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Reading this conversation reminds me of the Touhou manga, which makes for an interesting case study in my opinion. For the record, Touhou is a series of indie vertical-scrolling shooters that has spawned this bizarrely huge fandom over the years (think Undertale, and in fact the creator of Undertale is a huge Touhou fan). It's got tons of characters since every game introduces a brand new cast, and while it doesn't really have an overall plot per se, it has tons of interactions between characters that flavor what they think of each other, etc etc. And of course there are tons of databooks and extra stories outside the games, etc etc. Anyway, my point is that it's a huge if slightly niche fandom, both in Japan and elsewhere. So you'd think the release of an official manga would be a huge deal, and an instant success. But it is absolutely not. The manga stories all assume a base level of familiarity with the characters and their relationship, and you end up with shocking reveals that mean absolutely nothing to anyone who hasn't been obsessively following every single Touhou work ever released. Like, when a character shows up at the end of chapter, you have some percentage of the readers going "holy poo poo, things are getting serious now!" and another, larger, fraction going "huh? who is this and why should I care?" It's just, well, the exact opposite of how you'd write a story to attract new readers. Which sounds exactly like what this conversation seems to be about right now. Which personally I think adds a little more evidence to the idea that it's the interconnection and needing a wiki to follow what's going on that hurts superhero comics. Since even manga based on a popular franchise flops when it tries to do the same thing. Just because you can look something up, or you don't technically need to know whatever it is to follow the basic plot, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt the experience.
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Sep 21, 2021 18:35
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 12:17 |
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