Category Archives: Manga

The Kodansha Files: Viz Media vs. Kodansha USA iPhone App (Pt.2)

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CRITERIA #4 -RESPONSIVE
KODANSHA COMICS USA-BAD EXAMPLE
I ENCOUNTERED DIFFICULTIES  INITIALLY LOADING  THE APP.  EVERY TIME THE APP OPENED THE IMAGE BELOW APPEARED. THE LOADING TIME TOOK AT LEAST 5 MINUTES.
KodanshaSync
CRITERIA # 5 CONSISTENT
VIZ MEDIA & KODANSHA IPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLES
CONSISTENCY IN THIS CASE IS REINFORCING HOW USERS SHOULD READ THE MANGA. VIZ MEDIA AND KODANSHA UNDERSTAND THAT AMERICAN END-USERS MAY NOT BE AS FAMILIAR WITH THE JAPANESE MANGA READING STYLE. CONSEQUENTLY, BOTH MADE EFFORTS TO ACCOMMODATE THESE READERS BY INSTRUCTING THEM HOW TO PROPERLY USE THEIR PRODUCTS.
VizMedia_4  
CRITERIA #6 ATTRACTIVE
VIZ MEDIA & KODANSHA IPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLES
  • BOTH USER INTERFACES ARE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING TO END-USERS. OBVIOUSLY BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER (OR IN THIS CASE THE USER), BUT THE LOOK OF AN APP DOES INFLUENCE HOW I INTERACTED WITH BOTH PRODUCTS. INTERFACE ELEMENTS SUCH AS BUTTONS AND ICONS CAN MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE IN HOW THE USER FEELS ABOUT USING THE PRODUCT.
CRITERIA #7 EFFICIENT 
KODANSHA IPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLE
KODANSHA DEVELOPERS UNDERSTAND THAT YOUNG CONSUMERS MAY NOT KNOW HOW TO SELECT FREE PRODUCTS OR AGE-APPROPRIATE PRODUCTS. SO IMPLEMENTING THIS “AGE-RATING” SYMBOL HELPS. MOREOVER, IT HELPS TO CLEARLY OUTLINE WHICH PRODUCTS ARE FREE, FEATURED AND NEW.
  
KodanshaFree

VizMedia_3

 

CRITERIA #8 FORGIVING
VIZ MEDIA & KODANSHA IPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLES
  • LASTLY, I FOUND THAT BOTH MANGA APPS ALLOWS THEIR CUSTOMERS TO RECOVER FROM THEIR MISTAKES. FOR INSTANCE VIZ MEDIA GIVES CUSTOMERS CONFIRMATION MESSAGES ASKING IF THEY ARE SURE ABOUT THEIR PURCHASE. CUSTOMERS WHO ARE UNSURE OR NEED ADDITIONAL TIME MAY CANCEL THEIR ORDERS. VIZ MEDIA ALSO REQUIRES ALL CUSTOMERS TO REGISTER THEIR PROFILES IN THE SYSTEM TO BETTER TRACK THEIR TRANSACTIONS, WHICH HELPS IN CASES THERE ARE IDENTITY FRAUD.
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The Kodansha Files: Kodansha USA iPhone App vs. Viz Media (Pt.1)

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Good Evening Readers,
Hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since I last posted on The Kodansha Files. I get a bit nostalgic when remembering the long hours spent researching Kodansha USA‘s business model and articulating that in writing. When I last visited this world, the manga publisher had recently launched it’s iPad app.  At the time it was clear Viz Media was leaps and bounds ahead of Kodansha USA. It was evident then that its business model needed restructuring. Though Kodansha USA had immensely popular titles, Sailor Moon and Fairy Tail, its competitor Viz Media had many more.
To compete in the U.S. market, its executives could not just emulate Viz Media’s infrastructure, its business model had to surpass it. Launching the iPad was a small step in the right direction, evolving and expanding Kodansha’s reach is an even bigger one. Tonight is about comparing these two conglomerates iPhone apps user interfaces side by side. Who better to decide how successful these iPhone apps are then a U.S. consumer who is unfamiliar with manga? If Kodansha USA truly intends to dominate the manga market then its products must set the standard, not follow it.
8 CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL USER INTERFACE
CRITERIA #1: CLEAR
VIZ MEDIA IPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLE
  • LOOKING AT THIS SCREENSHOT BELOW IT’S EVIDENT THAT CUSTOMERS CAN EASILY FIGURE OUT HOW  VIZ MEDIA’S APPLICATION WORKS. VIZ MEDIA ALERTS CONSUMERS TO SIGN UP WITH THE COMPANY TO ACCESS A FREE PRODUCT. MOREOVER IT INFORMS THEM ON HOW TO CONTINUE RECEIVING ALERTS ON THEIR MOBILE DEVICE.
VizMedia_1
CRITERIA #2: CONCISE
KODANSHA iPHONE APP – GOOD EXAMPLE
  • THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A CONCISE GLOSSARY READERS CAN REFERENCE WHILE READING. KODANSHA’S DEVELOPERS COULD HAVE OVER-CLARIFIED THE DEFINITIONS AND CREATED HYPER-LINKED ALERTS THROUGH THE MANGA, BUT IN THE END IT WOULD HAVE BEEN INFORMATION OVERLOAD . KODANSHA’S METHOD IS MORE SUBTLE AND THEREFORE MORE EFFECTIVE. THE MANGA’S JAPANESE TERMS ARE EXPLAINED IN ONE OR TWO SENTENCES WHICH SAVES THE READER VALUABLE TIME AND ENHANCES THEIR READING EXPERIENCE.
KodanshaGlossary
VIZ MEDIA IPHONE APP – BAD EXAMPLE
  • PUSH NOTIFICATIONS ARE ALERTS GENERATED THROUGH APPS TO INFORM YOU WHEN AN UPDATE OCCURS. HOWEVER, IN THIS CASE IT SEEMS REDUNDANT IF THE CONSUMER WILL BE CREATING A PROFILE ON VIZ MEDIA’S WEBSITE APPLICATION. MOST LIKELY CONSUMERS WILL CHOOSE TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS VIA E-MAIL, WHICH WON’T USE THEIR CELLULAR DATA USAGE.
VizMedia_2
CRITERIA #3-FAMILIAR
VIZ MEDIA IPHONE APP & KODANSHA   – GOOD EXAMPLES
  • MANGA IS THE JAPANESE EQUIVALENT TO AMERICAN COMICS. FORTUNATELY BOTH KODANSHA AND VIZ MEDIA KEPT THIS IN MIND AND USED THE FAMILIAR TERMS: STORE, MY MANGA AND SETTINGS. BY USING THESE SIMPLISTIC TERMS, BOTH COMPANIES ARE CONDITIONING THE USERS WHERE TO PURCHASE MANGA, LOCATE THEIR MANGA DOWNLOADS, AND THEIR CHANGE THEIR PREFERENCES.
VizMediaSynopsis
 KodanshaFree
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The Kodansha Files: Finale w/ Calvin Reid Interview

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Tonight we are joined by Publisher’s Weekly Senior News Editor and PW Comics World Co-editor Calvin Reid. For the past three months I’ve followed Kodansha Ltd.’s subsidiary Kodansha Comics.  Ideally I would love if  An EPublisher Confesses inspired you to at least try a manga. Better yet if it got you to discover more about Kodansha. Nonetheless, I know my knowledge is limited, so I asked Mr. Reid to join us and help fill in any blanks.

Calvin Reid can be a helpful resource. Anyone interested in furthering your manga education can read his articles and follow up with him through Twitter @CalReid. Reid’s articles have taught me so much over the past three months. Trust me when I say, I had no idea about this Kodansha USA, until I he broke it down. 

Tonight’s about celebrating an end to The Kodansha Files. Hopefully tonight’s interview will mark a beginning to your journey into manga.


Latesha Goodman: Mr. Reid can you give our readers a little background about yourself? I’m curious about what drew you towards manga?

Calvin Reid:
I cover general book publishing news for Publishers Weekly, but I’ve always loved comics. In the U.S. comics have historically been a periodical industry, rather than a part of the book industry. At PW I’ve had the chance to raise awareness of graphic novel and comics publishing in the book industry. Indeed PW has been directly instrumental in making graphic novels an acknowledged part of book publishing. My interest in manga began to grow in the mid-1990s. I began learning more about Japanese comics and the differences between how Japanese created manga and the way they thought about comics. I noticed there were profound differences between the U.S. and Japanese manga/comics marketplace.

LG: Can you give readers a brief overview about manga in the U.S? When did manga “arrive”?

CR: U.S. manga publishing grew out of fan interest in anime in the 1980s.The initial focus of U.S. publishers was to publish comics they thought would work in the U.S. market which is dominated by superhero comics.

In the late 1990s publishers like Tokyopop, began to publish manga in its original right to left format and began releasing works like Sailor Moon, aimed at young girls, then the category took off. Thanks to growth of retailers like Borders, driven by Kurt Hassler, its graphic novel buyers at the time, Tokyopop and its “authentic manga” strategy, the growth of the internet, and the growth of a general worldwide interest in Japanese pop culture, the category began to expand, finding new readers.

LG: Kodansha Ltd is a large manga publisher in Japan, but it also has a presence in U.S. Why do you suppose this is?

CR:Kodansha is one of the largest publishers (manga as well as prose) in Japan and for many years it only licensed its manga to publishers like Tokyopop and others. However as the market has changed and declined, Kodansha appears to have taken a bigger interest in reviving the market for its titles in the U.S. It now is directly publishing its titles here and its books are distributed in the U.S. by Random House Publisher Services, the distribution unit of Random House. Although the US market for manga is a fraction of what it is in Japan, I believe Japanese manga publishers believe they can reverse some of the declines in what had been a growing manga for manga in the U.S. We will see.

LG: Let us talk about scanlations because this term seems to be thrown around quite a bit. Please tell us what it is and why publishers blame it for the decline in U.S sales?

CR: Scanlations are works of Japanese manga photo scanned, posted online and translated into English by fans on the Internet. It is also a violation of copyright. Many people believe we have created a generation of young fans who do not buy manga in stores, but instead read the latest manga from Japan online for free.

In recent years the scanlations fan sites have been taken over by commercial interests (sites like MangaFox) who offer illegally scanned manga to read for free and sell advertising to the site to make money. This is why scanlations are often blamed as the reason for the decline in manga sales in the U.S. They are not only stealing content, but making money off of it from online advertising.

LG: Mr. Reid, it’s impossible to ignore the introduction of new technologies such as the iPad and Kindle. Do these technologies help or hinder the manga reading experience? Does the format matter?

CR:Like everything else, digital delivery of comics is growing because it is a convenient and vivid way to read comics. I personally like reading comics on the iPad as well as in print. This does not mean print comics are disappearing or going away but digital comics of all kinds will become a bigger factor in the market.

LG: Do you have any favorite iPad manga apps? Or all they all created equally?

CR:All iPad apps are not created equally, but they are all pretty good. I think Viz Media has one of the best, but I also read manga on the Yen Press app. There is now a Kodansha app as well, but remember this is all very recent. Most Japanese publishers have been dragging their feet on giving their U.S. licensees digital rights but the decline in sales and competition for readers from pirated scanlations sites seems to have had an impact.

LG: Censorship is a hot topic for foreign publishers looking to expand into the U.S. Why is this? How do you think Kodansha is handling it?

CR:Yes, Japan has different cultural standards than the U.S. on things like sex and fan-service (panty shots are frowned in the U.S. but are no big deal in Japan) and nudity and can cause problems. Kodansha has much more experience after working closely with its U.S. licensee and I think they believe they can have an impact by publishing directly into the U.S. rather than through licensees.

LG: Last question: Do you think Kodansha Comics (or Kodansha USA) will help get titles into U.S consumer’s hands faster?

CR:I believe Kodansha having a U.S. office will help get more Kodansha titles into the U.S. and hopefully it will be faster. We’ll have to wait and see.

LG: Calvin thanks so for agreeing to this interview. I for one have learned much more about this intriguing publisher. Much appreciation!

I am indebted to Calvin Reid and other news outlets who dedicate their lives to educating publishers about Kodansha. Again If you wish to follow up on tonight’s blog, please follow on Twitter @CalReid . He loves Twitter, so he’ll respond.

Your Truly

An EPublisher Confesses