GuitarAngel.net

The article below is from the Kansas City Star discusses the immense impact that girls have on upcoming manga in Japan and the USA. :bouncy: I believe this is totally true, anime isn't just a guy's obsession any longer! Girl power! The picture to the right features one of my favorite series: Ai Yori Aoshi. :love: The two characters, Aoi and Kaoru, weave a pretty awesome storyline as the series progresses...I can't wait for the rest to be realeased in the USA!

Sales of Japanese comics � more familiarly known as manga (pronounced MAHN-gah) � are exploding in the United States, and much of the boom is due to efforts by comic book publishers to extend their reach beyond young male readers. Beyond all males, in fact. �Manga producers in the United States have tapped into a new audience for comics � the female consumer,� said Milton Griepp, the publisher and founder of ICv2, an online trade publication that covers pop culture for retailers. In bookstores, the colorful, digest-size manga collections are usually next to the shelves of graphic novels, which feature iconic domestic characters like Batman and Spider-Man. Manga often celebrates strong female characters in adventure yarns or stories focusing on love and relationships. Titles are sometimes even categorized: for girls (shojo manga) or for boys (shonen manga). Part of manga's appeal, Griepp said, also can be attributed to the country's acceptance of Japanese pop culture as embodied by anime, video games and films. He said manga sales were $50 million to $60 million in 2002 and climbed to $90 million to $110 million in 2003. This year showed �strong double-digit growth,� he said. The American pioneers of manga publishing are Viz and Tokyopop, but the boom in sales has attracted a new wave of publishers, including Del Rey, Hyperion Books for Children and Penguin Group USA.