What's surprising is that a lot of Japanese artists are drawing Western cartoons! I would have never thought most people in Japan would even heard of Wallace, and Gromit!
What's surprising is that a lot of Japanese artists are drawing Western cartoons! I would have never thought most people in Japan would even heard of Wallace, and Gromit!
It's funny, because they have this same reaction about us and anime.
It's funny, because they have this same reaction about us and anime.
Really? How so? I assume that they would expect anime to reach a broader audience, because of their more"realistic" plots. I see a lot of Japanese artists doing fan-art of western series lately. Eroquis doing power girl, and other Marvel/DC characters, and then you have people doing fan-art of western live action shows. I've also seen a fair amount of South Park, and Adventure Time fan-art on Pixiv. I never thought in a million years that our cartoons, and live action series would even be remotely popular in Japan seeing how abysmal Cartoon Network Japan did. Are American Cartoons really that interesting to Japanese people? I really got to know, because I thought for certain that just the art style of American Cartoons would severely turn off people because they have their characters have more "realistic" art styles, and they seem to eat those up over there. I know i sound like a broken record, but can anyone tell me why American series are even known in Japan?
Really? How so? I assume that they would expect anime to reach a broader audience, because of their more"realistic" plots. I see a lot of Japanese artists doing fan-art of western series lately. Eroquis doing power girl, and other Marvel/DC characters, and then you have people doing fan-art of western live action shows. I've also seen a fair amount of South Park, and Adventure Time fan-art on Pixiv. I never thought in a million years that our cartoons, and live action series would even be remotely popular in Japan seeing how abysmal Cartoon Network Japan did. Are American Cartoons really that interesting to Japanese people? I really got to know, because I thought for certain that just the art style of American Cartoons would severely turn off people because they have their characters have more "realistic" art styles, and they seem to eat those up over there. I know i sound like a broken record, but can anyone tell me why American series are even known in Japan?
Seeing the same things over and over gets old fast. One reason why western audiences are inclined toward Japanese series is because of just how different they are to our productions, so the fact that it works both ways isn't completely unheard of. Heck, I remember FLCL doing a parody of South Park for a bit in one of their episodes, so the concept's older than you'd think.
Seeing the same things over and over gets old fast. One reason why western audiences are inclined toward Japanese series is because of just how different they are to our productions, so the fact that it works both ways isn't completely unheard of. Heck, I remember FLCL doing a parody of South Park for a bit in one of their episodes, so the concept's older than you'd think.
Yeah, there has been a lot of South Park fan-work in Pixiv. But what still gets me is that they even know what half-of these series are! I mean, I've seen fan-art of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy", "Edd, Ed, and Eddy", and "Foster's House for Imaginary Friends" on there. I thought the character designs, and the humor itself would turn off a lot of Japanese people over there. I mean their shows have much more "realistic" plot structures then our, so I cannot, for the life of me understand why they would even be remotely interested in American cartoons? What's more baffling is the fact that Disney is so popular over in Japan as well!?
Yeah, there has been a lot of South Park fan-work in Pixiv. But what still gets me is that they even know what half-of these series are! I mean, I've seen fan-art of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy", "Edd, Ed, and Eddy", and "Foster's House for Imaginary Friends" on there. I thought the character designs, and the humor itself would turn off a lot of Japanese people over there. I mean their shows have much more "realistic" plot structures then our, so I cannot, for the life of me understand why they would even be remotely interested in American cartoons? What's more baffling is the fact that Disney is so popular over in Japan as well!?
Disney is poular everywhere because they have the money to enforce being popular everywhere. And it's the classic "alien" faible why they like cartoons from the other side of the world; it's just different. And realism, in Japanese cartoons? Tell me when they're through with their eighty billion SoL and Harem series that all follow the exact same plot (or to be more precise, the lack of one).
Just as we get sick of Superman / superhero in general cartoons after watching them over and over, I can believe they'd get sick of their staples of animation after a certain while. Then you go outsourcing for new shit that isn't all so goddamn samey. While I was in Akihabara, I was baffled to find a "Sendung mit der Maus" merch section in the second floor of a Cospa shop. I never imagined that getting outside of Germany, ever. Or Faust by Goethe, and then the Urobutcher made it into Madoka and it completely blew the Japs away. Directed creative cultural cross-pollination is the surest way to success because it always gives people something fresh to chew on that they haven't experienced before.
What surprises me is their interests in Non-Japanese video games, as well. I would never thought to see Japanese fanart of EVERSION on Pixiv. No game playthroughs on Nico Nico Douga.
Disney is poular everywhere because they have the money to enforce being popular everywhere. And it's the classic "alien" faible why they like cartoons from the other side of the world; it's just different. And realism, in Japanese cartoons? Tell me when they're through with their eighty billion SoL and Harem series that all follow the exact same plot (or to be more precise, the lack of one).
Just as we get sick of Superman / superhero in general cartoons after watching them over and over, I can believe they'd get sick of their staples of animation after a certain while. Then you go outsourcing for new shit that isn't all so goddamn samey. While I was in Akihabara, I was baffled to find a "Sendung mit der Maus" merch section in the second floor of a Cospa shop. I never imagined that getting outside of Germany, ever. Or Faust by Goethe, and then the Urobutcher made it into Madoka and it completely blew the Japs away. Directed creative cultural cross-pollination is the surest way to success because it always gives people something fresh to chew on that they haven't experienced before.
I've seen Crunchyroll, and they both have Japanese live dramas, and Japanese cartoons. It's weird that people flock to things from different countries. I think the internet had large part of these series reach a larger audience. I know for a fact though, that Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon failed miserably in Japan. So I'm a little weary about Japan watching American cartoons.
Why is that weird? What you're doing is pretty much the same as flocking over to Japanese [sub]culture.
I know, that's why it's some what weird to be interested in another culture that's not your own. When I watch anime, I usually feel somewhat disconnected because I don't share the same culture as the people who made it. I don't know the cultural norms, or the small little details in speech. When I watch it in english I somehow under stand the characters somewhat, but I still feel disconnected. I feel more connected with American shows, because I understand the culture. I completely can't wrap my mind around half of the things that happens in Japanese anime because I'm not from japan. I can understand a great majority of things, but i cannot for the life of me understand why (some) Japanese anime place flashiness over depth, or why every mainstream series these days are nothing but slice of life, Moe centric shows with little girls, or why there has to be naked underage girls in these harem anime. I know that I may sound ignorant but it's true. I guess when I watch Japanese anime because i want to see something different from American shows. If anyone who come from Japan, or who was in Japan, would you kindly share your stories on what American, or other western animated shows you've seen over there?
>anime >realistic plots What the hell anime are you watching?
Note that I put the word,realistic, in quotes. Most mainstream anime have little to no realistic plots. There are tons on plot holes in "One Piece", "Bleach" and "Naruto". None of those series have any interesting characters to care about anymore, with the way those artists tend to drag the hell out of their series. I also find that Western cartoons, treat their female characters with a little more dignity now-a-days. Has anyone ever realized that female-oriented cartoons are starting to become good? You have female characters that aren't becoming tropes, but actually becoming fleshed out characters. Most mainstream anime have female characters that are only there to be sex symbols, and background characters. I also see female anime characters relegated to stereotypical tropes. They all look, and act the same. An exception to this is Akemi Homura, and The Demon Queen(Maou. Homura is a deep, and thoughtful girl that has fears, and paranoia's about loosing the people close to her, and The Demon Queen sis an intelligent, and a really strategic character, that despite her obvious bust size, when really brings a lot of chemistry, and depth to the show.
As a half-Japanese person who grew up outside of Japan, I'll just have to say more anime girls are sexualized because animes can remain as something you keep watching even when you became an adult. In the western world any animations are (more often) naturally considered 'childish' and so many stopped watching it after they 'grew out of it'.
This is not to say the western culture is more mature or more intelligent and respectable when it comes to writing fictions though, because you can still see many objectified, shallow women characters in western video games, Hollywood movies and superhero comics, AKA the things aimed for 15+ western males, just like how the brainless harems are aimed for 15+ eastern males. Shallow yet successful writers exists in every countries(Stephanie Meyer for a western female example), we just couldn't really do anything about it because as long as these things can make money, they're gonna keep coming out.
As a half-Japanese person who grew up outside of Japan, I'll just have to say more anime girls are sexualized because animes can remain as something you keep watching even when you became an adult. In the western world any animations are (more often) naturally considered 'childish' and so many stopped watching it after they 'grew out of it'.
This is not to say the western culture is more mature or more intelligent and respectable when it comes to writing fictions though, because you can still see many objectified, shallow women characters in western video games, Hollywood movies and superhero comics, AKA the things aimed for 15+ western males, just like how the brainless harems are aimed for 15+ eastern males. Shallow yet successful writers exists in every countries(Stephanie Meyer for a western female example), we just couldn't really do anything about it because as long as these things can make money, they're gonna keep coming out.
That's not necessarily true, when "The Animaniacs" came out, it had some childish cartoon designs, but the writing was extremely clever, and it was clearly made for all audiences. When I watched the series again, when I got older, I couldn't believe all the adult, tongue-in cheek humor, and mature themes that all of my favorite cartoons had growing up. This just shows that good writing, and competent character designs, trumps over-sexualized characters, with shallow writing. I know I'm going to get a lot of hate from this, but "Naruto" is one of the worst anime series I have ever seen. It's horrendous writing; shallow, uninteresting, overlooked, over-emotional, melodramatic, boring characters; horrifically animated fight scenes(see ep. 267); Slow pacing; and massive plot holes, make it one of the worst mainstream anime series I've ever seen. This is not me being a fan boy, as I'm highly critical of all the other Shounen series as well, such as "Fairy Tail', "One Piece", and especially "Bleach". They are all the same in terms of reliance on tropes, and bad writing. They are all trying to copy "Dragon ball Z", and they all fail. The reason why I'm saying this is because these series are all trying to copy each other, without offering something original towards their own merit. The same can be said with western cartoons, but at least they aren't trying to copy one other successful series with the same exact characters. The sad thing is, there are other comic book/manga series that deserve to become animated series, but don't, because they "appeal to the wider audience".
I've seen Crunchyroll, and they both have Japanese live dramas, and Japanese cartoons. It's weird that people flock to things from different countries. I think the internet had large part of these series reach a larger audience. I know for a fact though, that Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon failed miserably in Japan. So I'm a little weary about Japan watching American cartoons.
The same way that Toonami gets repeatedly cancelled even with all the attempts of bringing it back.
I mostly am okay with shounen animes that have shallow characters as long as it wasn't so bad that the authors seemed stupid and incompetent because hey it's shounen, it's supposed to be something a seven year old can pick up and understand. Though of course this is in no way a justification to why anyone should put borderline pornographic images(ie. To Love-ru) in a magazine a seven years old can pick up.
Thing is in the recent years the line between shounen and seinen are blurring real fast and most just boils down to "whichever the author wants it to be". Examples would be SAO's really cliched and shallow writings when it is supposedly a seinen, as opposed to shounens such as Death Note, Mirai Nikki, Psycho-Pass and Shingeki no Kyojin which has complex plot and doesn't shy away from sexual themes or gore even though they're not used so much as to be softcore porn or gore-fest that many other idiot-writings are deteriorating into.
I have much more trouble with the harem and moe genre as most of them serves as nothing more than something that draws in most of their audiences with shallow and generally terrible writings of greatly sexualized and objectified females(same goes for yaoi animes which objectifies males, btw.) These writings are often so cliched, so unoriginal, and so insulting that I don't really see why the LN publishers and anime studios keep supporting these idiotic genres that make small cash instead of looking for other 'gems' that would otherwise bring them instant success like Shingeki no Kyojin.
I mostly am okay with shounen animes that have shallow characters as long as it wasn't so bad that the authors seemed stupid and incompetent because hey it's shounen, it's supposed to be something a seven year old can pick up and understand. Though of course this is in no way a justification to why anyone should put borderline pornographic images(ie. To Love-ru) in a magazine a seven years old can pick up.
Thing is in the recent years the line between shounen and seinen are blurring real fast and most just boils down to "whichever the author wants it to be". Examples would be SAO's really cliched and shallow writings when it is supposedly a seinen, as opposed to shounens such as Death Note, Mirai Nikki, Psycho-Pass and Shingeki no Kyojin which has complex plot and doesn't shy away from sexual themes or gore even though they're not used so much as to be softcore porn or gore-fest that many other idiot-writings are deteriorating into.
I have much more trouble with the harem and moe genre as most of them serves as nothing more than something that draws in most of their audiences with shallow and generally terrible writings of greatly sexualized and objectified females(same goes for yaoi animes which objectifies males, btw.) These writings are often so cliched, so unoriginal, and so insulting that I don't really see why the LN publishers and anime studios keep supporting these idiotic genres that make small cash instead of looking for other 'gems' that would otherwise bring them instant success like Shingeki no Kyojin.
I hate these this new trend of shallow fan-service anime show that do nothing but further perpetuate the unfair amount of expectations of women to look unreasonably hot. To tell you the truth, Japanese culture has always been a traditionalist culture. There's a lot of outdated ideas emanating in manga, and anime. The reason why all anime feel the same is because they implement the same, boring, 2-D tropes in every series, without giving characters any nuance, or actual characterization. One Piece does this shamelessly. The characters actually start off strong, and well written, but later on in the series, they started to become more like tropes. Oda has the talent to write good female characters, but we wouldn't know that when they all have the same body type, and make them look like unrealistic pin-up models.
Every female had the same body type, and had their cleavage popping out. Which does say a lot about the author's view on women, like they have their uses, but then when they are done, they are put in the back, out of sight, and out of mind. This is making me think that ALMOST all anime series are very sexist. The reason why yaoi anime series don't get as much flak in sexism, because there are a whole lot of male characters that are allowed to be ugly, and have different personalities. But for female characters, they have only on thing in common, they must look cute, and sexy all the time. I even seen most anime where full-grown women act like petulant teenage girls, at the sight of a man. Even their voices are high-pitched, and most look cute at all time. I find American cartoons, a hell of a lot more female friendly because they have good female writers behind them, or writers that are evolved enough to let women have some agency outside of fap-material.
There are a lot of light novels, and visual novels that are basically the same thing. There are a few that tend to break the mold(i.e. Fate/Stay night, and Katawa Shojo), but for the most part, all of them have this creepy undertone of sexism behind it. I'm not trying to pull this feminism crap on anyone, but you have to admit that there's a problem with females in comic books, anime, and video games.
I feel that Zun treats his characters with much more dignity in "Touhou". That's why I can respect the characters more, regardless of their gender, because they are not there solely for the purpose of being cute, or sexy. They actually have some agency outside of that.
The same way that Toonami gets repeatedly cancelled even with all the attempts of bringing it back.
Yea, Toonami was a big contributor to the anime, and manga boom of the late 90's early 2000's. Although i have to say that Naruto was one of the worst shows that they ever had, and spawned a whole new generation of weaboos, anime elitists, fan-boys,overzealous dub-haters and japanophiles. (no offense to Nrauto fans, just sating the truth.)Not only that, the show was rumored to be the entire reason why Toonami was canceled back into 2008, because of the expenses, and mediocre ratings.
The reason why moe and harem genre is so prevalent in late night anime is because that's the demand of the audience that is current keeping the industry afloat. These shows aren't funded the same way a show like Naruto would, since ratings would mean diddly squat in terms of funding. They rely mostly on sales of Blu-ray and figures to break even, which is why they are so outrageously expensive, even compared to the already expensive cost of DVD/Blu-ray in Japan.
It's because of this you don't see too much in terms of variety, and studios can't really make much of a gamble on genres that aren't hugely popular amongst the current audience. BTW SnK was an exception, not the norm, since the manga was already a huge hit before the anime was released. I know there are a lot of western fans who share your view, however, most western fans get their anime via fansubs, which does nothing in terms of monetary returns for the studios. If you want to blame someone for this current trend, blame the fans not the studios. The studios are just trying to make money.
Just as a side note, you probably don't get too caught up in what type of series manga is. It really has little to do with what the author "wants" it to be and a great deal to do with who publishes it and especially what mag it runs in. Toradora! is a high school romantic comedy. Gunslinger Girl is an dramatic action series with some messed up psychological issues. Yotsuba&! is a sweet slice of life comedy. Gurren Lagann is a mecha action series.
All of these are very different from one another even though the can (and in my case, do) appeal to the same reader. All are also shounen series running in the same magazine, Dengeki Daioh. Meanwhile YKK would seem a good pairing with Yotsuba&!, Oh! My Goddess with Toradora, and Cannon God Exaxxion with Gurren Lagann. All of them are seinen series, running in Afternoon.
Again, I don't mind if all females in specific titles have similar body types that made them seemed sexualized as long as it still has a solid plot that is written by someone with a brain. This is especially because a cast of females with different body types doesn't really made them any less sexualized, like how many harem and moe genres seem to put a wider variety of body types just to cover for a wider range of fetishes they can offer, which is no better than a title which has an entire cast of cleavages, if you ask me.
As for LNs and VNs I'm actually more troubled by the fact that most are collections of same old tired cliches that shows the absolute lack of the author's ability to write a unique piece. The fact that harem and moe tends to appear more frequently in these medias may in fact made it seem even more prevalent that these writers are incompetent and seem to be unable to write with their brain instead of their penis. The problem here seemed to be more about the customers who are willing to buy these stupid stories because as long as they can make money, the publishers and studios wouldn’t care what sort of rubbish they’ll have to hand out.
Pickie said: stuffs
I know that harem and moe animes gain its major income through the sellings of physical products, but even then I still don’t see why so many studios are so willing to adapt these stupid writings instead of going for other alternatives. There’s got to be a million harem/moe animes out there already, which only mean more competition in selling both the anime itself and its physical products.
That’s exactly why I don’t understand why the studios rarely go for mangas or LNs of other genres. Sure SnK may be an exception since it’s already an award winning manga long before its made into anime, but you still have to admit that it is the anime adaptation that caused its popularity to suddenly skyrocket by several times at once. Same goes for other titles such as Mirai Nikki and Fate/zero, which may be fairly popular to begin with as manga and LN, but exploded in popularity once the anime came out. Anime adaptation is almost always the catalyst needed for a title to reach its peak popularity.
But what I was actually talking about is something like Jormungand, its original manga was fairly obscure but it became an undeniably successful anime once adapted, even if not mainstream. There’s tons of good unique mangas and LNs out there waiting to be adapted. And just like SnK, you can just pick up some mangas or LNs that already had an established amount of fame, which would mean an almost guaranteed success for the anime. No matter how you look at it I still think that adapting these lesser known titles would be more profitable and effective than trying to fit into the already way oversaturated harem moe market.
I don't know if you work in the industry or not, but you are being a bit harsh there. Not that I can blame as I used to think the same way. I've had alot of different experiances with the high publishing companies but to name 2. A shounen Jump Scout spit in my face saying my stories would never sell while my interview with a KADOKAWA Scout had him politely tell me that my Manga just won't make the company money as it's not mainstream enough and it doesn't adhere to what a majority of what the audiences want. That's why I'm going self publish now.
Alot of Manga-ka's are fighting the good fight like akamatsu_ken againsts harsh publishers but you have to remember why they can't gamble away on things that don't follow a "Guideline" or a "tried and true formula".
Everytime a publishing companies puts a new manga-ka under their wing, they are already gambling. And they have employees and bills to pay. Editors, advertisers, printing and just paying the regular bills. They NEED to make a profit otherwise they are losing money.
When a Doujin Circle/artist like minami_(artist) does his own thing with his own original work. If the story tanks or is not good, the only person being hurt is himself. Granted doing all the work himself with no monetary backing means he doesn't have the big bucks for advertising and printing nor a big name/logo people can identify with.
If a manga-ka that's actually under one of the big publishing companies like Shounen Jump does a bad manga, he's just not taking himself down or damaging his own name. Because the casual reader doesn't say "oh hey, the writer XXX is bad." They say "Oh, Shounen Jump made a bad story". He/she ends up hurting the entire company, people may even get laid off or fired due to hiring this nobody that the company decided to gamble on and hire.
That's why most companies won't even think of doing an original anime and instead try looking at light novels,visual novels, or mangas that are cheaper to make and riding on the popularity of them.
If you want to be a manga-ka/writer in ths industry now. You really only have 2 choices. Self Publish and have 100% creative control over your work or put yourself under a big name publishing company that will have an editor breathing over your shoulder and telling you to make changes to your story to adhere to the what's currently popular in the market.
I don't know if you work in the industry or not, but you are being a bit harsh there. Not that I can blame as I used to think the same way. I've had alot of different experiances with the high publishing companies but to name 2. A shounen Jump Scout spit in my face saying my stories would never sell while my interview with a KADOKAWA Scout had him politely tell me that my Manga just won't make the company money as it's not mainstream enough and it doesn't adhere to what a majority of what the audiences want. That's why I'm going self publish now.
Alot of Manga-ka's are fighting the good fight like akamatsu_ken againsts harsh publishers but you have to remember why they can't gamble away on things that don't follow a "Guideline" or a "tried and true formula".
Everytime a publishing companies puts a new manga-ka under their wing, they are already gambling. And they have employees and bills to pay. Editors, advertisers, printing and just paying the regular bills. They NEED to make a profit otherwise they are losing money.
When a Doujin Circle/artist like minami_(artist) does his own thing with his own original work. If the story tanks or is not good, the only person being hurt is himself. Granted doing all the work himself with no monetary backing means he doesn't have the big bucks for advertising and printing nor a big name/logo people can identify with.
If a manga-ka that's actually under one of the big publishing companies like Shounen Jump does a bad manga, he's just not taking himself down or damaging his own name. Because the casual reader doesn't say "oh hey, the writer XXX is bad." They say "Oh, Shounen Jump made a bad story". He/she ends up hurting the entire company, people may even get laid off or fired due to hiring this nobody that the company decided to gamble on and hire.
That's why most companies won't even think of doing an original anime and instead try looking at light novels,visual novels, or mangas that are cheaper to make and riding on the popularity of them.
If you want to be a manga-ka/writer in ths industry now. You really only have 2 choices. Self Publish and have 100% creative control over your work or put yourself under a big name publishing company that will have an editor breathing over your shoulder and telling you to make changes to your story to adhere to the what's currently popular in the market.
The comics industry in general is just like the gaming, film, and music industry. Indies are finding ways to get their work to the masses through the internet these days. There are a ton of manga/comic artists that want to tell an original story without huge publisher mangling their work. There are a ton of manga series that wanted to tell an original story, but had their work dragged out, because these publisher want to make obscene amounts of money. Hell, i think we all know what Akira Toriyama wanted the Dragon Ball series to end at the freeza battle, but he couldn't because Shounen Jump basically forced him to continue on with the story, because they wanted to milk this thing out. Thus resulting in garbage like Dragon Ball GT. I just hope that Japanese comic artists are finding as much luck as comic artists in here in the states.
Thing is I’m more talking about the LNs and mangas that are already out there and not newer ones, as most LNs and mangas needs to run for at least 2 years before a proper anime adaptation can be made.
I know manga magazine is a very strict business, especially for the bigger ones that can afford to brush off 90% of the job requests without a second thought. But even then it still amazes me how these very same magazines managed to keep titles like Bleach and To Love-Ru around. I know professional companies doesn’t always make professional decisions(that’s why many Hollywood movies still failed at box office despite being multimillion projects), but to let Bleach run for almost 3 years with its repetitive plot or to allow To Love-Ru to spiral down into nothing but something that is borderline pornographic is ridiculous, especially given how strict they made their own business appeared to be.
Even then I’ll have to say I’m mostly talking about the LN publishers here since their standards of what makes for an acceptable writing seems to be abysmally low, given how many rubbish clichéd LNs sprouted over the years, it’s very surprising why they(again, the supposedly professionals) doesn’t notice how oversaturated their own market had became.
D_The_Man said: stuffs
I’m not trying to defend One Piece as I will openly admit that I’m still reading the big manga titles right now only out of a sense of obligation to be able to understand conversations other people are talking about rather than out of my own personal enjoyment, similar to how I forced myself to watch SAO and Nyaruko-san despite having to facepalm every 2 minutes while watching due to the terrible writings they have.
When a story had run over 10 years I don’t think it’s possible for you to keep track of all the things you created, cover up all your plotholes, or not reuse any plot points or tropes, as a writer myself I fully understand how hard that can be, and I have only been writing for the last 2 years.
Again I don’t personally blame the authors, long running authors are forced to continue their stories even if they wanted to end it, and stupid authors are able to send out their terrible writings because the publishers approved of them. I believe it is we, the customers who are at fault. As long as there are some of us who are willing to pay money for these things, the publishers and the studios will keep making them because ultimately all they care for is the money. Kinda like the logic with those campaigns against illegal drugs or illegal hunting of animals, as long as they can make money, people will make these things even though it is wrong.
I am saying that SAO was terrible ever since day one, actually. The premise is a watered down ripoff of .hack series, the plot is typical and bland at best, Kirito is the biggest Marty Stu character I’ve ever known in all animes(being nigh-unbeatable in battle for no particular reasons, having a harem of girls who randomly fell in love with him 3 hours after meeting, and most obnoxious is the fact that every characters who showed signs of not liking him in the first place always turned out to be either villains or wildly incompetent, almost every characters are very shallow(most notably the villains) and certain plot points are noticeably just shoehorned in for the sake of specific crowd fanservices(the entire arc with Yui affects basically nothing apart from serving as lolicon bait). I could go on but it would stray off topic so let’s stop it here.
I personally don’t really like it much how comics rotate writers around since as you said, every writer’s story arc should be treated as its own universe that is not related to the arc coming before or after it. This makes for sloppy continuity and all the things built up through that point could basically be ignored, not to mention the fact that everyone already knows each writers will have to keep their status quo and so basically no character stays dead ever. It’s like reading a series of fanfictions because you can never really take anything as canon due to all the ret-cons happening all the time.
And excuse me, what do you mean by “more popular”? Because I don’t live in America and trust me, comics can be really rare around here whereas mangas and animes can commonly be found in basically every bookstores/CD stores. The only proper comic related thing we have open access to would be the Hollywood movie adaptations. I have read a couple online so far though and I will admit that yeah if each arcs are treated as standalone stories, they can be pretty good.
I agree with you that American comic books need to be sold in stores, and need to be more accessible to a wider audience. Saying that, Manga can be really stale, and rushed because they were all being done by one person. I can say that American comic books have better pacing, and better weaving of exposition in their plots. Are there crappy American comics? Of course, but Manga can really feel static, and the writing feels rushed at times. I really feel that indie comic book writers, and artists need more exposure, because they are more creative, and have mind-blowing art. I blame Marvel, and DC for not helping indie American comics get more exposure by adding them to their roster. I also pissed off that the Comic Code Authority basically neutered creativity for American comics for over 66 years! Thank goodness for the internet, because if it wasn't for that, i would have not seen some of the better sides of American comics.
I don't really see a problem with Mangas being one writer/artist. I mean, isn't that the same with books? There can only be so much you can do as one person, especially if you're going to be writing multiple stories. Granted with the numerous amount of mangas you're bound to see the same characters over and over again since tropes. I'm not really sure which mangas you're reading to say it's rush since there are some that move at good pace. It would be much worse if the story is moving so slow it just keep dragging and dragging on, like many Shounen Jump mangas. Also, aren't most normal comics 1 author/artist too? Outside of all the Marvel/DC super hero comics.
But comics, mangas, they're all one in the same. Mangas is just japanese for comics, like how anime is just cartoons. I don't see why people always tend to pull the twos apart so much since artstyle is more or less the main difference.
In regards to Nyaruko-san, i'm sure H.P. Lovecraft is spinning in his grave after his though provoking works have been turned into a shitty harem anime. They could have done something smart, and though provoking with the concept of turning H.P. Lovecraft's works into personified characters, but they went the lazy route, and turned everyone into a girl, and making it a generic moe anime.
I think you're missing a subtle distinction here. "Nyarko-san" has less to do with the Cthulhu Mythos as found in Lovecraft's original stories than the Cthulhu Mythos as it has been adapted and simplified and packaged in tremendously popular TRPGs and other media. That's why no one wisecracks about losing their sanity, they wisecrack about losing SAN points.
In other words, complaining about how "Nyarko-san" doesn't capture the thought-provoking qualities of HPL's original stories is like complaining how the movie "Airplane!" doesn't capture any of the genuine drama and terror that would come from a realistic story of an airplane in distress.
Keo said: But comics, mangas, they're all one in the same. Mangas is just japanese for comics, like how anime is just cartoons. I don't see why people always tend to pull the twos apart so much since artstyle is more or less the main difference.
Not really, there are much more distinction towards just art styles when it comes to comic books and anime-medias just like how comic books and films adapted from said comic books have much more than just putting the characters on the pages on the big screen.
Every media circle has its own distinctive tone, in comic books you don't see moe girls or tsundere characters while in anime-medias you hardly see protagonists with circus strongmen muscle build or wise-cracking crude characters like Deadpool or Duke Nukem. This is not to say these tropes cannot be put into the other media, but it's just something that generally does not fit with the stereotypical tones of said medias.
Even drop-dead serious anime medias like Shingeki no Kyojin, the Fate main series, or Psycho-Pass where plot is much more focused on building a full-believable world and characters than unrealistically moe girls who acts cute 24/7 for no reason, you can still see a clear difference in character interactions and antics than those of comic book characters or just western medias in general(maybe except the anime-ish cartoons like Avatar or Teen Titans).
WoW, i don't know that one Touhou X Wallace&Gromit crossover pic could turn into one massive discussing page about how suck mainstreams shounen manga can be. I'm glad to see so many intellectual mind who has opinion of their own instead of going with the crowd; like me!!! I love this place!! I love Danbooru!!
Please take this next bit with a grain of salt, as it comes from a One Piece fan, and thusly my opinion is biased: How is One Piece bland at all? For starters, I have read the entire series up until the current chapter. I have found it extremely entertaining and not at all "typical." There have been absolutely no plot holes, at least not in the manga. The art style is unique enough to be considered its own. Yes, it draws inspiration from Dragon Ball sometimes, as Oda is a fan of Toriyama's, and Luffy is sort of an expy of Goku, but the characters and the storyline is so its own that it would be incorrect to say that "it attempts to copy DBZ and fails" straight up. As for One Piece's characterization, did people not pay attention? The Straw Hats are extremely well fleshed-out--I mean, Robin, who was previously the stoic, calm parent-type figure, gradually starts to show more and more emotion as the series goes on--she calls her crewmates by name instead of their titles, she even starts openly caring for them--and just recently, she even fell into the same kind of face faults the rest of the crew does. Not something a normal, cliche-type character would do. Really, I fail to see how One Piece is lumped among the rest of those "Japanese Anime" when it's clealy set apart--the story and the depth of the characters are quite unique. Granted, it is confusing if one is jumping into the middle of the story, but that being said, I can't find any real problems with that series. Once again, take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I am a fain.
Besides that, we failed to talk about Touhou. This pic just proves that Touhou does, indeed, go with everything.
Like Etna from Disgaea says: "I can see your beak moving, but all I hear is blah blah blah."
"I forced myself to watch SAO and Nyaruko-san despite having to facepalm every 2 minutes while watching due to the terrible writings they have." - azurelorochi
If you like an anime, watch it. If you don't like an anime, don't force yourself to watch it.
Now, let me enjoy my anime without some gigantic debates based purely on opinions. Thanks.