Table Of ContentMANGA
This page intentionally left blank
MANGA
An Anthology of Global and
Cultural Perspectives
Edited by
Toni Johnson-Woods
2010
Th e Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
Th e Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
Th e Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
www.continuumbooks.com
Copyright © 2010 Toni Johnson-Woods
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written
permission of the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978 0 8264 2937 7 (hardcover)
978 0 8264 2938 4 (paperback)
Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Editor’s Notes vii
List of Figures viii
Introduction
Toni Johnson-Woods 1
Manga and Genres
1. Manga: A Historical Overview
Jean-Marie Bouissou 17
2. An Overview of Manga Genres
Mio Bryce and Jason Davis 34
3. What Boys Will Be: A Study of Sho¯nen Manga
Angela Drummond-Mathews 62
4. The “Beautiful Boy” in Japanese Girls’ Manga
Mark McLelland 77
5. Sho¯jo Manga in Japan and Abroad
Jennifer Prough 93
Manga in Depth
6. Oishinbo’s Adventures in Eating: Food, Communication,
and Culture in Japanese Comics
Lorie Brau 109
7. Osamu Tezuka’s Gekiga: Behind the Mask of Manga
Philip Brophy 128
8. A Look at Hikawa Kyo¯ko’s Kanata kara
Mio Bryce 137
9. The Power of Truth: Gender and Sexuality in Manga
Tania Darlington and Sara Cooper 157
10. The Reluctant Messiah: Miyazaki Hayao’s Nausicaä of the Valley
of the Wind Manga
Marc Hairston 173
Reading Manga
11. Japanese Visual Language: The Structure of Manga
Neil Cohn 187
12. International Singularity in Sequential Art: The Graphic Novel
in the United States, Europe, and Japan
N. C. Christopher Couch 204
13. The Manga Polysystem: What Fans Want, Fans Get
James Rampant 221
Manga in the World
14. Hybrid Manga: Implications for the Global Knowledge Economy
Jason Bainbridge and Craig Norris 235
15. Manga in Europe: A Short Study of Market and Fandom
Jean-Marie Bouissou, Marco Pellitteri, and Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff
with Ariane Beldi 253
16. Manga Shakespeare
Emma Hayley 267
17. The Manga Phenomenon in America
Wendy Goldberg 281
18. Manga in East Asia
John A. Lent 297
19. The Manga Publishing Scene in Europe
Paul M. Malone 315
20. Globalizing Manga: from Japan to Hong Kong and Beyond
Wendy Siuyi Wong 332
Notes on Contributors 351
Index 353
Editor’s Notes
In Japan, people’s names are usually written with the family name fi rst
and the given name last (e.g., “Ito Kinko”). However, in this book Japanese
names are rendered in a Western format — that is, with the given name
fi rst (e.g., “Kinko Ito”) — except where indicated in the fi rst endnote.
Commonly used foreign words, such as manga, are not italicized; how-
ever, more specifi c terms such as shōnen are italicized upon fi rst mention in
each chapter, then generally not italicized thereafter.
Note that the style of presentation by diff erent contributing authors may
diff er.
At the end of many chapters recommended readings off er manga titles
that may be of further interest to the reader.
List of Figures
Figure I.1: Manga anthologies and tankōbons. © 2008, Toni Johnson-Woods. Used by permission. 3
Figure I.2: Readers at manga bookshop. © 2008, Toni Johnson-Woods. Used by permission. 4
Figure I.3: Typical manga layout. © 2004, Queenie Chan, Th e Dreaming Vol 1: 1; Tokyopop. Used
by permission. 6
Figure I.4: Filmic qualities of manga. Pan out with closeup inserts. © 2004 Queenie Chan,
Th e Dreaming, Vol 1: 115; Tokyopop. Used by permission. 6
Figure 4.1:Tomoi, depicted both as a “beautiful youth” (biseinen) as he is at the beginning
of the story and as a “handsome man” (binan) at the story’s close. From by Wakuni Akisato,
Tomoi © 1996 and reproduced courtesy of Shogakukan Inc. 85
Figure 4.2: Dee and Randy, two NYPD offi cers, experience their fi rst kiss in Sanami
Matoh’s manga series Fake. © Sanami Matoh. Courtesy of Tokyopop. 86
Figure 6.1: Yamaoka Shirô and Kurita Yûko in the foreground on the cover of “Th e Great
Controversy on How to Cook Rice”. © 1997 Oishinbo, Kariya Tetsu and Hanasaki Akira,
Vol. 64; Shogakukan. Used by permission. 112
Figure 6.2: Yamaoka Shirô and Kaibara Yûzan face off in “Th e Spirit of Hospitality” © 1986.
Oishinbo Vol. 5: 173; Kariya Tetsu and Hanasaki Akira; Shogakukan. Used by permission. 116
Figure 6.3: “Aosawa savors apple tea and apple pie prepared by his mother in ‘Mother Apple’”.
© 1988. Oishinbo Vol. 14: 101, Kariya Tetsu and Hanasaki Akira; Shogakukan. Used by
permission. 124
Figure 11.1: Manga by a Japanese 7 year old (note the English text, used in a common language-
learning script). © 2008 Neil Cohn; used by permission. 191
Figure 11.2: A small sample of graphic emblems from JVL. © 2008 Neil Cohn; used by
permission. 193
Figure 11.3: Various strategies of motions lines. © 2008 Neil Cohn; used by permission. 194
Figure 11.4: Visual grammar shown from a scene from Lone Wolf and Cub. © 1995 Kazuo
Koike and Goseki Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub: A Taste of Poison, Vol. 20, pp. 223–224,
Dark Horse Comics; courtesy of Dark Horse Comics; used by permission. 196
Figure 11.5: Th e Lexical Representational Matrix. © 2008 Neil Cohn; used by permission. 198
Figure 16.1: Feuding Families (Romeo and Juliet) © 2007, Romeo and Juliet, illustrator Sonia
Leong; SelfMadeHero. Used by permission. 271
Figure 16.2: Contemporary Romeo and Juliet. © 2007, Romeo and Juliet, illustrator Sonia
Leong; SelfMadeHero. Used by permission. 272
Figure 16.3: Horatio. © 2007 Hamlet, illustrator Emma Vieceli; SelfMadeHero. Used by
Permission. 273
Figure 16.4: Hamlet Characters. © 2007 Hamlet, illustrator Emma Vieceli; SelfMadeHero.
Used by Permission. 273
Figure 16.5: Hamlet Bishounen. © 2007 Hamlet, illustrator Emma Vieceli; SelfMadeHero.
Used by Permission. 274
Figure 20.1: Lee Wai Chun. © 1970/2003 Ms 13-Dot Cartoon, artist Lee Wai Chun.
Used by permission. 343
Introduction
Toni Johnson-Woods
What do Cup O’ Noodles, Warren Buff et, and William Shakespeare have
in common? 1 Th ey are all manga — that is, Japanese comics. Over the past
two decades manga has spread from being a quirky style of comics to being
the new comic-book art format. In 2007, Daniel Pink claimed that manga
is the “hottest trend in American publishing” (in Wired Magazine http://
www.wired.com/wired/issue/15-11) with good reason: it was the fi rst year
that a manga title was ranking in USA Today’s best-seller list (Fruits Basket,
Volume 16). Around the same time, the media was abuzz with the release
of Selfmadehero’s Shakespearean manga, and Japan’s International Manga
Awards. Manga was well and truly internationally accepted. But manga
is not an overnight sensation, manga fi rst appeared outside Japan in the
1970s; however it was through anime that manga came to the attention
of the general populace. Now it is diffi cult to get away from manga.
Borders off er gift cards with a Naturo-esque character, the Bible has been
mangafi ed and the manga sections at bookshops continue to expand. Th is
volume refl ects the global impact of manga on comic book scholarship
and contains essays from comic book scholars in Australia, Europe and the
United States.
MANGA AND COMIC BOOK SCHOLARSHIP
Considerable ink has been spent trying to defi ne comics by Scott McCloud
(Understanding Comics), Will Eisner (Comics and Sequential Art), David
Carrier (Th e Aesthetics of Comics), and Roger Sabin (Adult Comics).2 Manga
adds yet another layer to the “long and complicated” evolution of comics
(Sabin 1993, 1). Even a seemingly self-evident description such as “manga
is sequential art” is riddled with exceptions: manga is not always sequential
(chronologically, anyway) and some might argue that it is not art. Manga
