The legendary Japanese basketball cartoon “Slam Dunk” will be published in a digital version for the first time.
As the number of readers who see it on tablets and smartphones in the Japanese comic market is increasing and famous cartoons are being digitized, it is said that electronic cartoons are now becoming a popular trend in Japan. According to the comic book industry on the 25th, Takehiko Inoue, who drew “Slam Dunk,” recently said on his X account that “Slam Dunk” will be available for subscription in the digital version from June 2nd.”
In other words, writer Inoue, who has insisted on publishing paper books even though there have been loud voices calling for the digitization of “Slam Dunk,” made a surprise announcement.
The artist also directly mentioned the merits of the digital version of “Slam Dunk.”
“The advantage is that you can properly see the bookbinding part of the book, the so-called ‘bookbook’, and it may be the closest to the manuscript and easy to read on a large tablet device,” he said.
In the case of a paper book, it is difficult to see the joint in the middle of a one-cut scene with a big picture across two pages facing each other, which means that this problem is solved if you watch it on a big screen.
In addition to Inoue, there have been many established artists who are reluctant to digitize in the Japanese cartoon world.
Naoki Urasawa, who drew “20th Century Boy” and “Monster,” was famous as a writer who openly said he would not publish electronic cartoons.
Morika and George refused to release their work in the e-book version of the magazine Boys Magazine, which was serializing the boxing cartoon “The Fighting”, when it was released as an e-book (e-book).
However, there have been changes in their positions in recent years.
Urasawa and Morikawa respectively agreed to digitize some of their works in 2021.
Following this, writer Inoue also decided to digitize “Slam Dunk,” which has recently been successful in animation. This is interpreted as reflecting the trend of the rapid growth of the electronic comic market and accounting for 70% of Japan’s total comic market.
According to a survey by Japan’s National Publishing Association and Publishing Science Research Institute, the size of the Japanese comic market last year was 74.3 billion yen, up 1.5% from the previous year.
Among them, the electronic comic book market, which includes e-book comic books and webtoons, was 512.2 billion yen, accounting for 72.7% of the total.
Paper books were 147.2 billion yen and cartoon magazines were 44.9 billion yen.
At the time of the 2014 survey, the electronic comic market was worth 88.7 billion yen, accounting for only 19.9% of the total market, but it has exploded over the past decade.
Thanks to this, electronic cartoon platforms such as Line Manga and Piccoma have also grown rapidly.
Line Digital Frontier, a subsidiary of Naver Webtoon, is expanding its size by providing more than 1.6 million e-books including comics through Line Manga and Ebook Japan. Some say that electronic comics are dominating paper comics and becoming mainstream.
“Inoue was a representative writer who was reluctant to digitize in Japan,” said Lee Hae-soo, head of the Cartoon Culture Institute. “The fact that such an artist chose to digitize is now a sign that electronic cartoons are close to the mainstream in Japan.”
“The penetration rate of digital devices such as iPads is increasing in Japan,” he added. “It seems that cartoonists also recognize that page production can be implemented as electronic cartoons.”
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
