From: Sako Ikegami <sako>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:35:38 +0900

Hi Amy,

Actually it may not be surprising at all. Both Brave Story and the Moribito series are children's novels that were very popular and therefore adapted into anime and manga. This is actually quite common in Japan, since sadly, the manga- and anime-consuming public far outnumbers book lovers.

Since so few books are translated from the Japanese, and as far as I have heard, so difficult to sell in the States, perhaps books that are already available in other, more accesible forms such as manga and anime, are more likely to get published?

FWIW, there are cases of the reverse, where very popular manga or anime
(or TV dramas and movies) are novelized, but my impression is that this is much less common.

Also, Viz Media is actually owned and run by Shogakukan and Shueisha. Yes, they're the source of tons of manga in Japan too, but the former is also one of the biggest publishers of children's magazines, books and educational materials (akin to Scholastic), while Shueisha publishes a huge number of magazines and books for all ages.

Sako

amyg at nyc.rr.com wrote:
> I find it interesting that this is the second year in a row that the Bachelder was given to a novel translated from the Japanese, and that in both cases, there's a link to the manga/anime industry. Last year it was "Brave Story," published by Viz, which is primarily known for publishing manga and anime. This year it's "Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit," which was adapted into an anime series. Up until a week ago, the show was broadcast by Cartoon Network.
>
> http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/01/26/neil-gaiman-wins-newbery-award-moribito-wins-bachelder/
>
>
Received on Tue 27 Jan 2009 06:35:38 PM CST