the elephant in the room in the 'why can't western nerdy media be like japanese nerdy media' is that Comics Code, Hays Code, and the 1950s Red Scare/HUAC brought irreversible damage to American media in general, down to the gene and blood
hot take: if the comics code hadn’t been created, superheroes wouldn’t have dominated the industry. the rules of the code made superheroes uniquely fit to survive. rules like “In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds”