Don't set out to draw manga.....

Most people who "set out to draw manga" in America end up drawing on the cliches. 

Drawing on manga ELEMENTS is fine, but trying to replicate the entirety of the style is kind of pointless. 

I'm not setting out to draw manga. I'm setting out to draw general comics, which utilize certain manga archetypes, just not all of them. 

American comics, even oel manga, aren't really seen by a Japanese audience, and the Japanese ARE the number one demo for manga and anime. If they're not seeing your work (and they're not), there's really no point to it all, is there?

Just draw regular old comics. Not manga. Not superhero. Create you're own entirely new genre. It's better that way. More natural. Reading manga and watching anime is fine, it makes great reference material like any other form of local or international comics and animation, just don't try to blatantly imitate the format. You'd be trying to live up to a standard that's impossible to meet. At least in America you have the freedom to draw how you want, not how you're readers want you to draw.