Manga Lecture #4

Manga, for the most part, is divided into four age categories. These are shonen, shojo, seinin, and jousei. Literally translated, boys, girls, men and women comics. These comics are divided into the categories by a number of different factors. But all of these have certain tendencies they follow. I’ll examine one of these today.

Shonen, boy’s comics, usually have a standard hero story, which is the most common type of manga created. It is a two dimensional story most often, with A great evil vs. a great good that must overcome the evil entirely. Shonen are very much a black and white tale that leaves no room for gray areas; they contain a number of heroes that are all righteous and good, usually down on their luck. The hero is special in some way, with a power or inheritance that singles them out for greatness. They are usually taken under the wing of a sage character, who trains them, and does not appear again until their death scene in the rain, usually killed by the main villain of the series. A young member of the opposite sex appears, which the main character gets on the nerves of. This character is usually the love interest in the story, made up entirely so the author can interject some romance into the plot. (usually boy-hero, girl-love interest). The hero becomes powerful, a leader of people, and inspiration. But as soon as he reaches his peak, the main villain will appear, destroying his hard work. The hero will attack the villain, who proceeds to hand the hero his ass. Thus begins the strength power up. (Think Dragonball Z, and you have the idea). The story arc will end when the hero becomes powerful enough to obliterate the villain, creating peace and harmony through violence. This then begins all over again when the next villain is introduced.

This is not to say all shonen are bad. Many are quite good, though they still have a number of stereotypes they fulfill.

Recommendations for great shonen (though most of these break the convention, that is why I consider them great):

One Piece*
Rurouni Kenshin*
Soul Eater*

Manga Lecture #3

Manga became the form most widely read medium in Japan, because of the difficulty of the language. Japanese uses a system of three different alphabets, with one (kanji) containing over 7000 characters alone, which makes it slightly more difficult to read than English. Thus, a medium with less text is better. Because of this, manga - which is a combination of words and pictures - became popular.

Manga encompasses a great deal of subject material, and as it is the most popular medium to read, is not just relegated to children, but extends to topics adults will enjoy as well. People, from the time they can read until the time they cannot, read manga in Japan. Often the age range is declared to be 2-97 or even longer, depending on the person. As such, the material is often aimed at older readers.

Though much of manga is aimed at children, there are many subjects addressed that are not appropriate for the age group. Children of eight will not necessarily understand or appreciate philosophy, religion, biography, or many other subjects addressed in the adult oriented series. Though this is not entirely the case, as many series aimed at adults also contain graphic adult content. A series might discuss philosophy, but also contain sexual content or excessive violence. So if a reader is easily offended by such material, they should check before reading a series both the rating itself and the reason for the rating in the first place.
To be continued.

Manga Lecture #2

I suppose I should mention the reason why manga is read the way it is (right to left). Japan was originally a scroll based reading culture, and to read a traditional scroll, you would hold the bulk in one hand (usually the non-dominate one) and unravel it with your dominant hand. As the majority of people were right handed, this meant you would generally hold the scroll in the left hand, while pulling with the right. Japanese therefore required writers to write in a way where you would read as the scroll was unwound. Manga carried on this tradition, even in book form, due to the language’s orientation. Today, even when translated into English, many companies keep the original style of right to left paneling, so as to keep the flow and the author’s intent intact.

However, there are some that are published in a technique called “mirroring.” This is when the panels are flipped around, to accommodate western readers. In the early days of manga publishing within the United States, many were published in this way, for it was believed too many people would be confused by the shift in reading styles. But with the growing popularity and demand for current manga, this process was mostly scrapped, due to the effort and time it took to completely remodel the mode in which the original comic was published in. While this practice is still continued in some companies, for the most part it has fallen into disuse.

To Be Continued...

Manga Lecture #1

I suppose that I should examine a little of the basics of manga, as a lot of people don’t have a proper understanding of what It means and what it represents. I give a lecture on this all the time, for both conventions and for classrooms, so I’ll be expanding on this. This will be the first of a series of posts on this subject, since the entire lecture can cover an hour and a half.

A word of warning though. Many of the manga I will be mentioning and recommending are mature in nature. These will be marked with an *.

But let’s jump right into it.

So what is manga, exactly? Manga, for all of you who don’t know, is a form of comics originating from Japan. The characters, 漫画, are literally translated as “whimsical pictures.” But though they originated from Japan, this style has spread around the world, and now comics produced in the manga style are found worldwide, with concentrations in Eastern Asia, and more and more frequently, the United States.

The origin of this form is the Second World War. While the origin of the style has roots in ancient Japan, it first blossomed after the end of Japan’s surrender. After the war, the country had been thrown into a depression. With the lack of money, Japan had to sacrifice a great deal so that life could go on. Entertainment was sacrificed in order to feed families.

But entertainment is necessary in a depression, to allow the population an escape for a while from the hardships of life. For this reason, a four panel comic, read right to left, and top to bottom, was created. It was dubbed manga, and it was a comic centered around the four panel joke. Panel #1: Introduction, Panel #2 : Set Up, Panel #3: Set Up, and Panel #4: Punchline. This continued for a while, but soon stagnated, (much like how the print comics in the Sunday newspapers stagnated).

It was not until a certain Artist came along that this model was challenged. Osamu Tezuka, nicknamed the Father of Manga, did not create manga, but changed the model that manga used. Tezuka realized that comics were not just a small spot to tell jokes, but could be used in a wider context, to tell a larger story. Many of the techniques still seen today were first thought of by this man.

He created what is known as dynamic storytelling, a style where the panels are not just flat squares, but slashed and angled to give meaning to the movement in the panel. In other words, if someone was falling, the panel might be angled downward, or if someone was driving, the panel might be stretched horizontally.

There are many other authors that contributed to this style, but that’s a post for another time.

To Be Continued...