Ask John: Why Isn’t Masakazu Katsura More Popular in America?

Question:
Why isn’t Masakazu Katsura more popular in the U.S.? While there’s clearly a stateside market for romantic comedies, it’s clear that his anime and manga haven’t hit it big here. For example, Viz hasn’t chosen to re-release the Video Girl anime; nor has it chosen to release the manga under the Shonen Jump line. And despite acquiring DNA², it did not help CPM’s bottom line. Furthermore, Dark Horse has not indicated any plans to reprint Shadow Lady. And it appears that later volumes of I”s were released uncensored because only the hardcore fans were interested in buying it. So is there something about Katsura’s work which doesn’t appeal to the average American fan? Or is it just because Ken Akamatsu’s manga and anime was released here first that Katsura didn’t get the boost he needed?

Answer:
I doubt that anyone can definitively explain why the work of manga artist Masakazu Katsura seems to be significantly less successful and popular in America than it is in Japan. I can only offer a personal theory. I suspect that the reason why Masakazu’s work has never been especially popular in America is the same reason why Mitsuru Adachi’s work has been very successful in Japan but has never caught on in America. I think that Americans enjoy slapstick and sensationalistic romantic stories, but are much less interested in realistic, mundane, and serious romantic stories.

It’s fair to point out that DNA² contains overt sci-fi elements and some slapstick sight gags. Likewise, the concept of a girl coming out of a videotape in Video Girl Ai isn’t especially realistic, but the consistent tone of these series, and the relative realism of Katsura’s artistic style create an impression of realistic, slice of life romance. (The American release of the Shadow Lady manga series was probably doomed to failure due to inadequate marketing and its release in a time period before America’s “manga boom.”) Mitsuru Adachi’s romantic manga are entirely devoid of sci-fi and fantasy themes; his “Touch,” “Rough,” and “H2” manga series are baseball stories, and sports themed manga and anime have never been particularly successful in America; and all of Adachi’s work to be released in America was released prior to the advent of manga’s explosive popularity in America. Unfortunately, even if these creators’ works were re-released now when magna is exponentially more popular in America, I still have doubts that they could succeed.

One may argue that manga and anime series like Ah! My Goddess, SaiKano, and Love Hina aren’t thematically very different from Katsura and Adachi’s work, and these other examples have been popular in America. However, one must also admit that Ah! My Goddess has a more stylized look and tone; SaiKano is far from “mundane” and “realistic”; and Love Hina is highly slapstick and sensationalistic. By comparison, allow me to point out that Rumiko Takahashi’s slapstick and sensationalistic Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha have been very successful in America while her restrained, “realistic,” romance dramas Maison Ikkoku and One Pound Gospel – both similar to Katsura and Adachi’s work in tone – have not been particularly successful in America.

Works by, or adaptations of works by Masakazu Katsura and Mitsuru Adachi were officially released in America years before America’s introduction to Ken Akamatsu’s work, so I can’t believe that, in this case, Americans are gravitating to what they were exposed to first. I think that romantic comedies like Tenchi Muyo and Love Hina succeeded in America while titles like Maison Ikkoku, Touch, Short Program, Video Girl Ai, I”s, and DNA² have achieved only minor support among small circles of American fans because average American manga and anime fans just aren’t interested in the realistic, dramatic, soap opera-esque tone of this variety of manga. Americans may gravitate toward slapstick and sensationalistic romantic manga and anime stories because they’re more vivacious, humorous, and fun, unlike more serious and slow-paced romantic dramas that feel more like soap operas or dramatic literary fiction than either lighthearted or intensely melodramatic stories that feel like casual entertainment.