
Manga comics turn gray – but spirited – along with readers - petethomas
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-ageing-comics/aging-japan-manga-comics-turn-gray-but-spirited-along-with-readers-idUSKCN1M80P4
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xrd
Living in Japan as an exchange student in high school, I used manga as a way
to learn colloquial Japanese. It was a good experience overall and the stories
are engaging. Plus, lots of the kanji have jimaku (written in the phonetic
characters) underneath because many readers, like me, were learning all the
characters required to read at an adult level.

The only problem I encountered was reading one during classical Japanese
class, which I couldn't understand at all. The teacher was lecturing in the
room and walked up behind me talking. Everyone else would read comics in
class, so I didn't stop. My Japanese was not good enough to realize his
conversation had shifted away from the subject of koten (classical Japanese
literature) to me and my reading material until a few seconds, by which time
the whole class was laughing at me. I think he knew I was committed to
learning the Japanese I could at that moment in my learning.

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cupofjoakim
This is fascinating to me even though it shouldn't be. Since manga has been
around as a mainstream thing i japan for as long as it has it was bound to
start happening. I mean, fans of American superhero comics will likely still
enjoy them as they grow older but will need a different type of character to
keep being able to relate to the comics.

Looking forward to any superhero story that takes the old "bitten by a bug ->
now has powers" to an actual perspective from an elderly person, and get their
unique take on the events following.

~~~
wigglelot
"Inuyashiki: Last Hero" is an interesting anime take along the lines of the
premise you mention.

~~~
PurpleRamen
And was a manga first. It actually was the one that came mind when reading the
article. It's the perfect example of an old sad salary-man gaining supwerpower
and rescuing the world and beating some sense into the ignorant youth. Because
rule of thumb for japanese productions is that the main characters are
reflection of the main target group.

