Japanese manga comics have recently become as hugely popular in Germany as they have in the English-speaking world. In Germany, however, the manga market has been colonized by the established comics publishers, principally Carlsen and Ehapa Verlag, who have not only been aggressive in licensing real Asian manga, but have also cultivated homegrown artists via competitions and magazines. These methods have led to the discovery and publication of several German manga artists, including Christina Plaka, Anike Hage, Gina Wetzel, Nina Werner, Robert Labs, and Judith Park (the only artist in this group with any Asian background—in this case, Korean).

All of these artists’ works are not only published right-to-left in Japanese fashion, but they are also likely to be set in Japan, or at least to conform to the visual and generic tropes of established manga styles. They are thus characterized by a problematic ideal of “authenticity,” conforming to a supposedly exotic aesthetic, while simultaneously being promoted as “local talent” for the relatively small German market, and therefore appealing for the support of a nationally defined in-group. The negotiation between these opposing poles poses challenges for some artists, at the same time as it opens a space for others to contribute to a field that has become “multicultural” beyond the simple opposition of Germany and Japan.