Here in the west for manga you’re either a mangaka or an oel manga poser. for those who don’t know oel is an acronym for ORIGINAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE manga and typically a used in a harsh manner regarding America comic books that are presented as a manga.

THE ROOTS OF OEL MANGA.

Tracing the roots of oel manga is tough because manga is just another word for comic book.ah,but words are the most important thing in our language and word’s change over time or become part of a cultural lexicon.so,knowing this we’ll have to travel back in time to the heyday of manga and anime….THE 90’s.

I believe that the 90’s was the silver age of manga and like it’s American counter part it spawned upon thousands of anime and manga that have been recorded.lost to time.sometimes copyright law or simply stuck in limbo. just like it’s American counter part it spawned more crap than good things and here is where I believe things started to take a nose dive.

NEW MARKET AND EXPLOITATION:THE DOWN FALL.

we could sit here all day arguing about marketing,trading,and others things having to do with the subject.I’m not going to pretend I know the inner workings of business practices and so on.I’ve seen what a new market can do for everybody because it’s such an exciting time for every one to try out new things and pursue new opportunities.

Tokyo pop is one of the biggest offenders in the history of oel because at the time along with viz media and too many to name sucked the well dry and left nothing for the rest of us.I choose to speak about them because I have the most experience with them and read too much of their manga that they just threw to make a buck.

When Tokyo pop started out in the 90’s things were going so well for them and everybody.see back then you either got your manga at block buster,your local library,or what few retailers sold them.and,what made it even more frustrating is you never knew what you were getting because sometimes the manga was full of terrible engrish or rehashing of crap.

Tokyo pop and all sorts of other companies offered high quality manga that was hard to come by.if you’re a kid who barely had any money it was perfect but soon enough there were signs that things weren’t as good as they seemed.Tokyo pop started running and selling oel manga and they weren’t the only ones to do so but the cluster f**** that came from it is legendary.soon enough all the artists,writer’s,and even the staff were fucked over because Tokyo pop with held money and completely dropped the ball on sales.then,they liquidated thier assets and laid every one off.

HOLY s***.

SERIOUSLY,WERE YOU EVEN THINKING?

Here is where things get sad and pathetic.so,soon enough because of a bunch of back door negotiating with staff and the people who produced the oel manga,Tokyo pop announced bankruptcy and told everyone to go to hell.

here’s the sad part.

The people who had thier sights set on making it big with manga had to abandon their dreams and sadly faded into obscurity.

END OF PART ONE.