This week's poll is from our member Ortegach. We did a similar poll about 3.5 years ago, but the difference now is that we have many more webcomics in existence. Perhaps the answers will change now! Color? Or black and white?

You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related)
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: If the/a main character is supposed to die in the series, when would you like it to happen?
Choices:
Already dead when the series starts - votes: 3188 (27.4%)
Dead in the first few chapters - votes: 1701 (14.6%)
Midway through the series - votes: 2356 (20.2%)
Right at the end - votes: 4407 (37.8%)
There were 11652 total votes.
The poll ended: May 25th 2013

The climatic battle in the last chapter where the hero sacrifices himself to save the world

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Black and white is fine for me. Mangas can be colorful without being colored. That's their magic.

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No, they don't need to be colored as long as the panels are well drawn and include enough distinctions on the characters so as to not confuse the readers as this has personally caused many a headache trying to decipher a dialogues context. I'm not even sure I have seen a colored manga that wasn't an eyesore at all, often the artist might have a 1-2 page cover which is fine but it has made me thrice shocked to see some surprising hair colors. Letting the readers decide the colors makes it more ad-lib in terms of uniqueness of interpretation. Moreover, mechanically, once an artist starts entering the realm of coloring you get the need for more complex shading/shadowing which puts more load on the artist. Formats such as webtoons excel in this field because it's pretty much integrated with computers and that's how it should be. Mangas are meant for print and color is not only more costly it is harder to pull off.

I prefer a manga to be in black and white. I'm used to it that way. On the other hand, it would not hurt either to have it in colour so long as the colours aren't very glaring.

Last edited by holy`bell at 1:07 am, May 25 2013

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I would personally prefer manga to be in color. Color adds a lot of life to art and every time a manga I read has a color page it makes it that much more amazing. I don't really see too many downsides to adding color to be honest aside from costs. If webcomics can have color I don't see why manga isn't capable of doing it.

There are already quite a few manga that are full color and it takes nothing away from the experience. I'm fine with black and white manga but I do have to admit color would add more depth. Plus it gets pretty annoying when you imagine certain colors on clothing and hair only to find out it's a different color than what you imagined when you see a color page.

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Color is of course better in general but some manga really benefit by being in black and white. It just matches the atmosphere and such. Urasawa's mystery stuff, for example. (Though I'm guessing the anime of Monster was in colour and people still loved that so perhaps I'm wrong).

Black and white

First, its interesting what effects the artist can do with just the two colors, and in some scenes, black and white ads to the effect.

Second, its cheaper to print. I love how much story and content I get from a nice, $10 manga volume compared to 2 or 3 issues of an American comic for the same value.

This. Hard to imagine a full series in color, but as long as it's toned down, it should be fine.

Anything with color costs more. So, black and white for me.

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Black and white, but I do like the use of colours in the works of Nakamura Asumiko - not a full colour spread, but more of an accent. Or a muted palette, watercolour style.

I prefer color only if the mangaka has some coloring skill. Some artists just can't color well and have no idea that contrast colors are not meant to go together all the time. >_< I have seen some horrible color pages in my time and some equally as bad black and white ones but if you give me a full color manga [or webcomic] by someone who knows something about color, then you have a fan for life.

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The most beautiful shining star

I usually like to read manga in black and white. It makes the colored pages seem more special to me.

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Will play the violin for cookies

Color would be nice, but would slow down the process, which would mean shorter or less chapters. There's always the option of handing color over to a dedicated colorist like in American comics, but poor coloring can actually hurt the artwork. So keeping it black and white is probably the best option for speed and quality.

I know why it is black and white and because of that I don't mind it, but I would like at least the first couple of pages and at least the panel where a new character (that is important to the story) is coloured especially in manga where the characters have abnormal coloured hair and eyes.

I hate going through a manga where the character has what looks like white hair or blonde hair and then they get on a colour title page thirty chapters later and have pink hair and there is no reference to them having pink hair in the manga.

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Banana Gecko!!

[B]

oh they would undoubtedly be "better" in colour, however time and costwise it's not worth it. I prefer getting 20 pages to 6 anyday, and black and white is still great.

so i took colour, since i think manga would be better and thats what the poll asked, but i do think that making manga in colour is not worth it.

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Reads far to much Manga