Media Mix Synergy

So why does Marvel fail so hard at synergy between the MCU and their comics sales? In the otakuspace, companies are pretty good at getting popular anime adaptations to boost sales of their corresponding manga, light novels. What is Japan doing that Marvel is not?

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The market is literally completely different in Japan with different demographics and a different market history and different publication standards and different distribution and different EVERYTHING. The sole similarity is that they both involve words and pictures on a page, a highly superficial comparison in the end.

Movies don’t improve comic sales; Marvel and DC both have tried, but at best you draw already existing readers away from books they read to books they don’t normally read, with an infinitesimal uptick in new readers on rare occasions.

Sadly, superhero comics from the Big Two are not profitable and likely never will be again due to changing market realities.

I think it's less about Japan and more that Western normies are too lazy/unmotivated to go out and buy comics.

>Japan
"read the manga/LN to find out what happens after the end of the anime to the world and characters you love"
>America
"read the comics to find out about some weird hyperpolitical alternative universe version of the characters from the movie"
and that is why nobody gets converted to comics from movies
also Japanese people just read more manga in general.

>So why does Marvel fail so hard at synergy between the MCU and their comics sales? In the otakuspace, companies are pretty good at getting popular anime adaptations to boost sales of their corresponding manga, light novels.
First, the MCU is generating income at a level that absolutely dwarfs any other company's comics/animation efforts. That's without getting into Disney's own animation division.

If Marvel were generating 5x current comic sales, it would still be a pittance.

The Highest grossing Anime in history made about as much as Shazam!, with 95% of that being overseas and not in Japan.
Any Manga you care to mention is small beans compared to the MCU.

New comics are basically a low income side-hobby for Disney. As long as they can pay their own utilities and salaries, they'll continue on as they are.

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In short, Disney doesn't need the MCU to boost the sales of their low-profit comic rags.
They need the MCU to continue boosting the sales of their next MCU films, and pawn ideas (loosely) off the comic rags.

Now, feel free to fuck off back to

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People don't like to fucking read, ok?

This is an easy problem to solve and I've advocated this for years:

Make a new comic that's based on the movie, not the original comics, drawn in a kid friendly style. Sell it in theaters with cheap cardboard kiosks, the same ones they already use, during the movie's run. Done.

Ignore complaints from the direct market shops. These are customers they would never have anyways, because the vast majority of these people don't go to comic stores.

Because buying a comic usually requires you to physically enter a comic shop. You don't see an Avengers comic on a wheel at CVS and go "oh hey" and make an impulse buy.

Also this. The comics are IP farms now that throw out new ideas and judge the initial reaction. Whether, say, America Chavez is successful or good isn't relevant, they can always give her a better personality in the MCU or adapt parts that work (the way Morgan Stark is the MCU Riri Williams and MCU Peter Parker stole Miles Morales' best friend and Kamala Khan's apprentice gimmick)

>The Highest grossing Anime in history made about as much as Shazam!
What is that, Dragonball?

Comic book shops are a pain in the ass to get to and comic book stories are in the dumps as of recently.

What others have said, when it comes to manga adaptations leading people back to the source material, it's easier in Japan because if you like the show, there is only one main comic/manga for you to read. If you like Captain America, and then go to a comic store, there is so many different runs, interpretations, and stories to pick up and check out, it's hard to even care to start looking for a starting point. It is not a problem that can be easily solved with western comics. In fact, I wouldn't bother to solve it as it's impossible. Best to just let the two run separate from each other entirely.

As for how to increase comic sales...maybe have them stop being shit?

Americans just hate reading. Japanese people buy manga all the time (need something for the train)

Literacy rate of Japan: 99%
Literacy rate of USA: 86%

>Literacy rate of USA: 86%
that's a disgrace

The Japanese still actually read things longer than tweets

>Reading Iron-man
>You want to know what happen next please read spiderman 332,x-men445 and Avenger v5 12 as well
Fuck this shit

The difference of adaptation between the MCU and anime

Anime is mostly direct adaptation. If someone likes the anime they can pick up the manga without much issue

The MCU's style of adoption combines multiple comic lines and character arcs, recontextualizes it in this new universe, then add MCU original stuff on top. If someone wanted to pick up a comic based on a movie, they'd seriously need some sort of help figuring out where to start.

also that whole mass media appeal thing

Anime/Manga is a way fucking bigger industry than comic books.

Marvel 616 is a total clusterfuck, like most comic universes. Also there’s apparently a chimp choosing who does what and which writer gets to do which series. They should be focusing on a Cap/Iron Man adventure to take advantage of the MCU right now, but nah. Pointless drama in the Invaders and everybody just scattered around in various different books where nothing new happens instead.
Also having to jump between floppies just to get a continued story is the worst, holy shit.
>mfw trying to piece together Fear Itself into a cohesive storyline

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>95% of that being overseas and not in Japan.
If you mean Your Name, that would mean it did only 17,900,000 in Japan, but it did $190,000,000. It also accounted for 10% of the total box office that year in Japan.