I have noticed recently, that the longer a manga goes, the less patience I have for it. The most flagrant example for me is with detective conan, where the lack of any form of conclusion/significant plot advancement has made me hate the series. It's SLIGHTLY less bad for certain long-running series like one-piece & bleach, but I still abandonned them anyway. I've been reflecting on it, and I've come up with these "benchmarks" of what I can tolerate:
1-100 chapters: Doesnt overstay it's welcome.
101-200 chapters: The best for me, since it allows the creation of elaborate stories & proper character development.
201-300 chapters: Can allow more of what happens between 101-200, but 90% of series feel a bit "stretched" by this point.
301-400 chapters: This series better finish fast, otherwise I'm gonna get sick of it.
401-500 chapters: Ughhhhhhh. The point where I abandon if there is no apparent end in sight.
501-600 chapters: The point I get when an author is great at creating the illusion of an end in sight.
601+ ... I've yet to read a series with this many chapters whithout hating it by the end...
So what do others think? I'll admit there are probably exceptions to what I've indicated, but that 601 limit is pretty hard in my experience. When have you others just "disconnected" because everything felt too long?
I find it depends on what the mangaka is trying to do. Are they actively telling the story, taking a break from that storyline with something else, practicing their art style or what? There are a lot of reasons why someone might want to draw a story out, it depends as to why.
My limits are lower than yours. I've never been a fan of any long running manga or comics for very long simply for lack of resolution. I prefer more contained stories.
My patience for the manga isn't dependent on the length so much as on how the quality of the work holds up over the years.
To use three major Shonen Jump series as examples...
Naruto: Stopped reading almost 4 years ago after prolonged periods of dropping quality and confusing page layout, mainly during fights but sometimes out of them.
Bleach: Had a period where I was getting tired of this around the same time as Naruto, mainly because I felt like the original spirit of the series had gone missing (this problem existed with Naruto too). Then suddenly, at the end of the Hueco Mundo arc, it got a fresh breath of life that I cannot define. Maybe it was just a small shift in the drawing style that drew me back to the more carefree days of the early volumes, but it made me want to stay a bit longer. Sadly, the quality as of right now is kind of horrendous, building up to something big and then making an ass pull and getting rid of any suspense over the outcome of the fight within a single chapter or less. I'm just hanging around at this point, because dammit, it's the last arc before it's over.
One Piece: Still reading this one, and I haven't had any periods of wanting to quit like the other two. Why? Because it's still the same series it started out as. I started reading a series with fighting, humour and friendship, and it's still a series with fighting, humour and friendship. Sure, the plots and fights (mainly the plots) are a bit longer than they were at the beginning, but even in its darkest moments it's not far from swinging back and reminding you that it's still the same and it's all about having fun.
Some people criticise One Piece for going on for eternity with no end in sight, and I agree that it is extremely long, but we have been set up with a premise that the crew is out looking for One Piece, the treasure buried at the end of Grand Line. Great thing about Grand Line is that it's a... grand line... and we can see that we are now just a little past the half-way mark. There has always been a promise of a possible end to the series, it's just that it's incredibly far off in the future.
But what's most important for me is still that it hasn't gone back on itself and sacrificed humour in favour of bigger and bigger fights, rather having the two coexist side by side. For humorous action series (which I'd say all of these 3 series started out as), the sacrifice of humour is what kills them for me in the long run.
Indeed, Naruto got weird with the layout. I get that Kishimoto is experiencing unexpected success, but yeesh, I'll be glad when the story is over.
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Dammit I'm gonna miss bleach. Length hasn't be an issue for me but I also am a reading addict. My issue really is the weekly wait for my 4 small hits then back to waiting.
Dammit I'm gonna miss bleach. Length hasn't be an issue for me but I also am a reading addict. My issue really is the weekly wait for my 4 small hits then back to waiting.
Kubo really does achieve extremely little with each chapter, doesn't he?
It's like two months of boring then BAM!!!!!!!! Awesome week then back to boring. And yet I'm still drawn in mostly to see if any of my other theories will be answered. ( my first being a long standing belief until a few months ago the Kenpachi Zaraki was in fact the the released state of Yachiro's Zanpakto.)
Bleach: ... dammit, it's the last arc before it's over.
I'm almost willing to bet dollars to donuts that that's probably not the case. But I digress.
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I own all of Rurouni Kenshin, Inuyasha, and then part of One Piece and Meitantei Conana, and a bunch of shoujo stuff None of the shoujo series I collect are as long as the shortest shonen series.
I own a lot of Meitantei Conan, but I want to feel like it progressing, so I've stopped after volume 45 or so. I haven't kept up. Is it still not going anywhere? I found it very useful in my Japanese studies (more colloquial Japanese, it touches on some dialectal pronunciations, and reading the kanji there is a lot more relevent than reading the names of youkai in Inuyasha), but am getting tired of the lack of progress.
I still find the archaic Japanese sentence construction in Kenshin engrossing. Seissha vs. ore. "De gozaru". Heh. switching from "desu" to "de gozaru" after a Kenshin marathon really drove my Japanese teach nuts!
I'm almost willing to bet dollars to donuts that that's probably not the case. But I digress.
Bleach: ... dammit, it's the last arc before it's over.
They announced when it started that it would be the last one, so unless they go back on their word, it should be.
Heh. switching from "desu" to "de gozaru" after a Kenshin marathon really drove my Japanese teach nuts!
Sounds like fun. Maybe they would've appreciated it more if you went full on keigo and said de gozaimasu instead, though :p Although that would mean saying everything in keigo, in which case I'd hope you're better at it than I am.
Battle Angel Alita.
The original ending was perfect even though it was due to ilness on the creator's part. The new extension was dominated by the tourney and has only just ended.
Battle Angel Alita.
The original ending was perfect even though it was due to ilness on the creator's part. The new extension was dominated by the tourney and has only just ended.
I'm loving every second of it. The only part that lost me was the vampires. Greatly enjoyed everything else, and the most recent issue is amazing imo.
I'm loving every second of it. The only part that lost me was the vampires. Greatly enjoyed everything else, and the most recent issue is amazing imo.Battle Angel Alita.
The original ending was perfect even though it was due to ilness on the creator's part. The new extension was dominated by the tourney and has only just ended.
I quite loved the original series of battle angel alita. It's among the first manga series I quite liked. I'll admit I havent kept up with the "last order" series.