Another online manga provider Manga Toshokan follows One Manga’s suit and voluntarily culls most of its library of illegally uploaded manga scanlations.

Manga Toshokan’s actions are likewise in light of a recent statement given out by a coalition of Japanese publishers and their foreign partners to stop the illegal distribution of manga on the internet.

However, Manga Toshokan — in an attempt to keep some of its readership, has chosen to retain its Chinese manhwa and Korean manhua library, as well as several Japanese titles not covered by the coalition. Manga Toshokan is also running a survey to get some solid opinions on how the publishers coalition’s actions are affecting their readers.

Thanks to Sese for the heads-up.

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Online manga provider One Manga is one of the first big sites to voluntarily shut down operations following a joint statement released by Japanese publishers and their foreign licensees that they aim to stamp out scanlations and the illegal distribution of manga on the internet.

Manga publishers and their overseas partners have been plagued with sluggish sales for two years in a row, and they blame the phenomenon on the easy and free accessibility of their oftentimes illegally uploaded material on the web.

There are literally thousands of free manga servers and scanlation sites operating on the internet, with many of the largest sites getting up to millions of hits per day. The high volume of internet traffic converts into a significant ad revenue for some of these sites, which make them prime targets for Cease and Desist orders by the copyright holders of the content they are distributing without a license.

The coalition’s next target is scanlation circles — groups of fans who scan, translate, and distribute manga without a license, although some publishers like DMP would like to work with these circles as subcontractors for creating and distributing licensed titles. DMP hopes to create a new distribution channel that promotes profit-sharing between the official overseas license holders, the scanlation circles who will be working on the titles, and the original authors and publishers in Japan.

Thanks to Wildquaker for the heads-up.

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Continued from Culture Crash Comics, Ten Years Later: Culture Crash as a Comic Anthology

Ten years ago, hobbyist conventions were few and far between, so the Culture Crash crew decided to rectify that situation by holding the very first Culture Crash Convention. Held for three years in a row every December from 2001 to 2003, C3 was one of the first really huge cons on the local scene, and was the site for many firsts in Philippine con history.

C3 was the template by which many local cons now operate. They were the first to entice Philippine game publishers like Level Up to support the local anime community (never mind that most of their games were developed in Korea) knowing full well that this was their target market.

C3 was the first con to offer booth rentals to hobbyist groups and independent shops, mainly because the big retailers were reluctant to participate in an anime convention. C3 was also one of the first cons to offer Early Bird Discounts, Two-day Passes, and Freebies.

Last but not least, Culture Crash Convention was one of the first events to adopt a standardized method for holding Cosplay competitions. The C3 cosplay team was a well-oiled machine composed of a registrations staff, a judging assistance staff, and a ramp marshall staff with a no-nonsense attitude (if you still remember a petite girl with a booming voice who took no shit from anyone, unruly cosplayers and overly aggressive photogs alike — that was probably me).

C3′s cosplay ramp was also one of the most star-studded, featuring the first major wins by mecha specialist Robert Wong and cosplay femme fatales Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao. Today, Robert helps run the largest cosplay community in the Philippines COSPLAY.PH, while the Gosiengfiao sisters are spokespersons for SEA anime channel Animax. C3 was said to be the con that thrust cosplay into the spotlight, and afterward Philippine cosplay was never the same again.

A convention for the fans instead of for the sponsors, Culture Crash Convention was a true labor of love. The con took a very large amount of money, long hours of backbreaking work, and many sleep-less nights to put up — but all that effort was worth it so see the local scene come together for an event just for them. The comic, the con, and the four crazy artists behind one of best things to ever come out of the Philippine otaku scene — thanks guys! It was one helluva ride!

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Continued from Culture Crash Comics, Ten Years Later: Culture Crash as an Anime Magazine

For readers, the best thing about Culture Crash was the four-title anthology that formed the centerpiece of the publication: Solstice Butterfly, Pasig, Cat’s Trail, and One Day, Isang Diwa.

These four titles did a wonderful job of taking one of the many major themes in Japanese anime and manga, and giving it a unique Filipino spin. Solstice Butterfly was J.I.O’s mecha-powered space drama that was about its beautiful but boyish female pilots as it was about the giant ultra-spec mecha that graced its panels.

Pasig was a dark, futuristic what-if based on the very real city of Pasig. In this Pasig, you had to breath out of a can and carry a gun with you where ever you go, and with the way things are going I’m not sure Ilog was making things up when he said this was the future.

The last two works were both drawn by Memer (and his alter-alter-alter-ego IQ 40). Cat’s Trail was a fun romp in JRPG-land, while One Day, Isang Diwa (written by CC boss James) was a slice-of-life high school melodrama with just the right dash of magic.

Together, all four titles held the collective ambition and inspiration of a group of artists who dared to believe that they too could make manga. And while CC might not have been the very pinnacle of artistic talent, what they did was inspirational to say the least, mind-blowing at most.

But that doesn’t mean that the anthology did not have its detractors. One local comic book artist — a giant in the field of American superhero comics, denigrated the comics and its artists as “unoriginal” and “lacking in true talent”. He also heavily questioned the art style the CC crew used to portray their characters, citing that manga was a Japanese style and therefore should only be utilized by the Japanese.

Personally, I see this as a disappointing display of double standards — a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. Even if Mr. Big-Shot-Comic-Artist had his own art style that he developed himself, the fact that he drew pencils for an American comic book showed that even he was influenced by foreign art styles. I would’ve have respected him more if he simply kept his opinions to himself and continued to draw the way he thought Filipino comics ought to be, without having to put down the work of other artists. In short, sana wala nalang basagan ng trip.

But that small issue aside, CC Comics has become an inspiration to several Filipino manga fans who have always wanted to put out their own titles.

Thanks to the success of the Fearless Four, many comic artists, doujinshi circles, and art collectives regularly participate in local conventions to sell their works. Some have even been approached by local comic outlets to stock their titles. Other artists have enjoyed international independent releases via DeviantArt or their official websites. There is no limit to what the CC crew have inspired some local manga fans to do.

Culture Crash has always tried to do its best to help the Filipino anime scene reach for its dreams. One of the biggest ways they did this was by organizing one of the largest anime convention series in the Philippines. After three successful events C3 — the Culture Crash Convention, still occupies an important place in Philippine con history. It was a venue for many firsts, and nothing — not even today’s exacting event standards can change that.

Continued in Culture Crash Comics, Ten Years Later: Culture Crash as an Hobby Convention.

For fans of Elmer Damaso, Cat’s Trail Rewind is currently available in stores. Please visit his blog for more information.

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Back in college (I’ll leave you to imagine how long ago that was >.>), there was this cheeky little anime-magazine-slash-comic-anthology that dared to get itself published, despite the twin odds of zero advertising support and zero market share.

That magazine was the legendary Culture Crash, and ten years later — 2010, let’s take a look back at the magazine’s heyday, the many doors it opened for the Philippine otaku scene, and influence it still exerts over a new generation of anime fans.

When it was first released, Culture Crash was an instant cult hit. Bookstores and comic shops could only stock five, ten issues at a time — in part due to the magazine’s limited run and in part due to their reluctance to give precious shelf space to a then unknown quantity. But pretty soon shops were running out of copies, and Culture Crash’s printing facility (originally a school textbook and government manual producer) had to work extra shifts to make more.

Culture Crash became the Pinoy otaku’s reading material of choice. It was one of the main sources of information for new fans as well as a catalyst for discussion for more established fans (not that I took sides, but does anybody still remember the “Why Solstice Butterfly Sucks” flame war?). Although some of the articles seem dated by today’s standards, keep in mind that this was years before the advent of high speed internet and daily blog posts, so back then the articles were as fresh as they came.

Culture Crash paved the way for many of today’s local anime magazines and manga anthologies; CC was the litmus test for more commercial outfits to see if there really was a local market for an anime-themed mag. If you look at bookstore shelves today, we have at least two Manila-based anime magazines, local imprints of international books like the How To Draw Manga series, and a slew of kids and teens magazines covering anime as one of its regular topics. Ten years ago, that sort of thing very rarely happened, if at all.

Culture Crash was still considered a success even after the publication folded for unspecified reasons. Even today, their fans are clamoring for new issues. But is that really a good idea? With things the way they are, if CC returned to us would it survive today’s Scylla and Charybdis of commercial publishing and online self-publishing?

I’m a big fan, but I will be the first to admit that if the magazine resurrected itself and started publishing again it will no longer be as successful as it used to be. The scene has changed over the years, with the biggest changes being the speed at which information reaches its target audience, and the way the anime community acquires new material.

I mean, how useful would it be to read an anime review from a bimonthly magazine when I can get daily updates via blogs and websites? Will people be willing to pay to read show reviews and manga recommendations when they can access the material directly via file-sharing services and online video sites? There are already two or three other magazines battling it out for a shrinking target market — will CC be able to fight back especially with its lack of advertising and its soaring overhead costs?

Things are not looking so hot so thanks, but not thanks.

Having said that, there is still no denying the influence that this one publication was able to exert over the Philippine anime fan scene. Local media has more anime than ever before. Conventions are held almost every week when ten years ago, only CC and a handful of other organizers would put up the money and hard work to hold a con. Kids are trying to emulate Ilog, Memer, J.I.O., and James by publishing their own books and selling them from DeviantArt sites and doujinshi markets.

So yeah, the boys are no longer here — but then again, maybe they never really left.

Continued in Culture Crash Comics, Ten Years Later: Culture Crash as an Comic Anthology.

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