CHIBA Tetsuya

It has been a long time since the manga industry last came to a turning point. With the continuous appearance of new items of interest for young readers, such as personal computers, cellular phones, games, and so on, it is true that the time of the so called bubble era, when any manga magazines or comic books were unconditionally selling well, has long since passed. However, new characters were born and have grown lively in these new media; it was interesting to note many of these new genre works in this year's screening of the Manga Division. Nevertheless, we found that conventional paper printed manga is still very much alive and that their content and expression remains substantial; this year was especially plentiful. The time I spent in the screening sessions has convinced me that beneath the surface the manga industry is about to turn, and that there will be a wide open land, vast and fertile.