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Data were collected from 162 widely popular manga spanning more than 70 years, focusing on both static and temporal character networks. Results show strong parallels with real human social networks and mostly protagonist-centered structures, while demographic targeting predicts distinct long-term shifts in density and character counts. The work enables large-scale population studies of character networks and other comics properties.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/social-network-analysis-of-manga-similarities-to-real-world-social-networks-and-trends-over-decades/137260/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/social-network-analysis-of-manga-similarities-to-real-world-social-networks-and-trends-over-decades/137260.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Maeve","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-08-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What data and timeframe were used to analyze manga character networks?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study collected data from 162 popular manga spanning over 70 years and analyzed their character networks.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do the character networks in manga relate to real-world human social networks?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Many static and temporal properties of manga character networks are similar to those of real human social networks.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How did network structure change over decades for manga targeting boys versus girls?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Manga mainly targeting boys shifted toward denser and less protagonist-centered networks with fewer characters over decades, while manga targeting girls showed the opposite trend except for a declining number of characters.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},137260,1787403650,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144},5909877438554,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/5600025385ad2bf12a7?_k=1778553567797529272","PDF issue : 2026-08-22  \nSocia l network ana lysis of manga : simi lar it iesto rea l-wor ld socia l networks and trends over decades  \nSugish ita, Kashin Masuda, Naoki  \n(Citat ion)  \nApp l ied Network Science,8 ( 1 ) :79  \n( Issue Date )  \n2023-11-13  \n( Resource Type)  \njourna l art ic le  \n(Version)  \nVersion of Record  \n( Rights )  \n© The Author( s ) 2023.  \nThis art ic le is l icensed under a Creat ive Commons Attr ibut ion 4.0 Internat iona l License, which permits use, shar ing, adaptat ion, d istr ibut ion and reproduct ion in any med ium or format, as long as you g ive appropr iate cred it to the origina l author( s ) a…  \n( URL)  \n[https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100485973](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100485973)  \nSugishita and Masuda  \nApplied Network Science (2023) 8:79 [https://doi.org/10.1007/s41](https://doi.org/10.1007/s41) 109-023-00604-0  \nApplied Network Science  \nRESEARCH Open Access  \nSocial network analysis of manga: similarities   to real-world social networks and trends  \nover decades  \nKashin Sugishita1 and Naoki Masuda2,3,4*  \n*Correspondence: [naokimas@buffalo.edu](naokimas@buffalo.edu)  \n1 Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan  \n2 Department of Mathematics, State University of New  \nYork at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-2900, USA  \n3 Computational  \nand Data-Enabled Science  \nand Engineering Program, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-5030, USA  \n4 Center for Computational Social Science, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan  \nAbstract  \nManga, Japanese comics, has been popular on a global scale. Social networks among characters, which are often called character networks, may be a significant contributor to their popularity. We collected data from 162 popular manga that span over 70 years and analyzed their character networks. First, we found that many of static and temporal properties of the character networks are similar to those of real human social networks. Second, the character networks of most manga are protagonistcentered such that a single protagonist interacts with the majority of other characters. Third, the character networks for manga mainly targeting boys have shifted to denserand less protagonist-centered networks and with fewer characters over decades. Manga mainly targeting girls showed the opposite trend except for the downward trend in the number of characters. The present study, which relies on manga data sampled on an unprecedented scale, paves the way for further population studies of character networks and other aspects of comics.  \nKeywords: Manga, Character networks, Temporal networks  \nIntroduction  \nThe global comic market has been rapidly growing. The market size was valued at USD 14.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% from 2022 to 2029 (Fortune Business Insights 2022). A driving force underlying the rapid expansion of the market is the widespread availability of e-books, which enables us to easily access comics around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic also helped the growth of the comic market because the lockdown in many countries increased the demand for comics. Manga, Japanese comics, has been especially popular on a global scale. Many manga have been translated into different languages. For example, over 510 million copies of One Piece have circulated worldwide; One Piece is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling comic in the history (The Mainichi 2022). The history of the development of manga culture in Japan, its social background, and its global prevalence have been studied (Ito 2005; Brenner 2007; Schodt 2013).  \nOur social networks are complex but characterized by common properties such as heterogeneity and community structure (Barabási 2016; Newman 2018). Because  \n© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,","cbCaik1QiuRdx8FN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaik1QiuRdx8FN","pdf",3649825,18,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Manga market growth and context\n## Character networks and research motivation","[{\"question\":\"What data and timeframe were used to analyze manga character networks?\",\"answer\":\"The study collected data from 162 popular manga spanning over 70 years and analyzed their character networks.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the character networks in manga relate to real-world human social networks?\",\"answer\":\"Many static and temporal properties of manga character networks are similar to those of real human social networks.\"},{\"question\":\"How did network structure change over decades for manga targeting boys versus girls?\",\"answer\":\"Manga mainly targeting boys shifted toward denser and less protagonist-centered networks with fewer characters over decades, while manga targeting girls showed the opposite trend except for a declining number of characters.\"}]","Social network analysis of manga - similarities to real-world social networks and trends over decades | PDF",45]