Blame! New comic book phenomenon in Quebec. In 2021 — wouuuuush! —, mangamania counter-explodes the comic book sales charts. The Leslibraires.ca site speaks of a 73% increase in manga sales, driven by naruto and Demon Slayer (in French, respectively 2002 and 2019 for volume 1). Glup! At Renaud-Bray and Archambault, the same diversion of the prize lists by the Solo Leveling and others Assassination Classroom. Gnahhh, but what happens suddenly?
Why have you resisted so long, here, the big, big black and white wet eyes of the manga? Quebec has however known, like France, its generation of forty-somethings fed, children, on anime Grendizer and Astro, the little robot. And his twenty-somethings whose pupils have become square from listening Pokemon Where naruto on the small screen on Saturday mornings.
A royal road, these cartoons, to land in the manga, this style of Japanese comics which would have been born in 1902, descending directly from narrative painting and Japanese political cartoons.
But a path, from the screen to the book, which until now had only been taken by a few Quebec readers. If the book market here is often linked to French successes, for more than two decades manga has been smashing success after success in France without resonating as much on this side of the ocean. Before the pandemic, we predicted in France its fall. In 2021, on the contrary, it represented one in two comic book sales. The equivalent of 212.7 million euros, according to figures from GfK Market Intelligence, between the first eight months of 2021 and those of 2020. The publishers who specialize in it are now legion (Glénat, Pika for Hachette, Kana , Kurokawa for Editis, Ki-oon or Delcourt, to name only the biggest).
“Derisory image”, literally, “unfinished drawing”
It is in 2018 that the growth of manga is looming in Quebec, according to Amélie Jean-Louis, co-founder of O-Taku, a hyperspecialized bookstore in Montreal. To the point where the bookstore has since opened seven microfranchises, turnkey, which fit into a few shelves of books in existing shops “which have a geek-oriented clientele, like us” and which are more into board games or role-playing, for example.
Turning ? “The interest in the United States, indicates Mme Jean-Louis, where before that there was little interest in manga, by a kind of protectionism for American comics. It is through the increase in sales of English manga that we have seen the trend arrive”, even if the French-speaking market, through France, is better developed, and for longer. At Renaud-Bray/Archambault, it was the enthusiasm in France and the creation of Netflix series that signaled the trend. “We started to buy complete collections, which we put in stores. It sold out,” explains communications director Floriane Claveau.
It was through the increase in sales of English manga that we saw the trend arrive
The manga is easily recognized. It is full of codes, graphics and scripts, recalls the sociologist and Japanophile Valérie Harvey. It is often published, even in French, in the direction of the Japanese reading, from right to left: it is therefore necessary to start reading it from the last page. It is always in black and white, because it is produced quickly, and first finds its place in the hyperpopular magazines – weeklies, biweekly or monthlies – devoted to it in Japan, where they are published by chapter, each marked by a breathless finale. .
The rest, if the public wants it…
This publication only continues if the reader vote follows. A constant Manga Academy, what. The pace of production and the need to maintain the reader’s interest in each serial create particular narrative arcs, deployed over several, several chapters – some manga, at their end, have more than a hundred volumes, the parents who buy them can tell you about the total cost, even if each volume must be economical. And the genre is divided according to the target audiences: shônen, seinen and shoujo. Here, these terms have become synonymous with sub-genres: adventures and self-transcendence, with more intrigue and complexity, carrying more feelings.
The codes of manga are numerous, and remain tight. Story-wise, and graphically. “The use of frames in the drawing to give it relief or movement” is a personality trait, names Mme Jean Louis. Onomatopoeia — more numerous in Japanese — abounds there. The oversized eyes of the figures are typical. “They come from the father ofastro, Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989), known as “the God of manga”, who was himself inspired, for these eyes… by Mickey Mouse”, indicates Mme Jean Louis.
According to all the speakers, it would be the recent interest of Netflix, which, by starting to buy manga rights massively to make anime, would have had a major influence on the discovery of these books by Quebec readers. For Martin Dubé, a bookseller specializing in comics at Le Port de tête, “we can draw a parallel with the popularity of binge-watching ; Japanese authors and publishers have indeed mastered the art of the soap opera”. He notes, like Mme Saint-Louis, that the manga clientele is “very family-oriented”: parents come to discover the dragonball and One Piece who made them vibrate to their children.
We can draw a parallel with the popularity of “binge watching”; Japanese authors and publishers have indeed mastered the art of soap opera
The subjects treated, them, burst. Political, social, LGBTQ+ issues, etc. Valérie Harvey believes that other factors are driving the manga’s success here. “Before, Marvel heroes were very popular here. In the United States, the hero is always a self-made man. He has his inner and physical strength, but he is alone with that. When he involves someone, he puts them at risk — the Joker keeps betting on that in Batman… »
The specialist continues. “The Japanese hero, as soon as he tries to separate himself from the others and he thinks that alone he will succeed, he becomes the villain… In Japan, you are told that if you try to manage on your own, this is not you’re not going to win that way. You need others. We would find in the manga a notion of the collective, essential? ” Absolutely. Maybe it does us good these days to hear that. »