manga doesn’t exist to become anime

My earliest introduction to anime was in the basement of my grandmother’s house, but my earliest memories of reading manga was in middle school.

Reading was my greatest love and it was easy for me to add stacks of manga to my piles of chapter books. I was the classmate who got their books taken away by the teacher because I found myself reading instead of paying attention to the lesson.

Who could blame me? The worlds and stories unfolding within manga pages were much more interesting than trying to get my mind to bend itself around the concept of algebra. Besides, adding letters to math was revolting to me.

When I went to Borders—rest in peace my love—I looked for the newest romance manga I could get my little fingers on.

Manga was an important part of the anime fan’s diet.

Now, I’m not so sure.

Anime has gotten a second wind with audiences who are looking for more unique and original media to consume. I’ve noticed that this new group of anime fans only watch anime and I truly believe that is a massive mistake.

I may be The Anime Anthropologist, but I strongly believe that anime only offers a mere sliver, a morsel, of what is possible for Japanese storytelling.

If you watch anime, you should also be reading manga.

Grab your sencha and let’s get into this week’s Sencha Session 🍵🫖

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Each year, anime is broken up into four seasons with about 30 to 50 shows released per quarter. In comparison, at any given time, there are 20 to 22 titles published in Shonen Jump each week alone.

People can find original stories on platforms like MangaPLUS, Tapas, GlobalComix, and WEBTOON where there are hundreds if not thousands of new self published stories being released at any given time.

There is no feasible way for every single story to be turned into an anime.

There aren’t enough animators to even make a dent.

And honestly, that’s ok.

I have said it before, and I still say it again:

Manga, manhwa, and manhua do not exist to just be animated.

This isn’t to say the dream and aspirations of some mangakas to have their stories translated into something that can be watched on people’s screens is invalid or wrong. Rather, I am affirming that these authors are creating bodies of work that deserve to be acknowledged as complete works in their own right.

Publishing the story on the page and it only existing on the page is in of itself a massive accomplishment.

Anime is the last stop of a manga, not the first.

Before Frieren or Witch Hat Atelier arrived on streaming platforms, you’d find them in Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Morning Two respectively. These two stories only come to you by way of the weekly published chapter in traditional publications years before any animation studio green lit them.

In that time, each mangaka showed up each week with a new piece of story that they labored over. The time they spend crafting these stories are paramount because without these weekly updates, there is nothing to be read much less animated.

I fear that because anime is being over emphasized that even if people find manga that they enjoy, they’ll only view it as a means to get to an animated series, which I find to be incredibly disrespectful.

Drawing manga is a skill and an art form that requires a deep understanding of what makes a good story that’s worth turning the page. Composition, dialogue, and other elements are being juggled by a single person.

The process is extremely complicated and unbelievably time consuming especially if you’re using traditional methods of using ink and cutting out screen tones. Not to mention the tight deadlines.

And don’t even get me started on the behavior of fans online.

Ok, I will get a little started…

I’ve said that anime fans are kinda ungrateful and honestly, manga fans also deserve their lashings.

With the internet mangakas are more accessible if they choose to be and people have absolutely abused that parasocial relationship. The mangaka for Gachiakuta was harassed offline by what I can only describe in unsavory ways, so let’s just say that the disdain I have is real.

I’m working on a piece right now about the fall of Jujutsu Kaisen because I honestly think that Gege Akukami may be the first mangaka to suffer from their own success.

TLDR; y’all need to get a fuckin’ grip.

But I digress.

I want to admit that while I am advocating for more anime fans to read more manga, I am also calling myself out.

My undergraduate years left me burnt out and feeling unmotivated to read manga the way I used to.

I found myself yearning for late nights scrolling through my favorite romance manga into the early mornings.

So, when I decided to become an anime content creator, I decided that I would still make room for manga. That’s why my anime and manga review series is called pages&pixels.

Over the last few months I’ve been finding more and more manga that have brought me as much excitement as watching Tengen fight Gyutaro in Demon Slayer.

I was reminded that anime only scratches the surface of what is out there in Japanese media. If you only wait for something to be animated, you will miss out on gems that will have you waiting for the next chapter with bated breath.

Like right now, I’m reading Love in the Palm of His Hand by Rinteku.

I’ve been interested in how anime takes on stories with characters with disabilities so the premise of the story immediately had me hooked.

The Boys Love (BL) follows the story of Aoi Fujinaga, a drama student who is struggling to reach his goals of landing his big ole as an actor, and Keito Maejimi, a freshman student who is deaf.

I was immediately reminded of my favorite romance anime, Sign of Affection, that I mentioned in my romance renaissance piece from last year.

The story itself is great, but god, the artwork leaves you feeling breathless. Because so much of the story is about your sensories, Rinteku-sensei really pushes the visual imagery in such a dazzling manner.

It’s so well drawn that translating it into an animated series would be a breeze.

But it also doesn’t need to be.

Rinteku-sensei did what needed to be done and if the story never even sees the inside of the office of a production committee, they can be proud of the story they’ve written.

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