Entry tags:

magazine

Manga Magazines in Indonesia

A day late on my part of the world, but I'm sure it's still Wednesday somewhere in the US. Enjoy this article about manga magazines in Indonesia.

Nakayoshi: First one!

Nakayoshi Gress
9th edition
May 2004Nakayoshi Indonesia or Nakayoshi Gress^[1] first hit the newsstand in September 2003. Promotional price tag for the magazine lasted over a year! Special bonuses was even offered for its subscribers. Even staffs at Gramedia—a national book store chain and publisher—wore the magazine's black T-shirts during the promotional week. It was such a huge publicity for a magazine.

They may have learn their lesson from the unsuccessful Album Komik Candy in the 90s. The said magazine maintain the bigger format of Nakayoshi but not as thick as it is now. The magazine serialized Sailor V, but the figure sales shows that it was not very successful. It had not even reached its 10th edition when it stopped.

Reading Headache: Magazine format and binding

At the beginning, Nakayoshi Gress tried to copy the lettering and design its Japanese counterpart, with various fonts and alignment, or should I say, degree of alignment; ignoring the outcome of such design in a country that uses latin lettering. ^^;

Fortunately, the publisher finally come to their senses. Starting at #14 Nakayoshi Gress shows up with normal layout. However, the comic panel was still printed reversed, to suit the Indonesian market. But, in edition #28, the magazine announced that they will use Japanese format in the next edition and in the end, everyone is happy. Currently, the latest edition is #42 (March 2007).

The Japanese panel format and Japanese binding are maintained for all other manga magazine that was published after Nakayoshi.

Moved to the Magazine? WHYYYYYYYY?: Popular and long titles transfered to manga magazines

Shonen Magz, featuring
Tsubasa Reservoir ChronicleNationwide uproar was targeted towards Elex Media Komputindo when the company launched its third manga magazine called Shonen Star. The reason? Detective Conan (Case Closed) and InuYasha had stopped being published as a tankoubon and being serialized in the said magazine.

As fans whined, complained, cursed, screamed, harassed the company and accuse them for sly profit taking, it seems like nobody actually care the reason why Elex did that.

As it turn out, though never formally announced online, rather printed in their response to emails from the magazine readers, they said the ultimate answer: Japanese publisher request. If Elex doesn't abide the request, they will stop giving license for the said title.

Despite this has been said, many still ask the same thing from time to time in various places. Either they are ignored, being laughed at or, simply given an answer from the FAQ. A simple Google search took more or less the same time needed to whine.

Some of the editors at Elex had expressed their own personal disagreement with this course of action in various places online. Despite those protests, Indonesian publisher had no such control, no one can beat the invincible Japanese (^_~)

Editors at Elex who edit Detective Conan and Inuyasha would have to work twice now. Why? Shonen Star follows Japanese binding convention, meanwhile those two tankoubons in Indonesian follows western binding.

Wait forever? Are you insane?

When chapters of Detective Conan and Inuyasha in the magazine are enough to become one tankoubon, they are immediately published the next month. But, those other titles that starts their first chapter in the magazine don't share the same fate. One have to be concluded first before volume 1 is released.

I don't mind for titles with lesser volumes, but how about titles that actually still ongoing in Japan? Even the sensible fans like me would be mad. Titles in this category: Kekkaishi, Yakitate!Japan, BECK!, Ouran Host Club, and many more.

Recently, an email from one of the Elex editor in a local manga magazine mailing list confirms that they are on negotiations about publishing certain titles in the form of tankoubon despite the fact that they are not yet concluded. This is such a huge relief.

More magazines

HanaLala
Feb 2007Yes, you probably wonder what does Ouran had anything to do with a shonen magazine. Elex is publishing more manga magazines.

Shonen Magz

Our first shonen magazine. Featuring series from Kodansha's Shonen Magazine: BECK!, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

HanaLaLa

Combined magazine from Hana to Yume and LaLa. Titles include: V.B. Rose, Merupuri, La Corda d'Oro, and Ouran.

This magazine also shares the same fate with Shonen Star when Fruits Basket, Alice Academy and Skip Beat! started to serialized in the magazine. Each stopped at #14, #4, and #8, respectively.

If you do forum lurking in some of the Indonesian forums like I did, you might catch some whining about Alice Academy and Skip Beat! It has been a trend of some sort.

Champ

Manhwa magazine. Sales figure was not good, it had to stopped in edition #22, despite the interesting titles it has: Saint Marie, Sweety, Change Guy, You, etc.

Furoku and Price

Do not expect the Indonesian counterpart share the same features like the Japanese. Fans are in dire need of furoku. So far we only got stickers and posters. No Shitajiki, keychain, purikura albums, pencils, etc.

Meanwhile, original Japanese furoku are being awarded for quiz winners. If you purchase Nakayoshi, Shonen Sunday, Hana to Yume, or LaLa regularly, there is no reason for you to try out your luck with the quiz. :(

The price for a manga magazine is twice than the usual manga. The paper and ink used is the same quality with tankoubon. These are probably one of the contributing factor that some fans do not buy the tankoubon format when it is published.

Other Publisher

Cherry magazine
February 2007Only one major manga publisher besides Elex in Indonesia published a manga magazine: M&C—Gramedia's subdivision for comics and magazine. The magazine name is Cherry, featuring arts from Kyoko Arai (Beauty Pop), Akaishi Michiyo, Watase Yuu, and many others.

Their system of publishing tankoubon from manga magazine follows the Japanese system closely, this is very different from Elex. And the quiz prize is awesome: zen-in goods, that you would never get your hands on unless you live in Japan or found it somewhere in ebay or Yahoo!Japan Auction.

Indonesian Manga Magazine

Manga started to hit the bookstores around late 80s in Indonesia. Two or three years later, manga-style illustrator started to emerged out of hobby. Now, it has became a source of income for many, and the industry had produce a lot of potential mangakas. Even some of them had their work published overseas.

Splash magazine
1st edition
August 2006Last year, on August 2006, best students from Machiko manga school and their sensei started releasing first ever Indonesian manga-style magazine called SPLASH. These mangaka called themselves maqinin, separating the term from the general words like cergamis^[2] or komikus^[3]. While the manga itself called maqita.

From the summary of the stories in the second edition, I think I would purchase a copy soon.

Notes

[1] Cheesy way to say new.
[2] Derived from the acronym cergam, cerita bergambar, literally means a story with pictures.
[3] Comic illustrator.

Email me at reapea@gmail.com for errors and review suggestions.