synthesis essay final draft

Why Japanese comics (manga) and their anime adaptations have begun to overtake the iconic American Superheroes 

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 was a moment that the show (Dragon Ball Super) had been leading toward since its start. Goku had existed for 31 years at that point (1986-2017) and had undergone a plethora of transformations and power-ups. So what made this so special? It was a final statement of his progress. From a savage kid in the forest to the strongest mortal in 11 universes. Episode 109-10 broke the Internet. Streaming services, video sites, piracy sites –anything that could have Goku on it crashed. #UltraInstinct blew up everywhere.  

This is just one example. There have been a lot of other anime that crashed streaming sites over the Internet, although to a lesser extent. When compared with adaptations of American superhero comics, we see that the Marvel Cinematic Universe used to have such feats too. Used to. In recent years, the superhero juggernauts seemed to have lost their edge. Just look at the Wikipedia table below: 

Demon Slayer, an anime movie, vastly outperformed Superman, despite not even being released much later. Granted, sales are 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. Ryan Schork, an author on The News Feed, says in an article, “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” (ryanschork14, “Japanese Manga Dominating American Comics.”). Why is this the case? Superhero comics have been a staple of America since their inception and have been deeply rooted in the nation’s cultural identity. So how can they fail in their own country? 

The biggest factor behind this shift is the accessibility of the stories. This can be further broken down into two sub-factors: 

  1. The content of the stories 
  1. The accessibility of the medium itself 

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, but that also means that there are so many layers to them. With different writers taking the characters to different places, multiple continuities existing simultaneously, various storylines that span across several worlds and bring them together or pit them against each other, these stories end up being extremely difficult to get into at first. New readers try to read these and find themselves feeling lost or like they are missing something. Characters will throw a reference to something that happened in some issue, some years ago, that they now have to go and read to understand the book. And of course, that book will lead to other references to other comics, and none of it makes any sense. As a redditor in the r/DCcomics subreddit puts it:  

“I just realized why people find comics so confusing 

 The timelines are confusing. Look at a book series, like the Boxcar Children or Lord of the Rings, or Narnia. Everything happens in order. Book 1, Book 2, etc.                                                     

Now take Batman. How many issues of Detective Comics Volume 1 are there? According to Wikipedia, 883. Then they started with volume 2. Instead of continuing on in time, dc reboots detective in volume 2. Then, in December 2016, according to Wikipedia, rebirth occurred and started volume 1 again, like volume 2 never happened (unsure of this. Maybe some of the more knowledgeable readers will correct me). Does that make sense to you? Not as a book reader, no. But as a comic reader, the writers and artists change monthly, even quicker in some cases. So Bob Kain, Bill Finger, Frank Miller, and Snyder all have different ideas of Batman. Two writers/artists depict Batman using guns and being a hardass on everything. One depicts Batman as an old, bitter man. Get what I’m saying? So we are used to the constant change.” (ezzerp, Reddit). 

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. Take Deadpool & Wolverine, for example. I may be a long-time fa,n but even I was left scratching my head as to who some of these characters are and why I should care that they are on screen.  

The second issue is a more technical extension of the first problem. Comic books have no order to read in. 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 to figure out where to start reading. In fact, even if they did have the time, it could be argued that it’s a tedious process in and of itself. Comic Drake is a YouTuber who has made a career out of reading and recommending comics. In the clip below, he explains why even he- someone who makes a living through reading comics – struggles to read X-men comics now. [time stamp: 6:00 to 6:24] 

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, and then the sequels that one might read if they want more. 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. These are self-contained stories, which makes them 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 it in order. Trying to understand a Marvel show or comic book these days feels like extra homework.  The situation is very ironic because of the heavy influence of Marvel and DC on the anime/manga scene. As Amy Shirong Lu claims, “Western animation exerted a strong influence on anime during its early development and may partly account for anime’s initial inclusion of international elements” (Lu, The Many Faces of Internationalization in Japanese Anime, 2). Shows like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk (see image) etc. all carry heavy Western influence. 

-Guts from Berserk (very much inspired by medieval knight stories) 

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, stated when questioned by Games Radar+, his wish to make sure each film does not require mountains of homework to understand. “In terms of the DCU in general, I want the movies and the TV shows to be mostly self-contained,” Gunn tells us. “I don’t want everything to have to lean on each other. I don’t think of this so much as one long story where everybody has to take in every little piece. I think of this as creating a universe, and then people are able to jump in and tell little pieces of the story from all around that universe.” (Edwards, gamesradar.com) 

On the comics side, DC has recently revamped the main Batman comics with Batman issue 1, which 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 Spider-Verse, are doing their own things, which makes them more accessible. 

Another important thing to note is that 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 in Jujutsu Kaisen, Thorfinn Karlsefni disbanding the Jomsvikings in Vinland Saga– these are some of the most powerful moments I have ever read/watched. 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 break up 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 Luthor becomes a fascist dictator just to spite Superman; Supes puts him in his place. Rinse. And repeat. These all make amazing stories, but at some point, the audience wants something new.  

Anime/manga’s 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 an overarching 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 as some of the best comics produced in recent years. In an IGN article: Speaking as part of an AMA on League of Comic Geeks (and surfaced by the DCU Updates X / Twitter account), Dragotta and writer Scott Snyder were asked if they’d had any talks with DC or DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn about bringing the Absolute Universe into other media, such as animation. Dragotta responded by, “I’m not in the know, but I know DC makes and licenses quality stuff so I’m excited to see what comes. Personally, I’d love to see a Studio Trigger anime of Ab Bat.” (Yin-poole, ign.com). 

This brings us to a full circle moment in the relationship between western comics and anime/manga. Now the latter is influencing American comics and animation. Case in point: My Adventures with Superman. This animated Superman show released in 2023 has received a lot of praise for its down-to-earth storytelling and wonderful writing. It 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.” (ZeroReq011, animenewsnetwork.com) 

While anime might have the upper hand now, that is not the end for comics. Rather it’s a new beginning. Just as Superheroes inspired the rise of anime, now anime is inspiring the revitalization of those very heroes. 

Citations: 

  • Wikipedia Contributors. “2025 in Film.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Dec. 2025. 
  • ryanschork14, Author. “Japanese Manga Dominating American Comics.” > the NEWS FEED , 9 Feb. 2023, thenewsfeednrv.com/2023/02/09/japanese-manga-is-dominating-american-comics/. 
  • ‌Comic Drake, YouTuber. https://youtu.be/M6mhX8AMN08?si=MLUr-MQadNq5CJsi  

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