Why is there Krillin in my anime?!
Oh , and to every Singaporean out there , NUS Comic is the best comic dealer , fuck tenchi and comic connection . Why the best you asked? Today , I bought a set of second-hand FMA volume 1-18 for 22 dollars( about 14 US dollar) and you know what? Volume 8 and 9 is missing . Oh my god , what to do ? Don’t worry , being the best comic dealer , they provided me with superior , first hand unwarped version of it ! Not only that , they throw in a brand new volume 19 and two short extra volume into it ! All for just $22! Can you believe that?!
Also , they helped me to get hold of Eden ,it’s an endless world , Genshiken , Wild Life , Bitter Virgin and Suzuka when every mother fucking comic dealer said that they are out of stock !Not only that , they provide home delivery for your comic without any extra charges! When you ordered books from them , you won’t need any deposit! They have an impressive list of second-hand comic for sale as well . They are very generous in giving free plastic cover for their books too!
Not to mention , their owner/dealer , I called him uncle Sam is a very amicable man . It must be the first time I used the word amicable , that show how friendly and awesome he is .
It is because of dealer like them , I don’t read scanlation at all! Why hurt your brain and eyes , reading bright computer screen when you can get hold of , affordable , convenient and comfortable physical comics? What are you waiting for? Click their link under the “Hobby Site” category in this blog and start buying comic! Delete away every scanlation you have and unfavourite fucking ONE MANGA!!!
But i wonder , will manga shops like this , cease to exist in the future as more & more people are turning to “alternative” such as illegal online sources
@Snake
It might cease to exist if we don’t have any new blood coming in. Though , it will definitely fare better and last longer than the anime scene in Singapore due to 3 main reason .
1. Not everyone is used to online scanlation
Believe me when I say that people tend to be more comfortable reading physical book rather than a computer screen . Unlike anime , there is a difference in experience due to the different media form and unless piracy can bridge this gap or people finally get appathetic towards manga , manga will still sell . It is like how movie can still sell even when torrent is so prominent nowadays . What we are buying is the comfort and experience .
2. Availability , affordability and quality issue
Unlike anime , manga is affordable and common here . The quality of our local provider , coupled with overseas one is top notched as well . We don’t need to order it online or whatsoever to get what we want .
3. Comic is widespread here.
People are still buying Naruto , One Piece and Bleach . Most bookstore have a comic section as well. Also , if you search for the most visited site in Singapore , online manga site can be found . This shows that people are still intereted in manga here , thanks to bleach , naruto and one piece of course .With so many people knowing and reading manga , if 30% of those people to fork out money to buy some comics , I won’t see comic shop cease to exist .
Though the online scanlation did pose a problem as I can see lots and lots of comic store closing down . But I can’t deny the fact that those sites breed serious fans that are willing to buy as well .
We really need statistical data to prove the effect of piracy though , otherwise , no one can really deduce anything .
@Snake
They have virtually ceased to exist in America.
I wish we had something like this in Cali. Only the most popular book stores sell new manga for $8-$10 US. I purchased the 12 volumes of Death note for $96 PLUS our ridiculous %9.75 tax. 100+ dollars per series is just simply unaffordable. I’ve yet to see a used manga store (comics and manga are two very different things for us). Also scanlations hurt my eyes so I normally just watch anime.
@Rocket Ham
I do agree that US manga fan is getting the short end of the stick , but what is the reason for such an expansive price tag?
The only reason I can deduce is that there is a lack of demand . That’s why they need such a hefy price tag to earn a profit in order to get the supply going . Though other reason like better printing quality and such might also factored in . However , Taiwan manga is really high in quality even though they are cheap . So I guess the demand is what really causes the expansive price .
I don’t know shit about economic though , that’s why I might be very wrong here .
Demand is one cause, however the main factor is the labour market factor. The reason for Taiwan’s cheaper price tags may be due to cheaper labour force – i.e. the workers are being underpaid (Manufacturing cost, translation, etc etc) as one of the reasons.
This results in Taiwan’s manga being able to be offered at a lower price.
For the American counterparts, I’m not sure of the exact reasons why, but one reason may be due to the higher surcharge on import fees? Top that with workers that are better paid than their counterparts in Taiwan (not necessary that they are paid at an acceptable level).
These factors will affect the final price of the product, in this case the manga/comic.
If demand is low, it does not generally equate to high prices. In this case, this could be considered as one of the reasons as there will not be a bulk discount. This is because of the low quantity involved, the retailers are not in favourable positions to bargain for a lower price.
Last but not least, is there any tax involve to bring such books in? If there were to be any, then again this could be a factor.
To earn a profit, retailers have to set the products, ie manga/comic, at a higher price than they paid for (like duh, yeah I know). If the aforementioned non-exhaustive list of factors were to be accounted for, this could lead to the price discrepancy between Singapore’s and America’s retailers.
Disclaimer: Do not trust everything I mentioned above. Just more or less something I learned in school and trying to apply them here. Heck, it may be useless knowledge after all!
Demand is extremely low in America because only complete losers (kind of like me) watch anime or read manga. The market for both is so limited that only a few tycoon companies like Funamation and Viz-Media exist so there is almost no competitive market. I’m sure there is some sort of tax and the licensing fees must be expensive as well.
@Holydreams
I might believe that the labour fee is the main aspect for the hefty cost if manga in Japan is as expensive as those in USA .
Forgot to add on – Competition is one main factor too.
In Taiwan, there are many different firms into the manga business. (Ok, many seems as though there is a lot, but it means around 10?) In order to attract customers, they need to be competitive, i.e providing faster services, lower prices, better quality etc.
The easier method would be to offer lower prices to consumers in order to boost their own sales. This will lead to a price war – something good for consumers. I’m not going to elaborate further, but I hope point is taken.
In America, as what RocketHam said, there are very few, if any, competition. These firms will not be motivated to do things most efficiently to lower down prices to attract customers. They have no needs to! Hence, consumers are forced to purchase, if they were to be willing, a manga that could actually be produced and sold at a cheaper price.
This theory is based on numerous assumptions, but it serves as a guide on what causes price to be what it is today for manga in different continents.
@Holydreams
Again , I might believe about competition being one of the main factor if isn’t for the fact that there are numerous manga publisher in USA. Tokyopop, Yen Press , Viz , CMX , Del Ray are some examples . Rocket Ham is getting the short end of the stick because he live in California . If he live in some other places where manga are more common (like New York) , manga might not seem to be as scarce as Rocket Ham sees it now. USA is too big to be considered as one .
Now that I think of it , the lack of demand is too much of an overstatement . What I really meant is that there are demand but not enough to lower the price further , otherwise they can’t earn enough profit to continue with the supply.
The reason why I think that demand is the biggest aspect for the hefty price is because , something similar happened with R1 anime dvds . Subtitled only DVDs have similar or even a higher price tag when compared to dubbed+subtitled dvds one even though the latter is much more expensive to produce. The reason being that there are higher demand for dubbed+subtitled dvds than subtitled only . I won’t elaborate more as you should know the rest of the story ( higher demand more profit blah blah blah blah , lesser demand higher price to gain profit blah blah blah).
Actually , the dvd’s example might not be of any relevance , that’s why we shouldn’t look so far and just use our local comic publisher as an example . Our english manga cost $8.50 , chinese one is almost half the price . I will accept the fact that the english one has better quality , but the differences in quality is not that much to justify the price . There are about 120 english titles(most of them are short series) and almost 390+ chinese titles (with lots of titles that have over 30 volumes) . Go figure . Do neglect the fact that chuangyi started publishing english manga later than their chinese one because if you go along that line of arguement , it will just help me fortified my deduction of demand playing a huge part.
Too many assumption , now that I think of it , maybe the quality of chuangyi english manga really do have that much difference from their chinese one to warrant such high price. The dvd arugment is of no relevance , or does it?
@Rocket Ham
You are blessed with top notched anime licensing companies like Funimation and Viz . For one at least they did produce stuff(lots of stuff actually) . Americans are really lucky in terms of having anime as a hobby , just look at how the fans are being treated . They have series(Afro Samurai) and services(crunchyroll) that cater to them .
You will know how lucky you are if you ever come to Singapore . We only have one licensing company and it had been almost 1 year since we heard any news from them. If I am not wrong , we only have about 5 dvds set and a few dozen of vcds available to us . Did I also mention that almost half of them are out of stock now?