Ed Sherman of Rising Sun Comics in San Diego, California comments on the recent interview with VIZ Media Director, Publishing Sales and Marketing Kevin Hamric (see " Streaming, Media Drives Manga Sales").
 
I just read the interview with Kevin Hamric of VIZ Media.  Wow!  He sure paints a different picture of the manga market than what I see in my store or what BookScan reports.  BookScan shows manga sales down for the sixth straight year in a row with VIZ performing the worst of all manga publishers.  Manga sales are 24% of what they were in 2007 which is exactly what I see in my store.
 
What is happening right now I have seen before back in the mid-90's.  The comic and manga market is in freefall.  Even Diamond reports sales are down and Diamond's figures are sales to retailers and not what was actually sold to the consumers so it is far worse than what they report.
 
[NOTE: There are several ways in which publisher sales could be up at the same time as book channel sales reported by BookScan are down, including disproportionately strong sales in the retailers that BookScan does not track; sales in book fair, library, or educational markets, all of which can be significant; and sales in Canada, which BookScan does not include.—ed.]

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