These days there are many options manga fans have to read their favorite series on their phone and tablet:Shonen Jump, Azuki, andCunchyrollMangaare all excellent services that are economic and easy to use. Before these apps existed though, fans could buy a monthly manga anthology likeShonen Jump, Shojo Beat,andYen Press.These magazines provided a dollar-to-content value proposition that many American comics could provide ($5 for a 400-page release compared to DC and Marvel’s $4 32-page comics). While manga has come a long way, one format that American’s never really got until simulcasts came along was the weekly manga anthology.
Unknown to many fans though, this isn’t for lack of trying. In fact, there was one manga anthology that was released in America, and had the support of many high profile manga artists who provided the magazine with quality series. Yet despite this, the anthology lasted a mere 46 issues before being canceled. The anthology was calledRaijin Comics, the weekly manga anthology failed to make a dent in the comic book market. What went wrong, and could it have ever succeeded in the American market?
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Who Was Responsible for Raijin Comics?
Raijin Comicswas from a company calledGutsoon! Entertainment, an English subdivision of Japanese manga publisher Coamix. The company was founded by Nobuhiko Horie and Tsukasa Hojo, the author ofCity Hunter. The idea behind the company and the magazine was to sell manga to more mature audiences and compete with Viz’s then-new American version ofShonen Jump. While there was mild censoring of nudity, the titles were geared toward older audiences and even included one-shot stories from many of the creators.
What Series Did It Include?
The magazine included several adult favorites including:
Why Did It Fail?
There were several factors on whyRaijin Comicsfailed. The first reason could have been the cost: at $4.99 an issue, a weekly release was not affordable for many manga fans (a subscription for a year was well over $200 for the entire year). Another reason is that many comic book stores did not stock the title. Why they didn’t stock the title could have had a lot to do not only with Gutsoon’s lack of experience in the American comic market, but the fact that the series included in the magazine (good as some of them were) weren’t household names was probably a main reason why it wasn’t stocked.
This was especially apparent whenShonen Jumphit the stands withDragon Ball ZandYu-Gi-Oh!in the lineup, two series that were already popular on TV. While some seasoned anime fans may have heard ofCity HunterandSlam Dunk, the reality is that the average person hadn’t heard of these series and weren’t going to invest in an anthology that contained nothing but things they hadn’t heard of. For this reason advertisers were reluctant to advertise inRaijin Comics(except for Sega in the early days), and ads were few and far between.
The title ultimately lost money early on in the lifespan of magazine. At one point Gutsoon tried to revere course a bit and turn the anthology into a monthly release with issue 36, but by this point it was too little too late. Issue 46 would be the last issue ofRaijin Comics. While Gutsoon promised to try and complete the series in book form, this would also be the end of them as a publisher, and the company would fold shortly afterwards.
Could Raijin Comics Ever Have Been Successful?
If the magazine had at least one mainstream title in the magazine, maybe it would have had a fighting chance. Had it started out as a monthly anthology and worked its way up to a weekly release once the titles were more established maybe it would have also lasted longer.
Shonen JumpandShojo Beathad lots of success as monthly releases (the latter of which also had no ‘big name’ titles), so maybe if the cost of entry wasn’t so high things could have been better. As it stands, Coamix never really cracked the American market. They have found success with their Coamax website though, which features many of their manga in English, so at least there’s that.
