for children vs. for adults

Hay guys how come in Japan it's acceptable for adults to read manga but anime is strictly for children (or teenagers at most)?

It's really the same content, right? What the fuck difference does it make if I watch the Azumanga Daioh anime or read the manga? WTF. ZOMG.

No, seriously.

Let's look at the budget side of the deal, printing a comic book that doesn't even have colors is horrenduously cheap compared to making a television show right? Therefore the Manga industry can afford to produce a much greater amout of material where everyone finds anything for his/her taste from magical girls to the most bizzare guro your brain can imagine and still they all can make reasonable profit.

It is common that people in japan buy Manga in the morning and read it on their way to work and theere they throw it out to the thrash (and the paper gets recycled on that day), the next morning they buy the next chapter of what they read yesterday. Printed on the paper that was recycled from last week's manga papers.

While in case of animes that are television shows there is a lot more money to invest and a lot more legal stuff involved. Since most animes start out as Mangas the cretors have to alter the story, sometimes significatnly, so that a wider array of people could enjoy it because they need a greater profit from a smaller investment. Sadly that also means that that a lot of animes are HUEG failures compared to their original mangas and that the two stories hardly match at all.
Let me use Tenjo Tenge as example, the anime is just a 4rd grade ecchi/martial art series with a sucky art style first 2 episodes are the best and after that it gets worse with every episode and in the end it just leaves with nothing of a story. It has ecchi yes and fighting yes but in a mild way. While the Manga has real porn, rape, violence, blood and gore and a story that is actually worth reading.

This is what I think.

>>1
it's all about the situation. people will read a manga magazine, as >>2 said, on the way to work. manga tends to read fast. like the newspaper, it's not really a time investment but a time-killer. it's for waits.

anime, on the other hand, you have to make the conscious decision "i'm gonna watch this popular prime-time anime at home, at 7:30 tonight", and it's competing with EVERYTHING ELSE on television. a kid, of course, is going to pick the anime every time.

much of the stuff that WE watch isn't the popular 7:30 show; it's hardcore otaku fare that airs late at night, and you have to either stay up for it or Tivo it. there's a different measure of devotion there; it's the difference between enjoying something and being a fan. it's obviously way out of the mainstream, and the average person won't be thinking about that stuff when they think anime.

Manga stories are also in all kinds of magazines.

I would never through my manga, magazines or books away, that's just stupid.
I like to build a colection

>>5
Same with me but we don't live in Japan, in Japan a Manga is like a daily newspaper. If oyu look an average household have numerous bookshelves crammed full with Mangas only.

It's a common thing to get on a train or bus and watch as almost everyone read manga from schoolkids to businessmen.(Well actually, only when you have enough space on public transport which is rare.) Those Mangas are cheap and mass produced, of course they are not like the famous ones that are known here too, their art is much lower quality and stories are also less interesting, basically they fill the role of comics that can be read in ever newspaper such as Garfield, The Peanuts and so on.

The difference is that reading manga is not considered children's entertainment in the eyes of the public like in the western world, but considered as an entertainment for everyone regardless of age, gender and social status. Since there are countless genres available whatever people want.

Okay, for anime in japan, look at Sci-Fi in America. The situation is fairly analgous as far as fandom and society's accpeting thereof.

Where I live, it's cool for older people to like anime but they think manga is for teens

I'd say it's because adults don't watch much TV in Japan, they just work all the time. Kids watch TV there (lazy bastards), so anime on TV is targetted at kids. Of course, once the kids grow up, they stop watching TV too. Japan, thou art fucked up.

>>9
Truth be told hehehe…

Yes indeed Japanese adults watch TV much rarely than in the U.S or Europe. They do not just work all day of course they just go out with friends more often to have a drink or see a movie or do karaoke, that is why Karaoke is a such a huge business in Japan because it is the most popular for of entertainment for kids and adults as well.

In the U.S a typical afternoon off for adults is spent by sitting down on the soft sofa/couch in front of the TV with huge pile of chips/snacks and spend hours in watch programs on the hundreds of channels. Or (dare I say…) spend time with a PC and play games or use the intarbutt .

For Japan the typical afternoon off usually consist of going out and doing stuff with friends because they are a lot tighter unit society and were raised with the need to socialize they spend much time together even as adults. Of course that is not necessarily true for everyone.

>>5
have you ever tried to collect the monthly anthologies and biweeklys? they add up. they take up space. and you look at them a few times and they fall apart. the manga people buy to kill time tend to be the anthologies. supper cheap, quick to fall apart. they usualy run anywhere from $3-$5. your average magazine. now, if you like a particular story you go buy the tankouban for your shelf.

there is a small amount of anime geard for adults and such though I would say its not really large enough to mention.

Can't be that anime is unpopular with adults because they have to dedicate time to watching it on TV though. I'm sure Japanese adults watch all kinds of non-serious bullshit on TV.

>>12
They do just not that much as in the U.S and western countries.

who cares. watch what you want to watch, read what you want to read, fap to what you want to fap to.