Are there any manga series that you would consider great modern literature?

[Deadmed]

I heard Berserk is great, it's the top rated manga on My Anime List. The comic book medium seems to be dismissed as inferior in face of other forms of storytelling because of its history with silly looking superheroes in tights. But I've always thought that Japanese manga had more artistic merit than the rehashed super hero stories in the west. So I think it's unfair to group them with "comics" as they function very differently as a product and a medium having originated from a foreign culture.

 

[Claymantan]

I've never heard of a manga that's achieved for legitimizing manga as literature (even in just the East itself) what, say, Watchmen achieved for legitimizing comics in the West/worldwide as having literary value. Even the mangas that are vaguely literary or historical, don't really come up to the same level. You probably have to read some of those mangas that deal with things like nuclear war and sh*t to find that, but those are obscure.

 

[Michelle]

They are many. But you should search yourself. Thrillers, suspense, feelings, realism, fantasies, you can have all. Search on google a top and you can find the plot and drawings too. Also, search manga on Wiki for other details.

I cannot read a manga that i dislike drawings, so i can't read One Piece. But it has a great story, shounen style of course.

Death Note is an example, with anime and real movie. Is old but i can find it in book stores anytime.

 

[Deadmed]

I've never heard of a manga that's achieved for legitimizing manga as literature (even in just the East itself) what, say, Watchmen achieved for legitimizing comics in the West/worldwide as having literary value. Even the mangas that are vaguely literary or historical, don't really come up to the same level. You probably have to read some of those mangas that deal with things like nuclear war and sh*t to find that, but those are obscure.

Pretty sure Monster has gotten awards, so has Fullmetal Alchemist.

 

[Claymantan]

Pretty sure Monster has gotten awards, so has Fullmetal Alchemist.

I don't know much about Monster, but I know Fullmetal Alchemist isn't held anywhere near to the same standard as Watchmen.

 

[Deadmed]

I don't know much about Monster, but I know Fullmetal Alchemist isn't held anywhere near to the same standard as Watchmen.

Watchman was ok, but it didn't make me feel the characters were as real as some mangas notably berserk

 

[Claymantan]

Watchman was ok, but it didn't make me feel the characters were as real as some mangas notably berserk

I'm not really arguing quality or enjoyability. Mangas just tend to do things differently.

Watchmen does this like drawing backgrounds for all its panels, for example; most mangas skip this. So Watchmen was able to do a lot more with things like symbolism and whatnot that associate it with being a literary work.

 

[Deadmed]

I'm not really arguing quality or enjoyability. Mangas just tend to do things differently.

Watchmen does this like drawing backgrounds for all its panels, for example; most mangas skip this. So Watchmen was able to do a lot more with things like symbolism and whatnot that associate it with being a literary work.

Naruto doesn't skip backgrounds there's a lot of manga that don't. If people consider watchmen a literary work over something like berserk they're simply ignorant and biased. Difference in artstyle doesn't change that the characters are complex and the story is rife with symbolism and deep psychological themes.

 

[Ambivalence]

Not really. Well, by vocabulary definition yes, otherwise I don't consider it one, just like how I don't consider great movies or paintings literature. Manga relies on a lot of visual representation and rendering, it can't be put into the same category as literature in the sense everyone is used to.

Though light novels kinda qualify.

 

[Deadmed]

Not really. Well, by vocabulary definition yes, otherwise I don't consider it one, just like how I don't consider great movies or paintings literature. Manga relies on a lot of visual representation and rendering, it can't be put into the same category as literature in the sense everyone is used to.

Though light novels kinda qualify.

Then why are comic books like Batman Returns and Watchmen put on summer reading lists along with text literature???

 

[Ambivalence]

Then why are comic books like Batman Returns and Watchmen put on summer reading lists along with text literature???

Who knows, but the prospect of comics being considered as literature sounds even more ludicrous to me.

 

[Deadmed]

Who knows, but the prospect of comics being considered as literature sounds even more ludicrous to me.

There have been animes such as Another based on novels and they aren't any better than anime based on manga. You can have a manga or graphic novel than is better than a book or a book that's better than a manga or graphic novel, it's ignorant to say one medium of storytelling is superior to the other. It's about the imagination and thought that is put into a story to make its world resonate with the audience, and this can be accomplished through written descriptions or a combination of dialogue, narration, and drawings taking the place of written descriptions.