what i think the best advice is with working with art, is working with something that is very fierce, very strong, very robust, and even though the whole world seems to say that artists are fragile, doesnt matter, not important, but by definition making art is by definition making the world, that is the goal of an artist - oliafur eliasson, 8 artists:advice to the young
Manga writers just write whatever the hell they want, and let their work find its audience. There's enough readers to go around, none of this "zero sum game" mentality. American writers of previous decades tried to tailor their works to find the greatest audience, which developed into the classic fandom known today. Current politicized American comics are trying to tailor their audience to fit the agenda-driven stories they're writing.
@@xheralt Yes they have infiltrated the hobby and hold the artist at gunpoint. "If you don't put this political message into the story you are fired" so out of fear the artist must do the bidding of the woke mob. Now the good news is many artists are finally going it alone (the Todd McFarlane route) and deciding to take control over their life by looking to indie scene to survive. Which to me is a good thing because if you can survive out there you have become a stronger person for it. Not all will survive but the few that do can be proud that they now control their destiny and own their own creation and be done with a middleman. The fanbase then decides whether they continue or die off based on whether they keep buying. Ethan Van Sciver seems to be the tip of the spear today for going anti-woke and could be considered this generation's Todd McFarlane in that he is taking all the risk, making quality, is well-known for having worked in the industry long enough to have respect, and like Todd is even going down the route of releasing toys/action figures for his characters. This is the very definition of independence and what all the artists should strive for: cut out that middleman if you can, and see if you can survive only on the love of fans not on selling your soul to the devil (the publisher) and having to be a slave to the bean counters. If you can do this you have obtained the dream because you showed you are still the "God" of your universe able to make the characters you own and created say, do, and act anyway you feel is loyal to their real spirit. No one else can jump in and hijack your creation and make them say or do something that you don't agree with. This is why people don't like the idea of SJW deliberately changing established characters in Marvel and DC because it betrays who they are when they were originally created and is a form of pop cultural vandalism. Comics can still be done well in the west but you would have to look to independent artists for this now. Just like how in the videogames industry many veterens form the industry decided to leave their job and make the kind of games they know they would play rather than what the marketing people say is hot at the time. The industry is flooded with samey content so people look to independents for interesting ideas and risky experimental stuff that might not have an audience but which could be the next goldmine.
another reason for success of manga is that it has a lot of content(pages) than the comics(pages).lots of stories, situation, narrations and sometimes omake and/or bonus story or illustration from the manga...
Reason 1. Wokeness has infected our ENTIRE entertainment industry. They're all so busy virtue signaling they forgot the reason they exist, is to entertain.
Manga every other year has new characters and new protagonists we can root for and stories we can ride on, while comics the only thing that's new is the new costume of a certain superhero in a new universe. Multiverse concept is kinda Reduce Reuse Recycle method, change something a little bit and keep the same character but put him in a new alternate universe so fans can expect something "New!". Today's comics are nothing but fanfics, don't hate me I owned comics too back then but when I got into Manga, I found what I was looking for. An Entertainment that's not confusing.
I think the multiverse thing can be done right if they change up things a lot more. Michael Moorcock's eternal champion is a great example of that, where each character and rendition is unique, even though they have certain similarities. But I agree that comics would be better if they went for more original stores instead of recycling the same old super heroes all the time.
I agree with this. I haven’t read a western comic in years and I use to be a big marvel fan. Manga is still good escapism which sadly Marvel and other western comics are not anymore.
Same here. The last western comic I bought was the Absolute Sandman compilation over a decade ago. I do hope American comics bounce back eventually though. The only Marvel property I engage with now is Marvel vs Capcom 🙂
Another reason is that in the manga the author writes how he feels when talking about certain topics, his experience in creating the first sketch of the character is very open to expressing his career with the reading public, while he is in the comic. . you just have to look on twitter
I agree with all of your points ngl. When I was a 9 year old and saw American comics, the art was not exactly "appealing" in a way. Adding to that, it was as if everyone was drawing in the same style and it would get boring. Manga on the other hand, made me feel like I struck gold. There were different art styles and even without color, I really, really enjoy them!
Thanks for your comment! The lack of color never really bothered me either. I actually think it looks better than having just flat colors with no highlights or shading.
I don't agree on the point about the art. I do think the full colour pages you get in American comics often do outshine manga if done correctly. I think in part due to the extra dimension of colour and that there's almost always someone else doing the inking, the variance is greater as well. Comparing the block shadow heavy art of Mike Mignolo to the painterly art of Alex Ross is a good example. Not to say there isn't variance in manga but there's definitely an underlying formula that is more present there. The one thing you did miss out on though is price. Manga is a lot cheaper and better value for money. A Japanese Tankobon which collects many chapters costs the same as a single issue of a comic book these days!
Thanks for your comment!I agree that the art can be subjective. There are a lot of great art in American comics as well. Mike Mignolo and Alex Ross are two great examples of that. However, I still tend to like the art in manga more. There's so much variety that it's hard to point just just one thing, but in general I find manga to be more cinematic in their composition, which makes the stories flow a lot better. Not that this never happens in comics, but I've noticed it more in manga. The point about price is a good one. I read most manga in Japanese, and the price of one tankobon is usually around 500 yen. That's part of the reason why I don't read that many Western comics anymore. It's too bad that many comics have become collectables, instead of being enjoyed for their content.
Yeah, i 100% agree. There's way too much politics in western comics. While havin politics in a story definitely isn't bad i mean i LOVE Berserk and that has politics in, it's just in western comics it can come off as VERY preachy
I feel this point completely. Politics and diversity aren't bad and are beneficial in good storytelling. However, I agree it is a turnoff if the audience feels badgered by it, especially if it offers nothing to the actual narrative.
This is the most coherent and well organized and well reasoned argument on this topic I have so far found on youtube. I also deploy the context of: When I was a kid I was astounded by comics such as Spiderman. However, when I first saw my first manga, I was astounded by: 1) Clean Art Style with more emphasis on fitting different perspectives into all the panels making it feel richer to read in the "tiles" format of comic story-telling 2) The much more human story where you feel you're right in there with the characters next to their shoulder sharing their space where superheroes you feel you watch from a distance 3) The writing was interesting on interesting subjects eg GTO manga was a great concept 4) It was in a smaller book package but longer story which was for me always a big problem with comics: If I read it once I felt there was nothing to read it again being so short. I think I could re-read my manga a lot more. WIth that original impression in mind: 1. Better art - It's probably because there's so much diversity compared to comics that then you find styles that make you amazed at how beautiful they are. 2. More diverse stories ie so much more interesting and refreshing so keeping interest and finding personal interest 3. Longer stories per comic ie economics are better 4. Art style that one is inspired by (same with comics) but one feels one can imitate (I could never learn to draw comics as it is too complex) - I wonder how much this contributes to younger generations also getting into manga? 5. Japanese culture plays a part: I love the bowing, codes of conduct etc and mannerism and standards of behaviour behind a lot of interactions: Different characters and genres but always recognizably underneath "Japanese". Again I think this adds depth that people enjoy? So I've reordered some of the same reasons you have but in order of priority/emphasis in descending order of importance. Implicit in 1 and 2 is COMPETITION in the Manga Industry manifesting Authentic Diversity: In Art, In Story, In Characters etc. Equally manifesting the larger pool of stories generating larger amount of higher quality stories even if the 80:20 rule still exists. Equally, I've only focused on the merits of Manga which agrees with what you said: It was better quality before and with distribution it has out-competed comics due to those reasons of higher merit. In addition the merits of Manga are equally the demerits of comics with the EXCEPTIONAL PROBLEM in comics of not only being worse in most cases due to the above core reasons, but also adding the very negative politics aka PROPAGANDA into the art. This is the NEMESIS OF THE ROLE OF ART IN SOCIETY or even the antithesis or abuse and hence people recognize the adulteration in quality of comics as another factor. Finally, thank you very much for showing some examples of good manga in your opinion, so I can learn more and investigate these titles to enjoy and purchase! An excellent video, this comment is aiming to contribute to and support for that reason of quality.
Thank you for your comment! I agree with your points. There's certainly a unique Japanese character that shines through with manga. This might actually be part of the appeal, since it's so different from your average comic. Even from comics set in Japan. Your point about adding propaganda into art is my biggest problem with current comics, or indeed many other forms of entertainment as well. Like with the new Lord of the Rings series by Amazon, there's just something disrespectful about it. Both towards the fans and the original property as well.
@@SmartJapanHacks I see Japanese crafts and I think they understand something about art that is less apparent in the West also. There are many examples in their culture. I'd say the main problem is Manga is higher quality because as an art it is reflecting something more substantial even via story or drawing. Be it the technical process or the philosophy behind the story or other aspects (faces). Fundamentally this higher quality draws people to it in any art, I'd argue. Propaganda is always a secondary problem to the above higher quality form of art. Propaganda instead of elevating people does the opposite: Coercion, deception all veil people from what we aspire to: Truth, Reality etc. These are often at the heart of art also. Thus as such propaganda inherently is a violation against the basic conduct of people to other people and people intuit this feeling I think. Aka an abuse of power or trust for example. History seems to show this in the use of propaganda (I find advertising especially egregious for this reason in the modern world). I hope the comment about the crafts in Japan interested you.
Japanese anime is for geeks and American comics are for people with better taste and more creativity since they've been around longer I swear I'm tired of this Millennial crap
One other reason is Manga internal market is far more competitive. Every author/artist want their manga to be at least decent or appeal to its target audience. If the target audience is overlapped with other title the author need to make his/her manga somehow special or different from the other title. From just football(Soccer) title alone, there are already variation from kid's manga like "Inazuma 11" or Teen's Manga such as "Capt. Tsubasa" and serious title Manga like "Giant Killing" And Japanese Manga author/artist are more connected to the readers. They have Comiket where they can see their readers interests, numbers of booths of each series can indicated what in trends at the moment. Most of them also have twitter that they can read how people felt about their manga or what is current manga's trend and why's it is a trend. And nowadays many author/artist even have their own Vtuber channel so they can communicate even more directly to the reader. I even once saw someone non-japanese send superchat and thanks the author/artist for great work.
Those are good points. There's so much manga being created, that you need to put extra effort in to stand out. It also means that the cream rises to the top.
I LOVE Giant Killing, just so good. Gurazeni Money Pitch is another favorite Sienen sports series, and I guess Hajime no Ippo is more Sienen than Shonen at this point.
True. The manga industry is more open and much more accessible than the comics industry. We don't have anything like comiket. And any comics that aren't marvel or DC don't have a hope in hell of reaching mainstream markets. It's all so centralized and exclusive. You gotta work your way into the industry, network like hell, get lots of experience, and know the right people to get into a main role writing a comic for DC or Marvel, a comic that barely anyone will read. But in Japan Mangaka with no connections, experience or even drawing skills can get their works serialized, adapted into anime, and gain critical acclaim Ala ONE.
It's called とつくにの少女, or the The Girl From the Other Side in English. It's a pretty unique story with an interesting art style. There's only 11 volumes in total, so it's not a huge investment to get into like with many other series.
Unfortunately, I haven't really read enough European comics to comment on them. I saw the French comic adaptation of Elric of Melniboné from 2014, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Is it me or that the publishing companies and authors in Japan never tried to estranged their target audience ( by focusing on the genre and age of readers),diversify their offerings to fit the consumers wants but not at the cost of sacrificing the stories being made.
Before i watch the video, i believe Japanese manga is better than American comics because there's more unique things in manga and arguably better stories in said manga. Also it's *WAY* easier to get into a manga series than it is to get into an American comics cause in manga it's usually just one story done mostly by one person with volume 1 bein the start of the story and volume, let's say, 34 is the end of the story. With American comics anyone can pick up the character and make a story and it's almost impossible to know where to start with the characters story. I hope i explained my point of view clearly enough so people can understand me haha
Good to hear that I'm not alone then 🙂I love the variety in manga. It might have to do with the fact that Japanese people don't tend to collect manga the way many westerns collect comic books. Since it's a cheaper medium, you don't risk that much by trying new things.
I disagree with you on reason 3, but that's a subjective aesthetic thing, and I agree with you on everything else. At some point, a generation of American creators came in who seem completely unable to keep their politics out of their comics. They don't seem to understand that we want escapism. Regarding the diversity of genres among manga titles, there used to be American comics of every imaginable genre; western, romance, war, horror, science-fiction, etc., but at some point the publishers decided they were going all-in on superheroes, and this was a mistake. Good video.
Thanks for your comment! I remember there being a lot more variety to American comics as well, like you say. I do really hope American comics bounce back, but in order to do so, they need to go back to a more diverse set of genres, as well as put an end to the environment of fear that causes creators to self-censor. But for now, you either need to read older releases, or go for manga in order to escape the current political lecturing.
@@SmartJapanHacks i mean there are some good comics coming out you cant just take what people say on TH-cam as fact a lot of the time the have a bias towards a creator
@@SmartJapanHacks Since he didn't reply, I'd recommend 'These Savage Shores', 'The Many Deaths of Laila Starr', 'We Live', 'Royal City', 'Gideon Falls', 'Stray Dogs', 'Out of Body'. Those are some shorter series that are easier to read in like a week or two. For a few older ones that have ended or gone far: 'Black Science', 'Chew', 'East of West', 'Saga', 'Kill or be Killed', 'Strangers in Paradise', 'Lady Killer', etc.
@@amarikwa888 Thanks for the suggestions! They look interesting. Do you have any preferred way of reading them digitally? I don't really have that much space for storage anymore.
I agree. With "Made in Abyss" I found the right Manga fore me. The art is beautiful And I love the character designs. Reg might have my favorit character design ever. He is both super adorable but also stylish and cool. Often both watching the Anime ore reading the Manga I marvelt at how good he looks. And the writing is like magic to me. I love Nat more then most other series main character and Nat is a side character with 3 episodes/one manga volume of screen time. Nanachi and Reg are my 2 favorite characters in fiction, Riko also makes the top ten and Ozen is soooo dam cool. This series presses all the right buttons on me.
Made in Abyss looks really interesting. It gives me an Etrian Oddysey vibe. Not so much the character design, but the setting and the fact that they descend into the abyss. I'll check it out after I'm done with Hi Score Girl Dash. There are really so many great titles out there, but I guess that's a nice problem to have 🙂
@@SmartJapanHacks I really recomend checking out the Anime. The landscapes are beautiful in the Anime and the music is amazing. Although the Manga edges out in the adorableness departmeant. The characters look even more adorable in the Manga.
@Sofaris Thanks! I will 🙂 I see that the first volume of the manga is free on Manga Oukoku right now, so I'll be sure to read that as well. comic.k-manga.jp/title/88822/pv
"Quality of manga might have stayed the same" no it hasn't, most modern day Mangas are trash with only few exceptions here and there, Vinland Saga and Innocent are the only modern day mangas I like. Mangas used to be so much better with Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing, Yu Yu hakusho, Death Note, Slam Dunk, Ranma 1/2, and Akira. Garbage like demon slayer, Black Clover, and 7 deadly sins bore me. "Too mang politics in comics" that was always a thing "Too many superheros" Bruh, that's just marvel and dc, look at boom studios, dark horses, and image comics. "Manga is more visually appealing" that I agree with, Alex ross, J.H. Williams III, and Greg capullo come super close. I don't get this point, same can be said for American comics, If I like comic I'll probably like other comics made by the same person, I love Geoff John's Green lantern so I read his action comics run and I loved it, I loved Ranma1/2 so I read inuyasha but inuyasha is one of the worst comics(I'm including American/Japanese/Korean) I've ever read. "Japanese mangas are in Japanese"....dude same can be said vice versa, I met a few online friends that are from different countries but read american comics in English.
Mangas are just tradepaper backs if we are talking about the number of pages each format have and to me regular floppies have more appeal than trades because I wanna collect the individual issues for the covers oh and the only series that I think works for black and white art is the walking dead I cant get into stuff without any color.
This is obviously just my opinion, but what do you think? Have manga gotten better, or have comics gotten worse? Or am I completely off the mark here?
what i think the best advice is with working with art, is working with something that is very fierce, very strong, very robust, and even though the whole world seems to say that artists are fragile, doesnt matter, not important, but by definition making art is by definition making the world, that is the goal of an artist - oliafur eliasson, 8 artists:advice to the young
Both have gotten worst, only modern day mangas and comics I like are Vinland Saga, innocent, Saga, and Boom studio's power rangers.
Manga writers just write whatever the hell they want, and let their work find its audience. There's enough readers to go around, none of this "zero sum game" mentality. American writers of previous decades tried to tailor their works to find the greatest audience, which developed into the classic fandom known today. Current politicized American comics are trying to tailor their audience to fit the agenda-driven stories they're writing.
@@xheralt Yes they have infiltrated the hobby and hold the artist at gunpoint. "If you don't put this political message into the story you are fired" so out of fear the artist must do the bidding of the woke mob. Now the good news is many artists are finally going it alone (the Todd McFarlane route) and deciding to take control over their life by looking to indie scene to survive. Which to me is a good thing because if you can survive out there you have become a stronger person for it. Not all will survive but the few that do can be proud that they now control their destiny and own their own creation and be done with a middleman. The fanbase then decides whether they continue or die off based on whether they keep buying. Ethan Van Sciver seems to be the tip of the spear today for going anti-woke and could be considered this generation's Todd McFarlane in that he is taking all the risk, making quality, is well-known for having worked in the industry long enough to have respect, and like Todd is even going down the route of releasing toys/action figures for his characters. This is the very definition of independence and what all the artists should strive for: cut out that middleman if you can, and see if you can survive only on the love of fans not on selling your soul to the devil (the publisher) and having to be a slave to the bean counters. If you can do this you have obtained the dream because you showed you are still the "God" of your universe able to make the characters you own and created say, do, and act anyway you feel is loyal to their real spirit. No one else can jump in and hijack your creation and make them say or do something that you don't agree with. This is why people don't like the idea of SJW deliberately changing established characters in Marvel and DC because it betrays who they are when they were originally created and is a form of pop cultural vandalism. Comics can still be done well in the west but you would have to look to independent artists for this now. Just like how in the videogames industry many veterens form the industry decided to leave their job and make the kind of games they know they would play rather than what the marketing people say is hot at the time. The industry is flooded with samey content so people look to independents for interesting ideas and risky experimental stuff that might not have an audience but which could be the next goldmine.
another reason for success of manga is that it has a lot of content(pages) than the comics(pages).lots of stories, situation, narrations and sometimes omake and/or bonus story or illustration from the manga...
Good point! You get more for your money with manga than with most comics.
Chuck Dixon actually covered this topic on Ask Chuck Dixon #65. Worth the listen:
th-cam.com/video/utGdLiGOWFg/w-d-xo.html
Reason 1.
Wokeness has infected our ENTIRE entertainment industry.
They're all so busy virtue signaling they forgot the reason they exist, is to entertain.
Manga every other year has new characters and new protagonists we can root for and stories we can ride on, while comics the only thing that's new is the new costume of a certain superhero in a new universe. Multiverse concept is kinda Reduce Reuse Recycle method, change something a little bit and keep the same character but put him in a new alternate universe so fans can expect something "New!". Today's comics are nothing but fanfics, don't hate me I owned comics too back then but when I got into Manga, I found what I was looking for. An Entertainment that's not confusing.
I think the multiverse thing can be done right if they change up things a lot more. Michael Moorcock's eternal champion is a great example of that, where each character and rendition is unique, even though they have certain similarities. But I agree that comics would be better if they went for more original stores instead of recycling the same old super heroes all the time.
I agree with this. I haven’t read a western comic in years and I use to be a big marvel fan. Manga is still good escapism which sadly Marvel and other western comics are not anymore.
Same here. The last western comic I bought was the Absolute Sandman compilation over a decade ago. I do hope American comics bounce back eventually though. The only Marvel property I engage with now is Marvel vs Capcom 🙂
I feel like well there over using politics
Agreed. It would be much better if they could just lay off the politics and stop lecturing.
Another reason is that in the manga the author writes how he feels when talking about certain topics, his experience in creating the first sketch of the character is very open to expressing his career with the reading public, while he is in the comic. . you just have to look on twitter
That's also true.
modern Western comics:we are good at art and storylines
Eastern manga: hold my coffee
the educational videogames comparison is so good
Thank you! 🙂
I agree with all of your points ngl. When I was a 9 year old and saw American comics, the art was not exactly "appealing" in a way. Adding to that, it was as if everyone was drawing in the same style and it would get boring. Manga on the other hand, made me feel like I struck gold. There were different art styles and even without color, I really, really enjoy them!
Thanks for your comment! The lack of color never really bothered me either. I actually think it looks better than having just flat colors with no highlights or shading.
I don't agree on the point about the art. I do think the full colour pages you get in American comics often do outshine manga if done correctly. I think in part due to the extra dimension of colour and that there's almost always someone else doing the inking, the variance is greater as well. Comparing the block shadow heavy art of Mike Mignolo to the painterly art of Alex Ross is a good example. Not to say there isn't variance in manga but there's definitely an underlying formula that is more present there.
The one thing you did miss out on though is price. Manga is a lot cheaper and better value for money. A Japanese Tankobon which collects many chapters costs the same as a single issue of a comic book these days!
Thanks for your comment!I agree that the art can be subjective. There are a lot of great art in American comics as well. Mike Mignolo and Alex Ross are two great examples of that. However, I still tend to like the art in manga more. There's so much variety that it's hard to point just just one thing, but in general I find manga to be more cinematic in their composition, which makes the stories flow a lot better. Not that this never happens in comics, but I've noticed it more in manga.
The point about price is a good one. I read most manga in Japanese, and the price of one tankobon is usually around 500 yen. That's part of the reason why I don't read that many Western comics anymore. It's too bad that many comics have become collectables, instead of being enjoyed for their content.
comics look better because they are in color
You have a lot of manga in color as well, but I tend to prefer them in black and white.
I've been reading One Piece alot and I'm on Volume 42 and enjoying it alot also been reading Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Fairy Tail, and Kaiju No.8
I quit reading American Comics in 2021 and I've been reading Manga since 2015 and I enjoy Manga alot more than comics
Yeah, i 100% agree. There's way too much politics in western comics. While havin politics in a story definitely isn't bad i mean i LOVE Berserk and that has politics in, it's just in western comics it can come off as VERY preachy
I agree that politics aren't necessarily bad per se, but when it's rammed down your throat all the time, it just becomes too much.
I feel this point completely. Politics and diversity aren't bad and are beneficial in good storytelling. However, I agree it is a turnoff if the audience feels badgered by it, especially if it offers nothing to the actual narrative.
This is the most coherent and well organized and well reasoned argument on this topic I have so far found on youtube.
I also deploy the context of: When I was a kid I was astounded by comics such as Spiderman. However, when I first saw my first manga, I was astounded by: 1) Clean Art Style with more emphasis on fitting different perspectives into all the panels making it feel richer to read in the "tiles" format of comic story-telling 2) The much more human story where you feel you're right in there with the characters next to their shoulder sharing their space where superheroes you feel you watch from a distance 3) The writing was interesting on interesting subjects eg GTO manga was a great concept 4) It was in a smaller book package but longer story which was for me always a big problem with comics: If I read it once I felt there was nothing to read it again being so short. I think I could re-read my manga a lot more.
WIth that original impression in mind:
1. Better art - It's probably because there's so much diversity compared to comics that then you find styles that make you amazed at how beautiful they are.
2. More diverse stories ie so much more interesting and refreshing so keeping interest and finding personal interest
3. Longer stories per comic ie economics are better
4. Art style that one is inspired by (same with comics) but one feels one can imitate (I could never learn to draw comics as it is too complex) - I wonder how much this contributes to younger generations also getting into manga?
5. Japanese culture plays a part: I love the bowing, codes of conduct etc and mannerism and standards of behaviour behind a lot of interactions: Different characters and genres but always recognizably underneath "Japanese". Again I think this adds depth that people enjoy?
So I've reordered some of the same reasons you have but in order of priority/emphasis in descending order of importance.
Implicit in 1 and 2 is COMPETITION in the Manga Industry manifesting Authentic Diversity: In Art, In Story, In Characters etc. Equally manifesting the larger pool of stories generating larger amount of higher quality stories even if the 80:20 rule still exists.
Equally, I've only focused on the merits of Manga which agrees with what you said: It was better quality before and with distribution it has out-competed comics due to those reasons of higher merit.
In addition the merits of Manga are equally the demerits of comics with the EXCEPTIONAL PROBLEM in comics of not only being worse in most cases due to the above core reasons, but also adding the very negative politics aka PROPAGANDA into the art.
This is the NEMESIS OF THE ROLE OF ART IN SOCIETY or even the antithesis or abuse and hence people recognize the adulteration in quality of comics as another factor.
Finally, thank you very much for showing some examples of good manga in your opinion, so I can learn more and investigate these titles to enjoy and purchase! An excellent video, this comment is aiming to contribute to and support for that reason of quality.
Thank you for your comment! I agree with your points.
There's certainly a unique Japanese character that shines through with manga. This might actually be part of the appeal, since it's so different from your average comic. Even from comics set in Japan.
Your point about adding propaganda into art is my biggest problem with current comics, or indeed many other forms of entertainment as well. Like with the new Lord of the Rings series by Amazon, there's just something disrespectful about it. Both towards the fans and the original property as well.
@@SmartJapanHacks I see Japanese crafts and I think they understand something about art that is less apparent in the West also. There are many examples in their culture.
I'd say the main problem is Manga is higher quality because as an art it is reflecting something more substantial even via story or drawing. Be it the technical process or the philosophy behind the story or other aspects (faces). Fundamentally this higher quality draws people to it in any art, I'd argue.
Propaganda is always a secondary problem to the above higher quality form of art. Propaganda instead of elevating people does the opposite: Coercion, deception all veil people from what we aspire to: Truth, Reality etc. These are often at the heart of art also. Thus as such propaganda inherently is a violation against the basic conduct of people to other people and people intuit this feeling I think. Aka an abuse of power or trust for example. History seems to show this in the use of propaganda (I find advertising especially egregious for this reason in the modern world).
I hope the comment about the crafts in Japan interested you.
Japanese anime is for geeks and American comics are for people with better taste and more creativity since they've been around longer I swear I'm tired of this Millennial crap
#LoveManga
#LoveAnime
#LoveJapan
👍👍👍
Not to mention comics are getting more woke and politically correct that's one of the reasons I quit reading comics and continued to read Manga
One other reason is Manga internal market is far more competitive. Every author/artist want their manga to be at least decent or appeal to its target audience.
If the target audience is overlapped with other title the author need to make his/her manga somehow special or different from the other title. From just football(Soccer) title alone, there are already variation from kid's manga like "Inazuma 11" or Teen's Manga such as "Capt. Tsubasa" and serious title Manga like "Giant Killing"
And Japanese Manga author/artist are more connected to the readers. They have Comiket where they can see their readers interests, numbers of booths of each series can indicated what in trends at the moment. Most of them also have twitter that they can read how people felt about their manga or what is current manga's trend and why's it is a trend. And nowadays many author/artist even have their own Vtuber channel so they can communicate even more directly to the reader. I even once saw someone non-japanese send superchat and thanks the author/artist for great work.
Those are good points. There's so much manga being created, that you need to put extra effort in to stand out. It also means that the cream rises to the top.
I LOVE Giant Killing, just so good. Gurazeni Money Pitch is another favorite Sienen sports series, and I guess Hajime no Ippo is more Sienen than Shonen at this point.
True. The manga industry is more open and much more accessible than the comics industry. We don't have anything like comiket. And any comics that aren't marvel or DC don't have a hope in hell of reaching mainstream markets. It's all so centralized and exclusive. You gotta work your way into the industry, network like hell, get lots of experience, and know the right people to get into a main role writing a comic for DC or Marvel, a comic that barely anyone will read. But in Japan Mangaka with no connections, experience or even drawing skills can get their works serialized, adapted into anime, and gain critical acclaim Ala ONE.
@@Johnny-mp2ew Don't forget their amazing porn doujins. *drool*
Btw, what is the manga at 1:00?
It's called とつくにの少女, or the The Girl From the Other Side in English. It's a pretty unique story with an interesting art style. There's only 11 volumes in total, so it's not a huge investment to get into like with many other series.
@@SmartJapanHacks The Girl From the Other Side is great! I love the dark art style.
@@frankblack8030 The art style is great! I have finished it yet, but so far the story has been interesting as well.
Don't forget the European comics
Unfortunately, I haven't really read enough European comics to comment on them. I saw the French comic adaptation of Elric of Melniboné from 2014, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Eu comics are not mainstream
@@kenjkbs The Belgium/France comics was pretty mainstream back from the 70 to the 90
Is it me or that the publishing companies and authors in Japan never tried to estranged their target audience ( by focusing on the genre and age of readers),diversify their offerings to fit the consumers wants but not at the cost of sacrificing the stories being made.
Before i watch the video, i believe Japanese manga is better than American comics because there's more unique things in manga and arguably better stories in said manga. Also it's *WAY* easier to get into a manga series than it is to get into an American comics cause in manga it's usually just one story done mostly by one person with volume 1 bein the start of the story and volume, let's say, 34 is the end of the story. With American comics anyone can pick up the character and make a story and it's almost impossible to know where to start with the characters story.
I hope i explained my point of view clearly enough so people can understand me haha
Good to hear that I'm not alone then 🙂I love the variety in manga. It might have to do with the fact that Japanese people don't tend to collect manga the way many westerns collect comic books. Since it's a cheaper medium, you don't risk that much by trying new things.
I disagree with you on reason 3, but that's a subjective aesthetic thing, and I agree with you on everything else. At some point, a generation of American creators came in who seem completely unable to keep their politics out of their comics. They don't seem to understand that we want escapism. Regarding the diversity of genres among manga titles, there used to be American comics of every imaginable genre; western, romance, war, horror, science-fiction, etc., but at some point the publishers decided they were going all-in on superheroes, and this was a mistake. Good video.
Thanks for your comment! I remember there being a lot more variety to American comics as well, like you say. I do really hope American comics bounce back, but in order to do so, they need to go back to a more diverse set of genres, as well as put an end to the environment of fear that causes creators to self-censor. But for now, you either need to read older releases, or go for manga in order to escape the current political lecturing.
both are good
A few years ago, I would have agreed with you 🙂
@@SmartJapanHacks i mean there are some good comics coming out you cant just take what people say on TH-cam as fact a lot of the time the have a bias towards a creator
@@therealmrmago9077 That's a good point. Do you have any newer titles you recommend?
@@SmartJapanHacks Since he didn't reply, I'd recommend 'These Savage Shores', 'The Many Deaths of Laila Starr', 'We Live', 'Royal City', 'Gideon Falls', 'Stray Dogs', 'Out of Body'. Those are some shorter series that are easier to read in like a week or two.
For a few older ones that have ended or gone far: 'Black Science', 'Chew', 'East of West', 'Saga', 'Kill or be Killed', 'Strangers in Paradise', 'Lady Killer', etc.
@@amarikwa888 Thanks for the suggestions! They look interesting. Do you have any preferred way of reading them digitally? I don't really have that much space for storage anymore.
Everything woke turns to shit
- Donald Trump
I agree. With "Made in Abyss" I found the right Manga fore me. The art is beautiful And I love the character designs. Reg might have my favorit character design ever. He is both super adorable but also stylish and cool. Often both watching the Anime ore reading the Manga I marvelt at how good he looks. And the writing is like magic to me. I love Nat more then most other series main character and Nat is a side character with 3 episodes/one manga volume of screen time. Nanachi and Reg are my 2 favorite characters in fiction, Riko also makes the top ten and Ozen is soooo dam cool.
This series presses all the right buttons on me.
Made in Abyss looks really interesting. It gives me an Etrian Oddysey vibe. Not so much the character design, but the setting and the fact that they descend into the abyss. I'll check it out after I'm done with Hi Score Girl Dash.
There are really so many great titles out there, but I guess that's a nice problem to have 🙂
@@SmartJapanHacks I really recomend checking out the Anime. The landscapes are beautiful in the Anime and the music is amazing. Although the Manga edges out in the adorableness departmeant. The characters look even more adorable in the Manga.
@Sofaris Thanks! I will 🙂 I see that the first volume of the manga is free on Manga Oukoku right now, so I'll be sure to read that as well.
comic.k-manga.jp/title/88822/pv
"Quality of manga might have stayed the same" no it hasn't, most modern day Mangas are trash with only few exceptions here and there, Vinland Saga and Innocent are the only modern day mangas I like. Mangas used to be so much better with Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing, Yu Yu hakusho, Death Note, Slam Dunk, Ranma 1/2, and Akira.
Garbage like demon slayer, Black Clover, and 7 deadly sins bore me.
"Too mang politics in comics" that was always a thing
"Too many superheros"
Bruh, that's just marvel and dc, look at boom studios, dark horses, and image comics.
"Manga is more visually appealing" that I agree with, Alex ross, J.H. Williams III, and Greg capullo come super close.
I don't get this point, same can be said for American comics, If I like comic I'll probably like other comics made by the same person, I love Geoff John's Green lantern so I read his action comics run and I loved it, I loved Ranma1/2 so I read inuyasha but inuyasha is one of the worst comics(I'm including American/Japanese/Korean) I've ever read.
"Japanese mangas are in Japanese"....dude same can be said vice versa, I met a few online friends that are from different countries but read american comics in English.
Mangas are just tradepaper backs if we are talking about the number of pages each format have and to me regular floppies have more appeal than trades because I wanna collect the individual issues for the covers oh and the only series that I think works for black and white art is the walking dead I cant get into stuff without any color.