Manga Burnout?

By: Nadia Oxford
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2007

Will manga ever fall away from mainstream American culture? Elder members of the human race are fond of rattling off every fad that's come and gone throughout their lives; hula hoops, Slinkies, Cabbage Patch dolls. It's tempting to heap the likes of Pokemon on that pile, but can manga and anime be similarly filed away as faded memories?

Right now it seems unlikely. A trip to Borders or Barnes and Noble will yield dozens of titles in almost any genre you could desire (well, except for the really raunchy ones). Schoolkids still get into pissing contests over Yu-Gi-Oh cards and at least one kid on the playground has a puppy named Super Saiyan 3.

Dying Slowly?

Still, there's an undeniable increase of titles in used book stores. Some clerks report receiving old manga by the boxful, which, they believe, is the sign of a hobby in its death throes.

Boxes of used books or toys can't always be depended upon as culture thermometers. A family could simply be moving, or a fed-up mother might decide to junk her kids' "comic collection," a sad practise that seems to carry over from generation to generation. Still, the manga fandom is an interesting study because of its rapid changes.

First, manga and anime can't be considered fads. They've been around for far too long, not just counting the "explosion" that occurred with Pokemon. Between Robotech, Kimba, Battle of the Planets and Astroboy, it's safe to say that anime is something every generation has grown up with since its conception--and those are just a few examples of imports.

Manga infiltrated American culture only a little more recently, especially the "tankobon" book format that's popular today. Even so, it's been at least ten years since the medium has been available in bookstores (not just as a specialty title). By contrast, if you go to Toys R Us, you won't find a whole lot of shelf space dedicated to Beanie Babies or Furby.

Evolving Hobby

Manga and anime have been around long enough for something interesting to occur: Its audience has grown up. Adults sometimes collect the toys they grew up with, but for the most part they're abandoned in a box. Given manga's varied genres, however, it's easy for a kid to graduate from a shonen title like Dragon Ball and move along to Gundam, or even seinen titles like Death Note or Mushishi.

Seinen and josei magna are specifically tailored for adult men and women. Boy-oriented adventure stories are matured and seasoned with mystery, sex and intrigue. It's no wonder shelves are cleared away to make room for new titles.

Which brings up another reason why manga seems dispensable: A tankobon doesn't have the same collector's value as a regular comic book. There's rarely any variance in the cover art. The paper is usually newsprint and retailers don't employ cardboard backing or plastic sleeves. It's not to say some volumes are more coveted than others (older series are discontinued all the time), but manga generally exists to be read, not admired for its shine.

Flooded Genres

Whatever you do in life, whatever you're interested in, you can find a manga based on it. Certain genres are more popular than others; shonen has been very popular for a long time inside and outside Japan. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of it on the shelves--and when one title becomes a success, it makes sense to import and translate similar titles. In no time, stories for boys spill off the shelves of every bookstore.

With such an increase in product, reality beings to slowly dawn: There is a lot of bad manga out there, same as there's bad comics, bad television shows, bad music and bad hamburger joints. It's up to fans to decide what they want to read, which means some of the filtered titles are going to be left in the cold … or on the shelf of a used bookstore.

The Kids Get It

Even with the variety available, even with the lure of seinen and josei titles, it's not impossible for an adult to outgrow manga. As life becomes busier, there's less time for reading. That's when we can count on kids to get their sticky fingers all over what's new.

But will kids finally turn from manga? Not likely. A genre doesn't die overnight, and though manga might not be the most traded item on the schoolyard right now, it's more than held up through the years. And the cross-pollination that occurs between manga, anime and video games will always keep interest high.

Not to mention manga is able to hold juvenile attention spans longer than most conventional books.

More Content By Nadia Oxford

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Mumbling Kitsune: Comedy AMVs Need Serious Work
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Mumbling Kitsune: Otakon 2008: The Good, The Bad and the Costumed
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Book Review of Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future
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Manga Review: Flight, Volume Five
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Manga Review: eV, Volume One
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Mumbling Kitsune: Anime Conventions: No Kids Allowed?
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Manga Review: DEATH NOTE: How to Read
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Mumbling Kitsune: Flipping Through Batman: Gotham Knight
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Comments/Responses

ppayne • Sep 13, 2007, 03:47am •

Interesting article. I don't think manga will disappear since it's self-changing as it is: if "moe" style stories go out of vogue, then something fresh will be there to take its place.

Note, I fear you've got the term "tankobon" wrong. It's the prettier, keep-forever versions of the manga, not the newsprint-printed weeklies or monthly books. They're not all that collectable (not say, like doujinshi) but they're available, which is important.

P.S. your registration system for comments is awful. If you lightened up on comments you'd find you got a lot more of a community going.

nadiaoxford • Sep 13, 2007, 07:18am •

Oh, unfortunately I have no personal control over the comments registration. ;) That would probably have to be taken up with the site's maintainers.

I agree that manga won't disappear. I wrote this article because I have a friend who recently took a box of shojo manga into a used book store, and the clerk said he kept getting the stuff. I take that more as an indication that shojo is a saturated genre. I'm sure if you went into a used book store, you wouldn't find much in the way of Death Note, Drifting Classroom or Mushishi. Those are keepers.

You might be right about my misuse of the word tankobon. I was under the impression they're simply the gathered-and-bound collections of serialised manga--at least as far as the term is used in America. I will look further into this.

Thanks for reading!

nekosxe • Sep 13, 2007, 10:19am •

Nice points, but it must be realized that Manga and Anime are a form of media, just like movies, books, and magazines. Sure it has experience quite a boom recently, but if you look at Japan, manga has been going strong for 50 years now, and it is part of their lives.
In the States it is getting easier for people to obtain manga and anime, which is an explanation of the boom. If you look back to when movie theaters where first created, you will see close to the same trend.
Very nice points, and also, ppayne is right about the Tankobans (it is usually a book with 6-12 chapters from a single story, and usually has some cool cover art).

nadiaoxford • Sep 13, 2007, 01:08pm •

Another friend of mine recently said, "If you go to Japan, don't bother telling people you like manga. You may as well say, 'Boy, I sure like reading the newspaper!'"

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