Manga

Manga. Well. I'm going to have to say manga has to be the reason I'm in this class. I am no longer an enormous fan of manga. I was never incredibly into it. But it was the first comic medium that pulled me in and made me read it, while the superhero comics were essentially just lame. Not interesting. (At the time)

Looking back, manga was interesting to me for several reasons. It was that it was commonly published in volumes instead of episodes, meaning I could usually grasp a story within the book, instead of a needing to buy several copies several weeks apart. The stories also rarely involved superheroes as I knew them, (read: Superman and his inability to be any sort of interesting) instead had their own rendition of the superhero that was only noticeably different in age, and often gender. The characters had relatively realistic proportions, save for the face, and that was also something I didn't see in Also I was twelve, I'd like to add that to the formula.

My first adventure into manga was Sailor Moon. There was something about the long, elegant style that really interested me at the time, and a writing style that was pretty funny. I'd consider her the first super hero character to catch my attention, and it's the same old Peter Parker syndrome, being magical gets in the way of real life sometimes. Next, with the same draws, was Yu Yu Hakasho. Though the main character was the aggressive, humorous type, this time around.

I continued to pick up manga after manga, I'm sure I read at least half of the popular selection of the time. After a while I came to the conclusion that it is all the same, and moved onto finding american comic and graphic novels to read.

It wasn't until I had history of animation and was assigned to study Osamu Tezuka that I was able to find reason for the ridiculous faces in Manga and the long establishing shots, all the influence of one artist, who was heavily influenced by Walt Disney. Reading Tezuka's work was an eye opener. Gone were the shallow girls of shojo manga, replaced with their predecessors, thoughtful, steadfast heroes, among others. (or in what I read) I was interested to find that the long, cinematic sequences were a result of western influence on Tezuka, long after I'd been influence by manga.

I feel like what manga has to offer is still about the same. Long stories that follow a linear time flow, instead of heavily episodic. Extremely detailed backgrounds, and often, a relatively appealing style. While none of this is limited to manga, I think that manga is making a lasting mark on american comics, and that it will be an improvement.