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This Week in Anime - Is OEL Manga Really Manga?

In my experience this topic only seems to happen when people want validation for liking something that isn't Japanese because they view comics as lesser than manga.

I see someone was less than impressed with this week's new Shonen Jump series.

Haha, even if it's a deliberate deconstruction of the mico-genre, the brand new Yokai Buster Murakami series is now the umpteenth series to appear in the publication that can be boiled down to "High Schoolers vs Japanese Folklore." All I'm saying is that maybe people should focus more on telling the story they want to tell and less on being a part of a medium that feels more derivative than ever at its top level.

Although often considered to be a manga, the comic was originally published in English in America by Nintendo Power. By modern day standards, it can be considered to be an original English-language manga, although that term did not exist when the comic was originally published. A Japanese edition was later released retaining the left-to-right formatting of the original American edition. In the Japanese edition, the text is oriented horizontally in a left-to-right format as well and the original sound effects are left untranslated.

The comic was re-released on May 5, 2015, compiled into a single volume and published by VIZ Media.

I stopped caring about this debate after living in Japan for a bit and realizing “manga” and “comics” are essentially considered the same exact thing over there. (The only difference to note is that “comics” refers to the complied volumes and is not used to describe individual chapters.)

This particular thread and topic brings back memories of me getting involved with OEL manga jumping the shark, if anyone was around in 2007/2008 you probably remember that ANN thread back in the day (I was still a new anime/manga fan back then).

But anyway, a lot has changed like Enurtol mentioned MegaTokyo later getting a Japanese translation. Also, we've seen Scott Pilgrim getting a anime adaptation. Hell even Korean webtoons and American comic book getting anime adaptation today, so should OEL manga be still considered as manga. Well, if you want to consider Shotaro Ishinomori's Zelda: A link to the past OEL manga as a manga (yes, it's a OEL manga given it was originally published in the US before it got translated and released into Japanese), then I wouldn't hold it against you. Let me quote Zelda Wikia section entry:

Zelda Fandom Wikia wrote:

Although often considered to be a manga, the comic was originally published in English in America by Nintendo Power. By modern day standards, it can be considered to be an original English-language manga, although that term did not exist when the comic was originally published. A Japanese edition was later released retaining the left-to-right formatting of the original American edition. In the Japanese edition, the text is oriented horizontally in a left-to-right format as well and the original sound effects are left untranslated. The comic was re-released on May 5, 2015, compiled into a single volume and published by VIZ Media.

Also, what about the works of Eldo Yoshimitzu? They would be considered as manga by my eyes, but the problem is that both Gamma Draconis, and Ryuko they weren't published in Japan first, they were published in Europe before it got translated into English, and later "translated" into Japanese. The fact that it was published in Europe before it got a Japanese release kind of disqualify it from being recognized as a manga on sites like MAL, and Anilist. I'm not making this up, go search Ryuko or Gamma Draconis on MAL and Anilist and they're not even on their database despite being a manga (in black & white, and read from right to left like any manga). I want to remind you that MAL and Anilist has manhwa/webtoons, and manhua on their database but not Ryuko and Gamma Draconis from Eldo Yoshimizu.

So if anyone on here argue that OEL manga is not manga, so what does that make Eldo Yoshimizu's works? Manga, or not (because his works are not on MAL and Anilist database despite the fact that both of them read like a manga and the same MAL and Anilist also has Manhwa/webtoons and manhua in their database)?

Also, kudo for ANN staff for using Adam Warren's Dirty Pair. I wonder if those ever receive Japanese translation. I asked because on another thread, I brought up that IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book got translated into Japanese in 2020 and it was so highly regarded in Japan, it caused Vol 1 of the Japanese version to get re-printed due to high demand in Japan. Japan is usually where foreign comic don't sell so well and yet IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic was able to succeed everyone's expectation.

It makes me wonder why did IDW's Sonic did so well in Japan when other comic book didn't managed to break into the Japanese mainstream market. IDW's Sonic is not the only American comic book that got a Japanese translation, I found out that IDW's Transformers comic have received Japanese translation too. I'm not sure about IDW's Godzilla. I wonder if any of the American/western comic book based on Japanese IPs/properties ever got translated into Japanese I mean did any of Udon's Street Fighter comic receive a Japanese translation & release over there. Does that include Udon's Darkstalkers comic series?

I really like to know if any western comic based on Japanese properties/IPs ever got translated into Japanese other then IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Even my cold and blackened heart can admit that it's rad as hell that there's a Sailor Moon-esque transformation sequence in the My Adventures with Superman series!