Written by: Phillip Divon
Explaining why modern Japanese Animation, and comics are more popular than Western Culture comic heroes. From the perspective of both Japanese anime fans and Comic Book fans.
Within the past 5 or 6 years there has been a huge increase in the amount of attention Japanese animation and Manga being drawn in from your traditional Comic fans. From what I have researched and seen within the media Japanese anime has most traditional Western Comic fans reconsidering where their alliance should lie within their interest.
To find better structure within my research I decided to interview three of my friends who closely follow comic pop culture, Makayla Kellam who claims “it’s all about timing. Due to the newer generational stigma within pop-culture, where new characters are being developed anyone can easily not only relate to but also attach interest in. A perfect example of this would be the most recent iteration of the Japanese manga Demon Slayer will release a new season on April 9th by the shows popular audience, I know for a fact the reviews will be more efficient than the recent Ant man movie.
Another Friend of mine Jeremiah Box is a well-rounded fan of both sides of the comic and Manga/anime spectrum. From his experience over the years of reading comics and watching anime his conclusion when asked the same question on which is more popular and why? He claims Japanese anime within this Generation by far. But his reasoning differed from Makayla’s in the claiming “the maintaining the traditional, and original source material is seen more within Japanese Animation and even fictional Manga story telling”. What he meant by this is that whenever Japanese manga is produced as a Japanese animated series, there are very little differences between the original source material within the book and the actual story told within the anime itself. Versus publications Like DC comics and Marvel not honoring original source material whether that be by way of changing a character’s sexual orientation, race, or Gender.
Garrison Kearse is another student that I have occasional talks with about comics and fiction and the importance of them both. When interviewed Garrison claims “Watching and being into Japanese anime or manga is the new knitch now, when five to seven years ago it wasn’t as popular now. I truly believe. That this popularity came over time just like when anything else in Pop culture has its spotlight shined on it”. When compared to Anime and Japanese both me and Garrison both wondered, “how would the general audience of the Dragon Ball franchise take it if suddenly, Goku was an African American character, without any back story or anything. We concluded that it would be completely ludicrous.
One example I have in mind is switching one of batman’s robins(sidekick) sexuality from heterosexual to bisexual in the last two years. Not only did this comic issue sell very little but the story itself has fans of the bat-family wondering, “what has become of our once beloved Characters.
This started two years ago in august 10, 2021. This comic establishes a new character (Bernard) that has never been seen within a batman or robin story in the history of DC, then goes on to try and make us as the audience believe that while Tim drake(robin) was in college he meets this person. But little do the writers of this comic (Megan Fitzmartin, Matthew Rosenberg, Chip Zdarsky, and Joshua Williamson) know is that Tim Drake has never in the 34 years of his existence attended any college, he decided to travel and learn how to be a better combatant right after he graduated Gotham High. Another mistake was essentially neglecting the fact that the love interest he HAS had for the past 30 years (Stephanie Brown) is ever rarely shown anymore. I have recently read an article by Eric Diaz, claiming about why it matters to which he goes into the harsh and homophobic inuendoes fans have made in the past about robin. And while I understand some of the reasoning behind why Diaz believes it was something that should have changed, I also believe that making a brand-new male character that was not already established for 30+ years would have been the best option. That way the writers could show representation without stepping on long time fans toes.
In my most honest and straight forward opinion, “I agree with 100% or what all of my interviewee’s had to say”. This topic I believe in my opinion has been the most asked question that most fans of western pop-culture have been asking about. Due to the latest versions of long-lasting legendary characters having the makeup of their character changed, for the laziest of reasons. Fulfilling this agenda of making sure diversity and inclusion along with social justice issues are talked about overtly in every western pop culture comic publication (Marvel & DC) is totally uncalled for but also the main reason why comic sales are not as high as they used to be. Sometimes I have arguments about just letting the argument go due to how society and humanity are starting to think of things as far as Identity and sexual orientation, along with race relations. But my stance on why I gate keep on the issue of trying to change these things is simple.
Because it has always worked, as a Black person who loves comics, I was never too much of the “he needs to look exactly like me, in order for me to relate to him kind of fan”. But I feel as though these types of fans are the ones who get looked at as toxic fans and essentially coons of the comic fandom space. Although if you were to ask me if I like Black Original Characters, I can name you 10 that I lived my whole childhood admiring, not because of their skin color but because of the content of their character. That’s what being a hero is supposed to be about, I believe the beauty in creativity especially within comics should be influenced by a character-building narrative, solely created to push the character into the best version of him or herself. Not every modern-day comic should be filled with stories about social justice issues happening. The entire purpose of creating these stories and characters was to escape reality, it was the one place a fan like me could send my mind to and just enjoy an awesome piece of fiction. Now all I see are just terribly written characters of which I used to admire, even though they were fictional.
