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And that’s really my thought; at this juncture in the manga publishing business here in the US, It’s really a battle between the Haves and Have-Nots. Large companies like Viz get dibs on the best series and titles like Bleach, Naruto, Death Note, and more. With business partnerships that create licensing choke holds and the ability to print large runs of books and keep collections in print, the Haves are squared away to weather any economic storm. The little guys may not be so lucky. Without blockbuster hits, or at least a moderately good showing on their books, publishers may have problems staying in business.

Y1.ys("dy"); Subscribe Y1.ys2("dy"); AD2.init({ site: 'DY', area: 'BANNER', width: 728, height: 90, admax: 1, banid: 'dy-banner' }); AD2.cAds(); AD2.dBanner();   JAPANESE Home National Sports Business World Features Columns Editorial Top Essay Culture Arts Weekend Book Review The Language Connection Scene Science & Nature Home>Features>DY Weekend Weather DY Weekend  Top THROUGH OTAKU EYES / Journalist tracks lost pop culture treasures Makoto Fukuda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer For one reason or another, t

y these works slip out of circulation and fade from view, as if they are cut off from the world, in a series of reports in which he calls them fuin sakuhin, or sealed works.

Europe has caught the bug, too. In the United Kingdom, the Catholic Church is using manga to recruit new priests. One British publisher, in an effort to hippify a national franchise, has begun issuing manga versions of Shakespeare's plays, including a Romeo and Juliet that reimagines the Montagues and Capulets as rival yakuza families in Tokyo.

Manga sales in the US have tripled in the past four years.

Circulation of the country's weekly comic magazines, the essential entry point for any manga series, has fallen by about half over the last decade.

Pink, who previously offered career advice in books such as Free-Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, participated in a two-month fellowship in Japan before churning out Johnny Bunko, the first manga business book for the American market.

Japanese pop culture, such as fashion, manga and anime, has been considered "cool" overseas for a while, but the government and domestic business community are not making the most of such popularity.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Minister' Industrial Structure Council recently released a report that devoted a great deal of space to the Japan cool issue. Following is an extract from the report.

It has been 10 years since Japan cool became popular, but Japanese industry is not doing a good job of making the most of it, as it is often mocked: The biggest gainer from Japanese anime is Hollywood.