Manga is now more popular than it ever was and we can thank the fall of American comic books for that. Manga is now in higher demand than its ever been in the west. As more and more people migrate to manga and anime, we find new reasons as to why manga is better than American comic books.
Comic books can be very colorful and although manga is mostly black and white, it does better than comic books. Some Americans might be hurt looking at the sales chart of manga outselling comic books but instead of getting angry, how about learning from those that are winning. Manga is obviously doing something that comic books are not.
Keep in mind that this does not make one group of people better than others. Here we are talking about the end product. There are plenty of American artist that do an amazing job at what they do. However, because manga is taking over the western world of graphic novels , here are five reasons why its currently better than American comic books.
There Is A Genre For Everyone
When most people think of comic books, the first thing that comes to mind is superheroes. Batman, Super Man, X-Men and so on. Comic books are so related to the super hero genre in the west that many people don’t think of any else. Most of the super hero movies and TV shows that we see now a days originated from a comic book. The reason for this is because that is what made comic books popular from the 1950s till now.
With manga it is so much different. Go to Barnes and Nobles and you will see a variety of manga genres. No one is left out in manga and yes that means LGBTQ community. Manga has had gay stories and gay characters since the 1980s. Here are some genres found in manga.
Manga genres
Yuri (girl on girl love)
Yaoi (boy on boy love)
shonen (young men)
Shojo (young girl)
Magical girl
Romance Comedy
Seinen (for an adult audience)
Fantasy and scifi
Mystery (Like Death Note)
Action/ Fighting (Like Baki)
Harem (Usually falls with romance comedy)
Isekai (Another world…yes this is a genre)
You get the point. Look at all the genres above. Of course the Shonen manga tend to sell much more than other genres but romance comedy manga like Love Hina do really well. A romance comedy that was popular in America was Ranma 1/2. You can find the anime on HULU.
This is something that western comic books have to fix. Stop focusing so much on super heroes and start promoting other genres. Where are the romance comedy comic books like Scott Pilgrim Versus The World. Where are the Mystery comic books like Death Note. Where are the Harem comic books.
You see. Comic books focus so much on super heroes that they miss out on a HUGE market. Many activist talk about lack of representation of a LGBT or minority groups. How about we create brand new stories and characters for those audience. Instead of taking intellectual properties that have already been created, lets create brand new ones.
Manga Takes Risk
Manga artist are always pushing to see how bloody or how crazy a story can get. Part of being an artist is to make some people feel uncomfortable. However, in the west, if you don’t follow the social expectations then you are harshly criticize and your product will sometimes be forced to change. Comic book artist should follow the example of manga and be a little more unapologetic about their creation.
Take a look at a manga like Berserk. It is dark fantasy like Game of Thrones. It became super popular in the west because no one had ever seen an epic fantasy like it.
Manga artist take risk and comic book artist should too. Do not be afraid of making people a little uncomfortable. This is what the best movies have done for decades. Let people criticize you.
Now a days, manga is always getting attacked and criticize online and it only makes it more popular.
The Story Is Continuous And Easy To Get Into
In Japan, manga is serialized. It is published in a magazine and it is released chapter by chapter, weekly, bi-weekly and sometimes monthly. After seven to ten chapters, a manga volume is release. That is how it is done in Japan.
Manga stories are continuous. They don’t reboot it or relaunch it. That is why it is easy to get into because all you have to do is start from the beginning as oppose to comic books it is rebooted every few years.
Here is an example:
Bob is new to comic books. He is interested in Spider-Man. However, there are many versions of Spider Man and the character has been rebooted many times. Bob does not know where to start so he asks his comic book friends. His friends tell him about the different types of Spider Man out there. The Spider-verse, the old Spider Man comics, Spider Man with the Avengers and all these other versions. Bob finds it stressful to look for the right Spider Man series so he gives up and decides to look for something much simpler. Bob then goes to the manga section of Barnes and Nobles and sees that each manga has a number on the spine showing how far into the story it is. Bobs finds it easier to get into so he buys the first Volume of Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.
Comic books can be confusing to get into. You don’t know where to start. Manga is much more organize and straight forward. Manga has a number on the spine of the book so you know which one to pick up first. That is not the case with Comic books.
Art Style Is Consistent
The great thing about manga is that there is one artist or one lead artist who creates the art style of the manga. A manga artist will have other people helping out but he or she leads the way. This is why the art style of a manga is consistent. If you read the manga, Berserk, where ever it appears on the internet you will recognize it by the art style. Same thing for Naruto and One Piece.
However, with comic books, because there are multiple artist working on different issues on a series, each issue can have a different art style.
Personal Story: One of my favorite comic books in the early 2000s was Gen 13. It was a cool super hero comic book but I always got angry because some issues had different art style than others. Sometimes I didn’t even want to buy an issue of a comic book because the art style was ugly.
You see comic books are own by a company and the artist are hired to work on an intellectual property. So lets say, Spider Man series has 10 issues. Each of those issues or chapters will have a different artist. So the art is inconsistent.
Manga does not have that problem because it is one creator working on the manga so the art style does not change. Also it is very noticeable when someone is inspired by a certain manga like Berserk. You can see where they learned their style of drawing.
Better Character Development
Lets face it, manga tells better stories or at least, the stories are more organized. Depending on the genre, manga character follow the hero’s journey. They start from nothing and rise to the top like Goku, Naruto, Ichigo, Deku…you name it.
Anime and Manga characters earn their power and earn their badges (Pokemon). It is not very clear why but now a days, many comic book characters don’t really work for their powers. They don’t train (Rey from Disney’s Star Wars) or the mantle or super power is passed on.
The development in Manga is just more meaningful. You see the character start from the very beginning and work their way up to the top. So its like you have been part of their journey the entire time so you understand the struggle. This is why Naruto is so popular (but Boruto is not).
Even when it comes to romance, manga does a better job (oh that’s right, where are all the romance comic books in America).
That concludes the five reasons why manga is better than comic books. If you disagree with any of these points please comment below.
