OEL Article

[Project Akira]

Here's an article talking about some of the ins and outs of the doing Original English Language or OEL for short. I've been watching this as it's developed or stalled in pretty much most cases. I have a lot of friends here at school openly emulating the manga and anime style so part of my concern is for them. The other aspect is that while as cartoonist myself and my style isn't out and out manga, it is influenced to a degree by manga and I feel a kinship with a lot of these creators. It's interesting for me to see the fallout that came from Tokyopop's far too fast expansion, they're recorded poor treatment of creators, and their under promotion of their own line of original material. It's also been interesting to see what alot of those creators have been doing. It's also interesting to me to see which traditional book publishers, such as Del Rey, who have published manga are doing about their American inspired counterparts.

Here are a few a questions for the manga fans out there regarding OEL just because I've been curious how the hardcore manga readers have reacted to these books.

1) Do you read OEL books?
2) Are you aware there were printed OELs?
3) Would you be interested in reading an OEL?

I'd appreciate any positive discussion that can be brought about discussing this aspect of American publishing.

[oppa]

1) Sorta (not much)
2) Yes
3) Yes, if the contents were interesting

I have no loyalty to anime/manga simply because a Japanese person(s) created it. I enjoy them as I enjoy anything else; the contents (i.e. story, characters, material, etc.) appeal to me and draw me in.

What I *don't* like is when someone tries too hard to mimic a certain type of media and looses themselves in it. They end up with something that is trying to appeal to simply that aspect of media instead of really trying to create something worth a lick but is also of said media.

That last paragraph didn't make much sense, did it? Heh... in short, I could care less who created it, as long as I find it enjoyable. Of course, some (or much) of the little nuances of say, manga, are culture based; if you did not grow up in that culture, those little nuances may not come across properly (or at least, as intended). This applies to any media that has strong cultural ties in its content.

Ehhh... I suppose my answers have been rather generic. I guess I can't give any specifics since, as seen from my answer to the first question, I haven't immersed myself in many OELs and the like. Should I find one that draws me in, I will not disregard it simply because it was not created in Japan.

On a side note, manga is simply Japanese comics. Many nations have their variant of comic books and I'm sure many other countries have mimic-ed them as is done with manga. As long as the intention is to create something appealing and not to purely copy, I can foresee plenty of interesting works in the future... maybe further than one would hope since I'm certain there are far more people that do NOT think like me than those that do.