DUDE!! Warcraft MANGA!!!

[Alzrius]

Well, what do you expect the bookstores to do? I'm no business guru, but I don't think a store like Borders would find it worth their time to separate their comic section into: Manga, Manhwa (Korean?), Manhua(Hong Kong?), Graphic Novels, etc. Maybe when such differences become more "mainstream". IMO, for the browser that is walking through the store, sometimes it's just more convenient having everything just "lumped" together under a section they recognize, like "manga".

It wouldn't be convenient for such a bookstore, but (IMHO) only because manhwa (Korean) and manhua (Chinese) are vastly underrepresented in terms of what you can find being domestically released here in America (to be clear, domestically released means that a domestic company legally acquired the rights to sell them here). A category with almost nothing to fill it is one that won't get its own section. The question then becomes one of simply lobbying for more.

Quite honestly, if manga itself can grow large enough to be worthy of its own section in a bookstore, there's no reason that the latter two can't do the same. Currently, we're seeing anything visually similar lumped together, but we're still making larger distinctions than we were a few decades ago, when anything that had panels and speech balloons was just recognized as a comic with no further distinctions being made except by a few "pedants". Clearly, growth on our part of understanding how these things are different, but still very enjoyable, is capable, and even desireable, since manga seems to be a rising trend, with more and more domestically released each year.

The point here is that manga is experiencing a boom because the existing community of fans worked so hard to make people more aware, and they succeeded. To then turn around and just cram anything remotely similar under the banner of "manga" is to engage in the same behavior that kept manga itself from proliferating here for so long.

 

[dreaded_beast]

The point here is that manga is experiencing a boom because the existing community of fans worked so hard to make people more aware, and they succeeded.

Amen.

To then turn around and just cram anything remotely similar under the banner of "manga" is to engage in the same behavior that kept manga itself from proliferating here for so long.

I'm not sure if I agree with that, but then again I haven't really kept up with the history of anime/manga being brought to U.S. To me, it just seemed to pop-up all of a sudden. However, I've loved anime/manga ever since Voltron and Robotech (and yes, I consider those Anime although I've seen some debates to the contrary, hehe). Back then (early 90s), I still referred to Anime as "Japanimation", hehe.

Anyways, you seem to know more about this than me, so I'll take your word for it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

This sounds like good news to me. I prefer Manga to regular comics these days almost all the time.

 

[Arnwyn]

but I personally have yet to find one that was as good as the original Japanese.

Like I said above: lucky for those who are fluent in Japanese and can legitimately say such things.

(Because, as an aside, the looks on some "fans'" faces when they are actually told by native Japanese speakers that the original Japanese language in many anime is poorly done is hilarious. They had no idea, because they couldn't speak Japanese and didn't know any better.)

So, forgive my skepticism, but I usually ignore such statements until the person tells me he/she is fluent in Japanese... because otherwise, not only is it not a legitimate statement, it is often completely wrong! (Though, admittedly, that does generally only apply to older stuff now more often than not. The quality, even of the TV product which has been historically very badly voice-acted, is steadily rising.)

 

[Nightfall]

In news relating to the actual SUBJECT I posted...

I've not seen any copies of Warcraft. But I hope too this weekend. We'll see.

 

[Alzrius]

Like I said above: lucky for those who are fluent in Japanese and can legitimately say such things.

I'm not quite fluent myself (getting there though), but I don't think one needs to speak the language fluently to have an opinion on this. Honestly, for me, it's the tenor of how the words are spoken, and if the voices sound like they are from the characters depicted on the screen. A young man shouting during a dramatic scene should sound like a young man, and it should sound like his voice is charged - the voice of some middle-aged guy talking just a bit louder isn't going to be as good.

In this regard, I think the original Japanese has it hands down over most English dubbing.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'm not quite fluent myself (getting there though), but I don't think one needs to speak the language fluently to have an opinion on this. Honestly, for me, it's the tenor of how the words are spoken, and if the voices sound like they are from the characters depicted on the screen. A young man shouting during a dramatic scene should sound like a young man, and it should sound like his voice is charged - the voice of some middle-aged guy talking just a bit louder isn't going to be as good.

Conversely, grown women should not sound like little girls, which is one reason why I almost always prefer dubs over subs.

I know that in Japan it's considered sexy for a woman to have an extremely high-pitched, girlish voice. But to my gaijin ears, it just sounds annoying and a little creepy.

 

[Alzrius]

I know that in Japan it's considered sexy for a woman to have an extremely high-pitched, girlish voice. But to my gaijin ears, it just sounds annoying and a little creepy.

Who says that's just in Japan?

 

[Nightfall]

Don't suppose we could TRY to get this back on track...?