Yes, but not just in the West. I'm pretty sure every society misunderstands anime and manga as well as their fans. I mean, I live in South Asia, and there's no way I'd never let anyone except my sister know I'm into animanga, 'else I'd automatically be considered "immature and weird," regardless of how mature and responsible I am IRL. That being said, the West tends to be more vocal about their hate, which is how they are about anything they don't like, so 🤣

No but I wish people would better understand what demographics and production committees are as these are products first and foremost. Products are made with customers in mind and animanga is supposed to be very disposable on top of that. But then again, most entertainment products have a short shelf life.
Anyway, animanga literacy is at its peak right now outside of Japan, a far cry from when I entered the scene in the 90s, and Japan itself isn´t treating these as high art either. The otaku stigma is still very real and only select Ghibli or Jump products really break out into the mainstream. Still crazy that Eva managed that too. A billion-dollar IP. Somehow.

Sometimes? By some people? What's with the constant black and white answers in this polls?

No. It‘s generally seen as a weird form of comics for nerds who love trashy stories, as well as pedophiles (every manga with underage, sexualized characters). And that‘s exactly what most manga (>80%) are. So it‘s correct.
Of course the good and great manga (<20%) get the bad rep too, which is unfortunate, but…. the majority of a group gives that group its reputation. That‘s just how it is.

Well, I don't live in the West, so I don't think I could answer this. But what kind of misunderstanding do you mean? If there's a misunderstanding, then how do you think the perception should be?

Tbf manga is misjudged/misunderstood in its own country lol

No more than other types of comics, especially when it comes to adult consumption. I am actually surprised at the results. Lately, it seems like anime is extremely mainstream (more so than before) so I'd love to hear from some of the yes voters.

Manga specifically yes. Because it is often even misunderstood by peoplewho watch anime...

I think only with Hentai and Borderline-H is misunderstood since most are about highschool age and below stories.

I'd say no.

It might be true that most non-manga readers refer to anime,manga and any similar artwork as anime, but that's quite reasonable since what usually reaches them are mostly adaptations.

In my country Heidi, Marco, Mazinger Z, Saint Seija ... Were very popular way back, just like Dragonball, Naruto etc. amongst other animes later . Most of them are children's shows so it gets treated as childish, but given the money they move you can't dismiss them as being non representative. There were also other animes such as Do Re Mi, Pretty cure ... these would be the shoujo variants, but those usually got drowned by Disney stuff (just as MCU universe / other franchises Disney bought and shounen have similar demographics ).

The thing is, that once you go out of that age group there are tons of heavy political thoughts, edgy tropes and fan-service on any show with that target public, it's really difficult to break tar stigma and get to air other stuff in comercial TV outside some anime specific channels.

With the new streaming services it's getting easier for anyone to reach them and some media made for videogames like the FF series or visual novels like Steins:Gate are part of mainstream pop culture. They are also trying to adapt to international tastes ,for example Devilman crybaby has lots of mature stuff without the typical tropes so it's well received internationally ,but then again since many Jap ultras don't even consider as anime anything with international collaborations we cant say that tropes shuned elsewhere are getting old...

But all in all, given how many mangas I drop each month, I must say that they aren't misjudged. Most boomers and below have been introduced to anime and manga so they are mostly based, even in Japan where most of the society knows of other kinds Manga the stigma exists. I mean WTF most manga movements that tried to dismiss tropes, hiper-sexualisation or political stuff were crushed by the rest of the industry not so long ago usually, and even branded as feminist extremism ...
🤨

It's hard to say that manga is misjudged or misunderstood in the West when I feel like the general public doesn't even know about manga.

No. Manga outsells western comic books in USA. In France teenagers are spending their government handouts on manga.

It's as mainstream as comic books can get. The people who misjudge it would misjudge comic books as well and are not a target audience. Same with games, there are still people claiming they make you more violent, but their opinion is irrelevant from the point of view of the market.

That being said, I won't be surprised if manhwa surpasses manga in sales in western countries sooner rather than later. It's getting more diverse in terms of genres and art quality continues to improve. On top of that it's full color, so western audiences will have an easier time accepting it.

It's getting better, but most people, especially the older people just don't even care to try mmm...

In the same way all niche hobbies are misjudged by people who aren't interested in them, yes. Manga (at least some genres) is probably misjudged in Japan, too.

Honestly, I see way more people talk about anime/manga being stigmatized than people that do stigmatize anime/manga.
I'm just going to say it, at least in the US, manga has basically reached near mainstream acceptance, it's popular amongst teens and young adults, you can find loads of it in bookstores and libraries, and it even outsells American comic books.
I'm not sure how it was back then, but I defintely think that things must have changed for the better.

I voted "Yes" but I would probably change to "No" after reading some comments.

When I first read manga as a teen, no one did (especially girls), but it's become a lot more popular now. I used to be so embarrassed to go to the manga section in the bookstore, but now it's full up of kids reading it in the aisles.

However, some people (like my husband cough cough) still think manga is weird. Even though I've been reading it for 15 years now, and have explained to him multiple times how awesome and in-depth it can be, he has no use for it, calling it useless comics, so that misunderstanding is still there (and why I voted "Yes" without really thinking).

Misunderstand implies that they know anything about it in the first place. You'd have to explain that manga means japanese comics.

I've seen them be the most misjudged and misunderstood by fans of western comics, who are upset that Demon Slayer outsold the entire American comic book industry. They think that the artwork is all terrible and the same, that manga are slow paced and wordy, and that they never end. Also, thinking that Naruto somehow is a good representation of the entire medium. That the only reason people read manga is because of anime. A bunch of stupid shit.

Not only in the West. Vignette-based literature tends to be undervalued about everywhere due to easy associations with some particular subgenres, as it often happens with any kind of art.

In this case, what people picture in their minds when told about it are newspaper comic strips and comic books for kids, and there's a tacit misunderstanding that "comedy", "fantasy" and "for children" are pure garbage, therefore, in their minds, every single work of the larger genre is a "fantastical comedy for children" and thus the purest garbage in existence. Which is why English-speaking countries had to come up with the term "graphic novel" to try to save it (and I've seen a good number of works tagged as such that don't fulfill the "novel half"😉.