tofabo

tacotits:

Today I had an interesting discussion with Chiyo, the Japanese native speaker, about comics today.

One of my friends had reblogged an thought provoking post about the difference between manga and comics and how if you’re not Japanese you shouldn’t call your stuff manga. So I was thinking about…

I think what’s different is manga in Japanese culture and comics in america. Manga is more of a recognized form of media in Japan while in America it is though of more of a “lower” medium. However there is still a large comic culture in America; Batman, Superman, the Avengers and what not. There is a definite presence in the culture but it is not as prevalent as in japanese culture, you could say it’s not as mainstream. Despite this, it is an expression of art and story telling just as manga is in Japan.

I think the terms “manga” and “comics” are could be quite interchangeable. If someone who does not know what manga is picks up a copy of Shounen Jump he or she will refer to it as a comic. The preference for the use of the word “manga” stems from people who want to make a distinction between american comics and Japanese manga. Weeaboos like ourselves like to refer to manga as manga because that’s how the Japanese refer to it. If people referred to manga as comics, it would feel weird and wrong. But they are only ignorant of Japanese language which is not needed to enjoy manga or comics. We could call manga “comics” if we wanted to but I think the majority of the population that reads manga makes the decision to refer to it as manga. It’s an issue of language, if we were to use English we could call manga comics. As the word “manga” integrates more into the English language it still refers specifically to Japanese or asian comics. We like to think that manga is a different, maybe superior, form of comic and don’t want to lump it in with American comics. ”Comics” is used in american culture as “manga” is used in Japanese culture. But in weeaboo culture “comics” refer to american comics and “manga” refers to japanese comics.

As long as certain fans have this distinction between manga and comics, the words will never be interchangeable. We won’t refer to american comics as manga and we  won’t refer to manga as comics. 

TL DR: I am a weeaboo snob who wants to refer to manga as “manga” because I want to distinguish japanese made comics and American comics.