Any manga-ka or manga fans here?

Gimme a bit of time. My kids are nuts for manga, but their books are, of course, in their rooms and they're asleep right now.

Anyway, my son talked me into reading one, and to me it seemed like a whacked-out version of Sailor Moon. But that's me....

I'll let you know what they've been into lately. Stay tuned.

I'm not even sure I know what manga is exactly. So I am not sure if I like it or not.

OK, can someone explain the deal here?

What's so good about Manga? Anime too. I mean, with anime, you tend to get some really slick bits of animation surrounded by an awful lot of cheap bad animation. And lets be honst, you seen one, you seen 'em all.

Now I'll give you that AKIRA was a major thing, but even the animated version of that was the same dross studded with a sweet 30 seconds here and there. And if you didn't read the GN, the movie made little sense (and animated 2001).

Maybe I just haven't seen any great manga. Or rather having seen Akira, nothing else comes close or is really derivative.

Perhaps it's this damn flu that I can't shake, but it seems to me like manga is hot in the same way that Paris Hilton famous. No one really knows why and if you question it, you could well bring the sky crashing down on your head. And what's with the lame-a$$ art that most manga has?

Seems to me that manga and anime are 1 percent pure brilliant genius and 99 percent complete dross.

Unlike western comics which are clearly 2-3 percent genius and 97-8 percent dross.

My stuff is in the minority!

Hmmm...I have not read much manga, then. I would imagine it's like anything else and I would like some and not like some. I would not like to read backward, though.

I'm a fan and a creator. My work doesn't really qualify as manga, but it's heavily inspired by it.

wordmonkey said:

And lets be honst, you seen one, you seen 'em all.

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There are a variety of Japanese comics the same as there are a variety of western comics. Superman, Sandman, Transmetropolitan, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and Lenore are completely incomparable works; and it's no different with Akira, Dragonball Z, Death Note, Fruits Basket, and Paradise Kiss. Completely different genres, plots, art styles, content, and target markets.

Before you state that the entire country of Japan makes homogenous comics, maybe you should read more than you apparently have. (And out of curiosity, what DID you read that you thought was so similar? Perhaps your idea of "similar" is very different from mine.)

"Backward".

From a Western viewpoint, the way a manga opens and is read, is backwards. From the Eastern viewpoint, it's the Western 'left to right' that's backwards. LOL.

The word, 'backward' in this context, just struck me as... I'm not sure. Very Western, seemingly with little regard given to the vast difference in cultures. Seemingly.

Anyhow.

I agree with csinman: each type of manga is aimed at a different target audience. For example, comparing Akira to Cardcaptor Sakura doesn't really make sense to me.

At it's simplest, it could be said that 'Akira' is dark and very SF, aimed at teenagers and guys, while Sakura is modern day, fantasy, aimed at kids and girls.

I could also state that, once I've read LOTR or Dragonlance, the rest of the fantasy novels already out there, or are being published, are the same. They're not. Many of them may have similar themes, but fantasy is sub-divided into plenty of sub-genres. This is the same with manga / anime.

Yet, why is manga / anime so popular? So appealing? I don't know. As someone up-thread said, it's subjective. Some people loved Episode III of Star Wars, others hated it. Some would swear by LOTR, others would say it's trash. In the same way, manga / anime comes under the subjective viewpoint.

However, I have noticed that perhaps there are some manga / anime I see don't make it outside the Pacific Rim. Or am I mistaken, and the range of manga / anime is now much wider?

Series I like that I've been following:

Bleach (Death Gods and Souls)
Inu-Yasha (demons and half-demons)
Gun/Sword (pretty old one, but it's about mecha and the future)
Death Note (the anime; manga and films are complete)
Fate Stay Night (wizards; seems to be have been out a while, always good to watch, though)
Kyo Kara Maoh (second season; comedy about a boy who's the reincarnated king of Mazoku)

Can't think of anything else off-hand. Gotta go home; office is boring! =^P

Oh, forgot to add: my 'artwork' is heavily influenced by manga / anime. Maybe I'll post links to the stuff at some point. Or maybe the avatar will do. =^P

I don't read a lot of manga but I absolutely love anime.

My current favorites (read: obsessions ) are Fullmetal Alchemist and Busou Renkin.

I own a few series on DVD, as well. Let's see if I can dig them out...

Chobits
Escaflowne: The Movie
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gundam Seed
Outlaw Star
Peacemaker
Princess Mononoke
Rurouni Kenshin
Shadow Skill
Spirited Away
Tenchi Universe
Trigun
Wolf's Rain
X

...I think that's most, if not all of them.

~DragonHeart~

I'm gonna get flack for this but I LOVED the Dragonball Z anime. Vegeta was too cool not to love.

Rurouni Kenshi and Peacemaker Kurogane both anime & manga are major favorites of mine and I'm also a yaoi fan.

I adore the artwork by Yamane Ayano.

And last but not least my friend Tama from Tokyo has been doing and selling some doujinshis wih artwork by her friend.

I'm not even sure I want to admit this in public...but a friend got me reading Ai Yazawa. I love her unique way of breaking the fourth wall. It actually changed the way I look at comics.

(Plus George from Paradise Kiss is a big fat jerk and I want one of us to ravish the other, but that's beside the point.)

In my other comment I listed things that were different from each other, but here are some of my favorites: Samurai Champloo, Wolf's Rain, Death Note, Berserk, Fruits Basket, and One Piece. And my friend Luka does a freaking awesome online manga called Kagerou. It's been going for five or six years, so if the art in the first few chapters doesn't do it for you, hang on. It gets amazing.

Anyway, if anyone has any recommendations, bring 'em. Right now the only people telling me what to read or watch are super-straight meat-eating dudes and girls with shounen ai spilling out of their too-small closets. Not that I don't eat meat, or have teh gay spilling out of my own closet. But those are polar opposites and some in-between opinions could be nice.

TsukiRyoko said:

Has anyone seen Samurai X, the Rurouni Kenshin movie? Tell me that guy didn't have AIDS. They didn't come right out and say it, but I KNOW it was AIDS.

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I haven't seen it but I think I read somewhere that he got tuberculosis in China. Or something like that, it's been awhile. And I could be completely wrong. *shrug* I only have the first two seasons - haven't seen the third, heard it was all filler and not worth the time so I skipped it. Haven't seen the movies either, for that matter.

~DragonHeart~

Don't really read manga, but I adapt Light Novels for English audiences. So far I've read Gun Princess, Ballad of a Shinigami, Pita-Ten and Strawberry Panic, which is a yuri, but has interesting characters.

I like GP and Shinigami the best. The books will be released this fall from Seven Seas Entertainment (www.gomanga.com) and will be available in bookstores beside the SSE manga.

TsukiRyoko said:

Has anyone seen Samurai X, the Rurouni Kenshin movie? Tell me that guy didn't have AIDS. They didn't come right out and say it, but I KNOW it was AIDS.

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I thought it was like syphilius or something like that. Becuase he went kind of crazy at the end and syphilis makes you crazy and then there were the sores. . . That anime made me cry. She loved that man so much.

Also about Manga being backwards. I don't read it for that reason. My brother loves the stuff though. He says my refusal to "read backwards" is ignorant. I say I have to draw the line somewhere.

Fortunately the Light Novels are left to right.

TsukiRyoko said:

I think... I love you.

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HA!! I bet you say that to all the Manga fans. I love Samurai Deeper, Naruto, and I loved the Anime to Samurai Champloo, Bleach, Naruto (again), and I'm reading the novel Trinity Blood, which is a lot better than the anime.

kim

I've see these things EVERYWHERE--but never read one and have no desire too... To each his own I say