The Japanese Approach to Comic Book Prosumption

Jeff DeChambeau May 28th, 2008

Kevin Kelly is covering a story about how Japanese comic book (called manga) companies are embracing fan created content (known as dojinshi) :

Dojinshi often feature copyrighted characters and material; amateur writers riff on established works, remixing the plots and characters, and creating new storylines (for instance a series called BLEACH centers around the chaste relationship of the main characters, but dojinshi versions feature the characters hooking up).  How do fans repurpose copyrighted material without drawing legal fire?  Via an unwritten, implicit agreement between dojinshi writers and established media companies, what Pink refers to as “anmoku no ryokai” (literally: “agreement or understanding”).

I’m not a big fan of comics, either North American or Japanese, but this strikes me as a much more enlightened relationship between media companies and fans. (Though, from what I gather, these dojinshi are pretty racy and feature characters doing things ..er.. outside of their normal realm of activities — kudos to the manga companies for being so tolerant.) It would be great if instead of slapping YouTube users with c&d’s for remixing their content, media companies just silently paid attention, then picked the best content to develop for larger use. Maybe some day!

MPAA, RIAA, YouTube, community, content, cooperation, copyright, fair use, intellectual property, lawsuits, media, prosumers, sharing, talent, user-created, wikinomics.

7 responses

  1. eriko　nakamura　blog May 29th, 2008

    i! I am a Japanese. Though I looked for English study in various ways, I commented because contents were interesting. I was able to enjoy it very much. In addition, I come to look. Please keep it for us. Thank you!

  2. Dan Pink May 29th, 2008

    Jeff -

    For a more elaborate take on this enlightened relationship, check out this piece on dojinshi that I wrote for WIRED a few months ago: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-11/ff_manga

    Cheers,
    Dan Pink

  3. Naumi Haque May 29th, 2008

    Great article Dan - a fun tour of Japanese popular culture and an excellent example prosumption. I think you hit the nail on the head in the Wired piece:

    Taking care of customers. Finding new talent. Getting free market research. That’s a pretty potent trio of advantages for any business. Trouble is, to derive these advantages the manga industry must ignore the law. And this is where it gets weird. Unlike, say, an industrial company that might increase profits if it skirts environmental regulations imposed to safeguard the public interest, the manga industrial complex is ignoring a law designed to protect its own commercial interests…

    In anmoku no ryokai, manga publishers might have found a tentative, imperfect, but ultimately more promising answer — a business model that could help media companies in both Japan and the US begin to navigate these potentially treacherous new waters. Instead of rewriting a national statute or hashing out separate individual contracts or crafting special licenses, it leaves everything unsaid in order to simply give the new arrangement a test drive. It takes the situation out of the realm of law and plops it into the realm of economics and game theory. It places the established publishers and the dojinshi creators in something resembling the prisoners’ dilemma: If they cooperate — that is, if they honor the terms of anmoku no ryokai — they both gain. But if one overreaches — if publishers crack down aggressively or if dojinshi creators go too far — they both suffer.

  4. Jeff DeChambeau May 29th, 2008

    Dan, thanks for that, solid article.

    I have to ask, as a manga content creator, how would you feel if you saw the characters of Johnny Bunko being “remixed”?

  5. Dan Pink May 30th, 2008

    I’d be pretty psyched, actually. It would be a sign that fans love the characters, are thinking about them, and are willing to devote their time and brainpower to something I created. Of course, Johnny Bunko doesn’t have quite the commercial throw-weight of, say, Mickey Mouse. But I can’t think it’d be anything but good for the property.

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