Manga Destroys American Comic Sales
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2024
- Manga Destroys American Comic Sales
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Art by Just Some Guy
Original trailer concept: Bleach Opening 01
Music: "Enkon Hakuchuumu" by Sakagami Souichi - Copyright (C) 2015 Trial & Error/Sakagami Souichi All rights reserved.
Trial & Error: www.tandess.com...
People seriously underestimate how important a story having an ending is
One piece though
@@adeivyssuarez2843 It at least WILL get one someday
@@adeivyssuarez2843 thing about One Piece is that it has a planned ending from the start. It's not made to continue in perpetuity. Each development brings us closer to that conclusion. It's purposeful.
::Sherlock Holmes has entered the chat::
::James Bond has entered the chat::
Dude, Spiderman and Batman stories have endings all the time.
@@adeivyssuarez2843 One piece has recently entered a break on account of the story having entered the final saga. At this rate it's going to be finished before ASOIAF.
The point that most Manga have an actual ending, I think plays a big part.
I can’t begin to imagine the amount of Batman books that have been made for nearly a century.
there is generally one continuous timeline, one canon if you will, for most anime related content, which makes it infinitely easier for someone to get into a particular franchise. Wanna get into Batman or Superman? good luck sifting through hundreds of thousands of different conflicting stories and writers of massively varying quality. Another thing that manga has over western comics is the fact that they have so much more variety. There's slice of life, romance, shounen, sports, mystery, etc, compared to american comics which only really have capeshit and nothing else to offer...
To be fair the new earth Batman has an ending it’s called Black Mirror
@@hertzwave8001 mainstream american comics* there is stuff like dead end moon (western) and cyberfrog (scifi cyberpunk) in the indie scene.
Its more then just superheroes, and even some superhero stories like stray are still interesting because its a murder mystery with an identity crisis about taking on your masters mantel or not.
@@Bolbi145 that’s the thing,”earth Batman”,which version of Batman is it? There’s so many is almost impossible to keep track of.
@@mr_indie_fan Well, that's another flaw of the American comic industry: it's incredibly insular. If you're not Marvel or DC, good luck getting traction.
No shit
They're not afraid to be fun
Not afraid to be sexy
And people actually buy them
Know who your actual core audience is and pander to it, not phantoms screeching on twitter, no wonder manga and anime is beating the west.
I wouldn't knock on independent creators as some actually care about entertainment than shoving toxic politics down peoples throats.
@@isakisak9989 I don't know why this isn't obvious already. 🤦♂️
Boobs, action and fun stories that have actual endings.
@@johnmcvey4243 i have a whole list of good indie creators/companies
Lone wolf comics, clownfish media, alterna comics, rippaverse comics, vito delsante (author), hero tomorrow comics, outtatime comics, cosmo comics, fenom comics, hardline comics, studio nanago, bad bug comics, kaiify studio, kessaku manga, invader comics, anvil comics, silverline comics, counterpoint comics, ageless comics, and ethan van sciver
Mark Waid waddling away from his desk:
“I’ll never forgive the Japanese!”
I understood that reference. Lol.
Instead of getting blurry photos of Dio, Mark Waid's Stand gives him blurry photos of his dwindling readership.
Marvel and DC executives looking at how much Manga is kicking their ass:
OH MY GOD!!!!!
@@BradLad56 MARVEL and DC comics about their earnings:
“Our earnings are like our a-holes, we can’t show them off to everyone”
Story, characters, and continuity are important; setting, and visuals are needed; and everything else should be minor where it does not matter what identity the characters are since people can love characters and stories that are different from themselves and their lives. That is why anime and manga are winning. You need to have some kind of story, and intriguing characters with motives and being able to carry the story through. Focusing on current US politics and events will make any series outdated that in a few years and other countries, no one will understand them.
Appealing to immediate politics more likely tends to make for narcissistic propaganda. For genuine Story Telling, one has to portray virtues in a way that anyone can understand and learn from.
Thank God then that Japan seems to understand engaging stories more than ehe west does as of this moment.
There are two types of great stories when it comes to this method: stories that are apolitical with great characters, writing & moral lessons or none, and then there are stories that have political elements but put the quality of the writing and characters, & moral lessons first. Whether either type of story is apolitical or has political elements deep philosophy, morality, & mythology can often play a role in sharpening the story, once you form your morals for a story into ideas over just using them for government or social policy statements you can grab anyone within an audience no matter who they are or what they believe that is the gift of good storytelling
Modern SJW’s unfortunately don’t have that gift because for them there is nothing deeper then the physical realm they see and often hate so instead of forming deep intelligent universal themes or ideas through the magic of storytelling they try to bend those themes or ideas to their will ,thoughts and beliefs.
They can’t form their morals into ideas so often they come off as just government or policy statements without the feeling of anything deeper to an audience turning most people off whether they do or don’t agree with them or are indifferent to begin with.
@@bendu8282 With your excellent insight in mind, some of the best examples of political fiction done right would have to be stories like
George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, George Huxley's Brave New World
Phycho-Pass
Metal Gear Solid
Vinland Saga
@@calummacritchie7840 Yep you said it!
@@calummacritchie7840 Not a bad list, but it's Aldous Huxley for Brave New World
We are going to keep seeing this. People actually like a continuing story that shows characters struggle and grow, and as many are pointing out delivering stories comics have long forgotten. Right now there's not even a contest between western writers and what mangaka are putting out consistently.
yes, it is surprisingly rare that a series gets remade compared to batman or superman who have hundreds if not thousands of iterations troughout the decades.
I disagree, because you can have stories with static characters where they don't grow or change. This is basically what most franco-belgian comics are like.
The problem is, the american comic book industry uses a method that's better for ongoing stories (constant small releases weeks or months apart) instead of one that's better for static characters (large, complete stories that are released in one piece years apart)
That's the big problem here. You don't need to have Superman or Batman grow and change, but you can't constantly put out stories, crossovers and events featuring them either.
@@firmak2 That's mostly because, to remake one of them, you need to remake the whole story, not just the main characters. The way I see it, the main difference between dynamic characters like the ones you find in manga and static characters like the ones in the USA and Europe is that dynamic characters are intrinsically tied to their world and can't be just transplanted to another setting, largely because what defines them, their growth and what they achieve is tied to the world.
Meanwhile, western static characters have their world tied to them. The character can be moved around and reimagined, but the world itself is dependant on the character.
I never saw anyone from Manga say "If you dont like my..,,, then don't buy my books." Plus all the tweets from comic pros about who they hate and the fans they don't want.
Just Some Guy, are you saying people want a tales that lifts their hearts out of our daily sorrows? Are you insidting that we want to be be entertained by something where the hero sees a conclusion to his or her struggles?
"I sacrifice my immediate pleasure for the good of someone else." What an amazing concept. No wonder mange sells.
I can hear Az now... "Manga, quit laughing!"
But we all knows he doesn't mean it.
I love that line he uses, I need to go clip that
Get ready for The Rippaverse.
Yessir
Absolutely
I don't know man I don't know I've been burned by too many comic book companies before it could be a trap. I mean I like Eric D July I like his videos I really do but I don't know man I don't know.
@@wolfbane7497 Gotta give it a try. Indie comics are good and better than Marvel and DC
YUP!
I can confirm, I read My Hero Academia because it feels like a genuinely fun and engaging superhero story and a good one. Another big thing manga dose well is abilities, powers and achievements are and feel earned, the characters have to struggle, they fall down sometimes painfully but they get back up and keep going forward.
"My Hero Academia" is literally what X-Men, Teen Titans and other books should be: focused on young characters learning how to use their powers and their life goals
@@mauriciovillegas7285 and you still have those older mentor heroes that can be examples of the same goals, warnings of what avoid, for redemption and the value of team work. A big theme is the idea that no one hero no matter their ability can shoulder everything alone. Plus the characters are fun, well written and the story moves at pace.
@@onemisterfranko depending on the situation, it’s debatable.
Plus only a few characters were well written and Interesting while the rest barely got any time and the story in general has gotten down
Also has be ruined by it's own fandom 😆 talking about sadly twisted sense of irony
@@kasrkin100 I ignore the Fandom, I just read the story. :)
Everybody talks about politics killing american comics, but theres another thing killing it before that.
Americomics seem to require you to buy several running series to understand a running story, which is way too much commitment.
To my knowledge, manga hasnt done this. You buy a series, and thats it.
Also all conveniently numbered
The lack of consequence has also caught up to the stories. They undo progress so they can uphold the status quo, like Spider-Man's marriage.
The closest I can think of in manga/anime to this is is a few continuation series like Alita battle Angel having a several manga runs one after another, or Dragonball's anime basically going the original/Z/(GT but got retcon'd I think?)/Super... though compare that to western comics and it's still way easier to follow than having to read completely different comics for another character in order to follow recent events for one character!
@@lainiwakura1776 That used to be the case here with shounen jump and shojo beat. But it was easier to adapt manga to western reading habits than to try and get americans on board with the way japan does things. So now we just get the "end product". Japan goes weekly/monthly and then creates volumes. And we get the volumes. There's no reason why western comics can't do this model.
Manga destroys american comics yet again*
There’s the best title
Best thing written since the Bible
Also Japanese manga and Anime studio see someone hand drawing about its favorite character: well you break the rule so good luck.
Japan can prevent piracy by paying animators a lot, and support accurately translated and uncensored anime that matches any creator's artistic vision.
If an anime and manga are good in Japan, if people from other countries love them, import them as they are with its Japanese translated into English, and never make changes for the sake of country politics nor censorship.
Except they do not
Animators are slaves
There we go telling Asia what to do again lol. My dude, everyone is so afraid of China even the usa edits their movies according to Chinese laws lol.
Fully agree
SoreJaW LIEcalizations dropkick fans into pirate sites
I learned to handle subs because I watch English movies in Puerto Rico, then subbed Anime since 9th grade. If I learned the version for my country is not giving me the real story, I am getting a dictionary!
Also don't act like Toei and Nintendo did to their own fans.
This is why I believe indie is the future of comics and manga is the example of this. Manga embraces indie right and only gives high quality fun books to read. Yes, there are duds, but not many. DC and Marvel only caters to consumers not fans. And I have to agree with you about the fact that it went down too dark a path with the deconstruction and dark side of realism. They're superheroes. Nothing about them is or should be realistic.
The joy of being on the export side of manga is that we get to miss a lot of the trash. Sure, we miss some good stuff, too, but that can at least be sought up for those who care enough.
@@reienna5616 THIS!! And to think at one time, Marvel at least attempted to delve into different genres. I remember it even used to produce Ren & Stimpy comics and they were great, but it became homogenized.
Another reason why Manga is doing better than a lot of the American Comics very well might be the fact when a manga artist/ author finishes a story they move on. Yes there are reboots, and continuation series, but those are the exception not the norm. Whereas for big comic Studios like Marvel or DC have these huge interwoven story lines that you have to read all of them to make any sense of the newest one.
So a fun little fact, I ran across an article claiming that a Japanese manga artist / author ran for a political position on the platform of protecting the creators and creativity of Japanese authors from foreign censorship. As far as I'm aware he did quite well and got the position he was going for.
Yup. Ken Akamatsu, Love Hina´s Mangaka.
@@shadowhakenw0016 sounds right
And those are typically called OVA's which are just after stories that are light hearted and fun what ifs for the original main story.
As a Gen X’r I stopped reading comics long ago. To me they weren’t writing comics for my gen either. So we delved into manga and anime and stayed there…..and this was in the 90’s.
And in Other News. The Sky is Blue. Water is wet. And John Cleese is currently the Funniest Brit alive. This has been ONN the Obvious News Network.
Rowan Atkinson doesn't get an honorable mention?
The world will be lesser when Cleese dies.
Manga "dominated" the American comic book industry when Demon Slayer alone outsold the entirety of the American comic book industry.
And it was deserved. That manga and anime is amazing
If 5 years ago you would have told me (an avid comic reader) I would be reading more manga than comics i would have laughed you out of the room yet here we are and I love it
Once we relised you could enjoy stuff from Japan without being a complete neckbeard weeaboo there was no hope for comics.
If there was supposed to be audio, I'm not hearing it chief.
Edit: Some time after posting my comment, there is sound now.
Yeah where is it?
Same i hear nothinf
Its working for me. I'm sure this isn't 100% the reason, but u think it's cause youtube hates just some guy.
The sad thing is shows like My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, and Tiger & Bunny are a glowing love letter to American comics........while American comics are committing seppuku.
Yeah, even if you don’t like some of the series, you can’t deny that it’s way more interesting than most comics nowadays
You're not wrong
He's not wrong with the whole "license out the character. They'll probably do it better". Did anyone know Deadpool has his own Manga? It's actually pretty good.
i saw the manga...still not giving my money to disney.
I saw Stitch and Mulan inserted in some mangas to try and expand Disney's sales, but I doubt it is working.
Deadpool: Samurai right? Yeah that was awesome.
Thanks for the recommendation I don't even feel bad pirating it cuz it's Disney, this is sweet
I'll have to hunt that down! Thanks!
Manga and Asian comic: 7 Wins
American Comics: 7 Losses for 7 seven years
It has been dominant much longer than that ever since woke got into the Am Coms
Yeah, I started buying Marvel and DC circa 1973 from spinner racks at a number of local stores. As I recall, 20 cents a copy -- and I don't want to hear that I am an old man who doesn't get economics, I took a number of college-level classes in the subject and can easily look up the Consumer Price Index and prove that current prices far exceed inflation. Even as an adult, I kept up with some titles. Then it became impossible with the shift to "serious" titles -- like a portion of stories weren't already serious. Readers in small towns were knocked right out of the market because small towns couldn't support a comics shop. Today, you can't buy a comic in the town where I grew up ... but 50 years ago you could pick up comics in two party stores, a pair of drug stores, a couple of gas stations, and one supermarket. Honestly, I went into a comics store just once and never went back. I consider myself something of a nerd, but the vibe in that place was more-or-less unhealthy, being filled with people who seemingly had no other interests in life and who seemed determined to treat comics so seriously that they drained all the fun right out of them. Heck, I liked Spiderman and Batman, which were pretty serious, but Plastic Man, Captain Marvel (Billy Batson, not the foul imitator) and the Metal Men were also quite welcome ... but then they decided to improve those titles by sucking all the fun out of them. (Who could forget Lex Luthor firing a gun that accumulates magic at a copy of Shazam that some kid had dropped and the result is that he's transported to Fawcett City? He meets Mr. Tawney, who is quite proud of his obnoxiously loud suit, and Lex's response is on the order of: "It's impossible! He can't possibly like that suit! Besides, he's a talking tiger!) Honestly, I think the "Big Two" should just shut their doors. I see no way back. Comics were a phenomenon that sprouted in the late years of the Depression and got a huge shot in the arm with WW2. It took some hits in the 50s, but made a comeback in the 60s; by the 70s there was a remarkable degree of stability in the market as a whole, even as titles came and went regularly. My suspicion is that it could have gone along on track for a long, long time -- but then they focused on a smaller, insular market and abandoned the mass markets which produced new readers from generation to generation. It seems likely that having destroyed the reader pipeline, they won't be able to rebuild it since the social and economic circumstances are now so much different than those which allowed the industry to arise in the first place.
Abandoning spinner rack sales was really stupid. I mean why give up all that exposure and focus solely on comic book shops?
you know what JSG describes himself as a left leaning person and meanwhile I think he has some bad takes I still respect him because he cares more about storytelling, than stupid real life politics
You can lean one way or the other and still point out where the side you lean towards is screwing up and going wrong, that's why intellectual honesty is important.
@@georgehouliaras7239 yeah, but only in the general senses of "good triumphs over evil" not so much the allegories and direct influences of content. Some slips in like demons and angels, but it's different enough to be its own thing
@@georgehouliaras7239 That's you floundering on what "religion" means. When you say it like that and describe FAITH it's "religion affecting it", but at the same time, the dominating secular narrative is that religion had NO EFFECT on all the sciences that things like forced literacy through translation of the bible had spurred. No, there the INDIVIDUALS like secular saints worked covertly AGAINST religion's oppression.
JSG is not on top of everything he vocalizes, but his oxygen-limited audience who religiously reject any challenge to their narrative, is completely unreachable by reason. It's just partisan secularism, where you pick and choose to even call atheist Stalinism a "religion", but none of your own bs.
Respect, is something you actually have to go out of your way to offer, not find something you ALREADY agree with. But that's again faith affecting me on having a clue what respectability is. For one, the Japanese don't go out of their way to PRONOUNCE their apartment buildings as "mansions" despite that being the japanese word for it. With some respect, an American wouldn't go out of their way to say "anime" so "correctly", as if japanese are WRONG and NORMIES when THEY call spongebob an "anime".
All this talk that "anime" is better than "cartoons" only exceptionalizes Japan, and you get to have your special privilege lane of "only a cartoon" without NEEDING to rise to the level of anime, or even considering it possible. And you get to ignore male pregnancy fetish manga form the damn 90's like it's "not woke", because it's "only" a manga. You can even stick Ancient Magus' Bride or wahtever right in there, and pretty much pretend it's Berserk fattening up the "manga is so much better" statistic, while Kamala Khan ruins comics by existing.
Because that... is what religion does. IT TAKES a holiday like Yule, and goes, "this is OUR Christmas". IT TAKES Ozamu Tezuka's working class anti-war narratives like Dororo, and goes "This is our Berserk, it's a cool batman ripoff about murdering FOR THE HOME TEAM". "And so is ALL MANGA, that anti woke medium". This MYTHOLOGY is OURS.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 periods and commas etc go inside the quotation marks sir
I used to buy lots of Comic and stoped at some point when they started to loose continuity and started to be "confusing."
Started to buy Manga and was the best decision. 🌸🐉
and then they’re going to push their agenda in that artstyle and market the garbage as manga, like many idiocrats selling entertainment as anime and yet are not made-in-Japan
One Piece is still going strong. I still like Stan Lee Hero Man yet Marvel has forgotten all about him.
People want to be entertained and not have toxic ideology shoved down their throats.
Meanwhile at DC: I just watched a video from some guy on YT and we need to make some changes..... We need to make Batman gay.
If Marvel/DC hired actual writers rather than political activists they'd be RAKING in BILLIONS with contemptuous ease thanks to the MCU.
Nah it’s more that they hire some out of touch loser that craves of attention
Well so far the MCU during phase 4 has been total shit... but that might also have to due with the MCU having already mined most of the better story arcs from the comic book source material. Now they are trying to use the dog shit stories which caused the resent massive decline in comic book sales.
i left DC and Marvel behind because of the wokeness being pushed...the icing was DC saying "if you dont like our politics then take your money somewhere else". That was when i gave up entirely. I will have to say....If DC used the writers from their animated movies for their live action movies...the live action movies would be leaps and bounds better. Marvel? We know how disney works...they just selling a brand...thats all.
And you also need a plan... a good one, a strong one which could last for 10 years minimum.
Half the problem the the MCU is that their long term planning never went past phase 3 IMO. And when it came time to do a phase 4, it pretty much had to be a reboot with a reshuffle of lesser known and followed characters. And as they added in multiple gods, and high powered characters they realized that the audience was calling them out on one thing. Where were all of these during End Game. And Marvel lacked a logical response with each new powerful god or character to explain their lack of appearance. So what do they do? They ignore basically what happened in Phase 1 - 3 because trying to connect the dots just doesn't work.
But even in the first avengers movie, I thought the MCU made a massive mistake. Having the fight in New York City where so many other super hero groups are concentrated was going to be problematic. This is the stomping grounds for Spiderman, FF4, the Xmen, and others who I simply can't name off the top of my head. And this isn't even including "villians" who would have an interest in an alien invasion on their home turf. The First Avengers Movie would have played out more like End Game with a gallery of Super Heroes and Super Villains all with a similar cause at the moment than a focus on half a dozen characters.
Looks like we can finally say Goku killed Spider-Man with these sales.
Well, of course.
The stories tend to be fun. They tend to entertain. They're occasionally able to pull off a good "gotcha!" moment that makes sense.
The cast tends to be conventionally attractive. They also have actual, real-world logical thoughts in their heads, one way or another. With few exceptions, I wouldn't have a problem with having the villains over for beers, let alone the heroes. They're people that I want to know more of.
I went to B&N yesterday and flipped through the graphic novel section, looking at the newest books. I could tell you how those stories ended before I made it to the middle of the book. And often I was not only right, but I could tell that the "person of color" character would be the one to initiate the kiss on his boyfriend. (And it's always the "person of color" that's in charge when it happens.)
So, yes, manga is eating comic book's lunch. The same way that Disney is doing everything it can to pretend that "Thor:Luv and Blunder" is actually making money. Because nobody wants to buy their crappy product, the same way nobody wanted to buy crappy cars from GM or Ford back in the day when Toyota and Honda were able to import their cars here. This should be the sort of thing that causes people in charge at the Big Five to get their heads out of their ass and figure out how to get their market share back. But, they won't, because that would require them to look...actually look...at their customer base and the people they have working for them and realize just what kind of disaster they've been making.
So well written
Superhero comics are focus on one universe and world building, manga has a variety of universe and world building, culinary, romance, ghost, thus it doesnt just stuck with one large theme
The one reason I believe manga is incredibly popular is because it's so incredibly easy to get into. You walk into a store, find something that looks interesting, and you buy volume 1. There's no bullshit involved.
Now THIS is what I like to see from Just Some Guy! Keep it coming!
"License the characters to teh Japanese, they'll probably do it better anyways"
For what I have seen of the times they actually did it...
...My friend, they gave Deadpool a companion that is an psychopatic idol (A type of young dancer/musician in Japan, for those nto in the known) with a Symbiote, and she has some pannels where she looks absolutely terrifying.
Do I have to say anything more?
I think I made myself clear enough.
Let's hope they give up making those comics nobody likes and start licensing the characters to people actually capable of making good stories with them XD.
I've always gravitated towards the completed story, the graphic novels and one shots. Back when the new 52 started I tried to keep up, but got priced out and it was just so much to follow even the handful of titles I was interested in, and this is all digital. While watching a story unfold for years sounds interesting to me in theory, I want to know that the store is going to end and be able to get through it when I want to. That's why I don't watch shows as they come out, I wait till the season's over and watch it all on my own time.
Super hero movies doesn't translate into comic sales is because the movies doesn't adapt the stories...They just "takes inspiration" from them...While anime\manga have perfect synergy.
Marvel would be completely dead if they didn't have the MCU and their video games.
Saddest thing about it is that there are those in the industry and their followers who are trying to force Japanese creators to conform to their thinking because they KNOW manga is beating western comics in sales and wants to control that market, too. Like a backseat driver trying to control where the vehicle is going and taking credit for every turn that doesn't end in a ditch.
That's what it's always been about. Not the stories, not the sales, not really even the politics. Control and credit is the currency of this current industry. Rising high enough to force people to listen to you, even when you don't have anything meaningful to say. Like Homelander taking over Vought.
If not for the damage this caused, I'd almost say that it's admirable. Now, it's just pitiful. Like Homlander taking over Vought.
NPD book scan is becoming the industry standard because it’s basically universal and it actually allows the companies, museums, independent/used book stores to track actual sells of each item and the authors of those books. It actually lets the user know what they need to have in stock and what they can discount and just keep a few on hand.
Japan : "Now comes the part where we Throw our heads back and laugh ready. "
Everyone who have given up on American comics: " ready! "
Everyone : 🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂🤣🤣😂
Nice. George of the jungle
When Japan is better at telling western stories lol 😆
@@npcimknot958 Ikr!
😂
@@npcimknot958 There is some good storytelling in American superhero stuff, but it's flash-in-the-pan (I'm thinking Green Lantern The Animated Series and Young Justice in particular) and the studios don't like it so you don't often get 5+ season runs like Naruto (or Teen Titans Go :rolleyes:). Of course my comment isn't addressing the comic books side of things, which has really fallen off a cliff (well, pushed by wokeism and stupidity really).
Aside from stories that actually end, another reason manga is kicking ass is the fact that you get FAR more for your money than comics, last I checked a single comic cost about £3 - £4 for a issue and that about a two dozen pages give or take a few, while a single volume of manga has a hell of a lot more, sure it's black and white but the story and the art is what matters the most, US comics have forgotten this, I would not be surprised if Disney shuts down Marvel comics and outsources them to another publisher, same with Warner Discovery and the DC comics they own, why waste the money upon in house publishing when there is no real market and just get someone else to do the work for you!!
One thing that happened was that for a long time most girls wouldn’t buy comics, because the superhero comic stories don’t appeal to girls as much as boys. The comics industry didn’t necessarily like this because who wants half the population’s money when you can have all the money, but they wrote it off as there just being something about the female brain that doesn’t do visual storytelling so girls like text based books but not comics. Then manga came along with series like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, InuYasha, Full Metal Alchemist and others that did well with female audiences. Suddenly the narrative that the comics industry had told itself about how women just don’t like comics crumbled and they were looking for how to get that sweet sweet female wallet to open for them, so when the woke SJW types promised they had the solution for making women buy comics the industry jumped on it and hired them to revamp comics to appeal to female readers.
After years of being a Comic guy I ran into Anime. Then Manga. That’s when I realised. Comics were always inferior to Manga in terms of writing. Since the old ages. Think about it, Comics are always about the same thing. Multiverse, Tragic Backstory, Villains aren’t complex, crossover, politics, discrimination, and the thing is none of these concepts were ever expanded upon. The same thing over and over again. There is no change. There is always the same thing.
Even more of a slap in their faces is that a lot of the indie / self published comics that they're barely holding up against are inspired *MORE* by manga and anime than American comics. I'm trying to improve my art skills to make videos and comics on two stories and both of them have far bigger Japanese inspirations than American ones, and based on talking with other people writing stories, worldbuilding and so on that's kinda the case for them too.
Them trying to claim these numbers as a win is outright impressive in the same way it's impressive to watch as your uncle reports the theft of his car to the police when he got it by stealing it in the first place.
Here's some food for thought
One piece is the most successful series written by one author comic book wise ever created and you can imagine when it finishes that it will be the highest selling comic book of all time. it only took 20 odd years compared to Batman and Superman who existed for almost a hundred
I'd argue a lot of it is because Oda's approach to storytelling and the mystery of how it will end are what makes it so beloved. The American comic book industry lost that sense of intrigue, and because they're creatively defunct nowadays, characters like Superman and Batman end up suffering as far as comic book sales go.
@Ultimate Sora I'll respond to this after I take a nap.
@Ultimate Sora I agree with a lot of your points, especially the ones about Nami, Chopper, and Robin. I think it is a shame that Chopper is so underutilized and that Nami and Robin have been resigned to enemy crowd control during any major conflicts.
I was excited to have Robin join the crew because she seemed the most intelligent and level-headed character which was something that the crew did not really have. I expected her to play more of an information gathering role, but at the same time be able to handle herself in a 1v1 fight if necessary. Post TS has been a dissapointment from her new character design and her being sidelined from any major 1v1 fights.
Nami was another post TS redesign that I'm not a fan of. Using her for fanservice and minimizing her role as navigator is rather sad. Since they have been spending so long on single islands, her role of synchronizing the Logpost and determining the next island has been put on the back burner. It's especially sad since pre-TS she has more character development and meaningful story arc than most characters.
Chopper's different forms and the risk of turning into Monster form were interesting and unique aspects about him that I hoped we would get more of post-TS. I was hoping that he would learn more forms as he progressed, but all we got were very "cutesy" things like kung-fu form and a complete loss of suspense or intrigue with Monster form.
I agree with the power-creep and asspull that Luffy has had with Gear 4 and onwards. I found Gear 4 to just be ugly and makes Luffy look more like every other buff Shonen protagonist. His skinny build and stretchy powers were unique looking when lined up next to characters like Goku or anyone from Jojo. Also the convenient discovery of Snakeman, Gear 5, and the sun god Nika forms have felt more like asspulls to make Luffy stronger instead of having him work to achieve them or at least give them any negative drawbacks. I liked 2nd Gear because there was an explanation for it and the negative effects it had on Luffy in the long run. Basically by squishing his legs, he is making them like pumps to push large volumes of blood back towards his heart very rapidly by increasing his blood pressure. The overall process puts his body into hyperdrive (depicted as the pink shine and steam coming off his body), delivering oxygen and energy to his muscles at an extremely fast rate granting him increased speed. The downside is that it puts extreme strain on his body and if used for extended periods of time, it will shorten his life in the long run. 2nd Gear had real risks involved with using it that made it not feel like a strict power up like later Gears. 3rd Gear also has an explanation and a very obvious drawback. For this one, Luffy bites a hole into his bone and inflates his bones, muscles, etc to become giant. The limitations are that he can only inflate one area of his body at a time, and for the amount of time he remains inflated, he must become tiny Luffy for an equal amount of time afterwards.
Lastly, I used to think that the arrival of Merry at Enies Lobby was a very Deus Ex Machina thing when I first read it. It seemed stupid that the ship, which was thrown out into the ocean during a storm, would randomly show up at just the right place when it was needed. But then someone explained to me that it was because of the Klabautermann (the carpenter spirits that represent the incarnation of a ship that we saw in Skypiae) which guided the ship to Enies Lobby and rescued the crew. Do I like this explanation? Not entirely. It still feels too convenient, but at least it is using something that was introduced in the previous arc instead of something completely out of thin air.
Yea, retcons are the thing that often makes me weary of comics, since at any point, a book I might like could just end up being decanonized, and it just winds up amounting to nothing in the grander narrative for a character or series. Maybe it doesn't necessarily make the book(s) bad, but it's just annoying how comic book continuity is just constantly shuffling and swapping events, while manga and anime rarely pull such stunts. Sure, there are series in Japan that have retconned chunks of their narratives, but those are usually justified in some way or another.
Quite the satisfying analysis here! This was an essential essay. Would be interesting to see if the industry could actually pivot. I suspect manga will dominate and Korean shows will oust Disney.
and water is wet. American comics aren't like they used to be anymore unfortunately and its sad. Thankfully mangakas love telling stories and introducing tons of new characters endlessly plus they don't have interest in injecting weird agendas to others.
A lot of people like to blame millennials for this crisis of comics, and to a degree, the part that's on Millennials who work in the industry, or ask for it on twitter, is valid and organic.
But I appreciate how you look deeper. Your analysis points out that what we see in comics that is bad writing, is not for Millennials. It's for older boomers and Gen X, but repackaged to pander to what they *think* millennials are into, hiding behind the fact they hired (probably desperate) young people with no experience outside of some self insert fanfictions that a lot of us have to start out with for practice.
They're stuck in the past, catering to an older audience while spraying on offensively overwhelming perfume trying to cover the smell of the old with the imitation smell of the new. Rather than blame millennials, people should realize millennials are being patronized, something of false evidence that leaves us as a scapegoat for the sins of out of touch boomers running the show.
For me, the reason the Manga industry is bigger (and has been for some time) is that it's just way better (and has been for some time). But why? Let's put aside the fact that there are many different types of manga that cater to all manner of readers (unlike American comics which have been mostly super hero related for a long time and have mainly been aimed at boys) and look at the core issue.
Manga is (for the most part) made by the creator of the comic. Toriyama created Dragonball and he also worked on it. Oda created 'One Piece' and he also makes it. Kentaro created 'Berserk' and he also made the books.
Now look at the big American publishers. Mostly old characters, created 30-80 years ago with books made by guns for hire. Yes, some of these artists and writers may like the characters and feel honoured to work on them, but the level of passion will not be the same as it would be if they were working on their own creations rather than 'playing with somebody else's toys'.
Then there's the 'IP as a comodity' issue. To the big companies characters like Batman or The Hulk are so valuable that they can't allow all that much to be done with them. It's the 'Mickey Mouse' effect'-Where a character becomes so important to a company that they cannot risk doing anything interesting with that character anymore.
The there's the Simpsons effect (all these effects!). Characters like Batman are not only limited by what the owners of the IP will allow (as he's seen as too valuable to risk damaging with anything too wild) but there's also the issue that he's been around for so long and been re-imagined so many times that trying to do something interesting and original with the character has become almost impossible.
Now lets' look at the Manga industry again. A Darwinistic system of creator driven content. The weak fall by the wayside while the popular titles rise to the top. New characters and worlds are constantly born. Many of these fail, but many succeed and new legends are born. Compare that to American comics and it's like a whole range of fresh new treats being rolled out every day vs American comic's crusty old cake that's been on the shelf for the past two weeks. It may have been fresh and interesting once, but that time has long passed by.
Basically, Marvel and DC should look at encouraging new blood and new, creator owned titles. They don't even need to be set in the Marvel and DC settings. Just give new creatives a platform. An anthology like 'Shonen Jump'. Put it out there and see what happens. I garuantee that some of those new characters and worlds will be popular and suddenly the American industry will have the jump start it needs to compete again. Some fresh ideas and new, interesting characters rather than trotting out the musty old cadavers from the 70s (and earlier) for the rest of time.
Excellent observation. To add to "The quality is better": The Japanese imho have several quality advantages and that's still going to be challenging to overcome even if US Comics broke all the problems you mention eg Super Hero genre, IP value/farming and lack of innovation or new ideas.
With politics and movies taking over the utility of DC/Marvel it's even harder to pivot change so probably indie comic writers will be where US Comics finds quality again?
One of the best posts on the core reasons Manga is simply better quality atst as the problems of US Comics, imho. Thank you.
Demon Slayer alone outsold the entire mainstream US comic industry AND still has Volume 1 appear in the Top 10 best selling list. The same thing is starting to happen with Chainsaw Man which is getting adapted into an anime this year. This is not even mentioning the success of Indie comics like Cyberfrog or most recently, Isom (Rippaverse)
I cant hear you
AYE AYE CAPTAIN
It wasnt a spongebob reference. Its just that his video was broken. But now its fixed
I was there when the manga industry stagnated and busted in the early 2000s when Tokyopop lost most of their licenses. The manga market then shrank significantly. The market today is so flush with choice, it feels like a Renaissance in manga in American markets. Barnes & Noble has completely expanded their shelving to accommodate expanding manga publications, while the graphic novel section languish. Even big box stores like Target have devoted space to sell manga. It's insane. And I love to see it.
Hell even my Walmart in a small hick town sells a My Hero Academia. It doesn't seem like they stock too many copies but there is one or two. When I was a kid part of my love for the pre- equals probably came from the fact my Walmart would sell some SW books because of them. The fact that someone can pick up a Manga there now kinda blows my mind. Even if it is like one or two series.
I gotta be honest. I don't really read manga, mainly anime. Bit whenever Indo go into a comic book shop, I 99% of the time go straight to the manga section.
Well...I guess there's only one thing to say...get ready for the Rippaverse!!!!
I miss Spiderman Fake Red manga, it was pretty fun
I mean, One Piece already is the second greatest selling comic ever.
But just imagine:
What happens if Oda nails the ending? It will be probably be the best work of fiction ever created.
A long time ago in the 1990s i read some American comics and was impressed with the artwork. (Batman comics i think). But they were too expensive (i am from Asia) and manhwas (from Hong Kong) and mangas are way cheaper and more available.
I recently try to read some new DC comics online and was deeply dismayed by the bad baaaad art and the stupid wokism at every issue.
So RIP American comics, you will not be missed.
Well at least fair use policy still exist why talent fanfic still have hope on this.
Japan is laughing and making hard earned money, while America is struggling and making comics on their own, than giving their own hard work to failing woke comic book companies. Manga is still the bestselling work if you really want to escape to another time.
woke doesnt means nothing these days
Though the MCU was successful and DC had a few good shows and movies and videogames, I personally believe it's making the writing lazy over the years but at the same time helps keep it alive. My question would be what can we do to fix it?
I heard some solutions from other people on RUclips, here are they;
1:- "Make new characters that aren't taking mantle of some previous hero."
2:- "Stop hiring political activists that are clearly looking to push political agenda in a laziest way possible".
3:- "Stop the people, you hire from antagonizing your customers and let them keep telling customers to 'If you don't like our work, then don't buy it' they're actually going to move on, if you do that".
4:- " Adopt a similar system to Japan's Shounen Jump. (Hopefully, they don't include Japan's working conditions)"
5:- "Promote different genres, other than Superheroes, like romance, horror, drama".
There are more, but those require more context, so I left them out.
@@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457 couldn't have said it better 👏
Captain Underpants is still popular? Thats great to hear, I remember reading those books in the before times.
The worst part os that people think is because of current politics and not because American comics have been telling the same type of stories with the same characters for almost 80 years on a monthly basis and the CCA
After your mha video I got into anime and manga and since then I've stopped buying comics entirely. I used to buy every weekly star wars comic that came out now I don't buy any because I can buy a full manga volume or spend more and get 2 issues of a comic. It's not a choice when you factor in that the manga is 90% chance of being a far better story.
Manga even surpasses the best written novels like War and Peace, Moby Dick, Don Quixote, Brothers of Kazamarov, Macbeth, Crime and Punishment, Song of Fire and Ice
We have underrated Mangas such as Blade of the Immortal, Kasane, Eden: it's an endless world, Dorohedoro, Lone Wolf and Cub, Houseki no kuni all of them can curbstomp any classical literature
What nope😂 you take your exicitment and overextend the prose and literary gold of classical literature
@@obinnaiwudike7644 Blade of the Immortal, Blame, Eden: it's an endless world
Have you ever read any of those?
Only Visual Novels are better
@@obinnaiwudike7644 Lmao to beat Russian Literature we have Visual Novels like Umineko and House in Fata Morgana
No literature ever produced by human civilization has ever reached that level
NOTHING
As someone who used to collect and read comics for their entire childhood, I noticed Marvel comics took a massive nosedive in quality after Disney bought Marvel around 2009-ish. Almost overnight, the stories became uninteresting. Too many bland stories got approved, and every story became about race, ethnicity, or gender. It lost the sense of wonder comics used to have.
I stopped reading American comics and devoted myself to manga instead. No regrets.
If you want to see good Marvel comics, make sure you read stories made before 2009.
Biased political ideologies is definitely a reason for why American comics aren’t succeeding anymore. But I wholeheartedly agree with JSG’s point about deconstruction. He’s right. Look deconstructing characters isn’t in itself a bad concept. The problem is when you overdo it in stories. This is why I don’t like stories like Watchmen. Watchmen, alongside other franchises like The Boys(both the comics and Amazon series), created this trope of “Our heroes are actually big ole narcissistic jerks and don’t care about anyone in all honesty”. Or, “The idea of the superhero is a lie. Not everybody who wears a cape or mask is all morally good”. We’ve gotten to a point now where aspirational characters have to be broken down multiple times in order for them to feel like real world people. Some characters the deconstruction can work. Others, it can divide audiences and potentially ruin characters(BVS the movie comes to mind). I for one don’t want to see anymore hero deconstruction. I want my food guys to BE good guys.
JSG, I wonder what’s your opinion on some recent comics as of late, like the Jeremy Adams Flash run, recent PKJ annual of AC, the Zdarsky opening of his new Batman run, or if you really want to dip into clowning the negatives….there is the ASM run that makes Peter look like Monster Mash
Meanwhile over at DC, "superman" and his boyfriend are about to team up in the comics with Dreamer (from the wb show) for..a threesome or something? Can't make this up. Yeah definitely going to be top seller of the year, right?
One thing they stopped doing is also superheroes tv shows. I got into Batman, Spider-Man & the X-Men at a young age because they had the best cartoons out there.
Now? We have Titans Go but hello the shock if you start reading the books after watching a few episodes. You won't recognize anything or barely.
Meanwhile, animes & manga are almost a one for one page to frame adaptation. That's why it's selling. You reach the end of Season 1 but already wanna know what is coming next! How do you find out? You buy the books. It's not rocket science. DC should have a weekly episode following their Batman serie. But they don't have fate in their products and aren't interested in investing in them. They just want the quick money at low cost.
It's easy to see why manga is so popular. The storytelling, the characters, the worlds, their settings and most importantly: the art styles. Manga has so many characters ranging from Goku, Usagi Tsukino, Ichigo, Naruto and Edward to Deku, Tanjiro, Twilight (Loid) and Komi-san that you can connect with and _not a single one of them look like you_ by the way. Also I still want to get more manga too. Konosuba, Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are all on my wishlist, with several more that will catch my attention. Manga's just better.
Oh and don't count on Marvel or even DC to get the memo, cause nothing is going to change. We saw how much Marvel cares with the hilariously bad racial stereotype "What If Miles Morales Was Thor" book and DC constantly digging its own grave with the gay Superman book that was a flop, but hey they can blame fans for their own failures and continue to push themselves off a cliff in the process.
By the way for those who don't know, I used to read western comics a lot too...and then I noticed how shallow they felt. I'm at the point where I get skeptical and ask around about books that catch my interest. I never would've bought Superman Smashes The Klan if not for JSG and neither would I be interested in getting DC's crossover to Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, yet even then I'm still skeptical since DC's own employees have shown how much they hate us. Meanwhile ever since I started reading manga in 2019, these are all of the titles I've bought in the past 3 years:
- We Never Learn
- My Hero Academia (again, thanks JSG)
- Uzaki-chan Wants To Hang Out (thanks, Twitter, ya losers)
- Komi Can't Communicate
- Demon Slayer
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
- Hi Score Girl
- New Game!
- Hitomi-chan Is Shy With Strangers
- Spy x Family
- One Punch Man
- Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
- My Dress-up Darling
- Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible (thanks, stupid ass "localiser" who don't know what shonen is)
Despite piracy being a major problem for manga and Seven Seas Entertainment letting "localisers" screw up more than once (I've stopped buying Seven Seas translated books for now because of it), Japan is still kicking the west's ass. Indy comics and crowdfunding is the only way to go cause the big 2 ain't gonna do it.
Manga has been superior to comics since the 60s
The problem is nobody still working at Marvel or DC even knows the lore they're fucking up and couldn't be bothered to do a 10 minute Google search to find it. They don't care about the characters or the universe, they don't care about the history or over arching themes, they're the writing equivalent of a bunch of children smashing together action figures in the backyard. The problem is they broke into the house and stole our near mint vintage collector's edition models to do it with, to complete the analogy. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
I started reading Manga in the 90’s. Series like Blade of the Immortal, Ghost in the Shell, Dirty Pair…..were superior stories back then.
Western comic books take more L’s than the Chicago cubs bullpen.
Another good thing about manga is that most manga writers do NOT demonize people because of disagreements. And most manga writers do NOT demonize their fans either.
Berserk came back; manga defeats comics. Coincidence?! I think not!
Berserk is beyond based and one of the best stories ever put on this planet. Once in a lifetime story.
There's no sound.
There’s no video, either
I was about to say
There is a video on my end, but definitely no sound.
Wait a minute I was watching another content creator that didn't have sound either
this isn't them???
I see and hear it . It may just be a location thing
theres a wolverine series set in japan and its VERY anime but is pretty sick, plus the intro is baddaaasss
Going to jump in the Ripperverse? Idea sound class, hopefully it works
Manga know how to write a story, its that simple American Comic writers can't write.
rippaverse is coming
I like stories and characters that make me feel something and give me an escape from the real world. If I wanted to read about how terrible racism, sexi, and homophobia is, I'd go read the news. Thats not to say you can't have politics in your stories. You just have to do it well. Look at the politics of Fullmetal Alchemist. Just the right touch of fantasical and applicable. Old Trek was also pretty good at this from whay I've heard. You can have these things. But first you need a compelling story and characters
Original Star Trek was absolutely EXCELLENT at that, and at doing it in a way that made you THINK, and didn't come across as either preachy or "you have to believe what I believe or you're evil." 100% recommend. And not every story is meant to teach you anything, either. Some are fun, some are character development, some are just great Sci-Fi. But they're ALL worth watching. What surprises me most is how long it took for the special effects to actually look dated, especially considering how tiny their budget was! It's really only been in the last 20 years or so that it really looks dated - but the stories still hold up!
@@kateshiningdeer3334 the thing is, original Trek strikes me as the type of show you could either turn off your brain and enjoy or think about it and enjoy it. You can't do that with these sorts of shows and movies they're pushing since it's just preachy. There's only their way or no way. I'll have to buy the old Trek collection at some point since it sounds awesome
As you said at the end (and I assume you now) there are manga versions of Marvel and DC Heroes - Superman vs Meshi is just great, the Joker tale where he has to take care of an infant and Deadpool Samurai as well.
There also were X-Mean, Iron Man and Wolverine Anime, which had to be somehow fit into the MCU, but they were also great and some Cartoons tried to adopt their visual style.
Manga always produces new characters while Comics uses the same characters since 1930s - 1960s. In the past decade the Manga introduced already memorable characters such as Eren Yeager, Levi, Saitama, Deku, Tanjirou and many others while Comics just changed Superman's underwear so he can fight against the baldy guy again.
One piece will be like "i will chase whatever it takes and drag down every other literature in the world in sales" 😂😂
I hope this means we'll get translations faster.
It has a dark side too, but i do not want to think about it now. Never change Japan and never bend to the woke or american money
What is it?
@@nevsoul9646 Heavy censorship, regulations and american politics trying to influence Manga because its too popular.
@@isvaraov wow. So is manga going to continue being censored?
I love that Kenshin is part of your thumbnail! :D
Let's face it, manga did nothing, it's the comic industry that committed suicuide. I am a manga fan and I don't feel not even a bit sorry for the comics because fixing it is so easy, just give the fans what they want, that's all. I am pretty sure there are a ton of thirsty comic fans, dying for a good comic to be released.
Also, I am 100% skeptical about anyone who have always been a comic fan and says they abandoned Comics and now they are manga fans. No, I do believe these people are just distracting themselves with manga, taking some time, but deep inside they have hope that a good comic appear at some coner, so they can abandon manga at once, but while there's nothing else to read, reading manga as a distraction is valid since it's popular now right? nobody will laugh at you for reading this childish looking book for kids, right? I say this because I know what comics fans used to think about manga, how much they have demonized and made fun of manga, I do not believe that Suddenly these people become manga fans. Of course, I'm not telling it's all the cases, because certainly there are people who read both manga and comics for many years, however I always feel skeptical if I meet someone who says they have read comics their hole life and noooow they are manga fans.
the outcome no one was surprised by
I live in a South American country (Argentina) and the last... 10 years? have been astounding in how almost all comic book stores have almost completely been eaten up by manga. Here manga and anime have always been popular since the 90s at least, but the king was always american comics. Comic book stores were exactly that, comic book stores, with a small section of manga. But the last ten years?. Of course, you can still find the classics and it's new editions, some new comic content, sure. And of course very good indie or european comics. But manga is like 60% or 70% of every comic book store.
It really makes you wonder what's going to happen to Western comics in the future if they keep doing this crap do you think that they'll go out of business?
The big two probably, but I think there will be others that replace them in addition to indies. I would eventually like to throw my hat in the ring.
@@greenliongirl07 but there could be a chance that david zaslav will try to see save the DC comics industry as for marvel? Yeah I think it's safe to say they're a lost cost if they don't change.
@@AngelDustSimp69 Maybe, but he's got alot of work ahead of him.
It would take a large shift in focus to build trust back in fans. I used to collect a lot of Marvel series, usually complete the events like Annihilation Wave or Secret Invasion. The more recent events have been pretty boring, the individual comic books are a bait and switch a lot of times. When you buy a Manga, you get the brand you paid for. The $9-$10 format and book size is easier to collect. The books are easier to bring around without them getting damaged in a bag. You can go to Walmart, Target, or Amazon and collect them. If Marvel/DC started selling 4-5 issue trades at $10-$12, put them in bigger stores, and made the stories good, maybe they could claw their way back.
It has been dominating for the past 2 years!
American comics is near death or already dead!
Let hope the Rippaverse brings us back in to the fight!😔✊
I have owned a comic book / popculture store in Australia scince 2016 and my product mix has gone from zero manga in 2016 to 15x 4 shelf bays in my store today (Hundreds and Hundreds of books) - in fact my store went from no Anime to about 30 to 40% of stocked product is Anime... I have 2x 4 shelf bays of graphic novels for comparisons sake. TPBs do sell but manga out sells 4 or 5 to one.... We are riding the wave baby.
In a nut shell Marvel and DC just flog the same dead horse. Manga stories are sexy, taboo, funny, and have some strage ass story arcs and adventures. Boy love, girl love, Henti, and gamer stuff. It's just way better...
Another thing that I've noticed is that with manga there's actually a variety of stories written for particular demographics and interests. For super hero fans, there's superhero manga. For people who like mystery, there's mystery. For those who like romance, there's romance. But when you look at western comics there's.... superheroes. That's it. I've been slowly watching the rise of webtoons and josei manga getting translated and brought over here, and growing amounts of women reading these manga, myself included. But when I look at western comics, there's literally nothing like this. My interest in stuff like batman is basically nonexistent. I've had *some* growing appreciation for marvel, thanks to my brother forcing me to watch all the films. Dr Strange is cool. Does he have a comic? I have no fucking clue. Where's all the female heroes that'd actually appeal to women? Every one I see being pushed out are these masculine feminist girlbosses that are remarkably unappealing. I don't want to see some buff unattractive woman kicking men's asses. Why would I want to watch that; let alone read it? Instead I really enjoyed watching Madoka and Precure. Why aren't there any western superheroes like *that*? Manga, Anime, etc. has a lot of variety. I know you picked the few super popular ones to drive the point, but there's a ton of variety so even people who aren't into those particular titles still have something to enjoy. Why read another generic batman story when I could read an interesting romance? Why be preached to about diversity when I can just go read a story featuring a trans character I actually relate to, and who struggles through the same issues as me rather than being a perfect icon of diversity?
The problem with this mentality is Manga especially Shonen Manga has its own problems that in my opinion make even its best stories mediocre when compared to the best of western comic books. The simplest explanation of that problem is power-ups being the resolution to nearly every story arc instead of relying on the cleverness or ingenuity of its characters. A close second would be tropes, not that western comics don't have them it's just there are entire popular shonen manga series that are essentially built on never-ending sequences of tropes, and as we have seen with the Wano story arc even the uniqueness of One Piece has been blighted by it.
IMO, I don't think that having a issue being resolved with power ups aren't necessarily bad, it just depends how it's done, FMA, YYH, OPM and HxH are great examples of Shounens that gets it right.
Just an FYI, shounen is *not* the only demographic for manga and anime. It's not even most people's *intended* demographic. Shounen is meant for young boys. Adult men should be reading seinen. Girls, shoujo. And women, josei. I assure you that if you read manga from your proper demographic, you'll find *much* more enjoyment. Reading outside of your demographic and it *still* being good is just further proof that manga is leagues better than western comics.