LogFAQs > #979163974

Superheroes are more of a theme than a genre. The same can be said of magical girls. Or politics and fat ugly bastards.

Hmm... If I had to take a gander at what draws people into anime and manga more than western comics these days, it's a combination of factors.

You have a consistency of illustration or animation quality, unlike some (even good) arcs in western comics. Eastern story telling also tends to be more character-focused, so there is a better chance of caring about the characters long enough to get into a story; emphasis on "better chance."

As someone had stated already, the manga stories--even longer ones that may or may not drag on too long for the sake of dragging on, like One Piece is doing or InuYasha had done--tend to hold to a defined continuity with little or no need for reboots every few years, so you can pick up a lengthy series at different points in time and know there is a good chance you are following the same characters and world. There are exceptions, of course, such as there being however many iterations of Tenchi (I'll always prefer either Muyo or Universe).

It's multiple things coming to a wealth of experience. Even as the manga and anime industry push for heavily milled content, or allows for insanely degenerate filth, worthwhile series have existed and continue to come out. Recent iterations of Gundam do not ruin nor improve the iterations of the past.