Why anime and manga have become more popular than superhero comics and tv shows
The year was 2019. The ring had barely any fighters left. Despite being a mere mortal from the lower class of his race, one man held the multiverse’s attention. Even the gods had stood up to honor him. Goku had mastered Ultra Instinct.
The reaction to that moment was absolutely insane. It crashed everything. All anime platforms- down, most streaming services- down, all piracy websites- down, heck pretty much the whole internet was slowed down. #UltraInstinct blew up everywhere. To this day no other moment in fiction has managed to break the internet like that. Yes, not even the iconic superheroes of DC and Marvel.
This is in line with the recent trend of anime being increasingly more popular than western shows. Just look at Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. In a year where DC released arguably the best interpretation of Superman (the face of superheroes) and Marvel released Fantastic Four, an anime movie came out with the higher sales numbers. As stated in by Wikipedia: In the US, its $70 million opening weekend was the biggest opening for an international film, R‑rated animated film,[24] and September animated release.[25] It went on to set US records for the highest-grossing anime film , highest-grossing Japanese film,[26] first anime film to cross $100 million,[27] and highest-grossing international film.[28]
Granted, sales is not everything but the reception to the movie was also significantly more positive than either of the other two films. Similarly, manga is outperforming superhero comics as well. As Ryan Schork says in an article on the news feed, “in 2021, comic books generated a total of $2.075 billion in America, with manga making up $1.47 billion of that total. This means that Japanese manga is not only more profitable in Japan, but even in America they are selling better than American comics”. Why is this the case? Superhero comics have been a staple of America since their inception and has been deeply rooted in the nation’s cultural identity. So how can they be failing in their own country? There are a lot of reasons.
The first and most obvious is accessibility. Superhero comics exist on a floating timeline i.e. they never really age. Batman is perpetually in his 30s-40s even though he’s raised 5 robins, 4 of whom have grown up into adults. Then of course those adults remain in their 20s forever. There is a lot of lore and history in these superhero comics which makes them extremely difficult to get into. Listen to what Comic drake says in this video: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxUT5x3eDbPhb1gElebBomu3whMSiaXcB5?si=L4DmxXWBvOyIH8Uq . When new readers try to read these they find themselves feeling lost or missing something as characters will throw reference to something that happened in some issue that they don’t even know about. The Hollywood adaptations of these comics used to be an easy way for fans to get introduced to some of the characters but now even those require intense research to understand. As a long time fan I may have loved Deadpool & Wolverine but that movie is full of so many random cameos and references and throwbacks that a first- time viewer might genuinely just think of it as brain rot slop.
Anime and manga on the other hand, don’t have this issue. Well, mostly at least. Dragon ball is just the 42 volumes of the original manga. There is no prequel from 50 years ago that one needs to read to understand the story. Attack on titan is just the 89/94 (depending on whether the specials count or not) episodes of the show. In a hyper competitive world where teenagers are expected to have years of experience for even part-time retail jobs, people generally do not have enough time to go back and spend hours nerding out over decades of comic book history. In fact, even if they did have the time it could be argued that its a tedious process in and of itself. Anime/ magna provide self-contained stories that are easy to jump into. Sure, there are outliers like one piece which has over 1000 episodes, but even then it is just one series with one story that progresses sequentially. To watch one piece, a viewer has to click on episode one or buy the first volume and read in order. Trying to understand a marvel show or comic book these days feels like extra homework.
Credit where credit is due: Marvel and DC do seem to be trying to address this. The DC cinematic universe has recently started everything from scratch and the head of the DCU, James Gunn has stated his wish to make sure each film does not require mountains of homework to understand. On the comics side Dc has recently revamped the main Batman comics with Batman issue 1, which is provides an entry point for new readers without sacrificing the development of previous years- a soft reboot. Marvel has tried to do this in the past with its Ultimate series but that eventually got too big and too complicated as well and had to be axed and merged with the main continuity. The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be heading for a reboot as well with the upcoming Avengers: Secret wars and Doomsday films while the non-MCU movies, like Spiderman: into the Spiderverse, are doing their own things which makes them more accessible.
Another important thing is the content of the stories. Due to the sequential, moving nature of anime/manga, the stories can focus on permanent, impactful events. Nina’s abuse by her father in Fullmetal Alchemist, Gojo Satoru’s death, Thorfinn Karlsefni disbanding the Jomsvikings are some of the most powerful moments I have read. But they are so powerful only because of the lasting impact they have on the story and characters. Unfortunately, superhero comics cannot afford to do that. As I mentioned earlier, these stories operate on a floating timeline so that the characters can be published on and on. While this may be good commercially, it ends up holding the characters back. Characters face adversity, overcome it, learn their lesson and then make the same mistakes in a later issue. Stories become repetitive as the same set of heroes go against the same villains with the same outcomes. This doesn’t necessarily mean the stories are bad; it just gets monotonous. Spiderman gets together with MJ but has to breakup out of fear for her life. The joker does something horrible, batman beats him to a pulp then puts him in Arkham, Joker escapes. Lex becomes a fascist dictator just to spite superman, superman puts him in his place. Rinse. And repeat. These all make for amazing stories but at some point, the audience wants something new.
Japanese stories’ linear timeline allows the readers to receive closure, for better or worse. The perfect example is my hero academia. A show heavily inspired by DC and marvel superheroes. It has similar characters and powers but actually has a long term storyline that leaves readers with a satisfying conclusion. The story of a weak powerless main character who becomes the greatest hero of all time has shown what superhero comics can do if they choose a more grounded approach. Thankfully, we are starting to see some of this.
The Absolute line of comics by DC takes our favorite heroes and puts a new twist on them. They are entirely separate characters that just resemble the original heroes. From the art to the tone, the series clearly has heavy anime/manga influence. While it is too early to tell, the writers do seem to want to keep the series self-contained and follow a strict storyline. This line of comics has revitalized a lot of the hype behind Dc and has been praised some of the best comics produced in recent times. The lead artist has also commented that he would like to see an anime adaptation of the books (find source to quote). This aligns with what Brian Ruh quotes in his Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga (2006) where Gravett, Paul “concludes the last chapter with the line, “As
artists combine the genres from manga, Euro-
comics, American comics and other sources,
rather than forging a single universal’ style,
they seem to be ushering in a post-imperialist,
transnational culture of ‘World Comics'” (157).”
It would appear that manga has come at the forefront with stories ranging from tales of samurai to stories of vampires and knights, to adaptations of epic sagas of hostory. And it is for that reason that anime has begun to influence western stories to follow suit. Similarly, My Adventures with Superman an animated superman show released in 2023 has received a lot of praise for its down-to-earth storytelling. The takes heavy anime influence as ZeroReq011 says in an animenewsnentwork blog post: “By drawing from anime superhero stories, My Adventures with Superman injects into the larger Superman canon a renewed faith in the altruistic goodness of superheroes that Japan continues to hold, and the West lost for a while in theaters with Snyder.”
The reasons for the differences is simple. For manga the authors and artists have the most control over their story. Yes publishing companies like shonen jump and Kodansha may set objectives and editors may make notes but every author maintains the final say on their story. For marvel and dc on the other hand, the publishers control everything. If a writer’s work is conflicting with the company’s wishes, they simply get kicked out and replaced. This is also the reason for stagnation in these stories. When writers try to do something risky or bold that may change their “cash cows” the publishers pull the plug and stick to what works. Obviously, smaller and indie publishers do not have this problem which is why lot of such stories are praised for their originality and quality. But DC and Marvel hold a duopoly in the comic book market. They are such juggernauts that everything else just gets outcompeted.
This data clearly shows the absolute chokehold the two companies have on the comic book market. VIZ and Kodansha having terrible numbers shows that sales numbers does not say everything. Some of the most popular and profitable manga in recent years have come from them. Blue Lock, Gachiakuta, Chainsawman, Jujustsu Kaisen, and many more. Despite their “low” sales numbers, these stories have had a bigger impact on pop-culture beacause of their accessibility and quality. [need to find sources of data to back this up].
This just goes to show that popularity is a matter of quality. No matter how great one becomes if they do not maintain their quality they are vound to be overtaken by better things. Superhero comics aren’t going anywhere. They just need to adapt to a busier and more “mature’ audience.
NOTES:
– Find more data to back up claims
– Streamline and rewrite
– more multimedia components
– PICK WRITING PIECE FROM CW
https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/60830/dc-gains-market-share-hot-summer
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2024-01-26/how-anime-helped-save-superman/.205133
https://addi.ehu.es/bitstream/handle/10810/43448/TFG_Mir%c3%b3n.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/1746847708091893
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