Skyrocketing manga sales during the past year have shown publishers that there is a thriving market for manga that appeals to LGBTQ+ audiences.
Like most other forms of entertainment, manga experienced a major sales boom during the quarantine. During a panel at this year's Comic-Con@Home, representatives from the major North American manga publishers explained how this current boom has extended beyond the expected hits like Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack on Titan and has encouraged them to publish more titles in what were previously considered niche genres, such as boys' love, and to take more chances on titles featuring more diverse characters. "It feels like everything is doing well, there's a lot of categories that aren't the mainstream shonen hits that are doing quite well," Yen Press' sales and marketing director Mark de Vera said. "Two of our biggest releases this year were boys' love titles... Boys' love has always had its audience, but I'm talking about two of our best selling titles of the year. There were smaller categories that I would say had its audience, but are now seeing their glory days." VIZ Media has experienced similar success with their Sublime imprint, which specializes in boys' love manga. "It's amazing that in the past year, we have seen the rise of BL sales... just go through the roof," Kevin Hamric, VIZ's vice president of sales said. "The reprint numbers on those are up and around the same levels as some of our middle shonen series. The sales are incredible worldwide."
The sales boom has also allowed to publishers to release works targeting more diverse audiences and publish stories that won't necessarily sell as well as the big shonen titles, but still perform an important role in expanding representation within the medium. "Boys Run the Riot, which is a trans-masculine coming-of-age manga created by a trans-masculine mangaka... is not the type of book I've seen published [previously]." Kodansha marketing director Ivan Salazar said. "I couldn't have had projections for [sales] numbers or anything like that, it's more that I know that we were putting out a book that would reach an audience that wanted to see representation, wanted to see themselves, wanted to see stories about themselves... That's the kind of book that I'm proudest of that we get to publish at Kodansha. Those stories matter."
Leyla Aker, publishing director at Penguin Random House, added that the sales of their manga titles featuring LGBTQ+ characters are also on the rise. "Maybe people want to see more representation now, or maybe it's just simply the market as a whole is so much larger... it's a great development to see. Not just from a sales perspective, but from a manga fan's perspective."
Source: YouTube
