A rant on the American manga industry.

As I find myself falling back into manga yet again, I inevitably find myself wondering once more, why are the books so bloody expensive!?

With each volume costing $9.99 USD + tax, and many of the more popular series having more than 15, 20 volumes and still ongoing, it's no wonder so many people look to scanlations instead of buying. I have yet to figure out what can justify that price tag for a volume... especially when I've seen Chinese translations of the same volumes going for $40NTD, roughly $1.25 USD. It's unfortunate, especially because scanlations are no guarantee for quality. (And yet, I remember the Prince of Tennis officially translated manga, and the liberties which Viz took to editing it. So perhaps official manga aren't as much of a guarantee either.)

Undoubtedly, translation costs might be more expensive in the US, as well as licensing costs. One might also argue that the companies here use better paper - and yet, I'm fairly sure most fans would prefer a cheaper version with slightly poorer quality paper. Does that all add up to $9.99 USD though? Or is this just a holdover from the idea that all comics should cost that much - when most American comics are full-colour and really do cost more to print. I'm sorry, but I just can't see a single manga volume being worth that much. Perhaps it's even to support those series that are losing money. Guess what, though! If you made it cheaper, likely more people would be willing to fork up the cash. Heaven knows I do for regular novels. Surprisingly, fans actually do want to support the series they like! It doesn't help my disgruntlement that companies will pick up a series, and then drop it before they finish it completely. Now, it's marked as licensed, and yet those last few volumes will never get translated.

Please though, change my mind. Tell me why I should pay this $9.99 price tag, instead of, say, buying Chinese volumes and then reading scanlations. Tell me why I should support these companies that just seems to want to rip me off. I'm really, honestly curious.

Really, what's a fan to do? I'll just be over here, buying used volumes instead.