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[Neonivek]

It is because the Japanese are... well the answer isn't really fascist...

They are just clearly obsessed with people genetically and spiritually predisposed to being amazing at everything... to the extent that even the "losers" have to secretly be predisposed to being amazing (Hello Naruto).

[KingofstarrySkies]

Thaaaat's some pretty serious generalizing you got going on there, pal. And, 'twere I Japanese, I might even take that offensively.

[Reelya]

Can say the same thing about the superhero genre, which is the vast bulk of the American comics market, to the point the rest might as well not exist. Compare that to the manga market, where you have dime a dozen series about just regular people being normal. And as well as the vast bulk of slice of life stuff, if you just want to compare the cheesier harem manga and shoujo romance side of things, most of the protagonists in those are very wimpy etc and do not possess any amazing powers.

Sure there's wish fulfillment stuff about the weak kid gone good, but that's basically the entirely of the comics market in America (people gaining superpowers), whereas you have things like Love Hina, Ah My Goddess in Japan being pretty typical series. In those and most shoujo series, being average is the selling point and those series wouldn't work if the main character underwent some transformation to "awesome".

I think someone saying that "average person gets superpowers" is somehow indicative of Japanese comic series vs American comic series is a bit hypocritical. Note: that Naruto is a battle shonen series. Of course such series are going to have the main character be an excellent fighter, the same as a sports manga will have the character be/become good at the sport in the manga. Because those are the central themes of battle shonens and sports mangas. That would only be a relevant observation about Japan in general if battle shonens and sports mangas were the bulk of mangas that are produced, but they are not.

Hell, Kimi ni Todoke was the best-selling manga in Japan this week. And you can't get more average than the protagonists of that series. Hell it's a shoujo series and the love interest dude isn't particularly rich or smart or athletic in any way, he's just a regular joe and his "claim to fame" is that he's not socially retarded like the heroine.
http://myanimelist.net/news/41180547
And the 6th-highest selling manga was this:
http://myanimelist.net/manga/49341/
"Aoishi Hanae is a 33-year-old woman who has a job, but no boyfriend. In fact, she's also still a virgin. It's not that she never had a chance to lose her virginity, but she let the chance pass by. At a drinking party with her colleagues, Hanae ends up confiding in Tanokura Yuto, a handsome young 21-year-old part timer at her company who also attends college, and who has recently broken up with his girlfriend. The next morning, she wakes up in a hotel next to him, and learns that they apparently agreed to start dating and then had sex that night. She has only hazy memories, and has no idea how to deal with the situation. Yuto is shocked that she doesn't remember, but hopes that they can still date. How will Hanae, who is older but much less experienced in romance, handle her surprising new relationship with the younger and more experienced Yuto?"

Comics about very average people's lives sell in Japan, and they sell really well.

[Culise]

Can say the same thing about the superhero genre, which is the vast bulk of the American comics market, to the point the rest might as well not exist. Compare that to the manga market, where you have dime a dozen series about just regular people being normal. And as well as the vast bulk of slice of life stuff, if you just want to compare the cheesier harem manga and shoujo romance side of things, most of the protagonists in those are very wimpy etc and do not possess any amazing powers. Consider Love Hina or Ah My Goddess for example.

Or just fantasy in general, which a lot of this reincarnation fiction seems to fall into in either case.  If I had a half-pfenning for every "destined hero from birth" or "child of heroes" or "secret noble" or what-have-you, especially if you start including general dreck, I'd be able to purchase Scrooge McDuck's money bank and still be able to fill it with the left-over money. 

[Frumple]

Oh hey, reinc stuff I haven't seen. Cheers, NG. Well, excepting Re:Monster and the long-name one (which I'll at least give it that it's very forthright in what it's intending to do, ha).

You might be interested in the japtem one that started running recently -- magician's grandson is the name, iirc. There's also a sorta'-kinda' one with Hai to Gensou no Grimgal that's similarly getting started, and another one that japtem was/is working on with Arifureta (though it falls into the wish fulfillment thing pretty rapidly, too).

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari has a broadly similar conceit, too, though the writing et al gets a little... odd, as the story progresses.

And the Overlord thing that we were talking about a bit back roughly fits the same narrative, I think. It's pretty alright regardless, in any case.

[Leafsnail]

Just realized. Crunchyroll JoJo censors Jotaro smoking a cigarette. He just happens to have a perfect shadow over just the half of his face that has a cigarette, despite standing on the middle of a boat in the middle of the ocean in broad daylight.

Censorship seems to be getting really out of hand.

I don't think it's Crunchyroll, it's just they don't let you show underage smoking/drinking on Japanese TV.

[Trapezohedron]

Been considering watching Overlord, but yeah I only watch anime that is almost done or already done. I lump them with the online-like animes like .hack (yes, it's a game, don't kill me), SAO, Log Horizon, etc.

Tate no Yuusha doesn't seem to be my tastes. I might take a glance at it though, given I get bored enough.

I'll go check the other recommendations; I have no basic idea over them and don't know what to expect.

[Frumple]

Ah... I have no idea what the anime's like, for what that's worth. I've been mostly reading LNs lately, and generally gravitate more towards that and manga than actually animated stuff anyway.

And yeah, game likes... Legendary Moonlight Sculptor and Ark are both pretty great, if you're going the LN route (though a manga for the former has started up, interestingly enough). You can definitely tell they're both riding some (somewhat similar) cultural tropes fairly hard, but they're still pretty neat.

[Trapezohedron]

Light novels are good for work when you don't want others peering at your work and then seeing some pics

If there are any disadvantages to LNs though, well those sometimes be the shitty translators. I get they're trying to do a good job, but they don't have to make footnotes to make jokes, or not translate terms that could easily be converted into counterparts and then leave said information into the footnotes (also prevalent in manga, which irks me a bit, unless it's honorifics on a Japan-type setting).

I'll go check those when I sober up on happy. Pry sad thread for reasons.

[Rose]

Translators note : kawaii means cute.

[Culise]

Translators note : kawaii means cute.

All according to keikaku^†.
^{†Keikaku means plan}

[Neonivek]

Can say the same thing about the superhero genre

And you would be right about a very select few super heroes. Who have super powers yes... but they aren't super special.

Even Superman is not very special compared to others of his kind... and None of the Green Lanterns are "special"

But Anime? Nope they are overwhelmingly super special where stand outs are rare. Even Kenchi who is said to have "No talent for martial arts" has talent for martial arts (specifically he learns when harassed and has near supernatural stamina and endurance)

Even Dangen Ronpa which played with the fact that the main character has no talent (specifically at one point saying that he is "Super elite lucky") was later outright told that he is super special awesome.

[Reelya]

That's really stretching the definition of "normal average dude" for superman. It's almost insanely trolling to claim he's normal or average. "His own kind" are conveniently dead and he lives with lesser mortals for the entire story. And extra-convenitently said racial powers only manifest once you live on Earth, which is also damn convenient for Superman. In fact, he therefore fits your definition therefore of an average dude who has greatness beyond mere mortals thrust upon him by circumstance.

By the exact same logic, any anime highschool student with demonic powers is a perfectly normal dude because they have powers from the demon world, where such powers are normal and average. Nevermind that they're surrounded by normal highschool students they're still a normal person because they have amazing powers which are perfectly normal and average (if you're a demon). And the fact that the demon world probably still exists makes them much more normal and average than superman, who conveniently had his superrace wiped out.

They are just clearly obsessed with people genetically and spiritually predisposed to being amazing at everything... to the extent that even the "losers" have to secretly be predisposed to being amazing (Hello Naruto).

genetically and spiritually predisposed to being amazing at everything

Hello, Superman.

even the "losers" have to secretly be predisposed to being amazing

Hello, Clark Kent

btw I think this has less to do with culture, as these characters being the protagonist of action stories. Naturally, action stories follow people who are good at what it takes, and not the no hopers. e.g. Luke Slywalker also fits the description of a "loser" who is "genetically and spiritually predisposed to being amazing at everything". He starts the saga (onscreen) as just a bored teenager who wants to get off his uncles farm.

[Neonivek]

You mean Clark Kent who is an ace reporter who has won multiple Pulitzer prizes? He was never a loser, that is just what Bill from Kill Bill said about him, but in the end he was speaking out of his butt.

I am not mincing words when I say Anime tends to be very elitist.

While you are clearly bending over backwards to apply the same to comic books.

[Comrade P.]

I'm sorry to interrupt, but here's a quick question:

I'm watching Durarara. I made it through 17 episodes, and I think I'm going to drop it, and there is one thing I hope to see, that is why I kept watching this far. So tell me.
Will I see more Simon Brezhnev in further episodes?