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Talkbacks

AICN Anime-The Return of ADV Manga

I'm just happy... by Rei-Ginsei	Jun 8th, 2007 06:08:47 AM
I'm just happy that I can buy manga at Barnes & Noble instead of having to browse E-bay or scrounge at the various comic shops.
Mangas rock. by Fenrisulfr	Jun 8th, 2007 06:17:03 AM
Mangas rock.
Now THIS is an industry that was affected by bootlegs by THEE Miracleman	Jun 8th, 2007 06:49:09 AM
Anime clubs were downloading episodes of this stuff the day it was broadcast and uploaded in Japan. Anime fans have less money than mainstream dvd buyers, so they stopped buying american releases cuz they already had a decent quality bootleg.
Really? by Fenrisulfr	Jun 8th, 2007 07:06:28 AM
The anime bashing hasn't begun yet?
Gunslinger Girl by Prof_Ender	Jun 8th, 2007 09:29:53 AM
Never was a fan of this series. The whole lolita-with-guns concept just becomes dull after a while.
Junji Ito's Museum of Terror by HeWhoCannotBeNamed	Jun 8th, 2007 10:48:10 AM
So good. I was hoping for more. Had no idea it was canceled. Booooooooo
Gunslinger Girls anime sucked by Johnno	Jun 8th, 2007 03:25:15 PM
A good couple of first episodes and quality animation throughout... but ultimately it's not worth it... Now I bootleg before I buy... Unless it's a sure thing... BUT FUCK THOSE HIGHLANDER DIRECTORS CUT RELEASE LATER WITHOUT ANY AFOREMENTION ASSHOLES!
Kids as Protagonists by veritasses	Jun 8th, 2007 04:49:05 PM
Just a point to note about the use of kids/teens as protagonists in manga. To better understand this, we have to look at Japanese society. Once a person becomes an “adult” and enters the work force, symbolically, they’re seen as entering the big, giant, eternal work/business machine (ie Japan Inc). They get up early to go to work, they cram into the famous sardine can trains for their commute, do some boring, meaningless task all while cow towing to their bosses and then after hours go out for the obligatory drink with said bosses and come home in the wee hours only to repeat the whole. Weekends are spent kissing ass on the golf course. So life as an adult offers no excitement, no romance, no adventure, no chance to be a rebel, to think and act with a will of ones own etc. They’re basically soulless robots just earning a living to keep the machine running and to put food on the table. So adults clearly aren’t suited for playing the main character of a story. On the other hand (as in the West), kids/teens are viewed as living the best time of their lives. Even with the fairly restrictive, conformist society of Japan, the teen years are seen as being full of energy and promise and life and the most capable of standing out and going against the norm. That’s one reason why the high school baseball championship is one of the most popular if not the most popular sports event in Japan. And it’s also why so many protagonists in manga, from Astro Boy to Hoshino Tetsuro (in Leiji Matsumoto’s GE999) to Naruto to Death Note to Gundum to Doraemon to Slam Dunk to Hikaru no Go to Chibimaruko to Nodame Cantabile to almost any character are all teens/kids. And as with any story, to make the manga interesting/exiting, the authors put the weight of the world on their shoulders and often put them into the same types of situations that an adult protagonist might be in and have them think about and deal with the situations as an adult might. It should be noted that these characters aren’t really seen as kids/teens so much as a protagonist hero who just happen to be in their teens so unless it’s integral to the story, you’ll rarely see these characters dealing with many kid/teen issues. Interestingly, antagonists as well as supporting characters in manga can be and often are adults and are used to impart wisdom to the protagonist or serve as a symbol of some sort. Of course having kids and teens make up the up the bulk of the manga reading audience plays a role and manga specifically geared towards an adult audience (yes, a very large % of the Japanese population read manga) have adult protagonists but I believe this reason plays a much smaller part then most people think. Manga authors have a story they want to tell and I doubt much of their creative process is spent thinking whether or not the protagonist should be a teen or an adult. In contrast, the majority of American comic book protagonists (and antagonists for that matter) are adults. The few kids/teens that do appear actually play kid/teen roles and only a small % of those star in their own series.

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