Manga News and Information
Kids Who Can't Read Manga
It would still be understandable if you were trying to read complex literature, and told me "I don't really get it." But what do you mean, "manga is too difficult to understand"!? Apparently, we are seeing kids nowadays who do not understand the basic concepts for reading manga, like "speech bubbles" and "panels." Not understanding how panel works, OK I guess you can't help it if you're a young child who's never touched manga before, but speech bubbles...? That's the absolute essence of manga! Just why are we seeing this sort of phenomenon? "I think the primary reason is that there has been an increase in the amount of visual information on non-paper media, such as the internet, cellular phones and video games. Reading manga is not something you're taught; if there are fewer opportunities for people to be exposed to manga, that means that there are fewer opportunities to familiarize themselves with the structure of manga. Therefore, it would only be natural for people to experience confusion when trying to read them." says Assistant Professor Kazuma Yoshimura of Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga. And it's certainly true that in past decades, things like the internet and cellular phones were not as ubiquitous as they are now, and visual entertainment was essentially limited to manga, anime and video games. Many children probably considered manga an extremely popular form of entertainment; hence, they naturally picked up the rules for reading manga while they enjoyed reading them. The fact that there are kids who don't understand how to read manga itself is worrying enough, but does this mean that Japan's glorious manga culture is on the decline? Are we going to be OK? "Just because there are some kids who can't read manga, doesn't mean that the manga-loving population is declining. It's true that anthology magazine sales are going down, but sales of graphic novels are doing well. This means that we are seeing more and more people who only read certain favorite titles." explains Yoshimura. If many people only read certain titles, then the market itself will inevitably get smaller, but for now we can breathe a sigh of relief. When it comes to manga and anime, we don't want to place second to any country in the world! (Mai Endo/verb) - Relates sites: Translated by Neuroretardant |
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Well, unless the kids are
Well, unless the kids are bought up to not read manga... otherwise the brain should be trained to do so... but it's definitely not something people would know from day 0... adults learn it right away because they're used to other media like tv and movies, and manga panel dividing are very heavily influenced by continuity editing... as for speech bubble, i'm sure it'll take tham less than 10 pages to figure it out... people can't assume knowledge exists from day 1...
Sounds like a really slow
Sounds like a really slow news day. They don't say how widespread this problem is, how old these kids are, whether the problem is any worse than it has been in the past, or how much worse.
Nobody had to teach me how to read comic books; I would have been insulted if they had tried. It has to be one of the most elementary forms of literature there is. I did have to learn how to read, however, which may be the larger problem, even in education-oriented Japan.
:banghead: Hearing this
:banghead: Hearing this from the cointry "Who introduce US to wonderful world of ANIME / MANGA ?"... This is SHOCKING
If you haven't seen manga
If you haven't seen manga before,
you shouldn't be expected to know
how to read it. But, in basic, comic
books? Someone not knowing how to
read comic books? You get the hang
of it after the first few pages...
And it's only natural for someone
to read their favourite titles.
You shouldn't read something that
doesn't interest you or doesn't
entertain you, otherwise, it's
a waste. [For you anyway].
And the fact that Japanese children
who grow up around people purchasing
manga, anime, videogames can't read
manga, well, is kind of shocking.
Age would be an easier thing to help
come up with how serious this is, though.
And just because a few stupid kids can't
read manga doesn't mean people will stop
reading it, buying it, or producing it.
This article was chock full of needless
worrying. Just because some kids don't
know how doesn't mean all the people who
do know how will suddenly forget.
This is horrible
This is horrible :banghead:!!! >:(
"The book was better..."
"And it's only natural for someone
to read their favourite titles.
You shouldn't read something that
doesn't interest you or doesn't
entertain you, otherwise, it's
a waste. [For you anyway]."
I think the point is that they're only reading what they're familiar with, not a genre or anything. It's something that people are more likely to do as they get older, which is an indicator that it's primarily and older generation that's reading it. They're less likely to open up to something they're unfamiliar with. It starts killing new titles that are coming out because it means treading into unfamiliar territory. I've caught myself walking along aisles of manga and noticing that my favorite series are completed, and I don't look at the other titles. Or a friend brings an anime over and I'm skeptical about watching it because I haven't seen anything like it before. Thankfully, I force myself to give it a try an usually end up enjoying it.
But this is probably more related to the books vs movies thing. Anime is coming out a lot sooner after the manga comes out than it once did. Why read the book when you can watch the movie? I know many people who will watch movies, but never pick up the book even though it has a lot more information. These days, why pick up a manga or book when you can just get a movie, anime, or visual novel, that does all the work for you?
I pick up the manga because
I pick up the manga because it saves a buttload of time instead of watching the anime. Anime takes a lot longer to watch, and the long pauses annoy me greatly :P
I pick up the manga because
I pick up the manga because it saves a buttload of time instead of watching the anime. Anime takes a lot longer to watch, and the long pauses annoy me greatly :P