Do I hate Manga?

So, do I hate Anime and Manga? If you read my blog regular you may think the simple answer is “Yes!” Correct. Blog over. Thanks for coming.

Oh wait, not correct. That is the easy answer I choose to give people instead of explaining myself.

Smarter readers may think, “Hold on, they’re about to do a Manga spin-off with Mark “Rawr” Eagan.” There are so few smarter readers out there. BTW, Check this out:

Cool new site background for the collaboration comic, eh? Lone Wolf looks a bit like Super Sonic.

Observant readers may have even noticed that I use elements from the Anime/Manga world in my drawing fairly regularly. Look close, it ain’t all traditional western stuff folks. For example, the Lone Wolf’s character design, the over the top emotional reactions, a lot of the early Black Snow stuff, my backgrounds and even the tone of I’m Famous! It’s all there for people who care to open their eyes.

So the truth is, I don’t hate Anime or Manga. I hate generic Anime and Manga and people who blindly love it all. Most of it is bad, really bad, yet there is this truly annoying cult fan-base out there for virtually all of it.

Let me tell you a little about my own history with Anime (I never really got into reading much Manga). In my Freshmen and Sophomore years of high school I was in the Anime club, where I gathered with nerds at lunch twice a week to watch Anime in the dark and eat. Yes, I was popular. My favorite stuff I enjoyed watching in there? Lupin the 3rd movies and the Mobile Battleship Nadesico series. We also watched a bunch of other stuff like Golden boy and Cowboy Bebop, and countless others I forgot.

Around this time, perhaps a year or two earlier, I was also into the original red Pokemon, trying to catch them all. I even watched the TV show. Oh, and I was an official member of the Manga fan club. I also used to watch Anime with Alex, who had quite a collection. I remember watching classics like Akira and Ninja Scroll (my favorite anime) together. I even watch the Anime they’d play at night on PBS, like Tenchi Universe, Urusei Yatsura, Bubblegum Crisis, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Please Save My Earth.

I used to spend my hard earned money buying VHS tapes of Anime at Suncoast. I remember getting Devil Man and Bastard! as gifts from Alex. I had a collection. I even bought the lame sequels to Ninja Scroll.

Then by junior year I started to get over the whole phase/craze. I would say I was probably into Anime for 4 or 5 years, then I moved on.

So don’t tell me I don’t know Anime or Manga and that I never gave it any kind of chance. I don’t blindly hate it all, I just think most of it is crap and can’t abide the fact that it seems to get a free pass with people simply because it is Anime. You can still be discerning people, it doesn’t have to be a blanket love or hate thing. Most of the crappy anime, the extremely annoying fans, and especially the huge, terrible collection of amateur, wannabe fan artists out there have turned me off from the style as a whole. It has to be something special for me to enjoy an Anime or Manga these days

Which brings us back to Rawr. I like Back Office and his style, and I’m very excited about working with him on I’m Famous in Japan! His character designs are fun, we’ve got about 8 written (though it will be longer), and we’re working on a fun cover. BTW, look for it to be the same kind of tribute/slash parody to the Anime world that we traditionally bring to the super hero genre. If you like Anime, Japanese culture, or just our comics, then you’ll really enjoy it.