I will admit I was a bit turned off to her by her intro paragraph: the cat ears as used in Loveless aren't there for cutesy purposes as they may be in other works. They are used as a very relevent symbol in the work as a whole. It seemed rather presumptuous of her to judge so early on, so from the get-go I felt iffy about any further opinions that might come from her. I personally find that I don't need to relate 100% to characters in order to understand and appreciate the underlying truths within a story. Maybe that's just me. :)

In any case, it's great to see more sisters-in-arms out there.

I was thinking it was interesting that she's "cooled off" to manga the same way I have. I thought I was the odd one. Now I must entertain the possibility that as manga fans age, they will drift away from the Japanese and hopefully toward some of the new lines of comics being developed by the west.

****
I live under a bridge.

I think the problem lies in those who become obsessed with one thing and are unwilling to branch out at an early age.

I was obsessed for four years. I think it's just a phase for some people, like myself. Those who never get over it become otaku. Those who do get over it either slowly wean themselves the Japanese superiority complex and branch out while maintaining their roots, or they never look back. I've known all three types of people.

****
I live under a bridge.

To be honest, I was never really obsessed with manga. It was a sort of bridge from novels to comic books for me -- I got into yaoi and yuri, picked up a few titles, and in the end just wasn't willing to spend $130 on an entire manga series. Don't even get me started on anime DVD's -- I can get an entire season of The Simpsons in one set, but have to compile 3-6 sets for one season of anime? Sorry, too poor and too Jewish.

But I still dabble with manga when I can, despite moving on and wanting to purchase the entire graphic novel section of Borders instead of the Cozy Manga Corner. It's such a beautiful shelf...

But I did like that post. Sometimes I wonder what high-school otaku will be like in 10 years...

Pull down the future with the one you love.
~Television.

Nah, I'll stick to Furuba forever. But maybe, just maybe, Furuba will be the exception and I'll find other stuff. Because Furuba was my first manga I've ever read. XP

---
Brilliant.
---
Shameless plugging, hurray!

The way she talks, it seems more like she got out of Shojo and not Manga in general because Manga is just a medium not the genre and the comics she talks about seem to be all Shojo. It's all most reads like she is now preferring what the Japanese call Josei comics, or comics for late teenage or adult women. Josei usually has more of a realistic view on life and romance. That's why I think it's not good for the market to focus purelly on the shonen/shojo market. As you reader base grows older, their tastes will change some and there won't be enough manga for these new tastes.

I'm not surprised at all that she's interested in other OEL Manga because most of those creators all grew up on manga and are now experiencing life in adulthood and so their perspective has changing. So of course she can relate to it because they all have that in common.

Personally I haven't given up on Manga or Superhero comics. What I like about comics is the fantasy and the fantastic. That's why I can't read a lot of "art comics" because a lot of them are autographical. You might call that Escapism, but I say my mind can process reality just fine, but there's just not enough "fuel" for my imagination or my creativity. I need some wild than the mundane.

Good perspective, David.

To be honest, I no longer have and interest in most of the comics from Japan and America's Big Three. There's just not much out there that catches my eye aside from the occasional male were-animal rich Gold Diggers.

I feel like there aren't any comics for me anymore. There's just nothing out there for me. There was, but then I outgrew it.

I guess that's why I make comics now.

****
I live under a bridge.