Introduction
As a fan of manga outside of Japan, there comes a time when one is no longer able to stand waiting for translated editions. Perhaps you search online for scanlations, or head out to your local Japanese bookstore to buy them in the original. Needless to say, taking the latter choice draws its own new problems, primarily being how to read the text, whether by taking Japanese language classes or studying on one’s own. In both cases, it can be the beginning of a long, sometimes frustrating but always exciting journey in acquiring a new language. In full honesty, this is not a general story, but rather my story—and perhaps many readers’ too. While I did not start reading manga anticipating learning Japanese at the time, let alone having it as a specific goal, it would not be an underestimation to say that the linguistic elements of manga quickly became one of the most important aspects for me as a reader.
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Tags: akahon, Anime-manga.jp, anti-comics feeling, classroom, education, educational comics, image-text, intertextuality, Japan, Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese manga, Japanese National Institute of Informatics, Kitazawa Rakuten, Kondō Hidezō, language acquisition, manga, manga studies, modern manga, onomatopoeia, post-war period, scanlations, Scott McCloud, Shimizu Kon, shōjo, shōnen, stereotypes, yakuwari-go, Yokoyama Ryōichi
The monthly manga magazine Garo (published by Seirindō 1964–2002) has gained a certain visibility outside of Japan throughout the past few years: more and more of its authors have been translated and recognized, exhibitions are being held [1] and articles released, even in non-specialized magazines.[2] While Garo authors and their work attract increasing attention outside of Japan, the magazine itself doesn’t seem to be a popular topic within manga studies despite – or precisely because of – its link to the so-called “alternative manga” (Asagawa 2015), the 1960s counterculture, the rise of a new readership and its role as an aesthetic forerunner during its first decade of existence. Bearing this in mind, this column will try to give an overview of the sources currently available on the magazine itself, identify those which can be used as proper academic references and demonstrate the possibilities afforded by studying the magazine itself, going beyond the focus on its authors.
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Tags: 9e Art, adult readership, alternative manga, antiwar orientations, autobiography, Ax, Béatrice Maréchal, Big Comics, Claude Leblanc, counterculture, dōjinshi, educational comics, Frederick Schodt, Garo, Garo Mandala, gekiga, government criticism, Hayashi Seiichi, Japan, Japanese manga, Japanese Society for Studies on Cartoons and Comics, Jean-Marie Bouissou, kamishibai, Kamui-den, kashihon, Kashihon manga Kenkyūkai, Kure Tomofusa, Kōbunsha, Le Monde, mainstream manga, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Mangashugi, Media Studies, Mizuki Shigeru, Nagai Katsuichi, Ninja Bugeichō, Paul Gravett, post-war period, reverse-importing, Ryan Holmberg, Sai Comics, Sasaki Maki, seinen, Seirindō, Shirato Sanpei, Shōgakukan, Takita Yū, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, The Comics Journal, The Comics Journal Online, Tom Gill, Tsuge Yoshiharu, watakushi shōsetsu, Ōshima Nagisa
Previously on Comics Forum, Monden Masafumi shed light on the fact that Japanese shōjo manga discourse tends to prioritize a gender-related perspective, disregarding the majority of graphic narratives which do not fit a subversive reading of the genre, or even dismissing them for their allegedly conservative representation of femininity. But this is not the only one-sided approach to shōjo manga, there is also a historical bias at play. Shōjo manga of the 1970s, notably works by the so-called Magnificent 49ers (see below), have been the main focus of discussion, overshadowing other eras, both before and after. In the following overview, I will outline how the 70s and especially the 49ers ended up as the center of attention, how this favoritism has obscured other periods, and finally how views on shōjo manga history are beginning to change.
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Tags: A history of postwar shōjo manga, adult readership, Aim for the Ace!, authorship, cross-dressing, Dachs, Eureka, French revolution, Fried burdock for maidens in full bloom, Fujimoto Yukari, Gender, gender roles, Hagio Moto, haha-mono, Hashimoto Osamu, History, Igarashi Yumiko, Ikeda Riyoko, Ishiko Junzō, Iwashita Hōsei, Japan, Japanese manga, kashihon, Magnificent 49ers, Maki Miyako, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Mizuno Hideko, Murakami Tomohiko, Nakajima Azusa, Osamu Tezuka, Princess Knight, Puff, Satonaka Machiko, sexuality, Shōji Yōko, shōjo, shōnen, Shūkan Margaret, Takemiya Keiko, tankōbon, Tezuka Osamu, The Rose of Versailles, The world of shōjo manga, Watanabe Masako, watashi-gatari, Westernization, Yamagishi Ryōko, Yonezawa Yoshihiro, Ōgi Fusami, Ōshima Yumiko, Ōtsuka Eiji
Shōjo manga varies in style and genre.[1] But despite this diversity, there is a certain conception of shōjo manga aesthetics, dominated by images of flowers, ribbons, fluttering hem skirts, and innocent-looking girls with large, staring eyes.[2] Traditionally, the beginning of shōjo manga has been equated with Tezuka Osamu’s Princess Knight (Ribon no kishi), but more recent studies have instead focused on prior texts,[3] namely the creations of Takahashi Macoto, who was influenced by the so-called lyrical illustrations (jojōga) of artists such as Nakahara Jun’ichi, Takabatake Kashō and Takehisa Yumeji.[4] Manga influenced by jojōga have arguably prioritized visual qualities.[5]
The importance of visual qualities has increasingly been recognized in shōjo manga studies.[6] However, most critical examinations of shōjo manga place emphasis on the role of narrative structure and representation of gender. This applies particularly to those who read shōjo manga as a medium to challenge conventional gender roles. As Iwashita Hōsei points out, female manga researchers especially have tended to focus on biological and socially constructed gender (2013a: 58). This column discusses two such works, Fujimoto Yukari’s Where is my place in the world? (1998, revised edition 2008) and Oshiyama Michiko’s Discussion of Gender Representation in Shōjo Manga: Forms of “Cross-dressed Girls” and Identity (2007, revised edition 2013).
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Tags: adult readership, aesthetics, Ariyoshi Kyōko, Ballet manga, Berusaiyu no bara, Boys’ Love, Chao, costume, fandom, fashion, France, French revolution, Fujimoto Yukari, gender roles, gender-subversive narratives, Hagio Moto, Hana-Kimi, Hanazakari no kimitachi e, Hatori Bisco, Honda Keiko, Ichijō Yukari, Ikeda Riyoko, Iwashita Hōsei, Japan, Japanese manga, jojōga, josei, Kyoto International Manga Museum, LaLa, Maki Miyako, manga, manga criticism, manga studies, Margaret, Matsunae Akemi, Mizusawa Megumi, Nakahara Jun’ichi, Nakajo Hisaya, Nakayoshi, Negative Perceptions of Comics, Nishitani Shōko, Nishitani Yoshiko, objectification, Osamu Tezuka, Oshiyama Michiko, otomechikku, Ouran High School Host Club, Ouran kōkō hosuto kurabu, passivity, Princess Knight, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ribon, Ribon no kishi, Saitō Chiho, sexuality, Shimizu Reiko, shōjo, Shōjo kakumei Utena, Takabatake Kashō, Takahashi Macoto, Takehisa Yumeji, Takemiya Keiko, Takeuchi Naoko, Tezuka Osamu, The Cherry Project, The Rose of Versailles, Toe Shoes, transgression, Tsuki no yoru hoshi no asa, Yamagishi Ryōko, yaoi, Yokomori Rika
In part one, I showed how the manga artist Tezuka Osamu and his body of work function as more than a mere object of analysis within manga studies but as a totalizing discourse upon which a number of larger critical concerns are projected. This has the rather odd effect of rendering “Tezuka” a milieu which can absorb even those critiques which seek to overcome a Tezuka-centric purview as to what manga might be in both historical and formal terms. I used the critical writings of Takeuchi Osamu not to evaluate them as such but to demonstrate the discursive mechanics of this totalizing absorption. In part two below, I will once again use Takeuchi’s critical oeuvre to examine, in addition to how the critic’s own personal predilections can become subsumed into seemingly objective claims, the assumptions underlying manga formalism: how manga fit with other media, how manga is understood as children’s literature, and how manga is treated as, if not entirely presumed to be, a predominantly postwar phenomenon.
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Tags: adult readership, aesthetics, akahon, Allied occupation of Japan, boku-gatari, Chame, children readers, children’s literature, Chōjū jinbutstu giga, ehon, emakimono, emonogatari, fandom, Gendai manga hakubutsukan, Giants of Children’s Manga, graphic narrative, Hasegawa Machiko, historiography, History, illustrated stories, Japan, jaqueline berndt, Kitazawa Rakuten, koma manga, manga criticism, manga hyōgen, Manga no sengo shisō, Mangashugi, Meiji Restoration, Miyamoto Hirohito, Natsume Fusanosuke, newspaper strips, Osamu Tezuka, Paul Gravett, periodicals, post-war period, rakugaki, Ryan Holmberg, Sazae-san, semiotics, Sengo manga no 50nen-shi, Sharon Kinsella, Shisō no kagaku, shōjo, shōnen, sociology, subjective criticism, Takeuchi Osamu, Tezuka, Tezuka Osamu, Thoughts on Manga in the Postwar, Tokyo Puck, Tsurumi Shunsuke, WWII, Yamada Tomoko, Yomota Inuhiko, Yonezawa Yoshihiro
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