Ask John: Is Manga and Anime an Alternative to Domestic American Comics and Animation?

Question:
Do you think the popularity of anime and manga in North America is in any way correlated to a “failure” of the domestic comic and cartoon market? It seems to me that more often than not, the reason any “consumers” switches to a different “brand” lies in the utility. Maybe the new product has better features, better design, better marketing, better affordability, etc. Placing anime and manga into the equation, it seems that the recent popularity explosion is in fact directly related to the stale state of domestic alternatives. Maybe if the domestic animation and comic industries had grown over the years, they might currently have “better” stories, style, and substance such that “jaded” consumers would not have to look to anime and manga for their entertainment instead.

Though I am not an expert, it seems quite apparent that if one looks back some 10, 20, or even 30 years at animation and comic books in North America, the themes, stories, and character varieties have more or less remained constant. While the same might be true about the Japanese counterparts as well, they did not invade foreign countries until recently, and hence are “new” genres and ideas to foreigners. I am hardly insinuating that it is a bad thing for Japanese products to be so popular in North America, nor am I trying to suggest there is anything fundamentally wrong with North American comics or animation. Rather, this is simply a brief foray into the idea of “foreign appeal” as opposed to “domestic familiarity.” Any thoughts?

Answer:
I don’t think it’s too controversial or too improper to theorize that the increasing popularity of anime and manga in English speaking countries is a result of Japanese media offering consumers something that they can’t get from native American and European comics and cartoons. It’s important to emphasize that I’m referring only to Japanese manga and anime being different from Western equivalents, not necessarily better. It’s not only my opinion that Japanese mediums are providing something that American and European pop art isn’t. Publishers such as TOKYOPOP and market observers including ICv2 have stated that translated shoujo has created a female market for comics and animation that never previously existed in English speaking countries. Bloomberg has illustrated the fact that traditional, classic European comics seem to be targeted at, and appeal to only adult males with a sense of nostalgia.

Almost on a daily basis I encounter fans and critics bemoaning American fans who are obsessed with anything Japanese just because it’s Japanese. I may be out of touch or ignorant, but I believe that this obsession with Japan and things Japanese is actually not a literal fascination with Japan; it’s a fascination with the philosophical attitudes of Japan that do not appear in Western media. The traditional mainstream comic industry in America has always been a virtual guys-only private club. American animation continues to target children. European comics are traditionally either for young children or adults. European animation is most famous for being experimental, adult, and iconoclastic. In effect, traditional American comics and animation have no place for teen girls and women; European comics and animation don’t target contemporary, mainstream teens. Japanese manga and anime literally address any and every consumer.

I don’t think that American consumers are flocking to Asian imports specifically because they’re Asian. I think that specifically Japanese manga and anime are becoming so popular in America because no country in the world produces illustrated stories that are intelligent, entertaining, dramatic and believable for mainstream consumers. America invented the super hero comic, and I think America is most adept in the world at producing masculine, costumed super hero comic stories. I know that America has created dramatic, lifelike comics, but series like Love & Rockets are neither mainstream nor marketed for mainstream American consumption. Dramatic, comical, romantic stories like Fruits Basket, Chobits and Love Hina are tremendously popular among mainstream American consumers and readers because they provide a type of comic story that’s not available from mainstream American or European comics. The fascination isn’t in the Japanese origin of these stories itself. If Fruits Basket and Love Hina were Russian or African or Arabic comics that still looked like they do and still had the same stories that they do, I think that these stories would be just as popular in America, and American fans would be interested in the Russian or African or Arabic culture that spawned them. The American fascination with Japan is a fascination with the culture that nurtures and generates the ideas and attitudes found within manga and anime.

America and Europe have largely never created mainstream comics and animation targeted at teens and young adults. Superhero comics may be created for teens, and may be mainstream, but they’re not designed for mainstream, average young readers. Harry Potter has reached that market, but Harry Potter is prose fiction, not a comic book or animation. Publishers including TOKYOPOP, EigoManga, and Seven Seas have made headway in America and Europe in nurturing the development of a new Western style of comics influenced by Japanese comics and animation. These new American and European comics are not manga because manga is a Japanese art form. But these new English language creations do share the philosophy and creative inspiration behind manga- the idea of creating dramatic comedies, adventures, and romances with believable human characters in a comic book medium. If Western comics haven’t significantly evolved in the past half century, I believe that they are beginning to evolve now because the introduction of Japanese comics into America and Europe has inspired English speaking artists and consumers- enlightened them to the existence of a type of comic that has never existed in English before and fueled their hunger for that type of comic.