Not against the medium I consume it.
But it occurred to me that there seems to be a lot more exposure to anime and manga largely thanks to services like crunchyroll and manga reader services, this includes physical sales as well.
It’s just that you’d think say, Superman would be more stupidly popular since everyone knows who he is than someone such as Lelouch from Code Geass.
Is it because comics just doesn’t have the same spark with the younger generation? Or is it because there are a billion different issues of comics so it makes manga more streamlined?
I would like to know your thoughts as I am quite curious about this phenomenon, since even in the early 2000s I was into anime, and you could get your fix from non legit services via the Internet, but I’m sure as shit it didn’t hit this mainstream until the mid 2010s and now the roaring 2020s.
Compare the population amount
Continuity. Nothing ever matters with comics. Superman was a communist, a nazi, a zombie, a literal god and everything inbetween. But most commonly, he is about the same he was 50 years ago. Meanwhile I’ve been growing up alongside famous manga characters. I could be following Naruto to this day and he’d be roughly my age at most points.
Variety. I’m not into comics, I admit, but almost every popular comic I’ve seen is about some kind of superhero. Manga on the other hand have a wide range of topics and target audiences.
Accessibility. I can read a lot of manga right now. Offical, free and online (at least the most recent chapters). There’s no such thing for comics. And while we’re at it: Manga release at smaller chunks in shorter time intervals, which keeps more attention. Being black and white does help, I’d assume.
Anime. They are mass produced and serve to promote manga. There is no equivalent with comics and extended media like cartoons or movies and such often follow their own storyline. Assuming I’d be into the MCU, there is no single comic I could read to see exactly what’s next. If I watch a season of Jujutsu Kaisen, I can look up the correct chapter and continue the story seamlessly.
I’m not into comics
I can read a lot of manga right now.
Pls to explain how manga is not comics
Comics = American
Manga = Japanese
Generally that’s the accepted connotations, even though the words are technically the same.
is it? movies are dominated by superheroes
At least from my perspective, manga and anime are mediums. They can be used to tell any story, and they are used like that. You can find manga and anime for any age group and in any genre. The medium is used for all kinds of stuff.
The problem with western comics and cartoons is that (at least from what I know), the medium is mostly only targetting kids or it’s superhero comics. It’s just so very limited.
For example, I’m currently watching Ancient Magus Bride. It’s a very non-traditional romance story in a fantasy setting with interesting characters and emotional dynamics. So far I’m really enjoying it. I simply can’t imagine a western cartoon/comic even attempting to produce a similar thing. Or well, perhaps I can imagine it but it just doesn’t happen for some reason.
Go to a comic store and ask for some recommendations that prove this take wildly wrong.
That said, it’s an understandable one. Believe it or not, anime, manga, and freaking video games all once had a similar perception, but for some reason western comics just haven’t broken out of it.
I dunno “comics” in the US are still mostly superhero stuff. Once you get into the non-superhero stuff it generally gets referred to as “graphic novels”. Maybe that term is used only to separate it from the superhero image, or it may have to do with syndication and release schedules? I’m not entirely sure.
A graphic novel is a comic in longer form. Something like Persepolis that was released in one volume vs something like Watchmen that was released as normal comic books.
Go to a comic store and ask for some recommendations that prove this take wildly wrong.
Right, I don’t doubt that some might exist. But it’s a minority of what’s available.
Also I doubt any of it is serialized as a TV cartoon show in the same sense that animes are made from mangas. But I’d love to be proven wrong :)
There’s actually quite a lot (maybe not by Japanese standards, but more than you’d think). Forgive the listacle, but, for example: https://collider.com/iconic-films-based-off-of-comics/
https://screenrant.com/tv-series-shows-didnt-realize-know-surprise-based-comics-graphic-novels/
And that’s part of the image problem. Hollywood decided that “based on a comic” wasn’t a selling point if it’s not about superheroes, where it doesn’t need to be stated, so they frequently don’t mention it.
I suspect the fact that I had to think a minute before I could name a recently released western cartoon that wasn’t Disney or aimed at the under 6 crowd may have something to do with it.
Sadly Saturday Morning cartoons just aren’t a thing anymore in the US.
As for comics, when was the last time you saw a comic at a grocery store or gas station? I know Marvel still makes comics but I haven’t seen them in a store in almost 30 years.
Japan likes their anime and manga so there’s a lot of variety, but for whatever reason our corporate overlords here in America decided that we didn’t want our equivalent anymore.
recently released western cartoon that wasn’t Disney or aimed at the under 6 crowd
Invincible, Arcane, Hazbin Hotel, The Legend of Vox Machina, Solar Opposites, The Boys presents: Diabolical, Krapopolis, Castlevania, Blue Eye Samurai, Star Trek: Lower Decks… and I’m sure I’m missing plenty (I intentionally left out anything by DC since you’d probably put them in the same bag as Marvel).
Frankly, adult western cartoons are probably more popular (and much higher quality) now than they’ve ever been before…
Vox Machina, Scavengers’ Reign, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal.
But yeah, one of the last gasps of the streaming bubble was a surge of adult-oriented cartoons which were far and above anything of the type before them. I’m a little worried that that bubble has started to deflate, we’ll see this go away.
Check out Blue Eye Samurai, Twilight of the Gods, Arcane, and the Masters of the Universe revivals on Netflix, or Invincible on Amazon Prime, or Harley Quinn on HBO Max. It’s a good era for adult animation. Obviously there are a lot of anime influences, but these are all western-made for western audiences.
The overlords decided that comics are for selling shit to nerds and cartoons are for selling shit to children. Now that nerds are all over 30 there’s no need for comics anymore, duh!
/s
But in general, Japan is still way more into paper publishing still. Much more than the western world.
For the last several months I’ve been creating Saturday morning playlists of cartoons for my kid to recreate the phenomenon for him. It’s a fun little hobby and I’ve learned a little video editing along the way. I even have a spreadsheet where I track everything so we have a good amount of variety and consistently progress so there’s no repeats and it’s always fresh. I even mix in “commercials” in between, in the form of random video memes and short indie animations, as well as appropriate music videos. Wish I could make it available to other parents, but I can be a lot more dialed in with an audience of one.
This is awesome. I always thought I’d do the same if given the chance. You are a great parent.
Look, man. To recreate the experience each show is gonna need 8 minutes of adds for cereals, junk food, and toys. Then every other show is going to have to be a re-run. Also, no one can be dressed for the day and breakfast is in the living room with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch.
He likes oatmeal and fresh fruit. I once showed him a 70s slinky commercial, after he’d just gotten an original quality steel one, and it blew his mind. He’s a Gorrilaz fan, and knows all their MVs. He reads for pleasure, including Calvin & Hobbes. His childhood is a complete contrivance of my own devising, a hothouse flower cultivated purely for the beauty of the thing that could not possibly survive in natural conditions.
So no, I feel no allegiance to the original experience as it was lived. The 90s had its charms, but it was largely a cultural wasteland.
Well this is genuinely heart warming. Sounds super cute and definitely something they will look back on fondly when they are older.
Hope so. I was showing Reading Rainbow every week for a good while, but he turned against it. Breaks my heart, but I guess there’s no accounting for taste. At least he loves to read, for which I hope Levar would pardon us.
Sadly Saturday Morning cartoons just aren’t a thing anymore in the US.
I save up anime episodes throughout the week and watch them all on Sunday morning during breakfast. It’s my way of recreating that magic from my youth.
Im pretty sute manga is not more popular than comics as a whole ( anime bit might be true of we count tv series only ) and even if that’s true the reason is very simple. Piracy. Its extremly easy to find manga online . Not so much with comic books.
Is it more popular? Are you sure you’re not just making an assumption based on your anecdotal experiences?
Yes.
Demon Slayer either nearly sold the same amount of units in one year as the entire American comic industry or actually just straight up outsold it. Manga is very much larger than comic books.
I remember seeing that headline some time ago.
According to this fact check piece, for 2019, Demon Slayer probably sold around 10.8m copies (Shueisha reported such number), vs 15 million sum of the “top 750 titles” comics. Demon Slayer didn’t outsell “the entire western comic industry”, but it damn well outsold the vast majority of best sellers. I couldn’t find anything concrete for 2020.
Yeah I remember there being some uncertainty on the actual numbers when I last looked at it so I said “nearly” cause I didn’t wanna look it up. Thanks for giving the actual numbers though :)
Every major book store has a manga section about twice as big as western comics.
A large part of it is the target audience.
Like western (or at least, American,) animation is mostly intended for children (Disney animation, Pixar. Paw patrol… looney toons,) or is of one of two genres (dc/marvel superhero’s, or like Family guy, South Park, simpsons.)
A lot of anime is intended for kids, too, don’t get me wrong. But a lot of it is also very much not. You also have a much broader array of genres, as well as a much broader distinctions in style in them.
redo of healer and made in abyss are clearly childrens shows, both of them contain children and are serialized TV shows.
I personally think that anime and manga having a ‘pipeline’ helps them.
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A publisher like Weekly Shonen Jump shotguns a load of new series into their comic and sees if any stick.
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If a series is popular, then their individual volumes sell well, encouraging WSJ to continue publishing.
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After a while, the popular series will most likely be given an anime (which nowadays tend to be very manga accurate), which tend to export better.
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If the anime is popular, volume sales increase worldwide, and you have a massive hit.
While this quite effectively creates new popular series, it leads to a massive manga graveyard.
Western comics don’t really have this kind of pipeline and I’m not aware of any WSJ-like publications for new Western projects.
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people have been trying to figure out why kids like the things they like for many decades, ever since they became their own demographic. the only reasonable conclusion i’ve heard is kids like what their friends like, and tend to move away from what their parents liked (superman). why do they latch on to some things and not others?- who tf knows
best advice is to not waste time trying to figure it out
Because anime are allowed to tell complete stories before being cancelled out of nowhere for not selling enough merchandise.
That’s false. Plenty of manga get cancelled after the first volume/ chapter. Only the best of the best selling get an anime adaptation.
Yeah, the best become anime (if based on a Manga. Times may be a changin) so they pretty much always get to tell their whole story. Or they’re actually designed to be a single season or two instead of trying to become a cash cow that goes on way too long. NGE, Cowboy Bebop, Death Note, Love Hina, and several of the Gundam animes were all great single season stories. No 10 years of fluff.
I really wanted more Iron Blooded Orphans but it’s so good how it is
It obviously depends on location. But where I live, anime is nowhere near more popular than Western animation.
It’s been over 40 years that Japan has been massively exporting anime to the west.
People under 50 yo grew up watching Dragon-ball, Sailor-Moon, Naruto or one piece rather than Superman/batmanI’d argue that I’m smack in the middle of the generation that grew up watching Dragonball and Sailor Moon etc. but I also grew up watching Superman, and Batman, and Spiderman etc.
The problem I have with American comics is a whole list.
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The serial nature of American Comics and the likelihood that the comic will end its run before the story is finished (this happens quite a lot with smaller American Comics, making it difficult to find new material and the will to invest interest in it).
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Anime Stories may not always grow with the fan base, but enough of them do that they maintain their audience over years as the story progresses. I think that’s pretty important.
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The most popular American Comic stories are over saturated on their own material. They reboot repeatedly, and have a wrote way that the main character(s) face/handle problems and conflict. You almost never have a full story that’s not just a cyclical thing. A lot of Manga have a beginning, middle and end, even if the story continues afterwards (story arcs finish more often than not). Sometimes they rehash, the same thing arc to arc, but more often than not, because those characters are new and not 50 year old icons, the audience is more willing to invest in that kind of story.
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There was definitely always this FOMO feeling about anime back in the day because it wasn’t such an outwardly accepted thing. It used to be only the “weird kids” who were into it, so there was a sense of it being scarce, even when it wasn’t necessarily. I think that helped it to be more sought after. It went from weird to cool.
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Anime often doesn’t have a way to endear you to the characters in a cheap way that’s everywhere, enough for you to invest in buying the media. Some American comics started out in news papers and on things like cigarette packets. They gained some level of notariety and recognition from the public that way. So they didn’t have to give as much effort to a first issue as anime manga often does. This to me is a notable difference.
Anime Stories may not always grow with the fan base, but enough of them do that they maintain their audience over years as the story progresses. I think that’s pretty important.
I don’t think they grow as much as they don’t rely too much on the audience being a certain age. Of course a lot of anime will be more entertaining or relatable if you’re part of its target audience, but a 50 years old can easily find Demon Slayer or Nichijou entertaining. Because of that simply shaking things up every now and then will be enough to keep your audience engaged; it’s the same reason an adult can be entertained by Adventure Time and not Paw Patrol.
I suppose it depends on the Anime you watch or read vs the comics you watch or read. But comics generally have an over arcing plot and that plot goes somewhere. I’m that way the protagonists grow up or get better etc. The protagonist gets harder better/faster/stronger. Some long running comics do this eventually, but they run for so long often that these arcs just become rehashes of things that have already happened. Spiderman runs into most of the villains in his stories more than once (in one run of the comic, I know there are multiple). Batman and Joker, Superman, and just about every other person from his native planet. Hell, Superman and Lex Luther.
But perhaps it’s just harder to notice these kinds of themes repeating in a lot of anime. Or perhaps it’s just my experience or specific anime and manga. I will concede that they generally are more “audience of all ages” friendly in a specific way that American comics don’t.
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It’s just that you’d think say, Superman would be more stupidly popular since everyone knows who he is than someone such as Lelouch from Code Geass.
I would say Superman is more popular.
After all, everyone knows who he is.Superman though is also popular just as an icon, not necessarily (in this day and age) because he’s a comic book character. There are people who have never picked up a comic who knows his name and his general story. They may have never even actually seen a show or movie about him, but he’s now such an icon that this doesn’t matter. People still know him.
Ease of access, for one.
