I’m probably over-reacting, but there’s an interesting reference to manga in the review of Azumi by Manohla Dargis in The New York Times (free registration required).
“Adapted from the manga of the same title, this 2003 action flick tracks the blood-spurting adventures of its title character, a young female assassin who wields a lethally mean sword.”
What’s interesting to me is that Dargis and her editors don’t feel the need to trot out a definition of manga, which strikes me unusual. Maybe it’s because manga is in the dictionary now? Or because it has sufficient cultural currency in general?