Ask John: Why Does Manga Get Released Before Anime?

Question:
Why is it standard for the manga of a particular series to be released before the animation? Is there any manga that is based off of an anime rather than the other way around?

Answer:
It’s not exactly “standard” policy for manga to precede animation. Such an event happens frequently because most of the time manga are published without any expectation of being adapted into anime. It may be difficult to believe, but Japan’s animation industry is relatively tiny compared to its manga publishing industry. While there are no specific numbers that I’m aware of that estimate how much manga is published in Japan annually, current figures estimate that as much as a third of all published material in Japan is manga. So for every ten or hundred or maybe even thousand manga titles released, only perhaps one of them will be turned into animation. In most cases, manga artists create their comics without expecting them to be turned into animation. It’s only months or years later, when series have become popular, that someone else will decide to adapt a manga into anime.

The exceptions are franchises like .Hack and Amdriver which are purposefully designed to be franchises. In these instances, manga and anime are created and released virtually simultaneously as a corporate strategy to maximize exposure and capitalize on consumer interest. In other cases, original anime that turn out to be popular are developed into franchises by having manga created in response to fan demand. The RahXephon, Hoshi no Koe, Wolf’s Rain, FLCL and Big O manga series, for example, weren’t created until after the original anime were hits and eager consumer demand triggered the decision to create and publish manga adaptations.