Not against the medium I consume it.
But it occurred to me that there seems to be a lot more exposure to anime and manga largely thanks to services like crunchyroll and manga reader services, this includes physical sales as well.
It’s just that you’d think say, Superman would be more stupidly popular since everyone knows who he is than someone such as Lelouch from Code Geass.
Is it because comics just doesn’t have the same spark with the younger generation? Or is it because there are a billion different issues of comics so it makes manga more streamlined?
I would like to know your thoughts as I am quite curious about this phenomenon, since even in the early 2000s I was into anime, and you could get your fix from non legit services via the Internet, but I’m sure as shit it didn’t hit this mainstream until the mid 2010s and now the roaring 2020s.
I think it’s because comics keep refrying the same story over and over again. Boot, let it run, reboot, let it run, reboot … You get the idea. They try to spice things up and change stuff - the equivalent of remixing a classic song ad infinitum, some iterations will be better than others and you will probably like some more than the original but it’s the same song.
Manga and anime have originality on the other hand. Even if some genres become cliche, each story remains a closed entity. Characters here don’t end up elsewhere, and once a story is complete it doesn’t get a reboot. This means the audience can relate more easily to a franchise, because there are not as many variants, and then move on to the next.
There is also less influence in Manga from current affairs, society and history, whereas comics always meddle with those three just too much. Mangas released in the 80s remain relatable today, but a lot of comics don’t for example, or feel like they’ve aged awkwardly.
So it’s easy for people to remain ‘loyal’ to an anime franchise, but difficult for the average comic.