Forum - View topic

NEWS: Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas' Shiori Teshirogi Draws Manga Starring DC Comics Characters

I understand why DC wants to push Wonder Woman and the Justice League, but honestly, I think those are the wrong characters to push in the Japanese youth market. Especially if, as the article implies, they want to get young women interested.

A manga series based on Teen Titans (original animated, not TT-Go!), Young Justice, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) or Supergirl would be a much better place to start.

They picked about THE worst magazine possible as a partner, no exaggeration. Do they know that it will run side by side with straight out rape porn ?

Personally, the highest-profle manga author who can make this work is Tite Kubo. He doesn't have any work going on right now, he's pretty attuned to western pop culture, and his art style has the "cool" factor going for it that gels well with American comics. Or someone else can do the writing as he draws it. Then again, Kubo doesn't get along well with his superiors.

Yeah, it comes across as someone at DC thinking people in Japan like the same kind of stories as people in the United States. I wonder if someone there would get an aneurysm if they learned that all those anime and manga about pretty girls are actually aimed at boys and that the ones with those handsome men everywhere are aimed at girls.

I'd like to add Legion of Super Heroes to that list too, as the main characters are predominantly young. Amethyst of Gemworld could definitely work, but it's probably too obscure now--I'm sure there are more people who think of Steven Universe when they see that title (even though SU draws heavily from Amethyst).

Amethyst of Gemworld could still work; do it as a maho-shojo inspired reboot, and it would be fine. Its bigger problem is that the series (from what I remember of it, at least; its been a LONG time since I read it) was pretty much self-contained from the rest of the DCU. The feeling I'm getting is that DC is looking more to emphasize its main superhero line as a way to play up its movies, and I doubt Amethyst would be the right vehicle for that.

My gut feeling is that a Teen Titans or Young Justice manga series would be the best vehicle for what DC is looking for, namely a way to introduce to Japanese audiences DC's stable of characters. Both titles have had well-received animated adaptations in recent memory, both of them emphasize younger characters and their interactions, and both groups (YJ especially) have extensive connections to the rest of the DCU that can serve as conduits of introduction. Pretty much, everything DC is looking for.

But of course, since there are no movie projects announced for either property, I doubt DC will look in that direction. So we'll probably get a Batman fight fest with Wonder Woman or the Justice League thrown in for good measure.

I understand why DC wants to push Wonder Woman and the Justice League, but honestly, I think those are the wrong characters to push in the Japanese youth market. Especially if, as the article implies, they want to get young women interested.

A manga series based on Teen Titans (original animated, not TT-Go!),

Young Justice, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain

You got a point there--it comes across to me that DC wants to increase the public presence of their A-list heroes, and specifically those. They inadvertently poisoned the well 50 years ago with Adam West's Batman, however--as that was most Japanese people's first exposure to Batman, he had since been seen as corny and campy, and it took until very recently for that to change. (Marvel's not immune either, considering Spider-Man is a mecha pilot there.) If I recall correctly, Japan was one of the few major audiences where the Christopher Nolan Batman movies flopped, because people were not used to seeing something so dark and serious out of the Batman franchise.

I don't know about how any of the other DC staples are seen in the Japanese public eye though. But the audience for musclebound super-strong flying brawler characters has been thoroughly claimed by the Dragon Ball franchise, and any Superman, Green Lantern, and possibly Aquaman stories would have to compete with Dragon Ball. Non-Dragon Ball muscular brute-force characters have a tough time in Japan, like how Kratos from the God of War video games could not catch on no matter how much the creators tried.

I would agree with you that Young Justice or Teen Titan would work way better. What they're failing to notice is the youth (or youthful appearances) of most main characters in anime and manga nowadays. But it's not something easily understood by an American who hasn't had much exposure to Japanese fiction--for the most part, American media aimed at adults, even young adults, will have adult main characters.

In any case, if they're trying to target female readers in Japan, they need to go to a different magazine, and they'll need characters who are actually appealing to them.

DeTroyes wrote:

Young Justice, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain

Cassandra's not even Batgirl anymore.

Doesn't mean they can't do it. Especially if its a self-contained series independent of the rest of the current DCU.

To be fair, Batman in the 1960s and 1970s was kind of campy. Dark, brooding Batman didn't really catch on until Frank Miller & Dark Knight Returns in the mid 1980s. And the Tim Burton Batman films didn't do too badly in Japan; tho they were a hybrid between the camp and serious Batman. Between them and Batman: TAS (which was popular in Japan), the concept of a darker, less campy Batman wasn't completely unknown to the Japanese.

As for the older characters... Marvel has done anime versions of their staple, and they seem to have done well enough that they continue to make new ones. But I suspect some of that may be more of an attempt to bring in anime-savy westerners than the Japanese audience.

As for the older characters... Marvel has done anime versions of their staple, and they seem to have done well enough that they continue to make new ones. But I suspect some of that may be more of an attempt to bring in anime-savy westerners than the Japanese audience.

Tell me you're not talking about the Marvel Mangaverse, please. Wasn't that generally considered awful by everyone?