There are many reasons which most old things have in common : old style and less technology & knowledge used to produce the thing.

For the style that's not fit with the modern take, we as readers may feel unrelated to manga and lost interest in it. But it's kind of a cycle thing, one day we can revert back to the old style or at least look back and remake the old one with modern touch.

Less technology & knowledge, that are really the thing that make old manga unappealing to most of us, they're made with so little variation because their references are limited to that older than them, and because of technology they (the mangaka) can't access the references as easy as modern mangaka who can just use internet to get unlimited idea and knowledge.

For example, if you want to make a good cooking manga there are several things that you want to research and/or prepare :

1. Older cooking manga
You can use it for basic reference on how to make a cooking/food manga

2. Current popular manga in general
You can see what people like currently, what kinda story, how many battles, is romance a good thing to include, where should you put fan service, etc

3. Original Idea
Fundamental to make an interesting manga, with how many manga already we need new things. Toriko and Dungeon Meshi are the interesting examples

4. Good art
What kinda art will be doing good with the story and the theme

5. Knowledge about food in general
Especially if you want to make more of realistic type manga

6. Supporting knowledge
For example, if you want to add science or historic related event

All of the points above are really improved by time, we can easily get references for ideas and art style in the internet.
With better equipment now we can draw and write a lot smoother, faster and more beautiful.
Surveys are also very advanced right now, Japan has many surveys about manga and the preferences of the readers, and mangaka can use that information and reflect it in their creation.


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Many newer mangas use plotlines and scenarios from older mangas. What was then fresh is now very cliches. Itazura na Kiss is an example of this. During its time, it was very popular. It's like the embodiment of everything that is typical shoujo. It inspired a lot of mangas. But because I've seen so Many things that are very similar to this, and also done it better, I don't think I'll ever read this to the end.

People tend to like what's new and shiny, especially when there's a visual aspect involved.
I personally love older manga, like [m]Ooshima Yumiko[/m]'s and [m]Yoshida Akimi[/m]'s works (for which I can never find translators), but still find myself drawn towards more recent works when it comes to stuff like BL.
My all time favorites include YKK and Berserk, which I don't consider "old".
Maybe because the plots and art styles still feel fresh to me.

Particularly in the case of BL and other genres that target young women and girls, the visuals are very important, but also the more relatable story-lines. For example, take almost any shoujo/BL from the 1970s and you'll find the exaggerated big eyed girl, sparkles and way too much innocence (lack of sex) and melodrama. At least from my experience...
And those things aren't really appealing today. When the center is romance without much plot to carry it, any such title would feel dated in no time.


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Because they are old, duh!

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This is as perceptive as it is cogent.

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My reason: I don't like the art of old manga, however I still read them if it caught my interest. But in general I let them on the side and ignore them because of the bad art. Another reason why old manga are less popular is because no one scans them or publishes them. Or better said you can't read them.

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For me it's a matter of a few simple reasons.

Current manga is drawn for current trends. Old manga is drawn for past trends. The majority creates the "trend". The majority is popular. Popularity is the trend.

Other than that, it's simply exposure. Is it easier to find something from the news feed right up at top or in the latest magazine, new and catching ppl's interests, or to dig up some tens of thousands of manga to find that one title?

Also on the previous point, older manga, they were drawn in periods that internet wasn't as widely distributed. Meaning, only certain ppl at certain places know about them when they came out. Also means, less scanlations. Giving an easy example, almost all anime these days are uploaded and subbed, but if you look for dated titles... you'll find that isn't quite as true. The older the title is, the harder time you'll have trying to find it.

Well prolly more simply, it's just forgotten. Ppl read it, liked it, and it's come and gone.

With all that said, that is the "majority", which is what makes a manga or anything for that matter "popular". A manga doesn't need to be popular to be good. I'd say a manga with 10 ppl our of 10 ppl saying it's 9/10 better than a manga with 100 ppl out of 1000 rating the same. Easy math, matter of averaging.

And yes, because of what Kawaiiprincess said. It's old.

I like old mangas.

Personally, I don't like how old manga (not 20 years ago, more specifically 1960s-early-1980s) depicts facial expressions as simple as they are. It's as the artists make caricatures of moods (like Tezuka's art) rather than actually making characters react differently depending on their mood.

Although, if I had to be as clear and honest as possible, I'd just say the art is bad, or at least not "aesthetically pleasing" to me.

Regardless, if you actually get an average reader to give a straightforward reason, the reason is almost always "The art sucks."

I want to say it is mainly the art styles and the lack of feasible reading for older titles (i'd say 20 years is not too "old" since a lot of manga that recently ended or are still ongoing are about that "old". Ex. One Piece, Fruits Basket, Kare Kano, etc, etc).

Anyway, I'm not an art snob, so it's not like I won't read a manga with a 60-70's art style,( I do own a copy of Dororo by Osamu Tezuka), but most of the older manga do not appeal to me in regards to story either.

I would like to read [m] Zankoku na Kami ga Shihaisuru[/m] and Thomas no Shinzou, I just haven't gotten around to doing so.

It's interesting how "old" posts become popular again as long as someone rediscovers them and replies. I thinks it's about the same with old manga, there needs to be a way to easy discover and share old manga. I think it's easier for scanlators to find new manga than old manga. All they really have to do is go buy a magazine, but for old manga they really have to search for titles. They have to know about a specific manga and then find a way to scanlate it. That's fairly difficult to do in a market that's always coming out with new manga; that has a decades worth of "new" manga.

As for art, well, I can see why people wouldn't read old manga because of the art. People most likely get used to a certain style of manga art and the style is modern, not old.

On the other hand I cannot see why people wouldn't read old manga because of its content is "old" and therefore somehow not relevant. People love the show Mad Men and the setting of the story is the '60s. People love Ray Bradbury and he has written brilliant and relevant sci-fi since the '50s. Bradbury's stories in particular may not have had all the knowledge we do now about space and etc., but they were able tell a story about the essence of being human that people in this present day can still relate to.

Personally I prefer the old sci-fi manga to modern ones because the modern ones are very generic. Most of them are only sci-fi because they're in virtual reality, otherwise they'd basically be action fantasy manga. And the way I found old sci-fi manga was because there was a copy of A Drunken Dream at the library and then I came here to search up all the mangaka.

There's something to said about the pioneers of genres in manga. They did something different and after all the years of growth in the genres most of the manga now in them have become formulaic and banal. Yet the first ones in those genres are still interesting. They were trying new things and pushing the envelope in story telling then and that doesn't happen enough now. At least not now in most the scanlated manga I see, especially not in the sci-fi shoujo manga.

Anyway, I wish scanlator groups would scanlate more old manga.

@catandmouse I've read Thomas no Shinzou and it was pretty good. The bl Marginal was also pretty good, but then I'm fairly partial to sci-fi.

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Raw availability for old series shouldn't be considered in this discussion. From the start, I specifically compared old series that are in fact being scanlated right now. They are there, as easy to find as any other recently scanlated work; nevertheless, few read them.

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It depends on the demographic an old manga aims for, IMO. Seinen and Josei manga are aimed at adults, and most adults would appreciate a manga for its content even if it was over 20 years old. Shounen and Shoujo are the highest selling genres in manga and they're aimed at teens and usually, teens would prefer newer manga containing technology and pop culture references that they are familiar with, such as smart phones and social networking. The art style plays a big role too. Some older manga have outdated art styles which are just not appealing by today's standards.

I think the main reason is that old manga does not usually get any new exposure. There is nothing to catch the interest of new readers. Of the older manga that is still very popular today you still hear news of them, like that they appear in a commercial, new goods of them are still sold, or maybe they get a new anime.

I hate to admit it but the main reason I don't read old manga is because of it's art style. I would like to believe that appearance does not sway my opinion but it is hard to not judge a manga by its cover. In addition, manga that were created before 1990 is just too old. The art, language, and the common sense that it uses are just too detached from modern day culture.

As for manga that are between 1990 to 2000, some of them are quite good. In fact, I can confidently say that many of them are better than the manga of today. In my opinion, the highlight of manga and anime is back in the early 2000 to 2012. Where manga were actually meaningful and not just something to kill time. Manga today is all about the "Plot" and "Justice" and not about actual plot and justice.