Know your manga

Tell us more about the business and production sides…

Many large publishers in Japan derive a significant portion of their profits from manga. It's very big business – the turnover of the domestic manga industry in 2016 was approximately £3 billion (roughly $3.78 billion). Four of the top publishers who control a large share of the market are Kodansha, Hakusensha, Shogakukan and Shueisha. They're constantly competing and trying to retain popular artists. Editors are assigned by the publishing houses to specific artists and play a key role in developing stories in collaboration with them. They often help with content, managing the production schedules, overall formatting and conducting basic research for the artist on the theme or images depicted.