"Special Interest" Manga Gaining Popularity in Taiwan

ChinaNews is reporting that "special interest" manga are becoming increasingly popular in Taiwan, a place formerly dominated by shounen and shoujo manga. Not only are these "special interest" manga being used as teaching material, they're also creating a new market of adult manga readers:

According to World Journal, manga like Kami no Shizuku (a manga about wine) and Nodame Cantabile (a manga about music) were highly praised by the press, and became so popular that was they were constantly out of stock.

A manager from Tong Li Comics remarks that "in the past, 'special interest manga' are mostly seinen manga, and it was very hard for a single volume to sell over 10,000 copies. In 2007, such titles usually go out of stock immediately after printing. Many house wives are using cooking manga as a reference in the kitchen. There is a large market among Taiwan's adults manga-reading population."

It was pointed out that online pirating may be hurting the manga market; however, adaptation of manga into other forms of media (like films) may be a new trend that will play a positive role in the growth of the market.