The Eastern Edge

Last night was the second night in a row of live-action Yatterman movie hype on NTV’s News Zero and it has got me thinking about how utterly ridiculous all this Manga vs American Comics crap really is.

The feature that set me off was one on the NYCC screening of Yatterman. They even had one of the actors over there as part of the event and he talked with industry people about the influence of Japanese properties in America and the “manga boom”. You remember that, right? The big bang that some here in Japan like to pretend is still resonating throughout the world like an infectious, unstoppable wave of cultural dominance that will have everyone reading comics on the subway, shouting “yatta!” and shamelessly dancing to sugarcoated pop music performed by groups of 15 year old girls in miniskirts. (Huff huff… run-on sentence).

So far “Cool Japan” is more like a cherry bomb in a schoolyard than an explosion. Some kids stopped to stare, some of them even went over to check it out, but many more gave it a curious glance and then went on with their lives. Even if it was bigger than I’m giving it credit for, it’s time to do a post-boom assessment at ground zero (i.e. in Japan) to see where it might go from here. But, instead, many still have their ears covered and eyes shut in anticipation and haven’t even noticed that the smoke is beginning to clear.

However, while I’m getting used to Japan pushing soft power as hard as possible, what I’m really getting sick of are the pointless, snobby digs at American and other comics that always seem to be a part of manga hype. And it's not the Japanese who are doing it because they mostly ignore American comics. It’s the American fans of Japanese comics that are feeding the negativity. Why!?

Maybe the negativity is just the first signs of the realization that they aren’t the shiny new car in the lot anymore and they have to start earning their parking spot outside Japan, but whatever it is I wish it would stop.

Follow up:

The most tiresome of the “manga vs. comics” rhetoric is the old “manga are so incredibly creative and diverse, whereas American comics are all superheroes and all the same.” It’s unfortunate that it’s Americans spreading that kind of propaganda because Japan eats it up, becomes even more convinced of this recent sense of pop-culture superiority, and becomes even less likely to give foreign comics or animation (except for Disney and Pixar) a fair chance.

While people always have style preferences, I wish more people would start talking about comics as a whole and quit the superficial separation of American and Japanese. The fact is that while they are very different for obvious reasons, they are still the same medium. Manga are comics, nothing more nothing less, and American and Japanese comics always have and always will have a reciprocal influence on each other because creators aren't bound by the same narrow-minded prejudices that their fans often are.

When I speak of “American comics”, by the way, I include ALL comics, not just Marvel and DC. I think it’s unfair to compare everything Japan has to offer to only one type of American fast-food comic. Ever hear of Sin City, Bone, The Goon or Mouse Guard? Or, if you want to expand it a little further and talk about the mass appeal American comics “don’t have”, how about Calvin & Hobbes, The Farside or Dilbert? They’re comics, too. The Simpson’s was also a comic, in case people are forgetting. Besides, I could flip the entire argument around and argue that Dragon Ball is about superheroes and so are many of the hit kids comics out of Japan. That, however, is another debate I’ll fire up on another day.
My point is that the comparisons I keep hearing are superficial at best, and just plain ignorant at their worst.

As for crusty, old-school American superhero comic fans, many don't even give those new-fangled, foreign manga thingies a chance, preferring instead to spend their time and energy in self-loathing and endless debating on continuity issues or which of Spiderman’s suits is the coolest.

But at least at North American comic book conventions you get joint participation. You guys can congregate in some of the same venues, share some of the same interests, and costumed fans can mingle. A Jedi and Batman can have a diet coke with Inuyasha and Goku at ComicCon, but that won't happen in Japan.
Japan turns up its nose at American comics and animation and is guilty of the same snobbery as the hardcore superhero crowd. It’s too bad that some of the self-proclaimed otaku overseas waste the chance to mingle in the comic community and chose to box themselves into little overprotective, paranoid communities of their own from where they can spit on other types of comics (just like the hardcore superhero geeks do), and fret about what happens when everyone’s favorite black and yellow ninja retires.
Speaking of which, I’ve even read where people think that even Japan is facing doom when that happens. No chance!

As far as Japan is concerned; the question is not whether the industry will survive the end of a particular title, the question is whether or not the industry will survive at all.

But I don’t think the sky is falling yet, though. Comics are not a niche market in Japan and it isn't going to come crashing down anytime soon. It’s not new and fragile, nor is it perceived to be held up on the shoulders of a single Atlas-like property that saves it from certain doom. The market in Japan is far too mature and diverse to fear for its life under a one or two title Sword of Damocles.
In fact if any market can be brought down by one title then there was never a market to begin with.
It won’t happen.

But what also won't happen is real acceptance of Japanese comics until the "manga" people quit trying to divide and conquer, and realize that comic book fans don't need to be turned and made manga fans, they only need be introduced. Manga will never break into the mainstream if it can't break through barriers in its own backyard. Quit building fences and giving your neighbors the finger and maybe you'll find that you aren't really that different, you're all just comic lovers who like different styles.

Marvel, DC, Shueisha, Kodansha, Dark Horse, who f*cking cares!? Get over it.
They're all publishers and they all have something to offer.
Save the bashing for stuff that deserves it (like shitty rip-off stuff) and give other genres and styles a chance, everyone.
You might actually find other stuff you like and wonder why you turned your nose up at it in the first place.