And the manga boom continues. Seriously, I want to know - how many people out there still expect this boom to go totally bust, and why would you think this? Sure, it’s bound to wax and wane eventually, but the reality is, manga is here to stay. I think it’s especially hard to believe otherwise when you get major English-speaking publishers producing manga for Japanese speaking audiences. Me, I’m wondering why nobody’s managed to swing the rights to Harry Potter and LOTR manga yet…

How Mills and Boon turned to manga comics
By Charles Bodsworth
in Tokyo

Mills and Boon romances are strong sellers the world over. But in Japan, the publisher has appropriated the manga comic format in order to attract a generation for whom a novel just won’t do.

Mills and Boon is synonymous with fluffy love stories populated by dashing heroes and swooning heroines. Japanese manga comics, on the other hand, conjure up very different images - of violence, simpering schoolgirls and explicit sexual content.

But Mills and Boon runs a thriving business in Japan, publishing its books in manga format, the novel-length comic books read by children and adults alike. And where this cultural cross-over is concerned, stereotypes are best left behind.

In the manga section of many a bookshop, alongside the comics about gangsters, sci-fi, high school students and indeed the infamous pornographic stories, is the romance section. It’s here that Mills and Boon has entered the fray against the Japanese publishing houses.

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