To follow up on our manga readers survey, KAORI met Elex Media Komputindo‘s Managing Editor for the Comics division, Ratna Sari Abubakar. Our report will be divided into three parts. The first part will discuss the history of manga publishing by Elex Media. The second part will talk about the process and challenges of licensing manga series for publication in Indonesia. The third part discusses various things about manga readers in Indonesia and other activities beyond publishing manga books.
- Part 1: Elex Media’s History
- Part 2: Licensing Manga
- Part 3: Readers and Collaborations
How Candy Candy Become Indonesia’s First Published Manga
Elex Media Komputindo is one of the publishing units in the media conglomerate Kompas Gramedia group. The group also includes the largest circulating newspaper in Indonesia, Kompas; the Gramedia bookstore chain; the Gramedia printing company; and various regional newspapers. Kompas Gramedia is also the owner of Kompas TV, an Indonesian TV channel.
Elex Media Komputindo itself was founded in 1985 as a publishing unit for books on electronics and computers. According to Ms. Sari, Elex Media’s involvement in manga publishing began in the late 80’s. During his visit to Japan, Kompas founder Jakob Oetama became interested in manga, thinking that there was a business opportunity to publish them in Indonesia. The first manga that Elex Media published was the shoujo manga Candy Candy. It was also the manga that Mr. Oetama brought back from Japan. After Candy Candy, Elex Media followed it with Doraemon, Kung Fu Boy, and Dragon Ball through the 90s.
The opportunity was present because, at that time, the popularity of local Indonesian comics was declining. In a talkshow held at the 2015 Indonesian comics exhibition event, the panellist discussed that the main reason Indonesian comics disappeared during the 90’s was because Indonesian comics back then were published by small-scale publishers. Those publishers discontinued their operations when their owners passed away. It led to the rise of Japanese manga as they filled the market left by local comics.
The political situation also provided another opportunity to raise the popularity of manga in Indonesia. In the 90s, the New Order government allowed the operations of private TV stations. During that time, Indonesia’s TV industry still lacked the resources to self-produce many programs. Thus, the TV stations licensed many programs from other countries, including animated TV series from the United States and Japan. Among those animated TV series are titles whose manga are published by Elex Media, such as Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Detective Conan. With this strategy, it allows for the print and TV sides to promote each other.
The early manga published in Indonesia were followed by the airing of their animated adaptations in the 90s by newly established private TV stations
In the beginning, Elex Media published manga in Indonesia using Western binding. Because of this, the pages of the manga were flipped to allow them to be read from left to right. The reason for this, according to Ms. Sari, was that most books published in Indonesia use Western binding. The major exception is the Muslim holy book, the Koran, which uses Arabic writing that is read from right to left. References to Japanese locations, organizations, or even names of minor characters were also used to be modified into localized references and names. That was also partly because of the use of Western binding. The writings on signs would have gotten reversed when the manga were flipped. Because of this, the signs were replaced with localized signs.
