Cobalt Bunko, a pioneering series of paperbacks for teenage girls, turned 40 in 2016, with about 4,500 books in total released under this major imprint.
As part of efforts to commemorate this milestone, publisher Shueisha Inc. has just released an official catalog.
In the early days, Cobalt books covered various genres, such as collections of poems, memoirs and writing by pop idols. The novelists who contributed in those days included Aiko Sato, who is still active at age 94, and Akutagawa Prize laureate Setsuko Tsumura. The lineup illustrated the publisher's ambition to satisfy girls' intellectual curiosity.
The Cobalt books then entered a new era, in which their readers became their writers.
The Shosetsu Junior literature magazine, the forerunner of the Cobalt magazine launched in 1982, ran a new writer award for young aspiring novelists. The winners included Saeko Himuro and Saori Kumi, both university students when they made their professional debut.
Female writers like them, who were close in age to their readers, won popularity for their work, which described the realistic feelings of young women. These works helped boost the sales of Cobalt books, together with mysteries by Jiro Akagawa and sci-fi novels by Motoko Arai.
Shueisha started Cobalt Novel Taisho (now called Novel Prize) in 1983, a literature prize for aspiring novelists. This honor helped winners such as Kei Yuikawa and Fumio Yamamoto make their professional debuts -- and eventually win the prestigious Naoki Prize literary award.
"This system in which readers turned into the writers has made it possible for Cobalt to last 40 years," said Kayo Utonuma, the author of the official catalog.
Cobalt writers who used to be readers produced a number of hits. In the 1990s, Tamako Maeda, Mio Wakagi and Mizuna Kuwabara triggered a fantasy novel boom, while in the 2000s, "Maria-sama ga Miteru" (The Virgin Mary is watching), a novel set in a girls' school by Oyuki Konno, attracted male readers as well.
However, publishers have been facing stiff competition, as today's market for paperbacks targeted at teenagers has become a melting pot of works in various genres, from young adult novels to online novels and so-called vocaloid novels, or works inspired by songs on vocaloid voice synthesizers.
Now the Cobalt imprint publishes only two to four titles per month, as opposed to their heyday when more than 10 went on sale each month. Cobalt readers have also aged, with their main demographic in their 30s to 40s. Two years ago, the Cobalt magazine ended its print edition.
Nonetheless, Cobalt has played an "exceptional" role among publications for young people, said sociologist Keiko Saga, who has written a book on the history of girls' novels from the Sairyusha publishing house.
"[Cobalt] is no longer just an imprint," she said. "It's become a genre, a brand."
The Cobalt magazine continues online, even after its paper edition ceased publication.
"[The online edition] has played a significant role as the gateway to our new writer award," said Misako Tega, the editor of the web magazine. "We're willing to be flexible in pursuing what's desired in this day and age."
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