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
Takeuchi Osamu, a professor of media studies at Doshisha University, is likely not the best manga studies critic to use as an introduction to problems surrounding the relatively recent turn in Japanese manga studies discourse to formalism or, more specifically, to the study of manga expression (manga hyōgen), since his work is something of a too easy target. It is parochial—his examples, despite pretensions toward general principles, are exclusively Japanese—and has changed surprisingly little since the late 1980s, despite the fact that his contemporaries, such as Natsume Fusanosuke and Yomota Inuhiko, and the manga expression discourse in toto have changed considerably in the intervening years. Yomota’s Manga genron (Principles of Manga) makes reference to at least some non-Japanese comics artists, notably Windsor McCay, and in the introduction to a recent translation of two chapters of his Tezuka Osamu wa doko ni iru (Where is Tezuka Osamu?), Natsume reflects on how limited this early formalist work was and, if reproduced today, would have to be understood within the context of a global comics studies discourse:
At the time I wrote this book, my interests generally centered on postwar Japanese manga, and the scope of my inquiry was almost entirely limited to Japan. If we were to consider European and American influences on manga from the Meiji period [1868-1912], the discussion in this book on transformations related to time and panel articulation would link to world-historical questions of modernity (changes in the expression of time and space in modern times)… Future research will surely depend on sharing knowledge and intellectual exchanges between scholars in different countries.[1]
While a turn away from more parochial concerns is admirable, a broadening of perspective on manga-as-comic expression is not guaranteed to overcome or even make apparent a number of assumptions underlying the study of manga expression as it emerged historically and in direct response to the currents of nearly two decades of manga criticism that preceded it. In order to make those assumptions more apparent, my use of Takeuchi’s critical oeuvre here is directed more toward discourse analytical ends than toward a detailed explication of what his theory of manga expression entails.
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Tags: Biranji, Cinematism, CJ Suzuki, Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold!, Doshisha University, eiga-teki shuhō, Europe, film, formalism, Frederick Schodt, gekiga, Helen McCarthy, historiography, image-text, Ishiko Junzō, Itō Gō, Japan, Japanese manga, jaqueline berndt, Kitazawa Rakuten, Kure Tomofusa, manga criticism, Manga genron, manga hyōgen, Mangashugi, Media Studies, Meiji period, Mizuki Shigeru, Nakano Haruyuki, Natsume Fusanosuke, New Treasure Island, Osamu Tezuka, Ryan Holmberg, Sakai Shichima, Scott McCloud, Shin takarajima, Shintakarajima, Shirato Sanpei, Shishido Sakō, shōjo, Speed Boy, Supīdo tarō, Takeuchi Osamu, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Tezuka, Tezuka Osamu, Tezuka Osamu wa doko ni iru, Thierry Groensteen, Thomas Lamarre, Tsuge Yoshiharu, Tsurumi Shunsuke, USA, Winsor McCay, WWII, Yomota Inuhiko
I. Who is Ishiko Junzō?[1]
Arguably, one of the first Japanese critics to discuss graphic narratives (story manga) for mature audiences is Ishiko Junzō (1928 – 1977).[2] Initially active as an art critic who explored a wide range of contemporaneous artistic and popular movements, he began to publish writings more specifically on manga between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s. To many English-language readers his name might be obscure, perhaps even more so than his contemporary, philosopher and cultural critic Tsurumi Shunsuke, whose book Sengo Nihon no taishū bunkashi (A Cultural History of Postwar Japan 1945-1980)—a chapter of which is devoted to postwar manga—is available in English. Yet, in present-day Japanese-language manga research, Ishiko is repeatedly referenced, especially in relation to his media-specific discussion of manga. This article shall introduce art critic Ishiko Junzō and his scholarship, concentrating on his contribution to Japanese comics criticism and manga studies.
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Tags: adult readership, aesthetics, alternative comics, alternative manga, art, Artists, “anti-art” movements, censorship, Charles Hatfield, children readers, comics industry, Dick Higgins, digital media, Doryun Chong, dōjinshi, education, fandom, film, formalism, Garo, gekiga, Gondō Suzumu, graphic narratives, historiography, hyōgen-ron, intermediality, Ishiko Junzō, Japan, Japanese manga, jaqueline berndt, Kajii Jun, Kajiya Kenji, kashihon-ya, Kikuchi Asajirō, Magnificent 49ers, manga, manga criticism, Manga geijutsu-ron, manga studies, Manga to eiga, Mangashugi, mature readers, Miryam Sas, Miwa Kentarō, Mizuki Shigeru, MOMA, Negative Perceptions of Comics, Osamu Tezuka, psychology, Scott McCloud, seinen, Shirato Sanpei, shōjo, social class, structuralism, taishū bunka, Takano Shinzō, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Tezuka, Tezuka Osamu, Tsuge Yoshiharu, Tsurumi Shunsuke, Uryū Yoshimitsu, USA, Walter Benjamin, Weekly Shōnen Magazine, Yamane Sadao
The comic market in the Western world today is heterogeneous and complex. However, I suggest it can be divided into three main segments, or groups of readers (see also the American market commentaries Alexander 2014, Alverson 2013): the first segment are manga fans, many of which also like anime and other kinds of Japanese pop culture. The second segment are comic fans in a narrower sense, who, at least in America, read mostly superhero comic books, and other comics from the genres of science fiction and fantasy. These are the ‘fanboys and true believers’ that Matthew J. Pustz writes about in his book Comic Book Culture (Pustz 1999). Finally, the third segment is the general public. These readers are not fans, but only casual readers of comics – mostly so-called “graphic novels”, newspaper strips and collections thereof, and the occasional bestseller such as the latest Asterix album.
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Tags: Akira, Albin Michel, Archie, autobiography, Barefoot Gen, Bleach, censorship, Comics Buyer's Guide, Der Spiegel, Dragon Ball, economics, fandom, Fantasy Advertiser, First Comics, First Publishing, Frank Miller, Frederick Schodt, gekiga, Graphic Novels, Gōseki Kojima, I Saw It, Ittō Ogami, Japan, Japan Inc., Japanese manga, Katsuhiro Otomo, Kazuo Koike, Keiji Nakazawa, Kozure Ōkami, Lone Wolf and Cub, Lynn Varley, Macao, Mai the Psychic Girl, manga, Manga Nihon Keizai Nyūmon, Martin Skidmore, Matthew J. Pustz, medieval comics, Naruto, Negative Perceptions of Comics, Norman Rentrop, One Piece, Peter Odrich, Rraah!, Sailor Moon, Sexual Violence, Shōtarō Ishinomori, superheroes, Superman, The Legend of Kamui, Translations, University of California Press, USA, Weekly Manga Action
Manga [1] does not easily attract scholarly interest as comics. In the name of manga, the critical focus is usually less on sequential art but rather a certain illustration style or character design, and closely related, fannish engagement in transformative or derivative creations (dōjinshi), up to and including cosplay. In many cases, scholars turn to manga as an entry point for research on girls’ (shōjo) culture and female consumers, gender and sexuality, the subcultures of fujoshi (self-designated “rotten girls” engaged in Boys’ Love, or yaoi)[2] and otaku (geeks). Attempts at elucidating the peculiar role of the comics medium in that regard—for example, by focusing not only on “shōjo” but also “manga” when discussing shōjo manga [3] —remain a distinct minority whenever sociological and anthropological concerns prevail. Be it “fan culture,” “subculture” or “scene,” user communities are given preference over media specificity, texts and individual readings, at least outside of Japan. This applies especially to Japanese Studies, which is still the field yielding most manga research abroad. Here, manga is taken to represent, if not national culture in general, then Japanese popular culture, in the main understood as a youth culture with significant global impact and economic effects. Consequently, the utilization of manga as mere object appears to matter more than methodological diligence.[4] Whether subjected to symptomatic readings of social issues or to sophisticated critical theory, media-specific contexts and manga-related expertise tend to be neglected. This is as much due to specific institutional requirements as it is indicative of a lack within the institution, that is, the absence of a respective field of research and criticism.
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Tags: aesthetics, Alison Bechdel, bande dessinée, Belgium, Benoît Peeters, Boys’ Love, caricature, children readers, CJ Suzuki, comics industry, digital comics, ehon, fandom, formalism, François Schuiten, France, Franco-Belgian Comics, Frederick Schodt, Fujimoto Yukari, Gakushūin University, gekiga, Gender, graphic narratives, Hergé, historiography, humour, Ishiko Junzō, Itō Gō, Japan, Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics, Japanese manga, jaqueline berndt, Jessica Sugimoto-Bauwens, Kitazawa Rakuten, kodomo manga, komikku, Kyoto International Manga Museum, Kyoto Seika University, manga, manga criticism, manga hyōgenron, manga studies, manhua, manhwa, Meiji University, Miyamoto Hirohito, Murakami Tomohiko, museum, Natsume Fusanosuke, Nicholas Theisen, Nihon manga gakkai, Odagiri Hiroshi, Ono Kōsei, Osamu Tezuka, Paco Roca, ronald stewart, Saitō Chiho, satirical cartooning, Scott McCloud, Shimizu Isao, Takekuma Kentarō, Takemiya Keiko, Takeuchi Osamu, Tezuka, Tezuka Osamu, The Adventures of Tintin, Thierry Groensteen, Tintin, Translations, transmediality, USA, yaoi, Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures
Comics Forum 