Stockholm Syndrom Manga/Manhwa/Manhua

[Retro Doomer]

Allow me to elucidate the concept I refer to as "Stockholm Syndrome Manga." It describes a manga, manhwa, or manhua that may have initially pleased or at least intrigued you, yet gradually deteriorates over time be it in narrative, artwork, character development, or other facets. The decline is often subtle enough that you do not abandon it outright, yet sufficiently pronounced to evoke a sense of internal conflict: why am I still reading this?

One cannot help but wonder, "Why must I endure this?"

For my part, it is predominantly because I have already invested a considerable amount of time into the work. I tend to only relinquish a manga when it becomes altogether unendurable. Otherwise, I find myself compelled to read chapter after chapter of something that once held promise, harbouring the hope that it might somehow rekindle its former brilliance.

Take, for instance, The Youngest Scion of the Mages. My interest in the story has waned, and the artwork has certainly declined, yet I persist the decline has not yet reached a point of irrevocable loss. I endure, buoyed by the faint hope that it might yet recapture some semblance of its earlier allure.

 

[GundamJehutyKai]

In before Rental Girlfriend readers start amassing!

For me, you can also include Bleach (before it ended), Attack on Titan once they started doing the flashback stuff as well as pretty much any manga by Kouji Seo, whose only real ability is godlike artwork!
Oh, and for a different reason, I will include Lim Dal-Young, a korean Manhwa writer who basically cannot finish any of the titles he starts... and he has a LOT! almost all of them just simply go into Hiatus or get very abrupt and very VERY unsatisfactory endings to the point that ppl start wondering not if it's a case of whatever he's working on will go down that route, but when.

Nowadays though, manga artists are more into keeping the run of their titles rather short, which makes that feeling of fatigue and quality drop considerably less of an issue. Jujutsu Kaisen and Kimetsu no Yaiba are 2 titles which ended on their creators terms at the height of their popularity rather than running them along for another 5~10 years, which was probably what their publisher was hoping for. (tho the opposite problem of the final arcs feeling like they were on fast forward became apparent)