Manga is Cliched, and That's Okay

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Anime Almanac recently posted a [http://animealmanac.com/2009/10/05/manga-review-oh-my-brother-vol-1/ review of ''Oh! My Brother'' volume 1]. It's an informative review, with a lot of information on the story and characters, and on what makes it entertaining.

But this bit leapt out at me: "Hold on¦ you go through that huge, tragic setup just to create a story of two people sharing the same body?! Really?! What kind of contrived plot is that?!  Have we not seen this done a million times before?!"

"I wanted to hate Ken Saito's Oh! My Brother on this premise alone, I really did." Wait. Wait, wait, wait. A manga's cliched premise was enough to make him want to hate it?

Manga is not exactly a hotbed of original premises and plot lines. The large majority of manga series have very cliched premises, and plots that we've heard a million times before.

And that's okay. Manga's strength lies in taking a well-used idea and running with it, creating an interesting experience within that setup. His and Her Circumstances wasn't the first high school romance with quirky lead characters. Rurouni Kenshin wasn't the first samurai action manga about a group of tough heroes who just want peace.

After all, manga is Asian. If I may make a sweeping generalization, Asians don't concern themselves with originality the way Westerners do. Originality literally doesn't matter to Asians, at least not as much as it does to Westerners. (Arguably, this is why Asian countries are incredibly good at building and refining existing technology, but rarely invent completely new technologies, compared to the West.)  Asian cultures are all about refinement and variation on existing forms, not re-invention.

Which is why Anime Almanac's comment surprised me. I respect him. He's read a lot of manga. Surely he's read enough great manga with cliched setups to understand that originality's not the point. Or what am I missing? -- Brent

For other Asian examples, look at Hong Kong cinema. One cliche after another, but it's often gripping. They use the cliches as the framework for showing off martial arts (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), or acting (A Better Tomorrow), or injustice (Legend of Drunken Master), or what-have-you.

I'll admit, I never really thought about "imitation is the sincerest form a flattery" being a core Asian value before. You could be right about that, and I'll look further into this theory as I continue to learn about Asian culture.

But even if it is a core Asian belief, I'm a American writing about a Japanese comic that has been adapted to be read by an American audience. My goal in my reviews is not investigate the original intent of the comic, because I save those deep thinking cultural thoughts for other posts.

When I do a review, I do it on behalf of an American manga publisher like CMX who send me the sample for my consideration. It is then my obligation to tell my readers - most of whom are English-speaking Americans - if they should check out the comic or not. That American audience is my one and only focus because the product I'm reviewing was translated, adapted, and marketed specifically for them. It doesn't matter what the Japanese would think of the Japanese version, I'm not reading that version. I'm reading CMX's English adaptation that is only going to be sold in North America.

So with that in mind, yes, I follow the Western belief that originality is a sign of talent and skill. In my many years of fandom, I've read hundreds of manga series and watched hundreds of anime series, so I've seen every cliche done again and again. That gets boring after a while, so why would I want to read something that's boring?

If a story based on cliched premise can offer something that's unique and original, then yes, that's good. I gave Oh! My Brother a positive review because it had charming characters and good jokes. That's what made this story unique among all the other two-people-one-body stories out there. -- AnimeAlmanac

I do want to address a few aspects of this, though. Firstly, you say that you're writing for English-speaking Americans. Sure. You also say that you've read/watched hundreds of manga/anime works, and seen lots of cliches, which gets boring for you. That's fine, but you're *not* writing for folks who've read hundreds of manga, are you?

Just because it's boring to you doesn't make it boring to your reader, right? Why should they care if it's been done a hundred times?

Secondly, whoever it's being aimed at, the original content is Japanese (or Korean, or what-have-you). I haven't met a single manga fan who thinks her favorite Japanese manga is written by an American. ;-) If it's being produced by a different culture, shouldn't a certain understanding of that culture be included in the appreciation of the work?

I mean, I'm sure you don't think that Japanese works shouldn't have all Japanese cultural references edited or removed for American audiences (redrawing seifuku into normal teen clothes, for example). If the manga-ka works under the assumption that the story doesn't have to be original, isn't that just as much a part of understanding the story as understanding that the art is drawn right-to-left?

Thirdly, while I absolutely agree that a cliched premise isn't a sign of high quality, I don't think it's necessarily a sign of poor quality. I've seen plenty of funny/gripping/exciting shows with cliched premises. IOW, I don't think it's a predictable indicator.

Fourthly, and maybe this is where we really differ, I *don't* see originality--in the sense of an unusual premise for a story--as a sign of talent and skill. I worked for months as a fiction editor, and I read lots of non-cliched stories that sucked, because the highly original idea was just plain bad. -- Brent