TokyoPop drop OEL label in favour of Global Manga

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
According to the Anime News Network, worldwide manga publishing giant TokyoPop is moving away from calling their original works "OEL Manga" (Original English Language Manga), instead preferring a newer shorter phrase- "Global Manga".

In the past TokyoPop has caused controversy within fandom for labelling it's original work "manga", given that a lot of it has been drawn and written by American artists while "manga" word is commonly defined as comics drawn and written in Japan.
 
I can see people using either title in everyday conversation:
  • "Man, I just read the coolest OEL manga."

    "Global manga is getting better, you know."
I say both titles are short for "Comic Books with Geeky Prefixes so we can call them Manga". :roll: Personally I like calling them Ye Ol' Manga [silly play on OEL Manga] for fun, and Amanga for short. Of course, you could always go with the universal term: comic books. :p

Edit: How about Manga Danga? That's what my mother calls manga when she wants to poke fun at me. ;) :mrgreen:
 
All of this OEL stuff is still just comic books to me. There is obviously a pronounced manga-influence (which is fine) but simply put- it isn't manga, because manga is from Japan!
 
I don't mind them publishing comics from around the world but I think the part they really need to drop is the word "manga".

I enjoy all sorts of comics, not just manga but if you are relying on some cool catchpoint to ensnare people to read a comic my cynicism leads me to believe it is not that good and will cause me to leave it alone. Frankly I find it a bit offensive that they would try and mislead or fool the fanbase into buying into their hype and that kind of thing is bound to get my back up.

Manga, like anime, is not a point of style but of where it comes from. Different authors/artists draw in vastly different ways and each has their own particular slant in the way they present their stories.

If you argue that anything that approaches the style of a manga constitutes manga then you could easily argue that Peanuts (Charlie Brown and Snoopy comic strips for those who don't know) is a manga because it is done in a comic strip style, much like Azumanga Daioh. If anybody could define what particular trait, short of it originating from Japan constitutes a "manga style" I might be able to accept the term as valid but since there is no such definition then I personally never will accept it.

(Sorry for the rant but the whole OEL/World/Global manga thing is just such a nonsense that it should be stamped upon... repeatedly.)
 
Gawyn said:
I don't mind them publishing comics from around the world but I think the part they really need to drop is the word "manga".
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Absolutely. Without changing that word the debate about whether it is "manga" or not must continue. It's about as pointless a name change as "Opal Fruits" to "Starburst", or "Coco Pops" to "Choco Krispies" (at least the good folks at Kelloggs managed to take public opinion into account...eventually)
 
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