Dear American Comics: Here’s Why You’re Losing Readers to Anime and Manga

Dear American Comics: Here’s Why You’re Losing Readers to Anime and Manga

I just got back from Anime Expo in Los Angeles and was inspired to ask this question to Twitter at large: what is it about anime and manga from Japan that appeals to you? What does it give to you that you can’t get from American-made movies, TV, cartoons, and comics?

The responses were quite interesting. See what this array of authors, comics creators, animators, bloggers and fans had to say on this topic, plus a few recommendations for anime and manga from VIZ Media, Kodansha Comics, Crunchyroll, and Seven Seas Entertainment that are worth checking out:

2 Comments

  1. I don’t see the reason to add those “Manga all looks the same” comments when that’s just the way I see most of these mainstream American super hero comics.

  2. I feel like this article tends to ignore and downright misportray the cons of manga & anime. For example yeah sure, manga cheap, but you know why? Manga artists are paid dirt, work like slaves and they don’t make money off anime licensing most of the time (and the volume paper quality is meh compared to TPB of American comics). Most American comics are also in color. Has the writer ever tried purchasing anime in Japan? 8424円 is the MSRP for EACH Blu-ray volume of the most recent Gundam show. Each volume has about 3-4 episodes. So for a run of ~24 episodes (a single season) you’re looking at ~$500. This isn’t unique to Gundam. Your Lie in April runs about 10000円 on DVD. A lot of manga/anime doesn’t have merchandising in mind? Hello? Where were you writer when moe took over everything drawing comments from people like Miyazaki-san (and is also largely why I stopped for the most part… the pure volume of crap over quality being pumped out) to say nothing of the dozens of sites selling hundreds of anime/manga based figures…what about Shounen Jump which frequently cancels series resulting in rushed/bad endings…I could go on… don’t get me wrong I love Marvel IP, but I hate how often the cross-events detract from the story, so there are valid points… but manga & anime is far from rainbows & puppies either. Non-Japanese countries have the benefit of some degree of crappy shows being filtered out because no one wants to license and translate/dub something that isn’t going to sell to foreign audiences.

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  1. Otaku Links: Manga break - […] What Does Anime & Manga Offer to US Fans That They Can’t Get from US Pop Media? Deb Aoki…

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