Superhero Anime/Manga; Anybody notice the lack of a “Fantasy Kitchensink”?

[CarlManvers2019]

As the thread title says, I think it’s safe to say that most superhero anime/manga lack the “Fantasy Kitchensink” nature of the superhero comics they are inspired by

Admittedly this is due to practicality, having all superpowers all be from only ONE source instead of variations like being an alien, a cyborg, a time traveler, a martial artist, a sorceror, a mutant, a demigod etc gets rather complicated

Still, having everybody basically just mainly get powers by birth is sorta boring

I’d like more stuff like being bitten by a radioactive pig or having a daemonic serial killer decide that you are its chosen champion

 

[Human Primacy]

This is almost certainly because western superhero comics were written centered around individual characters at different times. The idea of DC or Marvel having shared universes came later. Batman wasn't originally written with the idea that Superman and Wonder Woman existed in other parts of the world. Hence why they all seem to come from wildly distant sources. Manga based on them are generally made by an individual or small team inspired by these existing franchises, instead of a hundred writers and artists over 70 years or so, and so it makes sense that they'd be more streamlined.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Yeah, though still feel sorta disappointed

I mean no offense, but for me, superhero universes are more than just guys in costumes and with codenames beating up criminals and guys in costumes and with codenames who are criminals

It’s also about sheer ridiculousness and a casually impossible setting where it’s not so weird to know there exist alternate universes and that fairies are fighting aliens amongst other things

 

[S'task]

There's an additional reason for this.

Stop and ask yourself: how many high fantasy western comics are there? How many space opera western comics? How many urban fantasy comics? Outside of a handful there's very few, and many of the space opera style ones are license comics of a larger franchise. On the flipside, high fantasy, low fantasy, space opera, space adventure, etc. manga are all over the place.

This likely goes back to the fact that after the CCA in the US Comics effectively became ONLY superheroes, and superheroes were the only way most comics would hit it big. So authors who would otherwise have made specific genre comics ended up just making those... as superheroes. What is Doctor Strange but urban fantasy WITH SUPERHEROES. What is Green Lantern but Space Opera WITH SUPERHEROES. Modern western comics have expanded out some, but are still dominated by sueprheroes and the Big Two with their shared settings that took all those genres and mashed them together. Meanwhile, Manga never had those limits or restrictions, and thus individual stories could be made without the need to fit them into the Superhero genre, like what happened in the US.