In the category of "This makes Mugen's head hurt"...

[telophase]

Apparently Japanese manga will never make it big in America because Americans don't eat rice, among other things.

I think my favorite bit is where he says that Americans don't like teenage angst. Now, please excuse me. I have to go eat sushi while reading Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High.

Comments

[the-z.livejournal.com]

...

(what did I have last night for dinner then?!)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Obviously not rice. And the stuff getting all dried out in my fridge since I keep forgetting the leftover Chinese is probably some strange new form of mashed potato.

[teleute12.livejournal.com]

His Random Capitolizations make my head hurt.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

People who Capitalize the word Manga for No Discernible Reason make Mugen go 'Bzuh?' It makes no grammatical sense - it's not a proper noun, and if you're treating it as an untranslated foreign-language word, it should properly be italicized, not capitalized.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Same Here. It Made things Difficult to read.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Also, while scorning nudity, incest, and violence in manga, I plan to console myself with the sweet innocence of V.C. Andrews.

... I had to check the date to be sure this hadn't been written three years ago. Since, um, he clearly hasn't been looking at bestsellers lists lately.

I still laugh at all the academic papers I've been reading which happily proclaim c. 1999 that shoujo will never get published in America because it's so alien-looking and everyone knows American girls don't read comics anyway, but honestly, at least I can see why everyone thought that way at the time.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

He's 20. I realize I am old and doddering by the standards of anime fans, but I am pretty sure that I knew how to spell "dedicated" and how to spell check by the time I was 20.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I checked his info - he's 20 years old, and I'm wondering if he reads much outside of whatever his favorite genres are. So much popular fiction is precisely teenage angst, even when the characters are nominally adult - Mercedes Lackey leaps immediately to mind.

Yeah, sure the majority of Americans will never read manga, but the majority of Americans don't do significant amounts of reading at all, IIRC.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Word.

[kerbox.livejournal.com]

Oh no, sexism in manga is impossible to tolerate! Pardon me while I read Wonder Woman or Catwoman, because those don't objectify women as sex symbols or anything. ._.

Yeah, was this written 5 years ago?

[chibi-nasu.livejournal.com]

I feel like my IQ has just dropped 40 points. Wow...

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Hah hah hah hah hah hah. I love how he capitalizes everything--"The demeaning placement of Women in Japanese Culture." And the random bolding. Look, ma, it's my thesis statement.

This is first time I've seen someone who presumably reads manga make a case for the godawful inanity of "American manga." (A novel concept? No, not at all. But no less dumb for having been thought of before.) I wonder if he'd like those atrocious Hilary Duff "cine-manga" I keep seeing on the manga shelves at Barnes and Noble?

And the thing about racism is so...utterly, moronically simple-minded. Americans have a history of racism towards Asians, so they'll never embrace anything Asian (like sushi!). Just like Japanese racism means that the Japanese will never embrace any products or trappings of American culture, right? Does the widespread popularity of black urban music and fashions by white teenagers mean that America has never had any internal race problems?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I think he's also got a stereotyped idea of Japanese culture, excuse me, Culture. Pretty much reads like an opinion paper written for a class where you were asked to take a stand on a topic and support it. I remember those - man, we produced some godawful tripe in those days.

[obviouslyanon.livejournal.com]

Why did you have to mention the cine-manga? I finally got that out of my mind long enough to pretend it didn't exist. I'm going to go in my corner and chant: "It's not for my age group.. It's not for my age group.."

I need to keep telling myself "American manga" isn't all that awful. I've never bought any of it, but Megatokyo seems to be doing well and Time had an article on an "American shoujo manga." (Now I'm just as bad as his random caps with my random quotation marks.)

I agree with you on the racism. I was just talking with a friend about Asian pop Culture and really they have a greater reason to not embrace anything American under this guy's argument. But that doesn't stop American culture from influencing Japanese culture.

[ewein2412]

If you want to be pedantic about rice...

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

I think the idea is that Americans don't make rice the underlying staple of most or all meals. (We eat potato chips or something.) Therefore, we can't really relate to people eating rice for breakfast in comic books.

Never mind that I frequently come away from anime and manga with intense cravings for onigiri and non-instant ramen. I can't help it. I like food; when I read about food, I want to eat it. This has resulted in the most frustrating cooking implosions known to man. (There have been wooden spatulas hurled across the kitchen when the rice wouldn't stick. Tempura batter all over the floor. Cats jumping up on the counter to eat bonito flakes stright out of the bag. Spam sushi. Not a pretty sight.)

[seiyojin.livejournal.com]

You find the strangest people writing stranger things.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ri/]

>Most women can't read a Shonen manga

Hahaha!
I lost interest in reading the article once the history lesson started. He also likes to repeat himself.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Every single chick I know who reads manga reads shonen titles. Some don't read shoujo.

Ironically, the two biggest shoujo freaks I know are men. XD

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Most women can't read a Shonen manga

*dies* You mean I'm not supposed to own all that Dragonball Z manga? Oh noes! I've betrayed my gender! *weeps, rends clothing*

Nice blanket statement, dude! Extra points for managing to be sexist and stupid!

[cicer.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHA! Dear Lord. Now that is a prime example of stupidity. Excuse me, I mean a Prime Example of Stupidity. Americans are incapable of accepting manga into mainstream culture? Wow. Then why does my local Barnes and Noble have two full sections completely dedicated to anime and manga? Every other popular bookstore I've been to has a huge amount of manga as well. Hm. I guess they haven't heard that we Americans are so xenophobic that we're not supposed to like this stuff! Whoops!

And Americans don't like teenage angst? I would respond to that, but unfortunately I just died laughing.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

THE ILLITERACY IT BURNS.

It's nice to hear that Americans don't like teenage angst; now I can rest easy in the knowledge that the entire list of Newbery Award winners is some kind of horrible aberration, and is undoubtedly just a plot to depress me.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I frequently feel that the Newbery winners are a plot to depress me. Have you ever read the Newbery winner Into the Dust? That and a book that only I have ever read called I Who Have Never Known Men are tied for the title of Most Depressing Book Ever Written.

[usmangaka.livejournal.com]

I remember reading somewhere that more women read manga than men, at least in the US, and since most titles are shonen... hmm.
and yeah, manga will never catch on because Americans are racist... I guess that means hip hop will never be popular either?
I actually sent that guy an email in rebuttal just for the fun of it, I'd post it here but it's about as well researched as his is. :P

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Let us know what he says if he replies. :)

[pratyeka.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. American's don't like teenage angst? How did livejournal even get off the ground? not to mention any show on the WB

[prettyism.livejournal.com]

This is as bad as the guy who wrote the essay about why girls shouldn't and couldn't read comic books due to a lack of imagination. The essay is 'supposed' to be Funny, right?