I walked into my local Borders the other day and realized something. The manga section is big. Really big. And every few weeks, it seems that they have to add another shelf to accommodate the influx of new titles. Because it’s not just the fact that there are hundreds of individual titles, but almost every one of them has multiple volumes. It’s like cells splitting constantly; Manga is multiplying at an alarming rate!

Of course, this is a sort of dream come true for me. I remember I used to look at photos of Japanese bookstores which were bursting at the seams with rows and rows of manga and I would feel bitterly jealous that there wasn’t something like that over here. Of course, we’re not quite at that point yet, but we’re getting there. The manga section may only take up a small percentage of the average book store, but it is growing and becoming more of a force to be reckoned with.

Although, once my glee died down at the prospect of marvelous multiplying manga, I was forced to realize the downside of it. My bank account.

Back when shoujo was first being released here in the form of titles like Peach Girl, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Mars, I eagerly snapped up every title I could, eager to support comics for girls. I was thirsty after a long drought in male-oriented superhero land, and I even wasted my money on several sup-par titles just because they were shoujo and I wanted shoujo to succeed, dammit! Of course, I had no idea that shoujo would succeed so well or that it would become one of the biggest sellers overall.

It was a surreal moment when I finally realized there was no way I could possibly support every shoujo title that was released. It was impossible. And, over the last couple years, I’ve found myself cutting back on even the series I had started to buy, or dropping some altogether. Because of the sheer volume of titles, I have been forced to become a selective consumer.

I still have my titles which I’ll buy, no matter what, such as Tramps Like Us, Death Note, and new OELs. And there are other titles that I’ll buy additional volumes of if the mood hits me and if I have extra money. But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m very reluctant to start a new series. There are plenty of titles that interest me, but I’ll only buy volume 1 of the titles that really grab me. I wish I could try more new titles, but each series is likely a hundred-dollar investment (or more) by the time it’s done and I’m just not willing to shell out that much for multiple titles.

Which makes me envy another aspect of the Japanese manga market. Their gigantic phonebook anthologies. I really love Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump, the manga compilation magazines which are currently being released by Viz. For a low subscription fee, each month I can read another chapter or two of multiple titles. Nana is one of my favorite series right now, and I’m content to read it in monthly installments. One day I’m sure I’ll go back and buy the individual volumes, but I like not being forced to.

Rather than wait multiple months for the next volume of my favorite series (where I usually forget what happened in the story by the time the next volume does finally come out), with Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat I get small doses of story each month that I look forward to seeing in my mailbox. It keeps my interest fresh and I like the variety. And I find myself really enjoying titles like Crimson Hero, Baby & Me, and Shaman King which, quite honestly, I would never buy in book form otherwise.

But I want more manga anthologies like this! I want to be able to read more titles each month for less money. Of course I realize that it could never be as cheap to produce those phonebook style magazines here in the States as it is in Japan. For one, there are the costs of translating and preparing the material for an English-speaking audience. Printing costs are also higher in general. And most Americans are spoiled by glossy, superior paper stock and may not appreciate newsprint so cheap that the ink comes off on your fingers.

TOKYOPOP has just received some backlash for putting several of their titles on their website as exclusives. While I can understand the frustration of readers and retailers (I certainly wouldn’t be happy if one of my favorite titles was turned into an “exclusive”) I can understand TOKYOPOP’s desire to try this out, especially given how many titles they do have. But I wonder if it might be better to do something like a monthly manga anthology akin to Shonen Jump that features some of these lesser known, or less appreciated titles and eliminate the book format for these titles altogether. That would leave some space on the over-crowded bookshelves yet still allow fans easy access to their favorite titles, along with a few others.

I may be looking at it too simplistically, but I feel that anthologies might be a happy medium for certain titles. I can only speak personally when I say I’d rather buy 5 anthologies with up to 25 stories total for $6 each a month than 3 single manga volumes. And I prefer the idea of subscribing to an “exclusive” magazine with stories unavailable anywhere else over ordering and paying shipping for individual “exclusive” titles off the internet.

I also feel that anthologies would be a great way to promote Global manga. I was happy to hear about Drama Queen’s plans to release a yaoi anthology called Rush on a bi-monthly schedule. But what intrigues me even more is that the stories are not originally Japanese, but contributed by artists around the globe. What a great idea!

Since the creators of OELs typically don’t have their own team of assistants, each volume of their work can take up to a year to see print. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been eagerly awaiting the next volume of Dramacon. If more global manga was made into a monthly or bi-monthly anthology, these artists’ work would see the light of day faster and develop a fan base more quickly. And readers wouldn’t have to wait as long between volumes to read their favorite stories, and they would also be exposed to other OEL titles that they might otherwise have ignored.

Of course, I’m only speaking as a fan. I’m no expert on the particulars of printing or compiling an anthology each month, so I’m sure there are crucial details that I’m overlooking. But I hope some of the bigger manga companies will experiment some more in the future with affordable manga anthologies. In the meantime I’ll just have to ignore some of those colorful new titles that keep catching my eye as I stay loyal to some old friends.