MANGinA FLOWER

Must read manga.

flatfacemanga:

I uploaded a batch file of Sunny Volume 1 (Chapters 1 through 6). It includes the dust jacket, covers, contents, and other misc. pages. The black and white pages are in PNG format, and color pages are JPG. The file is around 54mb. Click the MEDIAFIRE link above to download.

So someone asked me what I thought about the obscurity and/or popularity of certain manga. The contrasts between obscure seinen and mainstream shounen.

Maybe most seinen readers have matured beyond “gabbing” about manga on forums? I know I’m a heck of a lot less active on forums compared to when I still read a lot of shounen series. Not that I don’t enjoy talking about manga, because I really do and I hardly know anyone IRL who likes the same stuff I do. But then we’re talking about real life conversations, which I would much rather have than use forums… To me forums are good for sharing information, and especially in the case of obscure seinen manga: spreading the word. As for discussions, I hardly partake in those about any subject. Don’t be too surprised, but a lot of seinen readers are cynical fucks who have a hard time accepting what most think. ;-)

On the other hand I think that there’s basically 2 groups of people that start reading manga:
- The kind that lose interest once they mature beyond what the mainstream has to offer.
- The kind that is too obsessed with comics to stop, and makes the leap towards a more mature, rewarding kind of reading.
It goes without saying that the first group is the larger one.

Either way I don’t think the genre is dying, nor will it ever expand immensely. There has been a rise in the popularity of seinen manga in the last few years however, due to “bridging” series that narrow the gap between hardcore seinen and accessible shounen (I’m especially thinking of the works of Naoki Urasawa); and due to the general incline in manga readers. When I started reading manga in ‘04, even the most lukewarm of seinen manga was still considered to be obscure, and you could hardly find anyone talking about them.

I know I’ve always had a tough time finding resources on alternative manga. There are definitely times when I wished there was a better outlet for this kind of thing, a social platform even. Anyway, what do you guys think on the matter?

“You should never rape someone…. um, unless you have a reason, like you wanna fuck somebody and they won’t let you. What other option do you have? How else are you supposed to have an orgasm in their body if you don’t rape them? I mean what the fuck.” - Louis CK