book market already exists, but not the comics or graphic novel market. I don't see any publishers actually doing what any media company should be doing, which is to make a market suddenly realise that there is something they never knew they wanted until it showed up at last.

Aaaaand I've reached my limit. Next week I'm going to talk about thriller manga, how they're better at consistently creating surprise and thrills than US comics, and one in particular, UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, which is my newest source of comics fascination.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in grabbing any CMX manga before they completely disappear, I'm sure they're going to end up in the discount bins at your comics shops, the ones that bothered to carry manga to start with. Especially ASTRAL PROJECT.

Looking at pretty pictures at lookitmoves@gmail.com

© Adisakdi Tantimedh

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