Anime and manga are lumped together because for many, if not most fandoms, they're treated as synonymous because the fandom is coalesced around both -- some people have only read the manga, others have only seen the anime, and many have read and seen both. Not lumping them together would mean that for completeness sake, and for the sake of those looking for fic, a writer would have to list a fic under the anime, manga, and (if any) combined fandom. Why put her through that work if the convention used by most fans and fandoms in this category is unified?
I say this as someone whose first two fandoms, in which I've written extensively and of whose communities I'm a member, are manga and anime fandoms (Gravitation and Saiyuki). Believe me, I like the manga better than the anime in both instances and have seen little of the anime in either instance, but stories for Gravitation especially often are based solely on knowledge of the anime. And in both instances, the fans don't make the distinctions you do, even though some of us, like me, write based on the manga because I consider the anime a non-canonical (or sometimes semi-canonical when there are elements I want to use) secondary source.
Comment on Call for Feedback on Category Change Proposal
lawless Thu 19 Sep 2013 01:43PM UTC
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