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Bloomberg Businessweek August 3, 2020ONEDAYLASTJULY,HAJIMEISAYAMASPENTAMORNING
strollingthrougha chicmodernartgalleryonthe52nd
flooroftheMoriTower,whichloomsoverTokyo’supscale
Roppongineighborhood.Thegallerywalls,whichhavesince
beenadornedwithpaintingsbyJean-MichelBasquiat,were
linedwithoriginalartworkfromthemanuscriptpagesfor
abestsellingmanga,orcomicbook,Isayama’sShingekino
Kyojin(AttackonTitan). Theexhibitioncommemoratedthe
10thanniversaryofthisgoryepic,whichissetina world
dominatedbyflayed,vascular,man-eatingbehemoths,tallas
theMoriToweritself,whoterrorizewalled-offcitieswhere
humanityhastakenrefuge.InthedecadesinceTitanwas
firstprintedinBessatsuShonenMagazine, itsantagonists
havelefttheirgiganticfootprintsalloverJapan’spopular
culture.Thecountry’slargestpublisher,KodanshaLtd.,has
issuedabout 100 millioncopiesofits 31 serializedvolumes.
Theanimatedtelevisionadaptationisaninternationalhit
thathasinturngenerateda live-actionfilmfranchise,sev-
eralvideogames,andmerchandiseincludingtoys,tote
bags,andlimited-editionpackagingfora popularJapanese
laundrydetergent.
Attheexhibition,Isayamadrapedhiswiryframeina
plainhoodedsweatshirt,andheworea medicalmaskto
disguisehimselffromthefanswho’vemadehimbyfarthe
mostsuccessfulmangaartistofhisgeneration.Butthemask
onlyaccentuatedhisdistinctivehair,whichhangsdown
thesidesofhisfacelikeangularblackdrapes.At33,he’s
achieveda leveloffameathomethatwouldbeunfathom-
ablefora comicbookartistinAmerica.Practicallyevery-
oneinJapanreadscomics,whetherserializedinweeklyor
monthlymangamagazinessuchasShonenJumporcollected
involumescalledtankobon. The artists, who typically both
illustrate and write, are venerated as auteurs.
Isayama peered over the shoulders of the high school
students, housewives, and salarymen attending the exhi-
bition, drinking in their unfiltered chatter. The conversa-
tions weren’t unlike the fan discourse surrounding Game
ofThrones, intheirfocus on plot twists, shocking deaths,andgruesomesetpieces.Thetwoworkssharea particu-
lartendency to kill off their protagonists. Both have also, at
their heights, been industries unto themselves.
“Back when the series first got picked up, there were
constant news reports that Kodansha was seriously in the
red,” Isayama said. “I had no idea how long any of this was
goingtolast.”Insteadofbecominga casualtyofKodansha’s
financialwoes,though,AttackonTitanturnedouttobe
thepublisher’s answer. When an animated TV adaptation
was introduced in 2013, sales of the comic soared, lifting
Kodansha’s sales for the first time in 18 years and return-
ing it to profitability.
A comic this successful might be expected to run for 100
volumes or more—one of Isayama’s favorites as a child was
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which came out the year he was
born and remains in print as its creator, Hirohiko Araki,
periodically reinvents his protagonist. Isayama, though, has
decided he’s run out of story to tell. His manga and anime
TV series will complete their final story arc sometime in
the coming year.
Kodansha will be left with a very large financial hole to
fill. Attack on Titan has for years insulated the publisher
against industry trends that it will have to confront head-on.
Domestic revenue from sales of print manga volumes, which
comprise almost half of Japan’s $12 billion-a-year book mar-
ket, plunged to an all-time low in 2017 and fell a further 5%
in 2018, according to Japan’s National Publishers Association.
(Revenue jumped 5% in the first half of 2019, the most recent
period for which figures are available, but only because of an
industrywide price hike.) Sales of digital comics have been
an exception, climbing steadily in recent years and getting
a boost this spring, when many Japanese bookstores were
closed to halt the spread of Covid-19. But rampant piracy
and lower prices make digital manga less profitable than
traditional paper comics.
The pressure on Kodansha is all the more intense because
it coincides with a moment of great opportunity. Demand for
adaptation-friendly storylines is higher than ever, the result
of a fierce fight between Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC to become
global leaders in anime streaming. In 2017, Netflix shook up
the industry by luring Taiki Sakurai away from Production
I.G Inc., the studio responsible for one of the most success-
ful animes of all-time, Ghost in the Shell. Sakurai’s first Netflix
series was Devilman Crybaby, based on Kodansha’s surreal-
ist manga Devilman, from 1972.
But Kodansha and its rivals must do more than simply
mine their back catalogs if they’re to thrive. Japanese manga
publishers receive only a modest share of licensing income,
so for them anime serves primarily as comic book ads. Unlike
Marvel and DC, which retain great control over the worlds
their company artists and writers invent, Japanese com-
ics publishers work in a system that defers to the creator.
“The author has almost absolute control in Japan,” says
Jason DeMarco, who’s been licensing anime for Turner
Broadcasting System Inc.-owned Cartoon Network Inc. forIsayama and Kawakubo