manga style comics: hate them?

Christina · Post by **Christina** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 11:50 am

Hello all,

When I was on here my first time(and now am back again after settling down in a new country), I noticed some people would list 'manga/anime style' as reasons to NOT read a comic.

Being a fan of them and working on a 'serious' one myself here at Keenspace, I'm curious as to why some people dislike the general style enough to avoid everything that resembles it. I realize different people will have different reasons, but here's a few I wondered about.

What about manga styles irritate you?

Is it that you're tired of _poorly done_ manga, or manga in general?

Is it the art, or the content(girly girly stuff for a lot of shojo, insane violence for a lot of guys' ones, etc.)?

Is it 'too popular' of a style?

Even as a fan of it, I can admit there are parts I don't like(an abundance of super-big-eyed cute little kid characters makes me want to hurt someone), but I feel there are also strengths to traditional manga style(very dynamic 'camera' work, fluid imagery, etc).

Anyway, if anyone feels like responding please do, and thanks for reading!

Loserz Erik · Post by **Loserz Erik** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:15 pm

The problem with people is they stereotype. They see one thing and if they don't like it, they assume that everything that resembles it whatsoever is not worth their attention.

The other reason somebody might not like it is because they're elitist and believe they're above stooping to the level of reading something because it's a popular format. Lot's of people use the manga style for their comics and thus, that makes it one of those "majority" things and there are plenty of people out there with insatiable egos who believe that they're so special and unique that anyone who mimicks a popular technique sucks.

I used to be guilty of these, avoiding Furry comics because of a little from column A and a little from column B, but then I read Jack and realized the folly of my ways. I no longer pass my personal judgement on a comic until I've given it a fair chance to prove itself.

Matt Wilson · Post by **Matt Wilson** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:37 pm

We're not the only guilty ones of stereotyping. I've seen a lot of manga-influenced strips that have incredibly generic characters that were based off of the author's favorite anime.

That's what gets to me. When a comic strip isn't unique. And that applies to ANY style.

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:44 pm

I don't refuse to read comics just 'cause they're drawn in manga style. But I do see hundreds of comics, and I can't read them all. I'm much more likely to take a look at a comic if it has a fresh and unique visual style, than if I see yet another comic that looks like it was badly traced fom a "how to draw manga" book. Which doesn't mean to say that a comic like that can't be well written... but there are more well-written comics out there than I have time for, so first impressions are important.
(Note: this is not a knock on manga in general, just the stereotypical "clone manga" style which is only actually used by americans...)

ZOMBIE USER 7833 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 7833** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:51 pm

Yeah, it's just that it seems that the people are unable to have their own style. Nothing against the stories, but they seem to be doing it in manga only because manga is popular, not because the story should be done in manga. I have nothing against the style personally, but I do feel a bunch of people just see a popular manga epic and go "oh, me too!" regardless of skill or writing ability.

Also a lot of the anime fanatics can get frighteningly obsessive. I think that they scare me away from the product more than anything about the product itself, be it movie, comic, tv show, or otherwise.

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 1:12 pm

I personally am a huge fan of manga. If it's a funny manga, I'll read it.

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 1:33 pm

well, like them or not, it's my opinion that we're going to see a lot more manga style comics coming out, especially manga based comics that have no real imagination or innovation. the main reason I predict this is because of how popular anime is getting in the US, and that the vast majority of the people that is causing the rise in popularity know only what they see on TV. hell, I've already seen at least one comic based entirely off of Dragonball Z and a couple more that include just a bunch of stereotypical anime characters running around.

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 1:42 pm

On 2002-03-20 13:33, chigger wrote:
well, like them or not, it's my opinion that we're going to see a lot more manga style comics coming out, especially manga based comics that have no real imagination or innovation.

That's like predicting that one day, mankind will discover electricity.

My dear boy, we are waist deep and rising...

_________________
s y l v a n

[ This Message was edited by: Psiogen on 2002-03-20 13:43 ]

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:44 pm

but i thought we already had electricity...

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:06 pm

On 2002-03-20 14:44, chigger wrote:
but i thought we already had electricity...

You're a sharp one, kid. You'll go a long way.

Scrubbo · Post by **Scrubbo** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:32 pm

God I love direct hits that people don't notice.

BAM!

Nice one, Psiogen!

And I don't read many Manga style comics because a lot of them seem to not give a rats ass about the writing. Feh!

But I make an exception for <a href="http://www.rpgworldcomic.com/">RPG World</a> cause <a href="http://ianj.keenspace.com/">Ian</a> is the bomb diggity.

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 5:33 pm

On 2002-03-20 15:06, Psiogen wrote:

You're a sharp one, kid. You'll go a long way.

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA. HAH. I'm done. Oh, wait, no I'm not. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Alright, anyways. Anime in the states isn't as popular as one might think. Maybe kiddy series like DBZ, Sailor Moon, Pokemon and god forbid Ranma have caught on, but there's so many other anime series like Evangelion, Love Hina, Fruits Basket, and so on that haven't become popular at all in the states. Some Otaku have discovered the wonders of Love Hina, or Evangelion, but it's still now what I'd consider 'popular' by any means.

_________________
<A HREF="http://dorm106.keenspace.com"><img src="http://dorm106.keenspace.com/images/links/dorm106.jpg" border="0"></A>

[ This Message was edited by: Shoe on 2002-03-20 17:34 ]

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 5:50 pm

Um, I don't think "RPG world" is manga styled.

And as for reason I don't like manga... Well lets say you are a fan of manga, and you avoid comics that are, let's say, "Peanuts"-influenced, which are maybe my favourite... It's fair enough, not everybody can have a same taste, and that is good.

But if you wand more precise, I'd say manga is imanent for Japanese culture because of that generic character-drawing... After all, it did grew on their culture tradition. But, I'm so far away from Japan, I haven't had much touch with them, and I simply don't understand them. I tried reading japanese prose, and I didn't understand it eather. Simply, too much culture difference.
The other thing: I think disliking something because it's too popular, is a damn good reason.

Anyway, I don't throw all manga in basket. Noone should do that with anything. So there are manga comics I like. Only not many...

Srdjan
http://mcduffies.keenspace.com

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:26 pm

I don't know what's worse, the fact that I'm not sure whether or not Psiogen thought I was serious about my little electricity comment or the fact that other people seem to think I am. and my foot hurts

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:32 pm

okee Srdjan, you say that disliking something because it's popular is a good reason, what if you like something before it gets real popular, and then it gets to the point in popularity where you would generally not like it?

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:37 pm

On 2002-03-20 19:26, chigger wrote:
I don't know what's worse, the fact that I'm not sure whether or not Psiogen thought I was serious about my little electricity comment or the fact that other people seem to think I am. and my foot hurts

The hazards of the smiley-less lifestyle...
Nah, I was pretty sure you were kidding, but how could I pass that one by?

SpareChange · Post by **SpareChange** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:58 pm

I don't dislike any genre of comic enough to avoid it altogether, but I don't currently read any manga comics. But only because
a) there are far too many to wade through, especially considering the long-form comic, and
b) so much of it seems to be indistinguishable (the "clone" factor that was mentioned earlier.)
Manga really isn't the most mindlessly copied form, though. That seems to be sprite comics (even though I did like <a href="http://ghostz.keenspace.com">Ghostz</a> quite a bit.
And I really can't say anything about people's drawing talents (or lack thereof.)

ZOMBIE USER 7833 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 7833** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:03 pm

Speaking of bad drawing and watered down anime, I attempted to make fun of one using the other in my comic today! ... er, that was a shameless plug. I told myself I'd never do those again. Ah well, I've never actually drawn manga before, and I waited till the last minute to draw today's strip, so it's a bunch of crap. Thus contributing to the web's hatred of manga.

ZOMBIE USER 3098 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 3098** » Thu Mar 21, 2002 12:35 am

In my view, some manga are cool. If you check my links page, I do bookmark some manga sites in particular, but this is due to the fact that they've got some sort of special content.

My biggest peeve w/ manga is that most shojo are too mushy, sometimes the eyes are too big, shonen manga too much fighting, and that the characters are too generic.

Over-generic manga in my view are some of the shonen-ai or romance stuff (real mush there). Then there's the too much fighting type and the something rescue blah blah type. Another type is the one where all the guys look like girls.

In the end, I do like manga, I just don't like too much of the same thing.

-Albrecht
http://ntnation.keenspace.com

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Thu Mar 21, 2002 1:22 am

On 2002-03-21 00:35, herr_x wrote:

In the end, I do like manga,

It's the end already?? Crap! I never got to visit Prague!