Manga and Japanese cinema

[js326]

It'd be interesting to look at this from the vantage point of US otaku
culture, whose knowledge of Japanese cinema usually begins w/ AKIRA.  For
many of them, the video versions of classic manga were their first
introduction to the artform.  The ones who become serious otaku then delve
into the comic book origins of some of their favorite videos.  Assuming Cho
Koronsha's Shichinin no Samurai arrives on US shores, their first
introduction to Japanese classic cinema will be the manga versions.

What interests me in all this is the question of primacy and authority. What
is the authoritative version of these artforms?  And how does that change as
different generations become introduced to them through different media?

JCS