[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

There are a few anomalies though:

1. Why hasn't comics succeeded in establishing an online presence the way Gaming or movies did?

Well, in some ways, it has.

Prior to becoming an anime fan, I was a big comic book fan.

There are comic book message boards I've been (and am) a member of that easily rival Anime Suki and ANN's Forums when it comes to sheer amount and volume of activity (one of those two comic book boards also has a fair bit of news and reviews on it). Those sites focus on individual comic books (Action Comics #6, say) the same way we here focus on individual anime episodes (Hyouka Episode 5, say).


However, the online comic book fandom is probably not quite as organized (especially when it comes to things like categorization) as the online anime fandom is, because the online comic book fandom has more internal divisions.

Most of us anime fans have some variations in taste with one another, but the overlap is substantive. Very few anime fans are just Haruhi fans, or just Shana fans, or just Monogatari series fans.

But there are loads of comic book fans that are just Superman fans, or just Batman fans, or just Spiderman fans. Comic book fans that are only into a particular character or two aren't always concerned about the medium as a whole. They have their favorites and that's that.

Even amongst the comic book fans that like a wide range of characters and titles, you still have the DC/Marvel division. Loads of comic book fans only like Marvel, or only like DC, so they're not necessarily making a point to catalogue the full collection of "the other guy's" titles.

So I think that there's a larger percentage of people within the anime fandom that's really into the medium as a whole (and wants all of it carefully catalogued online) then the percentage of people within the comic book fandom that's really into the medium as a whole (and wants it all carefully catalogued online).

Why isn't information and databases about English language television as organized as movies?

Movies still have a certain prestige about them that television largely lacks. I can't think of the TV reviewer equivalent of Roger Ebert, and that probably says something about which of the two (TV shows vs. Movies) society holds in higher esteem.

2. Why did Asian Dramas take off while european television and film is obscure by comparison? Likewise, asian pop music dominates Europop in the online space.

Maybe because Asian drams and pop music are relatively more exotic, and people like trying exotic things sometimes?

I'm hardly well-versed on European television or Europop, but from what little I've heard/seen of it, I've rarely seen a big difference between a lot of Europe's most popular pop artists and North America's.

But J-Pop does have a bit of distinctive feel, imo.


Edit: Also, on the piracy point. I think that anime is better-suited to digital distribution in general than comic books are. Part of the charm of comic books, at least for a lot of older, established fans like myself, is actually holding that physical comic book in your hands, and flicking through it, and collecting stacks of comics. Reading comic books online isn't quite the same, and I'd say that applies to me as well. But whether you watch anime from a computer screen (after DLing online) or watch it from a DVD/Blu-Ray you pop in the DVD/Blu-Ray player, doesn't have that big of a difference in "feel", imo. Quality difference might be there, but the overall experience is much the same.