Anime & Manga Industry Grow SeriesTo kickoff 2017, it’s time to get a sense of what we can do to help the anime and manga industry succeed. The signs have trended up for both anime and manga success in the West over the past few years. But piracy still exists, titles you’d think would get licensed still are unlicensed, and companies continue to navigate uncharted territories in a digital future. So the best question is: how can we help?

Well, let’s ask industry people!

From a long-time editor of a weekly Japanese magazine to a brand new shoujo and josei publisher, a few industry members took time to explain how fans can support the industry and help it continue to grow. So expect during the month of January you’ll get to find out why these people decided they wanted to work in the industry, and share what fans can to do to help them out.

One of the goals of TheOASG is to find a way to support the industry. Generally, that means finding ways to express that in many forms. Last year, one way this ended up taking shape was through a podcast. Two current manga translators, one I had known since her work in the Manga Translation Battle and one who I learned took part in the Manga Translation Battle after finding out she translated one of the best manga of 2016, Nichijou, were crazy enough to support my idea of having two translators chat with each other every month.

You can certainly expect more of the same this year as we continue to try and experiment, and provide you all with some good info. Anyways, hope each and every one of you have a Happy New Year. Please consider sticking around the site to see what we have up our sleeves in 2017.

The list of those taking part:

Jan 2: Charlene Ingram
Jan 6: Charis Messier
Jan 9: Hisashi Sasaki
Jan 13: Annaliese Christman
Jan 17: Jennifer Fu
Jan 23: Ann Yamamoto