I think there's an annoyingly vapid quality to a lot of popular manga. A lot of it seems...derivative. I think that comes from the way it's produced. Something about manga just seems fast and cheap.
And I suppose that's why people like it. A lot of why I don't like manga comes from jealousy. It annoys me that people are reading some of the dumber manga when there are so many profound and smart American comics out there. To me, it's like how people prefer cheap sitcoms over shows like Arrested Developement. They like it because its easy to digest and it doesn't force them to think as much.
Degustibus non disputandem *everyone groans* and all that.
The very reason why there's a prolific amount of derivativeness and vapidity and stupidity in a lot of manga is a combination of both Sturgeon's Law (i.e., 90% of everything is crud) multiplied by the sheer volume of stuff being produced. There's a large mass market for this stuff that makes its commercialness a foregone conclusion, in the same way that any creative industry that becomes highly mass market has to produce a highly commercial culture.
On the other hand, much of the manga that is exported and localized for English readers isn't necessarily the best stuff that is out there. Remember that people in the business of importing foreign works --- whether dealing in European art-house cinema or Japanese role-playing games --- still have to take things like profit and serving a market into consideration and that reflects itself in their decisions.
As inane as
Dragon Ball Z is --- it's still a highly profitable intellectual property for kids that translates itself not just in its (IMO intolerably and ludicrously) long serialized narrative, but in how easy it is to merchandise. This is unsurprising, because anime studios have long made it a non-secret that their anime shows DON'T make money from advertising sponsors, but from merchandise.
I could probably write more boring voluminous posts on this topic, but the question you have to ask yourself sometimes when assessing the arguably overhyped phenomenon of manga is "Is it really bad, or is it just not for me?"
I don't mean that as condescension, but dismissing manga because you dislike the large amount of shounen bullcrap (
One Piece,
Naruto) and nauseating shoujo pabulum (
Love Hina{/i]) seems as logical as dismissing American comics because of the large amount of superhero nonsense and geek-pastiche.
moonmaster said:
"Now that I have transformed into my 13th and penultimate form, you will never stop me GOKU!!!"
"I've come back from the dead for the fifth and last time during this battle to defeat you once and for all, Gleezo!!! SUPER SAIYAN 87!!!"
As far as I know, Dragon Ball Z is not exactly well-regarded by even the most forgiving of highbrow manga cognoscenti in Japan.
But don't let stupid shounen fool you. There're some out there that are actually full of some pretty solid themes once you get over the initial hurdle that taking a comic about bread-baking and Japanese chess seriously requires.
