summercomfort | (no subject)

(no subject)

SUSHU YOU NEED TO STOP COMPULSIVELY CHECKING YOUR EMAIL. KTHX

edit: also, people need to get over manga. I know it's cool, but really, give anime some love, too! Too many academics who are like "I only want to do manga, but I'm forced to include anime, too. Pout!" Jeez, man, you're doing this whole Japanese cartoon shit, you've already lost street cred. And maybe this whole manga craze is due to the marketing strategies that increase exposure to manga. Eh?

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There are enough academics who do manga to be termed "too many"? Where do they hide out? Who are they? TELLLLL MEEEEEEEE

also haha ;)

it's just that recently I talked to one chick who apparently wrote a BA about gendered terms in manga, and another guy who used the Evangelion manga to talk about youth crime, and some prof out there is apparrently all into manga/comics, and there's this chich at Loyola who's doing manga research who wants to ask us questions at animekai....

It's like, manga's the new darling of academia, because it's like, omg sequential art/graphic novel, and apparently more culturely than anime. And you can do textual analysis as opposed to cinematic analysis... The cinema people don't like anime. The lit/gender/anth people love manga... It just annoys me, that's all.

I used to be a manga snob, but now manga's too popular, so I've gone back to liking anime ^_^.

Seriously, I prefer manga when alone, because I like reading, but I prefer anime in groups, and anime sometimes has better characterization, though almost always worse pacing.

I can definitely see the attraction of manga, and I do enjoy reading comics. I even appreciate the fact that there's lots to study about manga. I'm just annoyed that anime is so neglected/sidelined. Anime is so much more complex/hard to analyze sometimes, that I feel some manga analysis is like, a cop-out. Like "why couldn't you have don't the same analysis with anime? it may have even been better suited". Of course, there's so good stuff that can only be done with the manga genre...

OMG, the Furuba manga totally kicks the anime's butt... it's not even funny. Seriously, they left out all the real drama (and half of the 十二支, but who's splitting hairs? Certainly not me...)

I think that when you consider the sheer volume of manga consumed in Japan, isn't manga way more popular than anime in Japan? Especially when you consider more than just the little kids who are still stuck in the stage where the TV is a second breast? For that reason it might be a more useful tool for anthropology/sociology...

I'm sorry, but the FruBa manga art is scary-bad. I generally appreciate the manga stuff, and it definitely takes a lot of work to do panel layouts and proper toning, etc, and of course, story-lines develop differently in manga form.

And I agree that manga is good for anth/soci/ling/gender analysis, but you can say the same for anime. For example, the spread of anime overseas, the made-for-export factor, etc etc. Translation is an issue in both, and there's lots of interesting manga/anime comparisons that you can do. I'm just frustrated because manga is the new darling and anime is neglected, in part because the people who are doing manga analysis utilize textual/visual analysis because it's their discipline, and the people who would be the best for anime/cinema analysis (the film studies people) don't take cartoons seriously.

I'm partially just frustrated because there's this chick coming to club tonight with questionaires, and she said in an email:
"however, because of its close interaction with manga, I was forced to include anime as part of my project since they both compliment each other... I found it hard within my research to discuss manga without mentioning anime"

And I'm like, if you're not doing something manga-specific, why are you trying to segregate the two anyway? (She's talking about portrayal of Japanese culture in manga.) I mean, either narrow your topic to account for the distinction between manga and anime, or just accept anime. There's just this ... aversion to anime/reluctance to include anime that annoys me. What's wrong with analysing anime? For example, it'd be cool to do a sakura analysis of anime vs. manga. Sakura=>spring=>start of new school year is a visual technique that's used by both anime and manga, but perhaps more in the anime because manga allows for more captions. There's also the sakura=>drama=>honor in anime that I don't see as much in manga... And what about the fact that computer technology has made floaty sakura so much easier in anime nowadays? There's lots of manga-specific topics that she can do, but her current one shouldn't be done to the exclusion of anime. (Or I guess in her case, I'm questioning the reluctance of her inclusion of anime).

BTW, here's what she says about her topic: "I'm trying to focus my research
on the cultural aspect of it. I'm considering things such as language(non-verbal, verbal, written), repetitive behavior, rituals, symbols,and the ideology that "space speaks.""

hmm I think it might has something to with the cultural maturity of american comics vs cartoons. Since comics have matured somewhat more than cartoons in american culture they might be given a bit more academic credibility.. it is silly though, manga and anime are so intertwined it would be ridiculous to accept one without the other (whereas comics and cartoons, not so much) course the boondocks cartoon might be an interesting case.

PS I like furuba art.. I guess my affair with manga has to do with my love of quirky stylistic differences in mangaka.. anime tends to get normalized, y'know?

PPS What I'm curious about is the art world's new love affair with japanese artists and yet I can't find any proper histories on contemporary japanese art. I mean there are singular artists, but no movements.. (or maybe I'm just ignorant of them ^^;)

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