I have produced many opinions about manga and anime. That's kind of the point of this blog. And now I am realizing that I have been missing a key point about manga that was kind of necessary so that my opinions were a little more informed than just a criticism of big name manga.
That key point is the factor of Shounen Jump manga having the "it" quality. Some very inexperienced readers might call it perfection. It's definitely not perfection, but manga of Shounen Jump that can last for multiple arcs have qualities that are significantly different and significantly better than that of other shounen manga.
I will defend my viewpoints on certain things so that I don't out myself as a total hypocrite. First, webtoons, or specifically manhwa webtoons, or specifically God of Highschool is a very unique manga and is further justified by the fact that it is getting an anime. Second, despite not being in Shounen Jump, there are other shounen series that are different and better, thus distancing themselves from generic or average shounen series. These are series that really don't follow the big shiny hero continually levels up until they can reach their goal or defeat the big bad. I mean series such as Kekkaishi or Saike Mata Shite Mo. In Kekkaishi, the finale is that the main character no longer is responsible for the defense of the god underneath his school, so he can live a normal life. In Saike Mata Shite Mo, there is no leveling up. Instead, the main character must continually sacrifice himself in order to understand or plan against his opponent. This series isn't over yet, but so far, the plot is leaning towards heavy moral questions, such as would you sacrifice yourself for someone that could save you, or should heroes keep their superpowers if others could use it as a reason for violence or discrimination. Third, there are genres in which you cannot objectively say something is better or more unique. For example, romance manga are all unique, because even if there are cliche events, each human being is unique and each character in a manga is different, and so the way that people read and react to romantic actions is different.
However, in most cases of manga, cliche plot devices are bad. If you can tell what is going to happen in a sports manga, that's bad. If you can tell what's going to happen in an action manga, why would you keep reading it?
Shounen Jump manga are different. Maybe it's because their authors have an ensured payment plan so they can focus their entire life on their work, or maybe it's because they focus their entire life on their work that their work was accepted into Shounen Jump in the first place. The point is that their work becomes such high quality that when other manga is read in the same genre it becomes scaled and rated next to the Shounen Jump work. When I asked someone how they would rate Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayers), they said that "it wasn't Naruto tier", which first of all, isn't how things should be rated, especially because Naruto definitely isn't the greatest comparison, and isn't the greatest manga of all time. But it proves the point that Shounen Jump is probably the most relevant and powerful producer of manga currently.
Just reading my opinions on Shounen Jump is probably pretty boring so I want to talk a 'little' about some of the manga they produce. I'm a huge One Piece fan, and I've definitely already said this, but One Piece is the manga with the highest global sales of all time. Can One Piece be compared to anything? Let's start with comparing to the 2nd highest global sales manga, Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball isn't a manga that is still being produced, but it is still 173 million copies behind One Piece. Another place to compare is manga that was produced in the same year, of which none of the Shounen Jump series in the same year lasted to the current day, and the only manga series that debuted in 1997 and lasted to the current day are Pokemon Adventures, DNAngel, and The Kindaichi Case Files. Pokemon Adventures only exists in the current day because the story works by splitting into a new series, rather than a new arc, because of the number of Pokemon games. DNAngel is not a shounen series, and technically The Kindaichi Case Files is not either. DNAngel is published in a shojo magazine, and The Kindaichi Case Files is a mystery manga which is also tagged as seinen.
I'm double checking my light research, and noting that the seinen tag argument is a loose argument. Especially because The Kindaichi Case Files has sold 100 million copies, making it a relevant series to compare to One Piece, however, being a mystery manga, it's audience is very different to One Piece's audience.
Actually, that logic doesn't make sense. The Kindaichi Case Files is a loophole. It's a shounen series, it has sold well, it isn't produced by Shounen Jump, and it actually sells better than what I was going to compare it to: Death Note. Now while I'm certain Death Note has a larger legacy than The Kindaichi Case Files, Death Note is no longer being circulated.
The point I need to put here to continue this post is that Shounen Jump has very few mystery manga. The reason is this: Shounen Jump produces shounen manga.
"Wow, Griffin has really lost his marbles this time."
No. Mystery manga are harder to prove shounen qualities in. Let's think about shounen manga for a second. Shounen, if you didn't know (and if you didn't know I feel like an idiot for saying it so many times without an explanation), means boy. It is an actual Japanese word, and it is also a description for manga. Shojo means girl and is also a description for manga. It is sexist. Why it hasn't changed despite manga magazines acknowledgement of a large girl audience in shounen magazines and a boy audience in shojo magazines, I could not tell you. However, why I told you this has to do with how these magazines make sure to appeal to their readers... among other things. Shounen manga is made for boys, and I don't mean high school age and up, I mean young boys. Boys who actually have friends that they spend time with after school and would talk about these manga with. If you were to write a story for a young boy in elementary school and you wanted him to really understand the story and feel connected with the character traits of the heroes, how would you write that story?
Maybe something really simple like "I'm gonna be the Pirate King" or "I will be the Hokage" or "What you're going to say next is:". You would write something simple, so that the boy easily understands the message. Now how do you write a mystery manga with that audience in mind? The answer is you try your best to write it with little boys in mind, you make a hot-headed hero who can always come up with the answer in the nick of time, or you make a cool-headed hero who can come up with the answer quickly and take time to explain it. Now what do you do about the crimes they have to solve. You might be able to get away with a couple murders, but you can't really kill people in shounen manga unless it's a really powerful moment or it's a titan smushing a bunch of humans under its foot. Let's say the writer avoids murder and instead goes with theft or other non-manslaughter crimes such as arson or bombs. How do you explain the processes the hero goes through to understand the answer to the crime to a little boy? How many times can you explain complicated things to little boys before they give up on your manga?
The other reason Shounen Jump doesn't have mystery manga is because instead of having one mystery manga that tries really hard and may or may not have good results, why not just go with an action manga which could get proven results due to how boys react to action manga? Manga magazines can't have an unlimited number of published manga. They still have to pay the authors, they only have a number of pages, and they only have a number of editors to go check up with the authors. They are unlikely to take risks.
At the same time, that is why Shounen Jump has 8/17 of the best selling manga of all time. Seeing how there's mainly 3 publishing companies, Shueisha who owns Shounen Jump, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, having nearly half of the top 17 manga that sold 100 million copies is pretty impressive results.
I realize I may be ruining my argument's logic because of how I am searching for results. Looking at the top selling manga is bad because I cannot compare them, they sell well because they are all different from each other, I should be looking at series that failed because they were too similar, but I think at the end, I proved that One Piece is greater than most other series of the same time period out there, that Shounen Jump gets results, and that manga is a lot more complicated than people who call it "maenga" or simply mango, give it credit for.
Quarantine must really be giving me too much alone time because that's now two posts during quarantine, which is about 2-3 months, right? Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to provide any feedback or questions in the section below. And I'm pretty egotistical, so if you have any praise or compliments, definitely leave those too.
That key point is the factor of Shounen Jump manga having the "it" quality. Some very inexperienced readers might call it perfection. It's definitely not perfection, but manga of Shounen Jump that can last for multiple arcs have qualities that are significantly different and significantly better than that of other shounen manga.
I will defend my viewpoints on certain things so that I don't out myself as a total hypocrite. First, webtoons, or specifically manhwa webtoons, or specifically God of Highschool is a very unique manga and is further justified by the fact that it is getting an anime. Second, despite not being in Shounen Jump, there are other shounen series that are different and better, thus distancing themselves from generic or average shounen series. These are series that really don't follow the big shiny hero continually levels up until they can reach their goal or defeat the big bad. I mean series such as Kekkaishi or Saike Mata Shite Mo. In Kekkaishi, the finale is that the main character no longer is responsible for the defense of the god underneath his school, so he can live a normal life. In Saike Mata Shite Mo, there is no leveling up. Instead, the main character must continually sacrifice himself in order to understand or plan against his opponent. This series isn't over yet, but so far, the plot is leaning towards heavy moral questions, such as would you sacrifice yourself for someone that could save you, or should heroes keep their superpowers if others could use it as a reason for violence or discrimination. Third, there are genres in which you cannot objectively say something is better or more unique. For example, romance manga are all unique, because even if there are cliche events, each human being is unique and each character in a manga is different, and so the way that people read and react to romantic actions is different.
However, in most cases of manga, cliche plot devices are bad. If you can tell what is going to happen in a sports manga, that's bad. If you can tell what's going to happen in an action manga, why would you keep reading it?
Shounen Jump manga are different. Maybe it's because their authors have an ensured payment plan so they can focus their entire life on their work, or maybe it's because they focus their entire life on their work that their work was accepted into Shounen Jump in the first place. The point is that their work becomes such high quality that when other manga is read in the same genre it becomes scaled and rated next to the Shounen Jump work. When I asked someone how they would rate Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayers), they said that "it wasn't Naruto tier", which first of all, isn't how things should be rated, especially because Naruto definitely isn't the greatest comparison, and isn't the greatest manga of all time. But it proves the point that Shounen Jump is probably the most relevant and powerful producer of manga currently.
Just reading my opinions on Shounen Jump is probably pretty boring so I want to talk a 'little' about some of the manga they produce. I'm a huge One Piece fan, and I've definitely already said this, but One Piece is the manga with the highest global sales of all time. Can One Piece be compared to anything? Let's start with comparing to the 2nd highest global sales manga, Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball isn't a manga that is still being produced, but it is still 173 million copies behind One Piece. Another place to compare is manga that was produced in the same year, of which none of the Shounen Jump series in the same year lasted to the current day, and the only manga series that debuted in 1997 and lasted to the current day are Pokemon Adventures, DNAngel, and The Kindaichi Case Files. Pokemon Adventures only exists in the current day because the story works by splitting into a new series, rather than a new arc, because of the number of Pokemon games. DNAngel is not a shounen series, and technically The Kindaichi Case Files is not either. DNAngel is published in a shojo magazine, and The Kindaichi Case Files is a mystery manga which is also tagged as seinen.
I'm double checking my light research, and noting that the seinen tag argument is a loose argument. Especially because The Kindaichi Case Files has sold 100 million copies, making it a relevant series to compare to One Piece, however, being a mystery manga, it's audience is very different to One Piece's audience.
Actually, that logic doesn't make sense. The Kindaichi Case Files is a loophole. It's a shounen series, it has sold well, it isn't produced by Shounen Jump, and it actually sells better than what I was going to compare it to: Death Note. Now while I'm certain Death Note has a larger legacy than The Kindaichi Case Files, Death Note is no longer being circulated.
The point I need to put here to continue this post is that Shounen Jump has very few mystery manga. The reason is this: Shounen Jump produces shounen manga.
"Wow, Griffin has really lost his marbles this time."
No. Mystery manga are harder to prove shounen qualities in. Let's think about shounen manga for a second. Shounen, if you didn't know (and if you didn't know I feel like an idiot for saying it so many times without an explanation), means boy. It is an actual Japanese word, and it is also a description for manga. Shojo means girl and is also a description for manga. It is sexist. Why it hasn't changed despite manga magazines acknowledgement of a large girl audience in shounen magazines and a boy audience in shojo magazines, I could not tell you. However, why I told you this has to do with how these magazines make sure to appeal to their readers... among other things. Shounen manga is made for boys, and I don't mean high school age and up, I mean young boys. Boys who actually have friends that they spend time with after school and would talk about these manga with. If you were to write a story for a young boy in elementary school and you wanted him to really understand the story and feel connected with the character traits of the heroes, how would you write that story?
Maybe something really simple like "I'm gonna be the Pirate King" or "I will be the Hokage" or "What you're going to say next is:". You would write something simple, so that the boy easily understands the message. Now how do you write a mystery manga with that audience in mind? The answer is you try your best to write it with little boys in mind, you make a hot-headed hero who can always come up with the answer in the nick of time, or you make a cool-headed hero who can come up with the answer quickly and take time to explain it. Now what do you do about the crimes they have to solve. You might be able to get away with a couple murders, but you can't really kill people in shounen manga unless it's a really powerful moment or it's a titan smushing a bunch of humans under its foot. Let's say the writer avoids murder and instead goes with theft or other non-manslaughter crimes such as arson or bombs. How do you explain the processes the hero goes through to understand the answer to the crime to a little boy? How many times can you explain complicated things to little boys before they give up on your manga?
The other reason Shounen Jump doesn't have mystery manga is because instead of having one mystery manga that tries really hard and may or may not have good results, why not just go with an action manga which could get proven results due to how boys react to action manga? Manga magazines can't have an unlimited number of published manga. They still have to pay the authors, they only have a number of pages, and they only have a number of editors to go check up with the authors. They are unlikely to take risks.
At the same time, that is why Shounen Jump has 8/17 of the best selling manga of all time. Seeing how there's mainly 3 publishing companies, Shueisha who owns Shounen Jump, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, having nearly half of the top 17 manga that sold 100 million copies is pretty impressive results.
I realize I may be ruining my argument's logic because of how I am searching for results. Looking at the top selling manga is bad because I cannot compare them, they sell well because they are all different from each other, I should be looking at series that failed because they were too similar, but I think at the end, I proved that One Piece is greater than most other series of the same time period out there, that Shounen Jump gets results, and that manga is a lot more complicated than people who call it "maenga" or simply mango, give it credit for.
Quarantine must really be giving me too much alone time because that's now two posts during quarantine, which is about 2-3 months, right? Anyway, thanks for reading. Feel free to provide any feedback or questions in the section below. And I'm pretty egotistical, so if you have any praise or compliments, definitely leave those too.
Ok sure Griffin, One Piece is amazingggg we get it. I was slightly interested in trying One Piece, but then I saw that it was a bigilian volumes long and it scared me off.
ReplyDeleteI have read a minuscule amount of manga in my life, but I actually have begun reading something for the first time in 10 years. I am going through Jojo's Bizarre Adventure right now, and the only reason that I can stand it being so long is because it changes literally everything part to part. It's like a looter or mmo game getting a wipe.
I think the shounen/shojo labels work pretty well. I mean they literally are just pointing out the target audience. I guess I could sort of agree that it might be considered sexist, but really I think it's so baked into people's vocabulary that it would be hard to change. It's similar to words in the English language like the job titles of fireman or lunch lady.
You should do a post on Shojo manga.
Hey hey hey... you're right.
DeleteJojo's is really good! That is a really interesting perspective on it being like an mmo. Maybe you should be running this blog instead...
Call me an sjw, but even if it's so baked into people's vocabulary, it is important to make the little changes that lead to open communities for everyone rather than this belongs to one gender and this belongs to the "other" gender.
And I should do a post on Shojo manga. Again, seriously maybe you should just be a secondary writer on this blog.
Thanks for your comment Finn, much appreciated.