It’s not piracy if it’s not available legally.
As with film and TV, lack of access to manga is the main driver behind the global surge in unlicensed demand
“We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”.
– Gabe NewellWhat exactly is the problem?
The weebs are winning because Hollywood is bankrupt for ideas. Heck, not just Hollywood, the west in general.
I don’t think ideas are the problem, it’s that new forms of distribution are causing the industry to panic. Producers are making safer bets (sequels, remakes, franchises) so original ideas, which tons of people have, aren’t getting funded.
Also worth noting that producers these days are less Hollywood and more Wall Street, they don’t really understand movies so they make calls based on numbers and precedent that let them estimate profitability.
That and a general lack of availability of manga in the west. English releases are often years behind the Japanese ones, if they get brought over at all. It’s why there are so many translation groups.
Not only that, Kodansha is ridiculously money-grubbing in the space. They’re continually trying to push for pay-per-chapter monetization instead of a basic subscription model like Shonen Jump does.
Not only that, Kodansha’s newest app, KManga, has 21 trackers in it to sell off user data. For context, Facebook only has 9 trackers.
You’re right, same goes for anime as they mention in the article. I’m thinking one leads to the other, people might pick up the manga to catch up on the anime or maybe a manga reader will watch the anime version of their show.
And they target a starving audience if you ask me.
