{"id":55988,"date":"2026-01-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=55988"},"modified":"2026-01-21T17:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:28:57","slug":"nobody-reads-manga-anymore-veteran-manga-editor-says-there-are-fewer-aspiring-editors-who-are-truly-passionate-about-the-medium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nobody-reads-manga-anymore-veteran-manga-editor-says-there-are-fewer-aspiring-editors-who-are-truly-passionate-about-the-medium\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNobody reads manga anymore.\u201d Veteran manga editor says there are fewer aspiring editors who are truly passionate about the medium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kazuaki Ishibashi, a manga author and editor best known for his editing work on Mob Psycho 100 and The World Only God Knows, published a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mikunikko\/status\/2012687497189593476?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lengthy X post<\/a>\/column about the state of his profession and the industry. While several aspiring manga editors he\u2019s been meeting and training over the years have impressive credentials and communication skills, they read far less manga than what used to be the norm, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u307b\u307c\u6f2b\u753b\u696d\u754c\u30b3\u30e9\u30e0278<br><br>\u3010\u6700\u8fd1\u306e\u6f2b\u753b\u7de8\u96c6\u8005\u5fd7\u671b\u304c\u3001\u9a5a\u304f\u307b\u3069\u6f2b\u753b\u3092\u8aad\u3093\u3067\u3044\u306a\u3044\u8a71\u3011<br><br>\u6f2b\u753b\u7de8\u96c6\u8005\u3092\u80b2\u6210\u3057\u3066\u3044\u3066\u3001\u6b63\u76f4\u304b\u306a\u308a\u6238\u60d1\u3046\u3053\u3068\u304c\u3042\u308b\u3002\u305d\u308c\u306f\u2015\u2015\u672c\u5f53\u306b\u7686\u6f2b\u753b\u3092\u8aad\u3093\u3067\u3044\u306a\u3044\u3068\u3044\u3046\u3053\u3068\u3060\u3002<br><br>\u300c\u3048\uff1f\u3000\u306a\u3093\u3067\u6f2b\u753b\u7de8\u96c6\u8005\u5fd7\u671b\u3057\u305f\u306e\uff1f\u300d\u2026<\/p>&mdash; \u77f3\u6a4b\u548c\u7ae0 \/Zoo (@mikunikko) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mikunikko\/status\/2012687497189593476?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background\"><em>When it comes to training aspiring manga editors, I&#8217;m honestly quite baffled sometimes. It\u2019s just that\u2026 they genuinely don&#8217;t read manga.<\/em><br><em><br>I&#8217;ve lost count of how many times I&#8217;ve asked them, \u2018Huh, then why do you even want to be a manga editor?\u2019 In my mind, I\u2019m furious.<\/em><br><em><br>Of course, I want new manga artists to read manga, too. But editors? They absolutely have to read even more than artists do.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"458\" height=\"686\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55994\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840002.jpg 458w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840002-254x380.jpg 254w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He chalks it up to a change in environment. Back in the day, people were surrounded by manga on all sides, whether through bookshelves at home, friends and family\u2019s houses, or bookstores, just to name a few examples. Now, however, he thinks the avenues have become more limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it is true that manga has never been more readily available, he notes that the lack readily available physical manga has contributed to people becoming more selective about what they read. He says that even digital platforms, whose algorithms only try to cater to the readers\u2019 interests, area major cause in preventing them from broadening their horizons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"397\" height=\"561\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840003.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55995\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840003.jpg 397w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-559840003-269x380.jpg 269w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background\"><em>Lately, the idea of being a manga editor has become kind of \u201ctrendy,\u201d and the motivation of aspiring editors usually boils down to:<\/em><br><br><em>\u2018I want to work in the entertainment industry.&#8217;\u2018<\/em><br><em>I want to be involved with an IP\u2019\u2018<\/em><br><em>I want to support creators.&#8217;\u2018<\/em><br><em>It just seems kind of fun.\u2019<\/em><br><br><em>There is nothing wrong with that.<\/em><br><em>However, not many of them say things like:<\/em><br><br><em>&#8216;Manga is my life!&#8221;<\/em><br><em>Honestly, nothing else matters besides manga.&#8217;<\/em><br><br><em>That kind of \u201cmadness\u201d isn\u2019t present as much anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whereas manga editors back then were seen as \u201cexperts\u201d of the medium, whose knowledge and judgement are directly related to the number of manga they read and experience in editing, nowadays, the wealth of media can lead editors to believe that they can easily know it all. Ishibashi cites summary videos, famous manga panels posted on social media, and anime adaptations as a few examples of the ways aspiring editors \u201cread\u201d manga without actually doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He likens an editor who doesn\u2019t read enough manga to a music producer who doesn\u2019t listen to music. If an editor hasn\u2019t experienced enough of the medium for themselves, they cannot make important decisions that will make them invaluable to manga writers and artists. Topics such as whether a manga resembles something from the past decade, similar failed examples, and character archetypes are often brought up during creator meetings, and it is the editor\u2019s duty to understand and participate in the discussions to ensure that a project is progressing in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/attack-on-titan-author-says-hes-unlikely-to-create-another-manga-of-the-same-caliber\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Attack on Titan author says he\u2019s unlikely to create another manga of the same caliber<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/ai-generated-manga-becomes-top-ranked-in-japans-biggest-e-book-store\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>AI-generated manga becomes top-ranked in Japan\u2019s biggest e-book store<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kazuaki Ishibashi, a manga editor best known for his editing work on Mob Psycho 100, recently spoke out about the state of his profession. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":55991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17,66],"class_list":["post-55988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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