So what's the fascination with Manga/Anime?

[Des]

I guess it was a good thing I was referring to modern manga and not woodcut prints from the 1600s then.

Actually I wasn't refering to wood block prints either. I can't remember the exact name of what I'm thinking of, but it was an illustrated story done on a scroll. Blehh, I forget the name. Something about a princess or lady or something. Anyway, yeah, there were others like it. Basically a story told with pictures and they were all laid out on a scroll. My Asian art history teacher refered to this as the first "manga". *shrug*

[McDuffies]

Funny about that. Asterix is (together with that tuft haired boy reporter) the only exception to that, in being that it exists in about 35 languages worldwide. Now those guys at least knew how to market.
However I find this irritating becuase, usually, that's the only title outsiders can think of as far as the Continental European scene is concerned. Asterix is good, but it isn't GREAT. And yet there're are loads of people who love it but remain unaware that it really is the tip of the iceberg even as far as Asterix's writer and artist are concerned, let alone the thousand of other brilliant comics.

I feel pretty much the same way (though it's not as much a tip of the iceberg as it's one snowball on said tip). I'm not being a big fan of Asterix, I always thought of it as author's attempt at something that would sell out huge, at least in France. I think it's kind of ironic that it's French's most popular comic outside, being that it's a blatant French-patriotic romp, Frenchs-kick-everyone-else's-ass concept, I almost doubt that they intended it to be a hit outside of France.

And yeah, why isn't Gaston as known as Tintin is?

[Legendary]

I loved Tintin so much as a kid. I still give them a quick read whenever I stumble across one in the library.

[Kirb]

I guess it was a good thing I was referring to modern manga and not woodcut prints from the 1600s then.

Actually I wasn't refering to wood block prints either. I can't remember the exact name of what I'm thinking of, but it was an illustrated story done on a scroll. Blehh, I forget the name. Something about a princess or lady or something. Anyway, yeah, there were others like it. Basically a story told with pictures and they were all laid out on a scroll. My Asian art history teacher refered to this as the first "manga". *shrug*

Your teacher was probably referring to The Tale of Genji. While it was illustrated, I wouldn't really call it the first manga. What is being debated, however, is that it was the world's first modern novel.

[Berg]

And yeah, why isn't Gaston as known as Tintin is?

Personally, my favorite was always Spirou (and by extension that means I was also a great fan of Gaston, since it was basically a spin-off of Spirou). Come to think of it, maybe it's time I did something about the goal I set for myself when I was 12-ish about getting all the Spirou books...

[Golden-Dragon-Girl]

Just to respond to the initial question:
I'm fascinated with manga for several reasons.
The eyes are the part of the face that tend to get the greatest response from humans in general-- this is why eyes are also enlarged in other depictions of the human body, like Garfield or Bratz dolls. (The people who made the Bratz dolls actually did research on how best to depict human faces in order to attract customers, and that's what they found out. It's a shame they didn't do more research involving men; their dudes are hideous.)

It tends towards being simplistic in showing the human body, yet it also depicts the human body very well, making weight and movement believable. (This is, of course, when drawn by someone who knows what they're doing.)

Anime women tend to have better curves.

The wild hair has more personality than naturalistically drawn hair styles do.

The effeminate look to the people can mainly be chalked up to the somewhat effeminate look of the Asian people themselves, but I like it. I'm already fond of real Asian men so it's understandable.

And then, of course, there's what was one of my earliest experiences with anime, in which I, as a small girl, saw an episode of "Teknoman" and the image of the hero trudging nude (but only shown chest up) from a flaming crater branded itself on my brain and haunted my dreams with its sexiness.

No wonder I'm so twisted.

[McDuffies]

And yeah, why isn't Gaston as known as Tintin is?

Personally, my favorite was always Spirou (and by extension that means I was also a great fan of Gaston, since it was basically a spin-off of Spirou). Come to think of it, maybe it's time I did something about the goal I set for myself when I was 12-ish about getting all the Spirou books...

That'd take a lot of collecting. If I had a chance, I'd definitely get all that Franquin drew.
I don't like the later ones, when Tome and Janry started redesigning a comic. The first ones they did were ok though.
I heard that Yoan, who is one of my favourite artists did one. Boy I'd like to get my hands on that.

[Swiftbow]

I've never really liked the whole manga/anime style thing, though some of it is better than others, of course. I tend to like the ones that don't go for all the weird little things like teardrops and such or gigantic mouths and hair.

For my own part, I slowly developed my own weird cartoony style over years of drawing from Ed Emberley, How to Draw the Marvel Way, some art classes and shows, and a myriad of other books. Personally, I think it's a good thing to draw in your own style, it may not be fine art, but people can pick it out and know you did it.

[Berg]

Come to think of it, maybe it's time I did something about the goal I set for myself when I was 12-ish about getting all the Spirou books...

That'd take a lot of collecting.

Well, yeah, but I still have all of the ones I had as a kid so I have a pretty significant head start.

If I had a chance, I'd definitely get all that Franquin drew.
I don't like the later ones, when Tome and Janry started redesigning a comic. The first ones they did were ok though.

Wasn't it just their final one that had the radically redesigned look, though? Or did they do another one? At least the guys who took over after them have been keeping the look and feel more consistent with the "classic" Spirou. IIRC, their second one was pretty good.

Anyway, as long as we're discussing Spirou in a thread with the word "manga" in the title, lookit...

[War]

Anime women tend to have better curves.

Piffle I say. Anime women tend to have big breasts, and tend to be lacking in real curves.

[Kilre]

Anime women tend to have better curves.

Piffle I say. Anime women tend to have big breasts, and tend to be lacking in real curves.

Indeed. They ain't got no ass.

Such an attribute is sorely missed.

[Yeahduff]

i'm starting to think that this interest in japanese comics stems from white guilt and the thought pattern of everything in the 20th century that whitey has "touched" has turned to total crap, the "pure" manga is much better (and it's also why fanboys go apeshit when whitey messes with it)

My guess is it has more to do with being dissatisfied with Western culture. If it were simply racial, the implied white consumer of anime wouldn't attach herself to stylized depictions of what seem to be caucasians and would instead throw herself into hip-hop.

[VinnieD]

My view. (And I lvoe manga but would preffer to make my comic something different) Is that we have two destinctively different art styles that spent some 50 years developing independantly of one another. (assuming anime started with astro boy after picking up disney esque concepts).

Now that Anime style has become more mainstream we're seeing an interest from america. Unfortunately it seems while the american audience has picked up on the finer points of anime, such as smoother animation, more varied character designs and darker more intelligent stories, american producers have decided rather to copy the wide eyes and maintain a scooby doo level of quality in animation and storytelling.

Right now with american animation in a slump much like the late 70's, we're prime to pick up on something better from another culture until we see another american renisance such as that started by Don Bluth's 1982 Secret of NIMH, which introduced us to those darker themse, superior animation, and allover better storytelling we're hungry for now and searching for in Manga and anime.

I remind you not everything america produces is Scooby Doo and flintstones. We had a golden age from the 80's to the 90's with productions such as the aforementioned NIMH, American Tale, and series such as Reboot, Pirates of Dark Water, War planets, Beast Wars, and Batman the animated series (during the FOX era before WB gutted the animation budget)

From 2000 onward we've seen the occasional glimmer in american animation with Justice League, and Samurai Jack, but as is obvious both series were eventually cancelled in favor of more cheaply produced shows that honestly look like they were drawn with no. 2 pencils, and present the same old cliches over and over again.

Webcomics however prosent something different. Not that there aren't plenty of cliches out there and ironicly now a lot of the "manga" comics are the guilty parties, there's greater chance for true veriety and originallity. (I'd like to think I'm a contributor to the latter but that's just tooting my own horn)

Or that's my 3am opinion on the matter, while hastilly assembling my portfolio for mid term and watching Secret of NIMH on DVD. So my opinions may be a bit colored.

[Kitsune Warlock]

Vinnie speaks absolute truth.

Plus it should be noted that since the creation of the internet, by nerds, the internet has been used...by nerds. Many nerds are anime nerds (i.e. otaku or manga-otaku/anime-otaku) who need the internet (or lots of VHSs, a parking lot and a big trunk) to share foreign shows and films, as well as translate them. Message boards evolved and experienced their biggest growth with games (non-electric and electric) and anime. Naturally, these board types have stuck around. The people on these boards (nerds, pre-AOhelL), are the ones who got to learn how to use the internet best. Anyways, eventually people built websites, and then started reading webcomics made by a small percentage of these people. More and more people started making comics and here we are today.

Personally, I believe another big reason is video games. Most of the best games come from Japan. Naturally they are chocked full of Japanese culture and influenced by said culture. Naturally anime/manga stylized characters would be used (or at least drawn on box-art). The RPG being the grand-daddy of all games for most of us (I'm saying anything with a health bar is an RPG since before DnD started influencing Japanese game designers, all games were 1 or 3 hits and your dead).

Of course, video games are an american invention. As is DnD and the RPG. But the Japanese kinda...mixed them...well.

Sorry to ramble. Getting late. Homework.

[Ataraxia]

The RPG being the grand-daddy of all games for most of us (I'm saying anything with a health bar is an RPG since before DnD started influencing Japanese game designers, all games were 1 or 3 hits and your dead).

Unfortunately, we also seem to be going through a RPG-slump this decade...

[McDuffies]

Wasn't it just their final one that had the radically redesigned look, though? Or did they do another one? At least the guys who took over after them have been keeping the look and feel more consistent with the "classic" Spirou. IIRC, their second one was pretty good.

Yeah, that was that. I assume they didn't go further with it because noone really wanted to see Spirou redesigned after all these years.
I heard that newest albums are good, yeah.

Anyway, as long as we're discussing Spirou in a thread with the word "manga" in the title, lookit...

[Mr.Bob]

Wasn't it just their final one that had the radically redesigned look, though? Or did they do another one? At least the guys who took over after them have been keeping the look and feel more consistent with the "classic" Spirou. IIRC, their second one was pretty good.

Yeah, that was that. I assume they didn't go further with it because noone really wanted to see Spirou redesigned after all these years.
I heard that newest albums are good, yeah.

Anyway, as long as we're discussing Spirou in a thread with the word "manga" in the title, lookit...

My eyes!

And Yes. That "Dream-machine" issue was confusing as hell. At first I didn't know what I was reading because of the radical design shift Tome and Janry had suddenly taken - the more realistic Spirou and Seccotine were barely recognisable, and this was not helped by the story being as trippy as hell... Think eXistenZ.

McDuffies, That one Spirou comic by Yoann is just a one shot - I don't think it is considered part of the official Spirou canon as Moran and Munuera are the artists now formally in charge of creating his adventures. From their two issues so far, it can be seen that they have taken it back to the cartoony style, but it's far from traditional as it has been redesigned again... after all, each artist has to leave behind his signature, doesn't he? But now it is very crisp and clean and magnificently dynamic. I espicially liked "The Man who would not Die", but the teaser art for their latest release looksvery nice indeed.

See? It's all set in Japan so it's nicely On Topic!

[Berg]

teaser art for their latest release looksvery nice indeed.

See? It's all set in Japan so it's nicely On Topic!

ButButBut.... Spirou and Fantasio already went to Japan!

[McDuffies]

McDuffies, That one Spirou comic by Yoann is just a one shot - I don't think it is considered part of the official Spirou canon as Moran and Munuera are the artists now formally in charge of creating his adventures.

Aww. Yoann makes some of my favourite comics right now. He's wonderfully weird.

From their two issues so far, it can be seen that they have taken it back to the cartoony style, but it's far from traditional as it has been redesigned again... after all, each artist has to leave behind his signature, doesn't he? But now it is very crisp and clean and magnificently dynamic. I espicially liked "The Man who would not Die", but the teaser art for their latest release looksvery nice indeed.

I dunno about those, I guess I'd rather wait and see... It's apparent they've tried to maintain the spirit, but I don't know if it'll grow on... I guess those are the risks of working on such old series (and no working on something after Franquin anyway), whatever you try to change looks awkward, and most of authors aren't as subtle as to leave their mark without making some major changes.
Bah, as long as it isn't that hack of a Franq' imitator that always drawn motorcycles and stuff.