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[Frumple]

I blame classical literature, I think. There's this odd undercurrent of belief that seems to originate from there that can mostly be summed up as "western culture doesn't think something is worthy unless it makes you feel like shit, at least a little". So you've got to have people getting hurt or suffering or whatev' to be acknowledged as meaningful and worth not being dismissed as crap and/or childish.

[Orange Wizard]

True that. I don't recall a single happy book from those we had to read for English class.

[Frumple]

'bout the only thing that approached it for me was bits of Shakespeare, and that was mostly because they were at least amusing in places, even if everyone was dying and fondling skulls.

E: Incidentally, some of the eastern adaptations of shakespeare are freaking amazing. Bishi horatio with cornrolls is something I will hopefully never forget. I have seen him and hamlet the blonde debonair team up to fight frost trolls. It wasn't the best of things, but it was pretty damn close. Then there's the actual series and whatnot based off 'em. Pretty sure there's a fairly well received sci-fi reimaging of... one of the plays, a ways back? Want to say it was based off Romeo and Juliet?

[Flying Dice]

When did comic books start becoming accepted? After Batman Begins and The Dark Knight brought a more serious face forward on comic book heroes.

... since when did comic books actually get accepted to any substantial degree? Hell, last I paid something approaching attention to it, most layfolk (so to speak) just lump them and manga together under the same umbrella of stuff...

Since new Marvel movies.

It's mainstream now. Jockish dudebros are buying comics these days. Trendy scene girls are talking about how hot superhero X is.

[Frumple]

... definitely regional, then. Either that or I've been paying even less attention than normal lately. Which isn't impossible. Do get out occasionally, though, and I haven't really noticed... any of that. Certainly wasn't happening when I was on campus regularly last year.

I could see the "acceptable" age group for indulging having gone up a bit, though, maybe. Just... really nothing beyond that, barring maybe some temporary stuff related to movies or whatev'.

[i2amroy]

Honestly I see comic books and manga stuff showing up about the same where I'm at (manga somewhat more, but not too much of a difference).

I'd say that they're definitely being driven by different things though. Manga is mostly feeling its resurgence due to the fact that all these kids who grew up on Dragonball Z and similar are finally getting jobs and becoming a significant buying/culture force. On the other hand I'd account for the popularity of comic book stuff again almost solely due to the marvel cinematic universe kickstarting a "nostalgia mining" trend that has culminated in live action superhero movies ranging from things like the Avengers, Superman, and transformers. It's more powered by the fact that we finally have the technology to show off what our super-heroes can do without it looking fake, and the super-hero/comic book industry has taken that opportunity to make some really kickass mainstream movies.

In the case of comic books the "Acceptable" age is a bit more widespread due to the fact that a lot of it is powered by the film resurgence (though it still aims somewhat more at a younger crowd), while the anime "Acceptable" age is more of an upward movement growing at the rate of 1 year/year as all the kids who grew up with anime in their morning tv shows are getting older. Both are still on a trend of becoming increasingly more accepted, however.

Edit: Note, of the two I probably see actual like apparel of superhero stuff a bit more, but from what I've seen it seems to be more of an availability thing than anything else (i.e. more companies here in the US selling superhero stuff than anime stuff). If you actually talk to people about what they watch I tend to get more regular anime watchers than comic book readers.

[Reelya]

It's mainstream now. Jockish dudebros are buying comics these days. Trendy scene girls are talking about how hot superhero X is.

There might be a bit of that, but I'm more inclined to think that that's what the media is pushing. It's one thing to mock nerds when it's just some fringe comic books, but once you start to have movies with hundreds of millions in budget, each movie costs a lot more to make than the entire American comic book market makes in annual turnover. At this point, you start to have the full mass media machine telling people how they just knew this was the cool shit, all along.

It happened with Transformers, but once the hype was over I don't think liking the Transformers cartoons became any more cool.

[Neonivek]

It's mainstream now. Jockish dudebros are buying comics these days. Trendy scene girls are talking about how hot superhero X is.

There might be a bit of that, but I'm more inclined to think that that's what the media is pushing. It's one thing to mock nerds when it's just some fringe comic books, but once you start to have movies with hundreds of millions in budget, each movie costs a lot more to make than the entire American comic book market makes in annual turnover. At this point, you start to have the full mass media machine telling people how they just knew this was the cool shit, all along.

It happened with Transformers, but once the hype was over I don't think liking the Transformers cartoons became any more cool.

You are very on center here. It isn't that the market is full of dudebros it is that the market assumes it is full of dudebros.

[Flying Dice]

It's mainstream now. Jockish dudebros are buying comics these days. Trendy scene girls are talking about how hot superhero X is.

There might be a bit of that, but I'm more inclined to think that that's what the media is pushing. It's one thing to mock nerds when it's just some fringe comic books, but once you start to have movies with hundreds of millions in budget, each movie costs a lot more to make than the entire American comic book market makes in annual turnover. At this point, you start to have the full mass media machine telling people how they just knew this was the cool shit, all along.

It happened with Transformers, but once the hype was over I don't think liking the Transformers cartoons became any more cool.

Natch. I'm talking primarily about the franchises--you don't see anything related to anime billed for general audiences, except maybe Studio Ghibli in some places.

That said, the audiences for those movies? I recall Variety had some demographic polling done on the opening weekend of Age of Ultron: it was a 59%/41% male/female split, 41% over 25, and only 12% teenagers. And a lot of those are seeing box office performance comparable to major "mainstream" films. I don't doubt that there was some media shilling to sell them, but they succeeded in taking comic book stories and characters into mainstream popularity.

[Reelya]

I think it will get the same treatment as comic books are now some time in the not too distant future. I don't think it will be all too long before the movie making machinery dedicated to comic books starts to look at manga as an untapped source of new material.

They're making a Lego Batman Movie so they're scraping the barrel of superhero ideas, for sure. Maybe they can remake all the franchises as Lego movies. Lego is fun, but re-adapting everything with Lego is hardly an industry-saving idea (unless you are the Lego corporation). There's also an Aqua-fucking-man movie coming out. Basically they're adapting a never-ending stream of the same superheros and ever-more obscure superheros. e.g. in 2019 there's a movie adaptation of "Shazam". That's really stretching what the general public knows about comics. Some of the upcoming concepts seems so ill-conceived and numerous that it's clear we are going to see a number of big budget superhero movies flop in the next few years, just due to market oversaturation.

And, as a sign that looking at anime as an alternative is already starting, in 2017 there's an American live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell coming out, with Scarlett Johanssen as the lead. They should throw a decent marketing budget at this, then you might see a flood of anime-related adaptations hitting the screens. You can also see a lot of game-adaptations are in the works, too.

http://www.superherohype.com/upcoming-movies

[Frumple]

[snip]

Think the point ree was making is that they brought the stories and characters with 'em, but they didn't bring the comics Fake edit: Though I guess I've been ninja'd, but eh. Already typed!

Kinda' falls in the same place with the franchise stuff, really. The comic material largely isn't what's getting attention, it's the movies and movie related paraphernalia. We're not seeing much of a comic resurgence or acceptance so much as people liking movies made from 'em while still, broadly speaking, being fairly disdainful of the originating source. S'less like the franchises have actually gone mainstream so much as there's a new mainstream franchise based roughly off an old comic one. Will say I guess I have seen more of the movie related stuff and conversation than I was thinking, I just didn't really connect the two in my head -- to me, the transformers or whatev' movies and the stuff surrounding those are pretty distinct things from the comic book material.

Would wager you'd see something similar with anime franchises if people didn't keep bungling the hell out of live action releases for 'em, ha.

[Andres]

So I finished Code Geass. To be honest, it was a rather satisfying ending to a great show and I wouldn't change a single bit about it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But god damn it's still so freaking sad! Lelouch, you were the best!

[NRDL]

World seems scary, depressing, and all too difficult to deal with.  Which is why I'm rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion.  Makes me feel better.

[Flying Dice]

So I finished Code Geass. To be honest, it was a rather satisfying ending to a great show and I wouldn't change a single bit about it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But god damn it's still so freaking sad! Lelouch, you were the best!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just remember, fanon is that he got VV's code and is still alive. Or faked his death through more mundane methods. 

[i2amroy]

So I finished Code Geass. To be honest, it was a rather satisfying ending to a great show and I wouldn't change a single bit about it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But god damn it's still so freaking sad! Lelouch, you were the best!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just remember, fanon is that he got VV's code and is still alive. Or faked his death through more mundane methods. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Didn't Word of God come down sometime to truly confirm that he was dead though?