Japanese manga publication question

I hope this is an on-topic question... While reading the thread 'Nausicaa English Manga: is it finished yet' I became curious of something. Currently I am a reader of manga but only those translated into English by either Viz, Dark Horse, or Mixx. I know that they have changed things for the English-reading audience and I do eventually plan on reading (or trying, at least, to read) the original Japanese manga. My question is: do the Japanese publishers of manga continue to keep manga in stock? Or is there only a certain number printed? To use a book analogy: I'll probably always be able to go to a bookstore and buy George Eliot's _Middlemarch_ but I'm having a hell of a time finding a copy of Robert Holdstock's _Mythago Wood_ or short stories by Charles Beaumont. It doesn't seem like Viz it going to print any more of those sold-out copies of Nausicaa. Will manga series and stories continue to be available months and years down the road? Or is it a One-Time-Only deal, while supplies last sort of thing? Thanks.

I'd like to add the following:

As a rule, only very popular manga tend to be continually reprinted in their original form. For instance: my volume one of Kochi Kame, its first edition was in 1977 and I bought this volume from the 103rd edition from 1995. I can safely say that you'll allways be able to buy Kochi Kame, as well as other megasellers like Dragonball, SM, KOR... in their original forms.

Unfortunately, most manga will disappear very quickly from the market. I am interested in dozens of series which, when I order them, the answer is that they are out of print.

Fortunately, a lot of manga will have a reprint in another form sooner or later. For instance: you can (still) buy the original normal editions of Maison Ikkoku. Besides this, Maison Ikkoku has been reissued as a wideban edition (which is cheaper, nicer and has more pages/volume). It has also been republished as a bunko edition (too small for anyone's eyes, how can Japanese possibly read this?). I wouldn't be surprised if a hardcover deluxe edition is published one of these days.

But also these newer republications will disappear quite soon (except for the popular manga), so the only possible advice is: if you like a series, buy it soon and quickly or you'll be hunting on the second-hand market.

Examples of series which were out of print when I ordered them (and probably still are):

- Living Game (the normal editions, still am missing vol 10) - Yuu and Mii (as well the normal as the Jump Selection editions) - Doubles - After Zero - Nozomi Witches (normal editions, and this WAS VERY POPULAR at the time) - Nijiiro Tougarashi (normal editions) - Kekkon Shiyou yo ...

Really annoying.

There is also a strange phenomenon starting to occur with English translated manga. Because a large number of comic book stores are closing, the number of people who have access to the monthly comics is decreasing, while the number of people who have access to the graphic novels is increasing. The number of regular and online book stores that sell graphic novels are increasing and manga graphic novels are slowly creeping onto public library shelves. This trend will make it more likely that all manga releases will have a graphic novel release and will always be available to take advantage of these new economic opportunities. Manga publishers have used popular titles to leverage book stores into carrying their other titles as well, like Mixx with Sailor Moon and Viz with Pokemon.

The books in which the series are collected (as opposed to the individual monthly or weekly magazines, in which the stories are typically first published, which, when they're gone, they're gone) are usually kept in print (that is, reprinted), at least for the most popular series, for a good many years.

I have here, for instance, a copy of volume 1 of the pocket edition of 'Urusei Yatsura'. It's on its third printing already, and the first print run came out only a year ago. And these are stories from 1978, which have been continuously available, in one edition or another, ever since then.

[I seem to remember seeing a Ranma 1/2 book, one of the earlier ones, which was already on its 60th printing, which would mean a new print run would have come out, on the average, every two months for the past 10 years!]

For more obscure manga I assume it will be like for more obscure books, records, etc., that is, the publishers may not feel the need to reprint them. But the series that have reached 'classic' status will always be kept available, I think, in one form or another.

Nausicaa is definitely one of those 'classic' series, available, currently, in two editions, the 'cheap' one in 7 volumes (the earliest of which have undergone already countless reprints, since the mid-eighties) and a hugely expensive one in two hardbound volumes which I plan to purchase as soon as I win the lottery...