Manga in United States:- Manga made their way only gradually into U.S. markets, first in association with anime and then independently. Some U.S. fansbecame aware of manga in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, anime was initially more accessible than manga to U.S. fans, many of whom were college-age young people who found it easier to obtain, subtitle, and exhibit video tapes of anime than translate, reproduce, and distribute tankōbon-style manga books. One of the first manga translated into English and marketed in the U.S. was Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, an auto biographical story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima issued by Leonard Rifas and Educomics (1980–1982). More manga were translated between the mid-1980s and 1990s, including Golgo 13in 1986, Lone Wolf and Cub from First Comicsin 1987, and Kamui, Area 88, and Mai the Psychic Girl, also in 1987 and all from Viz Media- Eclipse Comics. Others soon followed, including Akira from Marvel Comics' Epic Comicsimprint and Appleseed from Eclipse Comics in 1988, and laterIczer-1 ( Antarctic Press, 1994) and Ippongi Bang'sF-111 Bandit (Antarctic Press, 1995). In the 1980s to the mid-1990s, Japanese animation, like Akira, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Pokémon, made a bigger impact on the fan experience and in the market than manga. Matters changed when translator-entrepreneur Toren Smith founded Studio Proteusin 1986. Smith and Studio Proteus acted as an agent and translator of many Japanese manga, including Masamune Shirow's Appleseedand Kōsuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess!, for Dark Horseand Eros Comix, eliminating the need for these publishers to seek their own contacts in Japan. Simultaneously, the Japanese publisher Shogakukan opened a U.S. market initiative with their U.S. subsidiary Viz, enabling Viz to draw directly on Shogakukan's catalogue and translation skills. Japanese publishers began pursuing a U.S. market in the mid-1990s due to a stagnation in the domestic market for manga. The U.S. manga market took an upturn with mid-1990s anime and manga versions of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell (translated by Frederik L. Schodtand Toren Smith) becoming very popular among fans. An extremely successful manga and anime translated and dubbed in English in the mid-1990s was Sailor Moon. By 1995–1998, the Sailor Moon mangahad been exported to over 23 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, North America and most of Europe. In 1997, Mixx Entertainment began publishing Sailor Moon, along with CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth, Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte and Tsutomu Takahashi's Ice Bladein the monthly manga magazine MixxZine. Two years later,MixxZine was renamed to Tokyopop before discontinuing in 2000. Mixx Entertainment, later renamed Tokyopop, also published manga in trade paperbacks and, like Viz, began aggressive marketing of manga to both young male and young female demographics. In the following years, manga became increasingly popular, and new publishers entered the field while the established publishers greatly expanded their catalogues. and by 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales. Simultaneously, mainstream U.S. media began to discuss manga, with articles in The New York Times, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired magazine.