This week's poll was suggested by NoKissNoLife. We already know that manga is the best (based on a poll we did back in 2013), but what about the other 2?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Do you think polygamy is wrong (in a non-cheating situation, where all parties know and are okay with being married to each other)?
Choices:
Yes - votes: 1065 (26.3%)
No - votes: 2986 (73.7%)
There were 4051 total votes.
The poll ended: June 4th, 2022 9:33am PDT

Lots of heated discussion...

Last edited by lambchopsil at 9:39 am, Jun 4 2022

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

This is hard, so I am going to abstain from voting this time.

A lot of online manhua publications have been trash, over the last few years. However, I remember reading Wild Animals, Chang Ge Xing, and Demonic Heretics. They were either great or amazing.

Then, even the manhwa and manga in my opinion has become too formalized. In addition, there are so many bad and trashy mangas, that the isekai surge in the online manhwa industry still doesn't touch that amount of trash.

We also have to think about how Western appreciation of Japanese comics has had a longer run than other countries comic industries. TokyoPop was one of the earliest publishers to translate East Asian comics outside of those from Japan, but those generally did not do as well as their Japanese comics. In additon, most Korean focused publishers for Western audiences went defunct around the same time, such as Ice Kunion.

Overall, I think Viz picks are almost always okay. Naver is okayish. Daum before the merger is interesting. BiliBili only picks trash comics. But if you steer away from big names, they probably all evenly okay.

Last edited by kurotaito at 11:00 am, Jun 4 2022

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Internet Lurker At Heart

Whoever puts Manhua on 2nd or even 1st, needs to reevalue their life. Manhua are pure trash, with maybe 5-10 exceptions (I can think of Nan Hao & Shang Feng, Tamen de Gushi, Wanmei Beihairen and maybe a couple more), the rest is pure trash. Maybe the communists should let their people be creative and not censor everything and treat their citizens like robots. Then we might see actual good manhua.

Manhwa can be great, lots of variation as long as you steer away from the VR/videogame stories, 99% of them are trash.

Manga…. well, that‘s why we are all here, so of course it‘s in 1st place, lol.

For the record, it appears modern manhwa is basically represented by the toons that get published especially the webtoons that have come out in the last decade. But webtoons are are not all manhwa and not all manhwa are webtoons. The legendary Princess manhwa is a very good example of a long standing work that is manhwa which is not a toon (although it is on hiatus right now).

Having said that, I personally, don't see a meaningful difference in what is better. What I end up reading is mostly the result of curated promotions or suggestions that catch my interest so I am not voiting.

But it has to be said that I find that neither the industries responsible for localising or the scanlation groups that translate, represent the works as they are recieved from their home region a lot of the time if the works/scenes are not very popular to begin with. It may not be such a huge problem for manga in general but I think the earlier mention of Tokyo Pop's failures to localize eastern works outside manga is worth further reflection. Obviously a few gems of manhua/manhwa that failed to suceed outside their local region does not negate the fact that the majority of other works are of a lesser quality. But still there is something to that point of Tokyo Pop's attempts to represent certain works but ultimately failing at doing so despite being a well established publisher of manga.

Last edited by gettingbye at 5:02 pm, Jun 4 2022

Honestly for me Manhwa and Manga are almost on even terms. Read probably just as many shitty manga as I have shitty manhwa. Read almost as many good Manhwa as Manga, and some of my favorite series have been Manhwa. Manhua I haven't really delved into much, maybe its a supply thing, just haven't seen many in my preferred genres get translated.

Never really understood the vitriol some people get about Korean/Chinese works. Like, I swear I've read Korean stories with the exact same plot as Japanese stories. Don't know why in some people's minds it's suddenly horrible if it's coming out of a Korean/Chinese author instead of a Japanese one. I know for some people its that they hate the webtoon format, but then forget that the Japanese also publish works in webtoon style.

So far i can only vote on familiarity and that is Manga > Manhwa > Manhua mmm...
Manga is winning is only because I read tons of it and the quantity pretty much push it to the top mmm...

Objectively, Manga is still probably the top one also because of the quantity mmm...
The high of manga is really high and the low is really low, fierce competition for decades compared to the other 2 also produce better quality mmm...

Manhwa and Manhua certainly catching up, but both demand and supply of them just can't compare to manga industry mmm..

Another problem is, some publisher simply push the quantity without caring much about the quality. What they really need is probably top quality publisher and good editors to help the creators so only more curated stories can get published mmm...

Last edited by VawX at 1:24 am, Jun 5 2022

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I will change this world mmm...
So the world can change me mmm...

Some time ago my answer would be different, but currently it is:
Manhwa, manga, manhua

I read a lot of mangas, but lately i found a lot of good stuff hauling from Korea. I also read a lot of Chinese stuff too lately, but it is mostly weird so yeah not gonna overtake...

Last edited by Trimutius at 3:41 am, Jun 5 2022

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I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

Manga, manhwa, manhua, obviously.

Manga, manhwa, manhua for me.

The comics I first read when I was little was manga, and I still love manga to this day. I put it on the first place not only because of sentimental reason, but I rarely found something like Samurai X, FMA, AoT, or like Junji Ito's works in manhwa/manhua.

However, this doesn't mean I belittle manhwa. They've got lots great art and stories recently, with the webtoon style. The Sock Monster, Whale Star, etc. Currently around 50% or more of my reading list consisting of manhwa, actually. Not to mention that the digitalization makes it easier for international people to access it officially, rather than manga.

I'm not sure about manhua. I rarely read manhua. They've got great arts too, but so far, the manhua I've came across got stories that's harder for me to follow.

Last edited by mallika23 at 7:59 am, Jun 5 2022

Hmm...this one's really tough for me! Manga's high up there for me since it was what first sucked me into comics haha-but coloured webtoons are great too! I can never get enough of villainess stuff. And then manhua's a personal fave, the humour just hits different and there's so many cute slice of life stories. If only more non-shounen stuff would get scanlated... sigh

Though, always a little baffled whenever people get so up in arms about their medium of choice being so much better than the others-at the end of the day they're all just comics lmao. We're all nerds, why the gatekeeping?

Manga, manhwa, and manhua.

Manga will always be 1st place in my heart. I love the pacing, art, and especially humor. I love how unique some works are. It makes me think "Wow... Only in Japan." lol

Manhwa is right in the middle. There are some amazing top-tier works, and some that are lacking. I love that majority of manhwas are colored so it's easier to follow. I go to manhwas when I want some drama.

Manhuas sadly would be last place. Sometimes the pacing is strange or the way situations play out is weird. It's probably a bit of both since they'll sweep some dramatic stuff under the rug then it's axed or something. Probably not the author's fault due to government censorship.

Manga is what got me into comics, and still my favorite. Manhwa is second but they have a few good traditional comics but they dominate good webcomics. Oh no another cultivation manhua is in last. Those are more cookie cutter than isekai, and I haven't found a fantasy/supernatural that avoids cultivation tropes.

Okay yeah manga is first, but like... I feel like I need to judge manga harsher because it's heavily established and has so much more. If I had to judge manga by the recent amount of shit isekai the same way people judge manhua by the shit cultivation just because both make up an annoyingly huge amount of translated works, then manga would just be irredeemable

Webtoons are pretty solid, there's a wide variety for every taste. But everyone's forgetting that mangalike manhwa exists. Gawd I remember there were these manhwa publishers that apparently just wanted to pump out as much stuff as possible, and that's why there was so much low quality manhwa that all had the same art style in the 2000s. If you're a cultured reader, you probably have seen at least one of them. Not to say that all printer manhwa is like that (fucking love Vampire Library and House of... something I can't remember anymore because the scanlators dropped years ago), but I do remember that shit publisher fondly

Manhua would have a better rep if it weren't mostly self published stuff that eventually get published by like Kuaikan or something and then officially MTLed into English with none of the proofreading by an actual English speaker (and also. Another thing). There's manhua (not on fucking Webcomics or Webnovel or other horrible, horribly MTLed sites) that get fantranslated that aren't that bad, but there's a quality horseshoe of Official to Weibo manhua. Official has the benefit of being more professional with a set schedule, but they don't really take much risks. Self published on Weibo, Instagram, etc. tend to be more interesting and some of the most popular manhua like Their Story and 19 Days are of this type. But with lower quality ones, with no one to reign the author in, the plot gets super contrived and they just forget the entire point and theme of the story.

So yeah, manhua still ranks third, but in fairness, my ranking is the opposite for light novels. Chinese light novels are probably the best though out of the three languages. Light novels are... Well I like Japanese full novels, but light novel writing style just doesn't do it for me. I feel like I'm reading a manga with extra steps. Do something with the affordances of the medium

Last edited by Ceiye at 12:02 am, Jun 6 2022

For me it's Manga, Manhwa, and Manhua.

Manga is superior for their huge collections and years of experience in the industry. Publishers go through a lot of hits and misses to find what sells, but readers can still choose from many options. Some people complain that the market niche tends to be too dominating and monotonous. But I wonder if a title with high quality has to be judged by how revolutionary the work is? I feel like people expecting there are more Urasawa Naoki, Inoue Takehiko, to name a few prominent figures. Manga today is not always about Isekai if you ask me. There are lots unexposed authors with something new to offer but out of community radar.
Back to the main topic, I found a lot of bad clichés, same formula—overused pattern, but some with similar cliché settings can be executed better even still fun to enjoy. Well, that’s me, I circled in this loop and honestly I don't completely hate it. Add them in a sea of other unknowns to explore and Manga becomes my first go-to.

Manhwa is my secondary supplement. I always make an escape to Manhwa whenever I want to find something that isn't in Manga. Like their distinct style and cultural references. Sometimes Manhwa can express its character better too. But the limit of space can affect how they express the tone of the story. Some authors can do it well, and some don't. But they also don't hurt the lack of quality authors. They are still relatively new so they can still catch up in terms of numbers.


Lol I borrowed this mangalike titles from my friend when I was still in middle school. And *cough* it’s bad. Some of them also listed high on this website, but I’m not interested to try it. The exceptional one probably Jidokhage Kkeureoango Jidokhage Kiseuhago. Such a hype at that time. But happy to see Manhwa can find their new self in webtoon format. I feel like it's our choice to follow the traditional B&W Manga or Manhwa Webtoon.

Last, I wonder if I should consider Manhua seeing I barely set my eyes on them. I read only what I can find but not much. So in terms of quality and quantity, I can't really say much for comparison. They are definitely in the lowest priority to try tho.

I voted with the clear majority again. One of the reasons Korea will never compete with Japan is that it has less than half the total population and are generally a bit less wealthy (Japan has like 25% more gdp per capita). If Korea could've supported a robust print media comic industry for the last fifty years then maybe they could compete....