Whee. That was a fun, and overdue rant on manga terminology. I swear, sometimes its hard to write clearly about things you feel strongly about. And, of course, i once again am inspired to try to rant more often… yeah, yeah, heard it all before. 
In other news, i’m seriously feeling tempted by the distraction of getting Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. I’ve been seeing screenshots lately, and while i’m not particularly drawn by the japanese fantasy sword’s ‘n stuff nature of it, the characters are appealing… especially Saber. Dammit, i avoided Fate Stay Night, and now i might get snagged.
Not bad for a doujin group that was able to turn pro and produce hot selling games just based on the quality of their work. Bravo guys.
- pirotunes: Space Time Continuum - 2 Pro 1 -
Yeah, the rant was overdue, but here’s the thing: whenever you write an “overdue” rant, it is always a really long one. Kinda makes up for it.
~L
It really is so difficult to classify things. I really hate labels. I’m called a nerd, but some people consider me a goth… o.O Why can’t we just call me Ash?
The same goes for MT. It’s nothing but your work. It doesn’t need to be called anything but Megatokyo. Hell, I think “Megatokyo” should become a new label for anything that’s a mix of everything.
Hm. I dunno if there’s a problem with it… I mean every culture has grabbed something foreign, let it retain a foreign name yet it somehow gets subtly changed into something that’s their own, Japan being no exception to that, in fact. They’ve taken items from American culture and Japanified them; the same thing has happened here… calling an Americanized version of manga manga doesn’t do it a disservice.
I guess it’s a fuzzy area though: take something like “Teen Titans” or PPG on Cartoon Network… both show are EXTREMELY anime influenced, yet I’d never call either one of them an anime series… guess it’s all about perspective.
The rant was very well written, like a magazine/newspaper/internet news source articile (with a significant and positive difference in the number of grammatical errors)! Congratulations!
And I agree with Asche up there about just calling it “Megatokyo.” That works just fine, and MT is pretty unique.
I am blown away by your rant, Fred.
I’ve been trying to describe to my non-anime friends what MT is, exactly, and for the longest time I’ve just been calling it a webcomic… but that’s just to broad a label. I mean, what about that ‘toothpase for breakfast’ thing? That can be called a webcomic, but it has no story, no depth…
MT can be called a graphic novel, but then it would get confused with the “manga”…
*WARG!* I’m just repeating what you said! *GAH!* Gomen,gomen,gomen nasai!
Love the sketch of Saeko, by the way.
Love and luck from a crazed fangirl,
midgetrat
On a side note, “yesterday” in the comic was five months ago; things like that can make a readers head hurt sometimes. Just a subtle suggestion.
I view Megatokyo as a webcomic or graphic novel when talking about it. Another term used to describe non-Japanese works inspired by or aspiring to be manga that I’ve heared is the more derisive psudo-manga.
If you have to label it with the word manga how about mangaish? Amerimanga works too, but then we would need Britmanga, Euromanga, etc.
I usually call MT a webcomic. I don’t really care, because my family and friends all think I’m crazy for wasting my time here no matter what I call it.
The other night, I was helping my fourth grade nephew with a book report. (”Don’t just say he did that…tell us why he did it. And get those apostrophes under control!”)
I brought the entire house to a dead stop by announcing that my hobby was essentially writing an ongoing book report for MT.
Hmm…I prefer calling it “Entertainment Product #437,” myself.
The problem with calling it manga is that manga is Japanese. Everything else is just, well, something influenced by it. It’s the whole insider/outsider thing, I guess. Sort of like how we do ‘men in tights who aren’t gay– honest’ comics with a straight–no, wait, scratch that– serious face. It’s a cultural product.
I wouldn’t worry too much about labeling it. If anything just call it a “Post-Modern Deconstructionist Approach to Japanese Graphic Mass Media Memes.” Yeah, that’ll sell. >.>
Or not.
Then again, since we (outsiders) don’t really differentiate as much in our manga as Japanese do, ‘manga’ just kind of works for now as a catch-all. I mean, come on, who puts the girly stuff next to the explody stuff? We’re more interested in keeping it in alphabetical order or sales order than by category, and even with the large number of titles available over here in (overpriced) English format, it’s not even a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer volume of manga available there.
So yeah, don’t sweat it so much. We still haven’t finished culturally digesting this new influence yet, since it hasn’t been fully processed yet. I guess you could always ask those American Sumo guys who are trying to get the sport started over here. Maybe they have some thoughts on the subject. ^^a Either way, it’s going to take a while for our culture to come up with a name for it.
It’s possible that a word will simply appear that fits the bill for a dscriptive. Read the etymology for the word ‘cyberpunk’ found on Bruce Bethke’s site here: http://www.spedro.com/nfc_cp.html
Bruce Bethke wrote a short entitled ‘Cyberpunks’ an authorized online copy of which can be found here:http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/cpunk.htm
This short story isn’t much remembered but the title named an entirely new genre.
I hear ya on the whole “trying to label your work” being a pain. We have the same issues with my boyfriend’s comic book (of which you’ve purchased the 1st issue of back at CN Anime 2003, tee hee). I usually refer to as an “Indie comic book” and not a manga. On some anime con boards I feel required to use “original doujin” and tack on a disclaimer, because if I just say “indie comic” on said board, they’ll most likely write it off.
On somewhat of a side note, at another anime con, some kid went up to us and refused to give our comic the light of day because our book was to be read from left to right. He says “I read my manga from right to left.” I could only smile politely.
It can’t really be called a manga, but doesn’t manga mean comic in japanese? So it wouldn’t be called a comic, because comics I think are a little more dynamic, well the style of comics. Then again what do I know..really.
I do know that MT is an on-going story that is produced over the internet and just happened to attract those who love anime/manga/video games/japan. As long as you keep at it, who cares what MT is considered, because whatever it is, it’s good stuff.
BTW loved the longdress pic thingy!
It can’t really be called a manga, but doesn’t manga mean comic in japanese? So it wouldn’t be called a comic, because comics I think are a little more dynamic, well the style of comics. Then again what do I know..really.
I do know that MT is an on-going story that is produced over the internet and just happened to attract those who love anime/manga/video games/japan. As long as you keep at it, who cares what MT is considered, because whatever it is, it’s good stuff.
BTW loved the longdress pic thingy!
Yeah, MT has such a unique feel to it, just calling it MT for now is just fine IMO. It doesn’t really feel like traditional Japanese manga, although the influences are noticeable. There’s still that nice airy pencil-sketch feel to it that you just don’t see in most mainstream manga.
So much of what I’ve seen is dominated by tones and Following the Book… I guess that’s part of the reason why I like a lot of CLAMP’s work– their art has a very unique feel to it. I love their use of just plain ol’ pen and ink. It makes their work shine above the spate of generic “look how many tones I can use” stories and takes on more of the look of art. (I love how they draw Yuuko Ichihara. *_*)
If you want an American Example… well, “Peanuts” was always just “Peanuts” to me. Yeah, it was a comic strip, but the strip managed to transcend that label in the end. (No, I’m not comparing MT to Peanuts in terms of fame/success, but in terms of breaking the mold.) If you look at other comics of its time, Peanuts seriously went out on a limb and took comic strips into a whole new territory.
Or if you’re just looking for a label to slap on in the meantime to avoid having someone do it for you, you could always just have a contest on the website, and have the horde of fanboys do the heavy lifting. XD
Putting a label on things can be okay cause it gives people an idea what it is if they’ve never seen it. Most of the time I say that MT is a unique webcomic cause in my views thats what it is. To be honest its the only webcomic i’ve read which i’ve gotten into.
I don’t like labeling people though cause they’ve got a name an everyone is unique, mind you i could be just saying that cause of some of the label’s i’ve been given in the past. Used to be ‘nerd’ then it went to ‘goth’ then ‘rocker’. At the moment i’ve been classified as a ’skank’ by some mates because I like ska and punk music. Then there’s the noraml ones you get from your family espically your brother who thinks your wierd cause you like japanese ‘crap’. How little he knows…
Anyways really good comic, thought it was funny on friday.
‘Is she crying?’
‘No, but we can make her cry if you want to. It’s pretty easy’
Was laughing to myself all weekend at that.
I haven’t posted in ages… but I felt an odd urge to do so now…
Here’s a probably odd sugestion:
What about ‘gaijin manga’? Or gaimanga?
Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner… So, it does mean foriegners manga…
Not only would it fit ‘manga’ made in English speaking locations, but everywhere outside of Japan (there are also French ‘manga’ out there, and other languages as well)
But then, the gaijin part would probably make no sence to anyone who doesn’t know what it means…
oh well… just a sugestion…
Ja ne!
- Drango
Oh… and another thing…
I have been classing MT as a manga, due to the style of drawing, and you, fred, as a manga ka, because you’re the one behind it…
However, your rant has made me think about this classification, I think, untill another term is created, I’ll continue to call it a manga, due to a lack of a better word, as you so clearly stated…
- Drango
Wow, you really touched a nerve with that rant. A half dozen (soon locked) threads about it have popped up in MTCentral, plus the really long thread in SD where some folks are arguing that Tokyopop et al. shouldn’t really be using the term “manga” at all to describe comics that are made by non-Japanese authors using the Japanese art style because there ISN’T a single art style observed in Japanese comics, and art style does not equal genre to start with. As a counter-example, somebody asked what it’s called it if a Japanese author draws a comic using the stereotypical AMERICAN art and plot styles.
pssh…labels…that’s all america is anymore nerds, goths, preps, geeks…or whatever there is out there. I mean what is the point. We are all people just with different likings on certain things. And there’s nothing wrong about being different.
Your rant really questioned my mind there. Which is good. I think we can stil call it manga no matter who makes it japanese, english or whatever language makes it. And it’s true were just inspired by the wonderful japanese artist.
I am…
I’m trying to create my own manga called: No Self Control. Sure I got the story so far, but drawing the characters and the story may take some time. But that’s the thing there, people may make fun of us because we like japanese related things. But they lack many things such as: Creativity and imagination.
Anyways, I guess I went to far and probably made no sense to anyone out there…sorry
Haruko-san
PS: Keep up the good work Fred I love Megatokyo! ^_^
I really don’t see why you don’t just sit in the same group with Jhonen Vasquez (oh how I love his work so). An american that draws comics which are eventually printed in comic book form. Now I know that Megatokyo is NOTHING like JTHM (except for the Grand Theft omake… and actually Filler Bunny seems a bit like… oh never mind) and the way that they get to the public is different but honestly you have more in common with him than with many japanese manga-ka. What is he called? Just a comic book artist?
So c0rt is starting to persuade you to play “Fate/Hollow Ataraxia”? Did you tell you about how I’d like him to persuade you to try “School Days” as well, and perhaps even better?
*grins*
*Looks at fanboy comments in background of panel 5*
Something on your mind Fred? Saying that, I have a relatively large amount of image space devoted to pictures of Saber…
Regarding nomenclature:
How about mangastyle (abbreviated ms or mstyle)?
I just call it awesome!
Yeah, thing is I’m in your boat, although I have it slightly worse, as no one see’s a british Manga artist as nothing more then an otaku with ideas above his station, so I find the best way to classify ourselves, is as illustrators, whom just so happen to work in a certain style…
A simple yet effective method to ensure, publishers take you seriously, and that no one ever pins down your original concepts as an Otaku fantasy (Which is why I no longer submit my portfolio to DC Comics).I never liked the term Manga-ka or comic artist, as it always seems to trivalise what we actually do. It makes it seem like the work we produce is lesser then more established forms of art and design, when in actuallity we illustrators, in modern culture have more sway then most other forms of art.
Anyway, good work, your an inspiration to me (had to slip that in somewhere), and those where my thoughts on the subject. Sorry for taking up your valuable rambling time.