Award for promoting Manga outside Japan

[Rob Allen]

Entries are now being accepted for the Second International Manga Award, which seeks to honor artists who have promoted Manga outside Japan.

Guidelines and entry forms are available here: http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/culture/manga/index.html

The award committee will pass out four medals -- a gold and three silvers -- and invite all of the winners to Japan for a 10-day trip culminating with the award ceremony in summer 2008. A minimum of four pages is required, although the work can be unpublished, and the entry deadline is Feb. 29, 2008.

[The Xenos]

How can I not comment on this? I'm the guy who just is 100% against this mentality. I understand the argument, I just totally disagree with it. Manga is simply comics from Japan. Anything else is comics from another country, possibly using its native name. Even if you're influenced by manga, it's not manga if it's not published in Japan.

This award is Japan trying to gain dominance and acceptance of their term 'manga'. I can't blame Japan. They want their manga market to spread across the world. They want to spearhead the comics scene around the world. Meanwhile I argue that artists should focus on their own national scene and gain acceptance there, not strive to be accepted in a market halfway around the world.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

artists should focus on their own national scene and gain acceptance there, not strive to be accepted in a market halfway around the world.

And if you live in a small country with 9 plus milion people of which only around 3 ready comics? ^_^

[The Xenos]

America? Germany? Canada? These countries don't already have established names and industries?

Namely I point out TokyoPop for calling their graphic novel series manga. Graphic novel is a better term because they're full volumes. Most of their manga, and Viz and others, are first published weekly or monthly in Japan in periodicals. Ouside of a couple like Shonen Jump in the US, you just don't see that with manga releases in the US. So their 'manga format' is actually NOT how real manga is sold in its native market. That's the collected edition, the tankobon, not the initial sales. It's like saying Lost or any TV show is first shown in DVD season box sets, not aired on TV.

Again, I've said this many times. This new political name game by Japan is just a new move I disagree with.

Meanwhile, the winners actually ARE manga because they're published in Afternoon, a manga magazine in Japan. Yet I have to wonder why someone would want a short story in a forign magazine. It is neat, but why not try to get known in America first? (As one contestant is American, I'm using that as an example.)