Ask John: Why Is Manga So Expensive?

Question:
Why is it that manga is so expensive? $9.99 is an awful lot for one book to cost. Especially seeing as how the pages are smaller and it is not in color. Even though a manga contains more pages than a comic book it still makes no sense because the size of the pages makes manga so small. I love to read manga but often can’t afford it. Can you get some real answers to this overpricing fiasco that had plagued otaku and fanboys for far to long?

Answer:
On a relative scale, domestic manga are really not that expensive. If you visit an American comic book store you’ll find that American independent black and white comics cost $2-$3 each and have 28-32 pages. So a 200+ page monochrome manga costs about the same as 90 pages of monochrome American comic book art. It’s true that American comics are published on larger pages than average translated manga, but English translated manga are commonly printed in the size they’re supposed to be printed in, the size their original Japanese counterparts were published in. Manga tankoubon (collected books) are very cheap in Japan because they sell far more copies than a typical American manga graphic novel. While domestic manga have sales figures in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands, Japanese manga reach sales figures in the millions of copies sold.

English translated manga is already less expensive in America now than it was only a few years ago, but I don’t foresee domestic manga graphic novels becoming significantly cheaper. Unless domestic sales increase exponentially, the price of domestic manga going significantly lower than $10 per book approaches the point at which it becomes impossible for publishers to make any profit relative to publishing and distribution expenses. An English translated manga is already half or even a third of the price of a domestic anime DVD, and per-page manga graphic novels are much less expensive than American comic books.

Regretfully I have to say that anime is not a cheap hobby. Manga is the least expensive, and probably the most cost effective form of anime entertainment available in America. If manga are too expensive for you, you may need to consider alternative avenues including getting a bigger allowance or finding a better paying job, urging your local library to carry manga, or meeting friends that are willing to loan their manga to you.