Snowflake Challenge: Day 3

[lebateleur]

Challenge #3

In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.

This one's easy: I had not initially imagined that I would enjoy reading manga, largely due to two factors.

My plan was to go into museum conservation and so, unlike many of my classmates, reading manga in Japanese wasn't a motivating factor for my desire to learn the language. I was, however, a big fan of western comics and those are in color. While I did just fine with black-and-white comic strips (Calvin & Hobbes, Boondocks), I felt like longform illustrated storytelling would lack something in monochrome.

Then I got to Japan and discovered that there was far more out there than was available in the States (thankfully, this is nowhere near as true now), and that was all she wrote (or drew, I suppose). Now I'll read a black and white manga as readily as a full color graphic novel.



これで以上です。

Comments

[wendelah1]

Wow. I can't imagine a better or more exciting introduction to the genre.

[lebateleur]

It was a roundabout way to get there, but I'm glad I did :D

[delphi]

It took me a while to get into manga too (and even moreso anime). I've never been to Japan, but for me it was the scaled-down version of being able to check out more than what was imported for the local children's and YA markets. Once I could see more, I realized the things I could get on board with were out there.

[lebateleur]

Yes, exactly. It's amazing how much gets left off the table when heterosexual dudes with traditional publishing industry jobs get to decide what's imported and and what isn't; luckily the existence of the Internet took a wrecking ball to that gatekeeping wall.

[rogueslayer452]

The fact that you gained a better appreciation for manga when you went to Japan is awesome.

I remember being interested in manga when I was a teenager, and I have some volumes from series that I was into at the time, but there wasn't much of a selection back then. So I'm thankful that times have changed where there is a wider exposure to manga.

[lebateleur]

I think the Internet and online fandom have a lot to do with that, inasmuch as they revealed markets outside of the tastes and values of TPTB in western publishing who determined what was licensed and what wasn't. I'm thankful there's wider exposure too. Fanslators are wonderful group of people, but official licenses are what gets money into the authors' (and translators', for that matter) hands.