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INTRODUCING JMANGA - A PEEK AT THE FEATURES OF THIS NEW MANGA PORTAL

At this point of the panel, the JManga video is shown to the audience. It shows a quick demo of JManga's features, which include:

• Various reading formats - Either full pages, or panel-by-panel "guided view."
• Language selection - JManga would provide the option to toggle between reading manga in English or in Japanese.
• Search options - Search for manga by title, author publisher magazine, genre, and year

• Links to read, watch, and/or buy from sites - Read digital manga on other sites, watch streaming anime, buy print editions of manga, anime DVDs, and other related merchandise.
• Articles and video clips about "manga culture" - Demo showed subtitled video clips of manga creators talking about their craft (including Fumiyo Kono, the creator of the award-winning Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms), as well as video clips about manga culture and fandom in Japan.
• Opportunities for fans to connect with each other and with manga creators Connect with fans worldwide via Facebook, forums.

At the end of the video, Miata introduced the panelists, and started the Q & A.

Q: How did JManga start?

Sam Yoshiba (Kodansha): JManga is a joint venture of the DCA and JManga Inc. This venture started in September 2006. Although the comic market was much smaller then, it was making about $800 million per year. This is the only organization like this in Japan that includes 39 manga publishers.

The manga market in English is declining for several reasons.

Withdrawal of several US publishers from manga publishing. (Note: Since 2006, Broccoli Books, Aurora/Deux, TokyoPop and CMX Manga have stopped publishing manga in the North American market) Liquidation of Borders Books, as you know. But the digital market in the US is still developing, although the ebooks market, such as Kindle, is growing dramatically.

We think JManga.com will change this circumstance and JManga will introduce many new manga titles in English to North America and other English-speaking areas.

Q: What are the goals of this website?

Toshitaka Tanaka (Shogakukan): As you know there are lots of fantastic titles that are published in Japan. However, there are many that are not brought to America.

Now, if you compare Japan with the North American market, there's a huge difference. Obviously, North American publishing market is much larger than Japan, but in Japan, there are 4 times as many bookstores as there are in the United States. On an everyday basis, there is much more manga available to Japanese readers.

Part of the reason for creating Jmanga.com is to offer more titles to more readers outside of Japan. We would love to introduce to North American readers all these titles that you haven't seen yet. So please check out the JManga.com site when it goes live in August.

Q: JManga is not just for North America, right?

Toshitaka Tanaka (Shogakukan): It will be North America first, then other countries later.

Q: What kind of services can readers expect from JManga?

Motoi Suzuki (Shueisha): We want to hear what fans want. We will listen to what you say so we can bring you comics that you want to read. We look forward to providing a service that will meet everyone's needs.

Besides offering manga, we want to make it easier for manga artists and fans to connect. We envision a service where fans can ask authors questions directly via SMS messaging. You might also get a gift when you interact directly with the manga-ka. You can also hear back stories from the editors, about the making of the manga.

Currently, JManga.com is in closed beta. If you go to JManga.com, you can sign up to get a chance to be a part of this.

Naobumi Ashi (Kadokawa): Manga has great story content. There are TV shows, games, etc. that are inspired by manga. We also want to expose people to what's out there. So even if you're a gamer, or you saw a movie inspired by manga, JManga can give you access to the stories that inspired the games and movies.

We also want to provide movie directors and producers online access to manga, so they can research potential properties that could be developed into films.

Q: Sasaki-san, as the former Editor in Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump, you've helped to develop a lot of very popular shonen manga series, like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note and One Piece. How will international distribution be affected by JManga?

Hisashi Sasaki (Shueisha): Publishing done in Japan, compared to rest of world is completely different. It's been over 10 years since Shueisha has begun licensing manga to North America. Digital distribution has been an uphill battle. We hope that with JManga will help make digital distribution a bigger part of manga publishing in North America.

After the introductory Q & A, the floor is opened to members of the audience to ask questions.

Q: Will manga on JManga.com also be available in the original Japanese (in kanji, hiragana and katakana) for those of us who like to read manga to learn Japanese?

Robert Newman (JManga): JManga.com will be releasing a lot of content that will be available in multiple languages. For some titles, you'll be able to switch back and forth between English and Japanese. We think it will be a very valuable service to fans like you.

Q: Everything about JManga sounds amazing, and I'm just loving it – but how much is it going to cost?

(Lots of nervous looks as the publishers look to each other, wondering who's going to take that question)

Toshitaka Tanaka (Shogakukan): We haven't decided on pricing yet. It will depend on the publisher – It will vary from publisher to publisher how many pages you will get for what you pay.

Robert Newman (JManga): I want to add that there will be a variety of content available for free. There will be some more in-depth, special content that will be available only from JManga.com.

Our ultimate goal here was to create a site to promote manga and manga culture, starting in North America, then eventually, the rest of the world. Even if you don't have a penny, you can still enjoy JManga.com.