Forum - View topicNEWS: USA Today Article on Manga
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Kyo
 Posts: 245 Location: OH, USA |
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"It's like rap music, first dismissed as a trend," says Liebowitz. "It's gone well beyond a passing fad."
It's because it's not a fad... Manga has never been a fad.. or is there something i'm missing here? |
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Kal
 Posts: 130 Location: USA |
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Glad I'm not the only one that thought that remark was completely off -- actually... the whole artical felt off ~_~
Excuse me.. but don't categorize manga to just being about lovelorn teens and wide-eyed characters  There's so much more to it than what Matheson wrote about in the article, and I don't know, it just feels like the she is very ignorant towards the topic of manga as well. Sure, throw in a few japanese words and give the english translation, oh, you are such an expert. Please -_- I'm even curious to know if she has read any.
To boot, filling the article with catch words and cheesy jokes was just bad. "Teens" and "tweens"?? "Boys over flowers" = "Boys over penguins"?? Wth was she thinking. Geh. |
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Godaistudios
Posts: 2075 Location: Albuquerque, NM (the land of entrapment) |
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Actually, I'm hard pressed to find anything significantly wrong about the article.
Kyo, when it comes to an issue of being a "fad", manga hasn't really had any major influence in the United States beyond a niche untill recently. Since it has started to show a lot of staying power, it's reasonable to elevate it beyond a fad. Kai, the article mentions it's about shoujo manga, and in all fairness, it does mention it is a genre (or sub genre in this case) of the overall scope. It's perfectly fair to discuss things then just within the genre of shoujo, and let's face facts here. Shoujo has a tendency of being angsty, it's just the norm. |
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Ramen
 Posts: 346 Location: San Jose |
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Only the test of time will determine if it is a fad or not here in the US. To be honest, I'm not yet totally conviced yet that anime and manga are not fads. Sure they are popular now, but the American public generally is fickle and have short attention spans. What is popular now may not be a few years down the road. The article seemed fine to me. She was talking in generalities about comics and manga. It would have been nice if she had mentioned that, but oh well. We move on... |
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Kal
Posts: 130 Location: USA |
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Well... hehe, I guess I was a bit hard on her... but... I don't know, the article just seems soo... detached without any feelings.. I guess that's what bugged me a bit
 Ah well.. On the 'angsty' comment, I stick my tongue out at you, Godaistudios, but there's no emoticon with a smiley and a tongue, hmph 
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RabbitRevolution
 Posts: 218 |
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Oh, I'm so happy to see this article!
It describes my experience with manga perfectly- being a teen and a girl, and having never read any kind of comic before I got into manga. My obsession with manga had grown so great that all the books I checked out recently from the library were manga (well, there was also Memoirs of a Geisha, but that's because it's Japanese-related). Like the article says, I was drawn to manga because of stories that interested me. I'm not a girly-girl, but I don't like all action either, and many shoujo manga achieve an excellent blend between romance, comedy, fantasy, and some action.
The only quibble I had with the article was it postulating that such superficial factors as "bright covers" and "unusual reading format" are what drive many to buy manga. Come on! These may make the hobby of reading manga currently "hip" or whatever , but if they are the only reasons you buy a manga, you're going to quickly get bored. The author's emphasis on the appeal of good stories as well does make up for this, though. I am afraid that the whole "manga=popular" bubble will burst relatively soon. Regardless of its popularity, I (and I'm sure countless others) will to continue to read it. It's been three years since I've read my first manga (aah, has it been that long?), and my love of manga has only grown. I know three years is hardly enough to proclaim manga to be my life-long hobby, but I certainly do not consider myself to be simply following the latest fad. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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OT:
That book was AWESOME.  I somehow managed to get most of the girls in my grade 10 class to read it.
... People already know my opinions on wether manga is a fad or not, and if you don't, and want to know, go look up the thread. |
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Blood_rein
Posts: 61 Location: Depths of darkness |
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Manga's never been a fad, USA today is just a bunch of OLD people that don't know anything BUT politics. YOu give them the word Cowboy bebop and they think your talking about music!!! Damn them for trying to over rule our world.!
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The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
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Okay, calm down, take some deep breaths.... Step away from the computer. Happy place....Happy place |
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Pitargo Nats
 Posts: 67 Location: Ft. Collins, CO |
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One thing to remember though is that any good publication writes to its readers. USA Today is a large national newspaper, so that their readers tend to be somewhat diverse, but the majority of them are people with little time on their hands (initially designed for business travelers). In a sense the article was some what misleading to us, one's familiar with manga. But at the same time you want to put it in terms that your readers will understand, so the use of the word fad does fit (I can't think of any other words right off hand that would have worked better).
But it is nice that our world of anime and manga is getting more and more recognition in main stream media. |
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iamthatdizzy
 Posts: 46 Location: Anime-Heaven |
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Main Stream eh? I wouldn't exactly say min stream yet... More like... well, it isn't underground but it isn't main stream... it is in the middle.... sry im thinking out loud... help... what is between Mainstream and under ground? |
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RedvsBlue
 Posts: 328 Location: snooping through another FF7 walkthrough |
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Fad... 
This is just another reason I dont read, watch, or listen to the news unless It's TRULY going to affect my everyday life. Half the self-appointed consultants or news today really could know less then what their talking about then I do. I think the only way to truly show what manga is to America's "ignorant masses" is to have someone from japan, who read manga... write an article. American views on foreign items and policies are usually always slanted and wrong IMO I wont lie. I also hate USA Today in particular because some of it's news is so damn overhyped, they lose sight of what they're even talking about! Ah well... What done is done and all I can do is rant, be annoyed, and send anthrax... 
... ... ... wow, am i gonna get flamed for this! 
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10461 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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I don't understand why people are getting upset here. The article states (or ratehr quotes someone stating) that anime is more than a fad. What's more, whether or not manga is a fad does not say anything about the quality or the value of manga. Rather it says something about the marketplace in general and consumers. Anyways, I don't think it will be an issue of flight or fancy that will remove manga from the mainstream, but rather an issue of cross-pollination, where in a few years teh general public will not be able to tell the difference between Japanese and American comics. |
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herbkir
Posts: 251 Location: Michigan |
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The key points being overlooked here are: 1) Manga and its USA market were considered big enough to get notice in the national news media. 2) The story wasn't negative. (The article didn't even mention the existence of porn manga, for instance. )
While you may quibble with the writer's approach, fact is readers will come away with the idea that manga exists, teens like it, there's money in it, and it's not something dangerous. And since USA Today is read everwhere, by people of every social class, this was a very good place for that message to be presented. (^_*) |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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You're looking at it from a different prospective (a fan one). USA Today isn't aim towards kids anyways, especially those that love manga way too much to overlook the marketing manga gets from that one article. I can understand if you're mad, if such a thing was written in a Manga Magazine, but it's not. I read this article in my college library long before it was posted on ANN. I found it interesting, and most people who are not into that kind of stuff, at least they're know about it. If I was a girl, and I didn't know anything about Manga, I would defintely be intersted. The article was more for the genenal public without being over complicated. Millions of people read USA today, and most are not aware of manga. It promote manga or at least make people aware that such thing exist. Any promotion is good promotion, why whine and complain. How does it affect you? |
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