Good take. I agree that the west complains more, but that doesn't mean that the Japanese can't feel the same way. There is often some correlation with western and Japanese fanbase. Bleach declined similarily in the west and MHA looks to be going in the same direction. Most of the popular series in the west are the same series that are popular in Japan.
Wanted to reply to this yesterday but I got SUPERRRR (Franky style) lazy...
It's more like series get popular in the west BECAUSE they are already super popular in Japan.
Western audience tend to not jump on a series unless its well known in Japan. JK isn't that popular in the west but watch that change when it gets the anime and starts selling 600k. The western audience will start jumping on that bandwagon.
Off topic but Kingdom was WYJ's premier series since almost the very start. WYJ always promoted it as their biggest and most important series. But western audience didn't care really because it didn't sell all that much. But now the series name is pretty well known in the west solely because of the fact that it sells almost a million a volume and jumping on that bandwagon is the cool thing to do.
The western audience for the most part only jump onto a series if its super popular. This doesn't apply to all readers obviously and there are some exceptions to series. There are many who branch out and try their own stuff.
But the majority in the west follow a series that becomes a mainstream success in Japan.
mangadex.org
