Discussion What is the difference from American comics?

[hajime22]

Hello.
I am a Japanese college student. I love manga/anime.
And now,I want to know why people loves Japanese manga/anime.
What is the rurouni kenshin's appeal?
What kind of difference is between rurouni kenshin and American comics in a story and character etc...?
please give me your opinion.

 

[eroda]

american comics just suck.

 

[zindryr]

american comics just suck.

That doesn't exactly help her and it's also a vast generalization of American comics in general. There are a lot of comics in America that are vastly superior to a large majority of manga, as there are a lot manga that are vastly superior to American comics. You can't really say one is better than the other.

(Okay, you are able to say it, yes, but it just is not true.)

In either case, this is the wrong place for this thread, I'll move it up to the Shonen section.

 

[moeman]

The majority of American Comics deal with either superheroes, heroes, or supernatural. Look at what's popular in the American comics. X-Men, Spider-man, Superman, Batman, etc. While Japanese comics have a much broader range topics that are used to drive a storyline.

While there is the supernatural and superhero, there is also action, romance, comedy, ecchi, slice of life, adult, etc. I love both American and Japanese comics, but there is more variety of japanese comics than American comics. Also it doesn't hurt that most of the popular manga turn into anime so we americans get a taste what is popular in Japan.

 

[zindryr]

I wasn't talking about what's popular in American comics, I was talking about what was actually good. Sure all the super hero comics are actually popular, but that doesn't mean all of them are actually good. It's the same with Japanese comics. A lot of the really popular ones aren't exactly good either though I'm sure people would disagree with me.

Go read The Watchmen to see how good a "superhero" comic can be. The Walking Dead is another fine example of a non-superhero comic that is quite popular on its own and is extremely well done. Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Millar and a number of other authors know how to write good stories, and they do quite often. I will grant you that the American comic scene is a bit overflooded with superhero stuff at the moment, but that's because it sells and the target audience isn't as wide as that of Japan's.

And speaking of, the really large audience in Japan makes it so that you will do the same thing and keep repeating popular formulas. How many times have we heard (and made ourselves) comparisons of Bleach and Naruto to DBZ? Or any other shounen compared to DBZ for that matter. The popular series are generally overmarketed repetitions of a formula that works, same as American comics. There are just more in Japan because there's a much wider audience.

The good part about having a large audience is that you do get other genres, yeah. I won't say that American comics cover the same genres that Japanese ones do, but each genre generally has the same issue of them being the same formulas repeated in different (or even similar) settings.

I don't know, I just don't think that there's that much of a difference in quality between American and Japanese comics. There just happens to be more of the latter.

 

[Reiu]

I don't know, I just don't think that there's that much of a difference in quality between American and Japanese comics. There just happens to be more of the latter.

I generally agree... I would say that a key advantage that manga has over most American comics is accessibility. If I want to read Bleach I can go to the store and buy Bleach v1-whatever, and that's it. I'm done. Compare that with deciding that you want to start reading, say, the X-Men or Batman. Manga doesn't have the problems that face American comics in terms of collectibility, decades of back story, and a shared universe. Manga is incredibly overpriced in the American market, imho, but it is still much cheaper than American comics.

Another lesser advantage I would say is social acceptance. Manga has managed to escape much of the stigma that surrounds American comics, making it much easier for a non-fanboy to feel its okay to give it a try.

 

[spades]

it depends on what a person likes and dun like. ur japanese right? then u probably like manga more. but not all ppl do

 

[ran0001]

Emotion.....Manga portrays a wider range of emotion and is full of it. Gives you a chance to feel what the protagonist is feeling too.

 

[kaloo]

Pff.. There are plenty of goofy American Comics, like Pirate Club, for example. There are lots of oddball unkown US comics.

Anyways, the real difference I have to agree is in the ease of collecting Japanese Comics since they, in general, don't have decades of vaguely related stories to try to understand.

 

[Meno]

First off, if you guys don't read American comics on a regular basis, then don't say things that aren't true. While the majority of American stuff is about superheroes, that's only because of the huge market that is controlled by Marvel and DC. But if you look past that, you'll find there's a plethora of great stuff out there. Hell, there's even great stuff in the hero genre.

Some of the stuff that I read regularly or finished reading that ISN'T superhero genre are:
- Dark Tower (based off the Dark Tower series by Stephen King)
- Fables
- Transmetropolitan
- Y the Last Man
- The Walking Dead
- The Watchmen
- V For Vendetta
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- Sin City

And some of the stuff that is based on the superhero concept but is still ridiculously good:
- Invincible
- Powers
- Sleeper
- The Dark Knight Returns

 

[d3mon]

First off, if you guys don't read American comics on a regular basis, then don't say things that aren't true.

i agree with you meno!
Loads of ultra cool comics from US (and beyond!)
Stuff like the darkness etc etc etc.
Personally i love the artwork in us comics, and the colouring. again look at the darkness. it just blows your head off.
But my real passion/interest lies with manga's. I am also a huge shonen fan, hahaha.

Now to give my personal answer to hajime22,

The only 2 real difference i can spot is the ARTwork, and 99% being black and white. Also manga's are usually done by ONE person. and american comics tend to have a whole line up of artists working on it.

thats MY look on the whole difference.

 

[ssjohn]

For me personally its the length, I know all Japanese Manga's will eventually end (Yes even Kochi Kame and Hajime no Ippo), The 'super popular' american series just keep going (specifically talking about huge dc/marvel series here, Xmen, spiderman, superman , etc)

What is the rurouni kenshin's appeal?
What kind of difference is between rurouni kenshin and American comics in a story and character etc...?

It's funny you bring up Rurouni Kenshin I was thinking about that series the other day and i ended up buying the VIZ Reprint volume 1.

The appeal for me is that it is a Samurai series that includes some historical facts.

I haven't finished reading the Kenshin manga yet ( I read a few volume scanned but i like to support mangaka's when i can and this is a series i wanna purchase and enjoy.) so i can't talk about the differences.

 

[redcometfm]

American comics are for some part good. Many tell unique stories but you get the faint hint of the author holding back because he doesn't have faith in his audience that they'll believe everything unless there's some dose of 'reality'/'realism'. Most aren't that good. Most are a pain in the ass to get into.

A good example of how the American comic market is like is writer Mark Millar. Sometimes he writes some REALLY good stuff (ex: Kick-Ass, Ultimate X-Men, and Red Son from what Ive heard) and then he writes some down writer awful stuff (WANTED, Ultimate FF4, etc, a plethora of bad, over-the-top shitty writing). And that's how the American market is. You'll have your Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Batman Year One, and such but compared to the over larger catalog, there's very little cream of the crop to enjoy. And alot of it goes on wayyy too long. Ex; Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men should've ended a while ago, but now they're repeating the past and forcing it continue into further issues with too many cameo characters and deteriorating story.

Manga however has a culturally accepted method of full-fledged creative freedom. Thus is more richness to the storytelling in manga and its not as overwhelming as some over-detailed American artwork in typical comics. Its stylisticness and looseness allows it to be digested and absorbed better. It gives the subtle effect of drawing you into a different world without taking away your belief of it. I will say that alot of manga isn't THAT good and some of them have such popularity that it baffles me (i.e. One Piece, D-Gray Man, Reborn!, Prince of Tennis) but I guess some people like cliche, shallow entertainment, same as American comics (however the market's been going down slightly lately which is why they created Ultimate comics lines of characters like SpiderMan and XMen and Ive heard manga sales in Japan are slipping too and probably for the same reason).

Basically the difference is that American comics are rigid and dark and pretentious and sometimes hard to get into (like Dark Tower) because of their somewhat niche stories but manga has somehow more universal appeal with its stories. And most of the comics that are really good in America have that loose, stylistic aesthetic of manga (like Ultimate SpiderMan/XMen, Dark Knight Returns and other Frank Miller work, The Long Halloween).

And alot of American writers lack imagination because of cultural expectational norms and self-indulgence which is why they write about the same characters again and again even though by this point there's not much elsewhere to go with them. One reason that I appreciate manga -- it ends.

Hope this helps. Special note is that Im a film buff/major in uni so Im a harsh (yet fair) critique of story so Im sorry if my harsh dislike of certain comics puts them off.

 

[ChronicD]

Having been an avid comic reader since I was just a tiny little boy, I have to say that the main difference between American and Japanese comics is simply the culture. When I was a child, there was a major stigmata towards anything comic related or animated. Even today, a large portion of the US population considers anything animated or comic-like to be simply for children.
Now, anyone who actually READS comics knows this is simply not true. However, it's not easy to change the minds and opinions of millions of people.

I also agree with the other posters. In Japan, there is simply a far wider range of content available, generally without the downside of being considered immature for reading comics. (I hope at least, not being Japanese or living in Japan.)
The point made about collectibility is also a major consideration. Just go looking for any of the original Spider-man, Superman, X-men comics. Go ahead, I dare you. Hope you can afford them.

 

[paradoxe]

I don't seem to connect with American comic characters.

They all seem so generic to me.

Its a lot to do with the cultural difference between the two countries. Its the same with Japanese and US TV series as well. Japanese forms of entertainment provide a much wider range of emotions compared with US.

Also, the market for manga completely dwarves the market for comics. Check the figures. I'm pretty sure its some insane number..the annual revenue for manga is something like a few hundred times more then the annual revenue for comics. Thus a lot more people have an incentive to actually enter the market, and so theres a much wider range of manga compared to comics to choose from.

The popular series are generally overmarketed repetitions of a formula that works, same as American comics.

Thats not true.

Death Note and One Piece are both really good and popular. Its definitely not a repetition of the same formula.

I hate Naruto, but I'm afraid to say that its not a rehash of the same formula either.

The only manga I can call a complete piece of trash is Bleach.
O yea and Prince of Tennis.

When I was a child, there was a major stigmata towards anything comic related or animated. Even today, a large portion of the US population considers anything animated or comic-like to be simply for children.

Yeah thats so true as well.

will say that alot of manga isn't THAT good and some of them have such popularity that it baffles me (i.e. One Piece, D-Gray Man, Reborn!, Prince of Tennis)

I agree with you for the last three, but I don't think you read One Piece do you?

One piece IS that good.