History of manga
Encyclopedia
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
is a Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
term that generally means "comics" or "cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
", literally "whimsical sketches." Historians and writers on manga history have described two broad and complementary processes shaping modern manga. Their views differ in the relative importance they attribute to the role of cultural and historical events following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
versus the role of pre-War, Meiji
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
, and pre-Meiji
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
Japanese culture and art.
The first view emphasizes events occurring during and after the U.S. Occupation of Japan
Occupied Japan
At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
(1945–1952), and stresses that manga was strongly shaped by United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cultural influences, including U.S. comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
brought to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by the GIs and by images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s (especially Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
). According to Sharon Kinsella, the booming post-war
Post-Occupation Japan
Post-Occupation Japan is a phrase used to describe the period in the history of Japan which started at the end of the Allied occupation in 1952.During this period, Japan re-established itself as a global economic and political power....
Japanese publishing industry helped create a consumer-oriented society in which publishing giants like Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
could shape popular taste.
Before World War II
All writers like Takashi MurakamiTakashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
have also stressed events after WWII, but Murakami sees Japan's staggering defeat and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
as having created long-lasting scars on the Japanese artistic psyche, which, in this view, lost its previously virile confidence in itself and sought solace in harmless and cute (kawaii) images. However, Takayumi Tatsumi sees a special role for a transpacific economic and cultural transnationalism
Transnationalism
Transnationalism is a social movement and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states....
that created a postmodern and shared international youth culture of cartooning, film, television, music, and related popular arts, which was, for Tatsumi the crucible in which modern manga have developed.
For Murakami and Tatsumi, trans-nationalism (or globalization) refers specifically to the flow of cultural and subcultural material from one nation to another. In their usage, the term does not refer to international corporate expansion, nor to international tourism, nor to cross-border international personal friendships, but to ways in which artistic, aesthetic, and intellectual traditions influence each other across national boundaries. An example of cultural trans-nationalism is the creation of Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
films in the United States, their transformation into manga by Japanese artists, and the marketing of Star Wars manga to the United States. Another example is the transfer of hip-hop culture from the United States to Japan. Wong also sees a major role for trans-nationalism in the recent history of manga.
Frederik L. Schodt
Frederik L. Schodt is an American translator, interpreter and writer.Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American...
, Kinko Ito, and Adam L. Kern. Schodt points to the existence in the 13th century of illustrated picture scrolls like Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga that told stories in sequential images with humor and wit. Schodt also stresses continuities of aesthetic style and vision between ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
and shunga
Shunga
' is a Japanese term for erotic art. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. While rare, there are extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate the Ukiyo-e movement...
woodblock prints and modern manga (all three fulfill Eisner's
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
criteria for sequential art). While there are disputes over whether Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga or Shigisan-engi
Shigisan-engi
is a scroll painting done in the early 12th century. The story details miracles which were attributed to the Shingon monk Myoren, who resided on Mount Shigi near Nara in Japan in the latter part of the 9th century....
was the first manga, both scrolls date back to about the same time period. However others like Isao Takahata
Isao Takahata
is a Japanese anime filmmaker that have earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only...
, Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli
is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...
co-founder and director, contends there in no linkage with the scrolls and modern manga. Whether or not these scrolls are among the first manga they are credited for being the origin of the right-to-left style of reading in manga and Japanese books
Japanese books
The book in Japan has had a long history, beginning in the late eighth century AD. The majority of books were hand-copied until the Edo period , when woodblock printing became comparatively affordable and widespread...
.
Schodt also sees a particularly significant role for kamishibai
Kamishibai
Kamishibai , literally "paper drama", is a form of storytelling that originated in Japanese Buddhist temples in the 12th century, where monks used emakimono to convey stories with moral lessons to a mostly illiterate audience....
, a form of street theater where itinerant artists displayed pictures in a light box while narrating the story to audiences in the street. Torrance has pointed to similarities between modern manga and the Osaka popular novel between the 1890s and 1940, and argues that the development of widespread literacy in Meiji and post-Meiji Japan helped create audiences for stories told in words and pictures. Kinko Ito also roots manga historically in aesthetic continuity with pre-Meiji art, but she sees its post-World War II history as driven in part by consumer enthusiasm for the rich imagery and narrative of the newly developing manga tradition. Ito describes how this tradition has steadily produced new genres and markets, e.g., for girls' (shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
) manga in the late 1960s and for Ladies Comics (redisu
Josei
also known as or , is a term that refers to the target demographic of manga created mostly by women for late teenage and adult female audiences. Readers range from 15-44. In Japanese, the word josei means simply "woman", "female", "feminine", "womanhood" and has no manga-related connotations at...
) in the 1980s.
Kern has suggested that kibyoshi, illustrated picture books from the late 18th century, may have been the world's first comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s. These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes. Although Kern does not believe that kibyoshi were a direct forerunner of manga, for Kern the existence of kibyoshi nonetheless points to a Japanese willingness to mix words and pictures in a popular story-telling medium. The first recorded use of the term "manga" to mean "whimsical or impromptu pictures" comes from this tradition in 1798, which, Kern points out, predates Katsushika Hokusai's
Hokusai
was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...
better known Hokusai Manga
Hokusai Manga
The is a collection of sketches of various subjects by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Subjects of the sketches include landscapes, flora and fauna, everyday life and the supernatural. The word manga in the title does not refer to the contemporary story-telling manga, as the sketches in the work are...
usage by several decades.
Similarly, Inoue sees manga as being a mixture of image- and word-centered elements, each pre-dating the U.S.A. occupation of Japan. In his view, Japanese image-centered or "pictocentric" art ultimately derives from Japan's long history of engagement with Chinese graphic art, whereas word-centered or "logocentric" art, like the novel, was stimulated by social and economic needs of Meiji and pre-War Japanese nationalism for a populace unified by a common written language. Both fuse in what Inoue sees as a symbiosis in manga.
Thus, these scholars see the history of manga as involving historical continuities and discontinuities between the aesthetic and cultural past as it interacts with post-World War II innovation and trans-nationalism.
After World War II
Modern manga originates in the Occupation (1945–1952) and post-Occupation years (1952-early 1960s), when a previously militaristic and ultranationalist JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
was rebuilding its political and economic infrastructure. Although U.S. Occupation censorship policies specifically prohibited art and writing that glorified war and Japanese militarism, those policies did not prevent the publication of other kinds of material, including manga. Furthermore, the 1947 Japanese Constitution
Constitution of Japan
The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...
(Article 21) prohibited all forms of censorship. One result was the growth of artistic creativity in this period.
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
's Mighty Atom (Astro Boy in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; begun in 1951) and Machiko Hasegawa's Sazae-san
Sazae-san
is a Japanese comic strip created by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the , on April 22, 1946. When the wished to have Hasegawa draw the comic strip for their paper, she moved to Tokyo in 1949 with the explanation that the main characters had moved from Kyūshū to...
(begun in 1946).
Astro Boy
Astro Boy (character)
is a fictional character, and the main protagonist of the Astro Boy franchise. Created by Osamu Tezuka, the character was introduced in the 1951 Captain Atom manga...
was both a superpowered robot and a naive little boy. Tezuka never explained why Astro Boy had such a highly developed social conscience nor what kind of robot programming could make him so deeply affiliative. Both seem innate to Astro Boy, and represent a Japanese sociality and community-oriented masculinity differing very much from the Emperor-worship and militaristic obedience enforced during the previous period of Japanese imperialism. Astro Boy quickly became (and remains) immensely popular in Japan and elsewhere as an icon and hero of a new world of peace and the renunciation of war, as also seen in Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. Similar themes occur in Tezuka's New World and Metropolis.
By contrast, Sazae-san (meaning "Ms. Sazae") was drawn starting in 1946 by Machiko Hasegawa, a young woman artist who made her heroine a stand-in for millions of Japanese men and especially women rendered homeless by the war. Sazae-san does not face an easy or simple life, but, like Astro Boy, she too is highly affiliative and is deeply involved with her immediate and extended family. She is also a very strong character, in striking contrast to the officially sanctioned Neo-Confucianist principles of feminine meekness and obedience to the "good wife, wise mother
Good Wife, Wise Mother
Derived from an idealized traditional role for women, the ideology of Good Wife, Wise Mother or Wise Wife, Good Mother was coined by Nakamura Masanao in 1875.It represented the ideal for womanhood in the East Asian area like Japan, China and Korea in the late 1880s and early 1900s...
" (ryōsai kenbo, りょうさいけんぼ; 良妻賢母) ideal taught by the previous military regime. Sazae-san faces the world with cheerful resilience, what Hayao Kawai
Hayao Kawai
' was a Japanese Jungian psychologist who has been described as "the founder of Japanese Analytical and Clinical Psychology". He introduced the sandplay therapy concept to Japanese psychology. He participated in Eranos from 1982. Kawai was the director of the International Research Center for...
calls a "woman of endurance." Sazae-san sold more than 62 million copies over the next half century.
Tezuka and Hasegawa were also both stylistic innovators. In Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique, the panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots. More critically, Tezuka synchronised the placement of panel with the reader's viewing speed to simulate moving pictures. Hence in manga production as in film production, the person who decide the allocation of panels (Komawari) is credited as the author while most drawing are done by assistants. This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
. Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga.
Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shōnen
Shonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls. Up to 1969, shōjo manga was drawn primarily by adult men for young female readers.
Two very popular and influential male-authored manga for girls from this period were Tezuka's 1953-1956 Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight
Princess Knight
is a Japanese manga that ran through four serializations from 1954 to 1968, as well as a 1967 Japanese children's animated series. It was dubbed into English and brought over to Western audiences in 1970, where it was called Choppy and the Princess. In 1973, this series was dubbed in Portuguese and...
or Knight in Ribbons) and Matsuteru Yokoyama's 1966 Mahōtsukai Sarii (Little Witch Sally
Sally, the Witch
, is the first magical girl genre anime in Japan. This may be the first shōjo anime as well. The first magical girl manga was Himitsu no Akko-chan but it took longer to be adapted into an anime. Both series deal with henshin style transformations , but neither is the first anime to feature this...
). Ribon no Kishi dealt with the adventures of Princess Sapphire of a fantasy kingdom who had been born with male and female souls, and whose sword-swinging battles and romances blurred the boundaries of otherwise rigid gender roles. Sarii, the pre-teen princess heroine of Mahōtsukai Sarii, came from her home in the magical lands to live on Earth, go to school, and perform a variety of magical good deeds for her friends and schoolmates. Yokoyama's Mahōtsukai Sarii was influenced by the U.S. TV sitcom Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, but unlike Samantha, the main character of Bewitched, a married woman with her own daughter, Sarii is a pre-teenager who faces the problems of growing up and mastering the responsibilities of forthcoming adulthood. Mahōtsukai Sarii helped create the now very popular mahō shōjo or "magical girl
Magical girl
belong to a sub-genre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga. Magical girl stories feature young girls with superhuman abilities, forced to fight evil and to protect the Earth. They often possess a secret identity, although the name can just refer to young girls who follow a plotline involving magic...
" sub-genre of later manga. Both series were and still are very popular.
Shōjo manga
In 1969, a group of women manga artists later called the Year 24 GroupYear 24 group
refers to one of two female manga artist groups which are considered to have revolutionized shōjo manga . Their works often examine "radical and philosophical issues", including sexuality and gender issues, and many of their works are now considered "classics" of shōjo manga...
(also known as Magnificent 24s) made their shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga debut (year 24 comes from the Japanese name for 1949, when many of these artists were born). The group included Hagio Moto, Riyoko Ikeda
Riyoko Ikeda
is a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She was one of the most popular Japanese comic artists in the 1970s, being best known for The Rose of Versailles.- Biography :...
, Yumiko Oshima
Yumiko Oshima
is a female Japanese manga artist and a member of Year 24 group.She made her debut in 1968 with Paula's Tears in Weekly Margaret.She received the 1973 Japan Cartoonists Association Award for excellence for Mimoza Yashiki de Tsukamaete...
, Keiko Takemiya
Keiko Takemiya
is a Japanese manga artist. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She resides in Kamukura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Takemiya was one of the female authors who in the early 1970s pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men; in December 1970 she published a short story, "In the...
, and Ryoko Yamagishi
Ryoko Yamagishi
is a female Japanese manga artist. She is considered to be one of the Year 24 Group. She studied ballet as a child, which plays a part in many of her works. When she read the manga of Machiko Satonaka in 1964, she decided to pursue becoming a manga artist. Although her parents did not agree with...
and they marked the first major entry of women artists into manga. Thereafter, shōjo manga would be drawn primarily by women artists for an audience of girls and young women.
In 1971, Ikeda began her immensely popular shōjo manga Berusaiyu no Bara (The Rose of Versailles
The Rose of Versailles
, also known as Lady Oscar or La Rose de Versailles, is one of the best-known titles in shōjo manga and a media franchise created by Riyoko Ikeda. It has been adapted into several Takarazuka Revue musicals, as well an anime television series, produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and broadcast by the...
), a story of Oscar François de Jarjayes
Oscar François de Jarjayes
is one of the main characters in the manga/anime series The Rose of Versailles, created by Riyoko Ikeda.-Character history:Born the last of five daughters to the Commander of the Royal Guards, General François Augustin Regnier de Jarjayes she is raised by her father as if she were a boy in order...
, a cross-dressing woman who was a Captain in Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
's Palace Guards in pre-Revolutionary France. In the end, Oscar dies as a revolutionary leading a charge of her troops against the Bastille. Likewise, Hagio Moto's work challenged Neo-Confucianist limits on women's roles and activities as in her 1975 They Were Eleven
They Were Eleven
is a manga by Moto Hagio which ran in Shōjo Comic for three issues from September through November 1975. It was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1976, and a sequel Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West was produced in 1976. It was published in English as part of the anthology...
, a shōjo science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
story about a young woman cadet in a future space academy.
These women artists also created considerable stylistic innovations. In its focus on the heroine's inner experiences and feelings, shōjo manga are "picture poems" with delicate and complex designs that often eliminate panel borders completely to create prolonged, non-narrative extensions of time. All of these innovations – strong and independent female characters, intense emotionality, and complex design – remain characteristic of shōjo manga up to the present day.
Shōjo manga and Ladies' Comics from 1975 to today
In the following decades (1975–present), shōjoShojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously evolving different but overlapping subgenres. Major subgenres have included romance, superheroines, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, redisu レディース, redikomi レヂィーコミ, and josei 女性 じょせい), whose boundaries are sometimes indistinguishable from each other and from shōnen
Shonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
manga.
In modern shōjo manga romance, love is a major theme set into emotionally intense narratives of self-realization. Japanese manga/anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
critic Eri Izawa defines romance as symbolizing "the emotional, the grand, the epic; the taste of heroism, fantastic adventure, and the melancholy; passionate love, personal struggle, and eternal longing" set into imaginative, individualistic, and passionate narrative frameworks. These romances are sometimes long narratives that can deal with distinguishing between false and true love, coping with sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
, and growing up in a complex world, themes inherited by subsequent animated versions of the story. These "coming of age" or bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
themes occur in both shōjo and shōnen manga.
In the bildungsroman, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
must deal with adversity and conflict, and examples in shōjo manga of romantic conflict are common. They include Miwa Ueda
Miwa Ueda
is a Japanese manga artist known for her works like Peach Girl and Angel Wars. In 1999, she received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo for Peach Girl....
's Peach Girl
Peach Girl
is a Japanese shōjo manga series by Miwa Ueda. It was published in Japan by Kodansha in Bessatsu Friend from 1998 to 2003 and collected in 18 volumes...
,
Fuyumi Soryo
Fuyumi Soryo
is a Japanese manga artist from Beppu, Oita, Japan. She is a graduate of the Oita prefectural Geijutsu Midorigaoka High School.She was born into the home of a master of the Kanze school of Noh. In her childhood she liked to draw pictures of horses and things but had no special interest in manga...
's Mars
Mars (manga)
Mars is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fuyumi Soryo. Initially serialized in Bessatsu Friend from 1996 to 2000, the series spans 15 tankōbon volumes. It follows the disliked teenage romance between Kira Aso, an introverted artist, and Rei Kashino, a troubled playboy who is a...
, and, for mature readers, Moyoco Anno
Moyoco Anno
is a Japanese manga artist and a fashion writer, with numerous books published in both categories. Her manga and books have attained considerable popularity among young women in Japan. Though she primarily writes manga of the josei demographic, her most popular series, Sugar Sugar Rune, is...
's Happy Mania
Happy Mania
is an 11-volume manga series created by Moyoco Anno, who also happens to be the spouse of the famous Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. Translated by Shirley Kubo and Leah Ginsberg, the English version was published in paperback by TokyoPop in 2003 and 2004. It was one of Tokyopop's...
, Yayoi Ogawa's Tramps Like Us
Tramps Like Us
is a Japanese josei manga series by Yayoi Ogawa. It is about Sumire, a young professional woman who takes in a younger man as a pet, and her attempts to keep her coworkers and conventionally-perfect boyfriend from finding out about her pet...
, and Ai Yazawa
Ai Yazawa
is a Japanese manga author. Her pen name comes from Japanese singer Eikichi Yazawa, of whom she is a fan.-Biography:Yazawa started her manga publishing life in 1985. She studied in a fashion school but later dropped out. Throughout her 15 years of publishing, she wrote over 10 series in Ribon...
's Nana
Nana (manga)
is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa, serialized in Cookie published by Shueisha. The manga derives its title from the name of the two main characters, both of whom are called Nana. Nana Komatsu is a small town girl who goes to Tokyo to follow her boyfriend and...
. In another shōjo manga bildungsroman narrative device, the young heroine is transported to an alien place or time where she meets strangers and must survive on her own (including Hagio Moto's They Were Eleven, Kyoko Hikawa's From Far Away, Yû Watase
Yu Watase
is a female Japanese shōjo manga artist. She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" , Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series...
's Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play, and Chiho Saito
Chiho Saito
is a Japanese manga artist, most noted for the manga Revolutionary Girl Utena. In 1997, she received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Kanon. She is part of the Be-Papas manga artist collective....
's The World Exists For Me).
Yet another such device involves meeting unusual or strange people and beings, for example, Natsuki Takaya
Natsuki Takaya
is the penname of a Japanese manga artist best known for creating the series Fruits Basket, which at one time was the best selling manga in the world. She was born on July 7, 1973. Takaya is left-handed and once revealed that she wanted to be a manga artist since first grade, when her sister...
's Fruits Basket
Fruits Basket
, sometimes abbreviated , is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It was serialized in the semi-monthly Japanese magazine Hana to Yume, published by Hakusensha, from 1999 to 2006. The series was also adapted into a 26-episode anime series, directed by Akitaro...
—one of the most popular shōjo manga in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
—whose orphaned heroine Tohru must survive living in the woods in a house filled with people who can transform into the animals of the Chinese zodiac. In Harako Iida's Crescent Moon, heroine Mahiru meets a group of supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
beings, finally to discover that she herself too has a supernatural ancestry when she and a young tengu demon fall in love.
With the superheroines, shōjo manga continued to break away from neo-Confucianist norms of female meekness and obedience. Naoko Takeuchi
Naoko Takeuchi
is a Japanese manga artist who lives in Tokyo, Japan. Takeuchi's works have a wide following among anime and manga fans worldwide. Her most popular work, Sailor Moon, rose to become one of the most recognized manga and anime products to date.-Early life:...
's Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...
(Bishōjo Senshi Sēramūn: "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon") is a sustained, 18-volume narrative about a group of young heroines simultaneously heroic and introspective, active and emotional, dutiful and ambitious. The combination proved extremely successful, and Sailor Moon became internationally popular in both manga and anime formats. Another example is CLAMP
Clamp (manga artists)
, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...
's Magic Knight Rayearth
Magic Knight Rayearth
is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp, a manga artist team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona. Rayearth combines elements from the magical girl and mecha anime genres with parallel world fantasy....
, whose three young heroines, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, are magically transported to the world of Cephiro to become armed magical warriors in the service of saving Cephiro from internal and external enemies.
The superheroine subgenre also extensively developed the notion of teams (sentai
Sentai
in Japanese language is a word for a military unit and may be literally translated as "squadron", "task force", "group" or "wing". The terms "regiment" and "flotilla", while sometimes used as translations of Sentai, are also used to refer to larger formations....
) of girls working together, like the Sailor Senshi
Sailor Senshi
A appears as a type of heroine in the metaseries known as Sailor Moon. The name comes from sailor fuku, a type of school uniform, and senshi, which can mean "soldier" or "warrior". Naoko Takeuchi, the manga artist who originated the series, coined the term by fusing English and Japanese elements,...
in Sailor Moon, the Magic Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth, and the Mew Mew girls from Mia Ikumi
Mia Ikumi
is a Japanese manga artist best known for Tokyo Mew Mew, a manga series she created with Reiko Yoshida.Ikumi was born on March 27 and is from the Osaka Prefecture. She often wears cat ears to her book signings, and interesting costumes...
's Tokyo Mew Mew
Tokyo Mew Mew
, also known as Mew Mew Power, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. It was originally serialized in Nakayoshi from September 2000 to February 2003, and later published in seven tankōbon volumes by Kodansha from February 2001 to April 2003...
. By today, the superheroine narrative template has been widely used and parodied within the shōjo manga tradition (e.g., Nao Yazawa
Nao Yazawa
is a Japanese manga artist born in Tokyo, Japan, though she is currently a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture. She is most well known for her manga series Wedding Peach which was made into an anime series of the same name....
's Wedding Peach
Wedding Peach
is a shōjo manga by Nao Yazawa and Sukehiro Tomita that was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Ciao magazine. In North America it is translated and published by VIZ Media in its entirety, comprising six volumes....
and Hyper Rune
Hyper Rune
is a manga series created by the former CLAMP member, Tamayo Akiyama. It is about an eight-grade girl named Rune Ayanokouji, who is destined to save the world from peril caused by notorious cyber-alien beings...
by Tamayo Akiyama
Tamayo Akiyama
a Japanese shōjo manga author and artist. She was a former member of CLAMP.Akiyama has also done illustrations for three novels and illustrations for a CD .-Works:Hyper Rune, Mouryou...
) and outside that tradition, e.g., in bishōjo
Bishojo
is a Japanese term used to refer to young and pretty girls, usually below university age. Bishōjo is not listed as a word in the prominent Japanese dictionary Kōjien...
comedies like Kanan's Galaxy Angel
Galaxy Angel
In the video game universe, the Galaxy Angels are from the "Special Guardian Division" and they work closely with the "Imperial Special Guards" and the "Satellite Defense Teams". They are the guardians of the White Moon, the sacred planet of the Transbaal Empire, and the personal protectors of the...
.
In the mid-1980s and thereafter, as girls who had read shōjo manga as teenagers matured and entered the job market, shōjo manga elaborated subgenres directed at women in their 20s and 30s. This "Ladies Comic" or redisu-josei subgenre has dealt with themes of young adulthood: jobs, the emotions and problems of sexual intercourse, and friendships or love among women.
Redisu manga retains many of the narrative stylistics of shōjo manga but has been drawn by and written for adult women. Redisu manga and art has been often, but not always, sexually explicit, but sexuality has characteristically been set into complex narratives of pleasure and erotic arousal combined with emotional risk. Examples include Ryō Ramiya
Ryo Ramiya
is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. She is the wife of manga artist Hiroyuki Utatane.-Manga:Listed chronologically.*Koakuma Hihyōkan...
's Luminous Girls, Masako Watanabe
Masako Watanabe
born 16 May 1929, in Tokyo, Japan is a Japanese manga artist. She began her professional career as an illustrator of books in 1949. She switched to creating manga after reading Osamu Tezuka's works, debuting in 1952 with Namida no Sanbika...
's Kinpeibai and the work of Shungicu Uchida
Shungicu Uchida
, known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist, novelist, essayist, actress, and singer.- Biography :She was born August 7, 1959 in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Her father left the family when she and her younger sister were in primary school. Her mother was a dance teacher and bar...
Another subgenre of shōjo-redisu manga deals with emotional and sexual relationships among women (akogare and yuri), in work by Erica Sakurazawa
Erica Sakurazawa
is a Japanese manga author whose works are mostly published in josei magazines. She has some works published in the adult manga magazine Manga Burikko.-Works:*Ai shiau Koto shika dekinai*Angel Breath*Boku no Angel Dust*Cherry ni Omakase...
, Ebine Yamaji
Ebine Yamaji
is a Japanese manga artist who has created several works with a lesbian theme. These include Indigo Blue, the story of a young author discovering her sexuality, Free Soul, and Love My Life. Several of her works were serialized in the josei magazines Feel Young and the now defunct Young You...
, and Chiho Saito
Chiho Saito
is a Japanese manga artist, most noted for the manga Revolutionary Girl Utena. In 1997, she received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Kanon. She is part of the Be-Papas manga artist collective....
. Other subgenres of shōjo-redisu manga have also developed, e.g., fashion (oshare) manga, like Ai Yazawa
Ai Yazawa
is a Japanese manga author. Her pen name comes from Japanese singer Eikichi Yazawa, of whom she is a fan.-Biography:Yazawa started her manga publishing life in 1985. She studied in a fashion school but later dropped out. Throughout her 15 years of publishing, she wrote over 10 series in Ribon...
's Paradise Kiss
Paradise Kiss
, abbreviated to "ParaKiss", is a manga series written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa. It appeared as a serial in the Japanese manga magazine Zipper. Shodensha collected the chapters into five volumes...
and horror-vampire-gothic manga, like Matsuri Hino
Matsuri Hino
is a Japanese manga artist born in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. She made her professional debut in the September 10, 1995 issue of LaLa DX with the one-shot title .Hino Matsuri is also well known for her anime/manga series 'Vampire Knight.'-Bibliography:...
's Vampire Knight
Vampire Knight
is a shōjo manga and anime series written by Matsuri Hino. The series premiered in the January 2005 issue of LaLa magazine and is still on-going. Chapters are collected and published in collected volumes by Hakusensha, with eleven volumes currently released in Japan. The manga series is licensed in...
, Kaori Yuki
Kaori Yuki
is a female Japanese manga artist best known for her gothic manga such as Earl Cain, its sequel Godchild, and Angel Sanctuary. Yuki debuted in 1987 with which ran in the manga anthology Bessatsu Hana to Yume published by Hakusensha. Her work is typically serialized in one of Hakusensha's two shōjo...
's Cain Saga, and Mitsukazu Mihara
Mitsukazu Mihara
is an influential Japanese illustrator who helped to influence the Gothic Lolita look through her illustrations, particularly as the cover illustrator for the first eight volumes of the Gothic & Lolita Bible...
's DOLL
Doll (manga)
is a series of short manga stories written by Mitsukazu Mihara. In the United States it is published by Tokyopop.-Summary:DOLLs are human-like androids manufactured by the SG Corporation. A DOLL can fulfill many varied needs and serve any number of purposes, including personal assistant, secretary,...
, which interact with street fashions, costume play ("cosplay
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
"), J-Pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
music, and goth subcultures in complex ways.
By the start of the 21st century, manga for women and girls thus represented a broad spectrum of material for pre- and early teenagers to material for adult women.
Shōnen, seinen, and seijin manga
Manga for male readers can be characterized in different ways. One is by the age of its intended audience: boys up to 18 years old (shōnenShonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
manga) and young men 18- to 30-years old (seinen
Seinen
is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...
manga). Another approach is by content, including action-adventure often involving male heroes, slapstick humor, themes of honor, and sometimes explicit sexuality. Japanese uses different kanji for two closely allied meanings of "seinen"—青年 for "youth, young man" and 成年 for "adult, majority"—the second referring to sexually overt manga aimed at grown men and also called seijin ("adult," 成人) manga. Shōnen, seinen, and seijin manga share many features in common.
Boys and young men were among the earliest readers of manga after World War II. From the 1950s on, shōnen manga focused on topics thought to interest the archetypical boy: sci-tech subjects like robots and space travel, and heroic action-adventure. Shōnen and seinen manga narratives often portray challenges to the protagonist’s abilities, skills, and maturity, stressing self-perfection, austere self-discipline, sacrifice in the cause of duty, and honorable service to society, community, family, and friends.
Manga with solitary costumed superheroes like Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
, and Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
did not become popular as a shōnen genre. An exception is Kia Asamiya
Kia Asamiya
is the pen-name of Japanese manga artist Michitaka Kikuchi whose work spans multiple genres and appeals to diverse audiences.He is well known for using influences from American comics, television, and films in his work, and describes himself as a big fan of both Batman and Star Wars...
's Batman: Child of Dreams
Batman: Child of Dreams
Batman: Child of Dreams is a manga series written and illustrated by Kia Asamiya, published in Kodansha's Magazine Z. The series follows Batman as he travels to Tokyo on the trail of a lethal drug that allows the person who ingests it to shapeshift into anyone they desire.Child of Dreams was...
, released in the U.S. by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
and in Japan by Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
. However, lone heroes occur in Takao Saito
Takao Saito
is a Japanese manga and gekiga artist. He is best known for creating the successful series Golgo 13.-Early life and career:Takao Saito was born on November 3, 1936 in Wakayama Prefecture. During his school days in Osaka he was the best in his class in drawing and fighting, and also considered...
's Golgo 13
Golgo 13
is a manga series written and illustrated by Takao Saito, published in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine since January 1969. In 1976, the manga won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga...
and Koike and Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub
is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.Lone Wolf and Cub...
. Golgo 13 is about an assassin who puts his skills to the service of world peace and other social goals, and Ogami Itto, the swordsman-hero of Lone Wolf and Cub, is a widower caring for his son Daigoro while he seeks vengeance against his wife's murderers. However, Golgo and Itto remain men throughout and neither hero ever displays superpowers. Instead, these stories "journey into the hearts and minds of men" by remaining on the plane of human psychology and motivation.
Many shōnen manga have science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and technology themes. Early examples in the robot subgenre included Tezuka’s Astro Boy (see above) and Fujiko F. Fujio’s 1969 Doraemon
Doraemon
is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio which later became an anime series and an Asian franchise...
, about a robot cat and the boy he lives with, which was aimed at younger boys. The robot theme evolved extensively, from Mitsuteru Yokoyama
Mitsuteru Yokoyama
was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include Tetsujin 28-go, Giant Robo, Akakage, Babel II, Sally, the Witch, Princess Comet, and adaptations of the Chinese classics Outlaws of the Marsh and...
's 1956 Tetsujin 28-go
Tetsujin 28-go
is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created Giant Robo. The series centred on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who controlled a giant robot named Tetsujin 28, built by his late father....
to later, more complex stories where the protagonist must not only defeat enemies, but learn to master himself and cooperate with the mecha he controls. Thus, in Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion
, commonly referred to as Evangelion, is a commercially and critically successful Japanese anime series that began airing in October 1995. The series was highly influential, and launched the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. It garnered several major animation awards...
by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio. Before the studio was founded under the official name , he served as animator on the second animated project, the Daicon IV opening animation...
, Shinji struggles against the enemy and against his father, and in Vision of Escaflowne by Katsu Aki
Katsu Aki
, pen name , is a Japanese manga artist best known for his works The Vision of Escaflowne, Futari Ecchi, and Psychic Academy. Mine Yoshizaki is one of Aki's former assistants.-Manga creations:...
, Van not only makes war against Dornkirk’s empire but must deal with his complex feelings for Hitomi, the heroine.
Sports themes are also popular in manga for male readers. These stories stress self-discipline, depicting not only the excitement of sports competition but also character traits the hero needs to transcend his limitations and to triumph. Examples include boxing (Tetsuya Chiba
Tetsuya Chiba
is a Japanese manga artist famous for his sports stories.He was born in Tokyo, Japan, but lived most of his early childhood in Manchuria when it was still a Japanese colony during the Second Sino-Japanese War. His father was working in a paper factory during that time they lived in China. One of...
’s 1968-1973 Tomorrow's Joe
Tomorrow's Joe
is a critically acclaimed boxing manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba in 1968 that was later adapted into an anime series and movie. It is most commonly referred to as Ashita no Joe. Outside Japan it is also referred to as Rocky Joe or Joe...
and Rumiko Takahashi
Rumiko Takahashi
is a Japanese manga artist.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent manga artists in Japan. The manga she creates are popular worldwide, where they have been translated into a variety of languages...
's 1987 One-Pound Gospel
One-Pound Gospel
is a manga series created by Rumiko Takahashi, author of Maison Ikkoku, Ranma ½, and InuYasha. The series was serialized periodically in Weekly Young Sunday from issue 9 in 1987 to issue 3/4 in 2007. Released in North America by Viz Media, it is a fusion of the sports and romantic comedy genres...
) and basketball (Takehiko Inoue
Takehiko Inoue
is a Japanese manga artist, best known for the basketball manga Slam Dunk, which has become a success both in Japan and overseas. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport, and many Japanese children started to play basketball because they read the manga...
’s 1990 Slam Dunk
Slam dunk
A slam dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket with one or both hands over the rim. This is considered a normal field goal attempt; if successful it is worth two points. The term "slam dunk" was...
).
Supernatural settings have been another source of action-adventure plots in shõnen and some shõjo manga in which the hero must master challenges. Sometimes the protagonist fails, as in Tsugumi Ohba
Tsugumi Ohba
is a writer best known for the manga Death Note. His real identity is a closely guarded secret. As stated by the profile placed at the beginning of each Death Note manga, Ohba collects teacups and develops manga plots while holding his knees on a chair, similar to a habit of L, one of the main...
and Takeshi Obata
Takeshi Obata
is a Japanese manga artist. He works as the artist in collaboration with a writer. He has also mentored several manga artists, including Kentaro Yabuki of Black Cat fame, Nobuhiro Watsuki of Rurouni Kenshin and Busou Renkin, and Yusuke Murata of Eyeshield 21.He originally became noticed in 1985...
's Death Note
Death Note
is a manga created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist Takeshi Obata. The main character is Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers a supernatural notebook, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a god of death, or a shinigami, named Ryuk...
, where protagonist Light Yagami receives a notebook from a Death God (shinigami
Shinigami
is the personification of death in Japan. It's unclear when the concept entered Japanese culture; it may have been imported from China , or possibly been imported from Europe during the Sengoku era—that period in European history featured a common motif of the Grim Reaper gathering souls...
) that kills anyone whose name is written in it, and, in a shōjo manga example, Hakase Mizuki
Hakase Mizuki
is a Japanese manga artist born in Hokkaidō, Japan. She made her manga debut with The Monsters Collection in the June 1997 issue of Wings, published by Shinshokan...
's The Demon Ororon
The Demon Ororon
is a romantic tragedy manga series written by Hakase Mizuki. The manga is licensed in North America by Tokyopop. The epilogue to the series, has six chapters released as of 2007.-Plot:...
, whose protagonist abandons his demonic kingship of Hell to live and die on earth. Sometimes the protagonist himself is supernatural, like Kohta Hirano's Hellsing, whose vampire hero Alucard
Alucard (Hellsing)
is a fictional characterin the Hellsing manga and anime series created by Kouta Hirano. A powerful vampire, Alucard works with the Hellsing Organization against other vampires and evil forces. He fights with ferocity and often extreme cruelty, rarely killing until his target has been disabled and...
battles reborn Nazis hellbent on conquering England, but the hero may also be (or was) human, battling an ever-escalating series of supernatural enemies (Hiromu Arakawa
Hiromu Arakawa
is a Japanese manga artist from Hokkaidō. Her renowned manga, Fullmetal Alchemist, became a hit both domestically and internationally, and was later adapted into two television anime series. She often portrays herself as a bespectacled cow.-Biography:...
's Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist
, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after the European Industrial Revolution...
, Nobuyuki Anzai
Nobuyuki Anzai
is a Japanese manga artist. He was an assistant of Kazuhiro Fujita.-Works: ; English translation: * MÄR ; English translation:...
's Flame of Recca
Flame of Recca
is a manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Anzai, which was adapted into an anime series spanning forty-two episodes by Studio Pierrot. The series has also been adapted into two video games; Flame of Recca for the Game Boy Advance and Flame of Recca Final Burning for the PlayStation...
, and Tite Kubo
Tite Kubo
, known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. His most significant work is the manga series Bleach.-Biography:Kubo was the son of a town council member in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima. He never took drawing seriously until he was 17, and after reading the manga Saint Seiya which...
's Bleach
Bleach (manga)
is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Noriaki "Tite" Kubo. Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he obtains the powers of a —a death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki...
).
Military action-adventure stories set in the modern world, for example, about World War II, remained under suspicion of glorifying Japan’s Imperial history and have not become a significant part of the shōnen manga repertoire. Nonetheless, stories about fantasy or historical military adventure were not stigmatized, and manga about heroic warriors and martial artists have been extremely popular. Some are serious dramas, like Sanpei Shirato
Sanpei Shirato
, known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist and essayist known for his social criticism as well as his realistic drawing style and the characters in his scenarios. He is considered a pioneer of gekiga. The son of the Japanese proletarian painter Toki Okamoto, his dream to become an artist...
's The Legend of Kamui
The Legend of Kamui
is a manga by Sanpei Shirato. Set in feudal Japan, it tells the story of a low-born ninja who tries to flee his clan. The series combines historical adventure with social commentary and themes of oppression and rebellion that reflect Shirato's Marxist convictions...
and Rurouni Kenshin
Rurouni Kenshin
, also known as Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to...
by Nobuhiro Watsuki
Nobuhiro Watsuki
is a Japanese manga artist, best known for his samurai-themed series Rurouni Kenshin. He once worked as an assistant for his favorite author Takeshi Obata.-Biography:...
, but others contain strongly humorous elements, like Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama
is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art...
's Dragon Ball.
Although stories about modern war and its weapons do exist, they deal as much or more with the psychological and moral problems of war as they do with sheer shoot-'em-up adventure. Examples include Seiho Takizawa's Who Fighter, a retelling of Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
's story Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...
about a renegade Japanese colonel set in World War II Burma, Kaiji Kawaguchi
Kaiji Kawaguchi
is a Japanese manga author whose works include Eagle and Zipang. Generally, his stories involve Japan and examine the moral choices that people make in extreme situations. He received the Kodansha Manga Award three times, for Actor in 1987, for The Silent Service in 1990, and for Zipang in 2002...
's The Silent Service
The Silent Service
is a manga series by Kaiji Kawaguchi. It was published in Kodansha's Weekly Morning manga magazine from 1988 to 1996 and collected in 32 tankōbon volumes. The series was adapted into an anime TV special and OVA series by Sunrise. The first two episodes of the anime were later spliced together and...
, about a Japanese nuclear submarine, and Motofumi Kobayashi's Apocalypse Meow
Apocalypse Meow
Apocalypse Meow is a three volume manga series written and illustrated by Motofumi Kobayashi. It was originally published in Japan as in 1998 by Softbank Publishing, but was renamed for the US release to parody the title of the film Apocalypse Now, which also took place during the Vietnam War. It...
, about the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
told in talking animal
Talking animal
A talking animal or speaking animal refers to any form of non-human animal which can produce sounds resembling those of a human language. Many species or groups of animals have developed forms of Animal Communication Systems which to some appear to be a non-verbal language...
format. Other battle and fight-oriented manga are complex stories of criminal and espionage conspiracies to be overcome by the protagonist, such as City Hunter
City Hunter
is a hardboiled manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo, published by Shueisha in the Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1991. The manga was adapted into an animated television series by Sunrise Studios in 1987...
by Hojo Tsukasa, Fist of the North Star
Fist of the North Star
is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and drawn by Tetsuo Hara that was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1988, spanning 245 chapters, which were initially collected in a 27-volume tankōbon edition by Shueisha...
by Tetsuo Hara
Tetsuo Hara
is a Japanese manga artist famous for drawing the series Fist of the North Star , which he co-authored with Buronson...
, and in the shōjo manga From Eroica with Love
From Eroica with Love
is a long-running shōjo manga by Yasuko Aoike which originally began publication in 1976 by Akita Shoten. The series ran irregularly in the Japanese anthology magazine Viva Princess from December 1976 to April 1979, then moved to the sister publication Princess beginning in September 1979...
by Yasuko Aoike
Yasuko Aoike
is a Japanese manga artist, born on July 24, 1948 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. Most of her works are shōjo manga, predominantly focused on romance, adventure, and light comedy, and many of them contain elements of shōnen-ai. She is included in Year 24 group....
, a long-running crime-espionage story combining adventure, action, and humor (and another example of how these themes occur across genres).
For manga critics Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma, such battle stories endlessly repeat the same mindless themes of violence, which they sardonically label the "Shonen Manga Plot Shish Kebob", where fights follow fights like meat skewered on a stick. Other commentators suggest that fight sequences and violence in comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
serve as a social outlet for otherwise dangerous impulses. Shōnen manga and its extreme warriorship have been parodied, for example, in Mine Yoshizaki
Mine Yoshizaki
is a Japanese manga creator who first started his career by making dōjinshi based on video games. Yoshizaki also worked as an assistant to manga artist Katsu Aki...
's screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
Sgt. Frog
Sgt. Frog
Sgt. Frog, known in Japan as , is a manga series by Mine Yoshizaki. It was later serialized into a TV anime series directed by Junichi Sato. Both the anime and manga are comedies that follow the attempts of a platoon of frog-like alien invaders to conquer Earth...
(Keroro Gunso), about a platoon of slacker alien frogs who invade the Earth and end up free-loading off the Hinata family in Tokyo.
Sex and women's roles in manga for males
In early shōnenShonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
manga, men and boys played all the major roles, with women and girls having only auxiliary places as sisters, mothers, and occasionally girlfriends. Of the nine cyborgs in Shotaro Ishinomori
Shotaro Ishinomori
was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and tokusatsu, creating several immensely popular long-running series such as Cyborg 009 and Himitsu Sentai Goranger, what would go on to become part of the Super Sentai series, and the Kamen Rider Series...
's 1964 Cyborg 009
Cyborg 009
is a manga created by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was serialized in many different magazines, including Monthly Shōnen King, Weekly Shōnen Magazine, Shōnen Big Comic, COM, Shōjo Comic, Weekly Shōnen Sunday, Monthly Shōnen Jump and Monthly Comic Nora in Japan...
, only one is female, and she soon vanishes from the action. Some recent shōnen manga virtually omit women, e.g., the martial arts story Baki the Grappler
Baki the Grappler
Grappler Baki , or Baki the Grappler, is a manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki. It was originally serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Champion from 1991 to 1999, lasting 42 collected volumes...
by Itagaki Keisuke and the supernatural fantasy Sand Land
Sand Land
is a short manga series authored by Akira Toriyama that appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine during the summer of 2000.After Sand Land completed its run, all fourteen chapters were collected into a single tankōbon that was released on November 11, 2000...
by Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama
is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art...
. However, by the 1980s, girls and women began to play increasingly important roles in shōnen manga, for example, Toriyama's 1980 Dr. Slump
Dr. Slump
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was serialized in Shueisha's anthology comic Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984 which were collected into 18 tankōbon volumes...
, whose main character is the mischievous and powerful girl robot Arale Norimaki
Arale Norimaki
is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the anime and manga series Dr. Slump created by Akira Toriyama. She is voiced by Mami Koyama in the first anime and Taeko Kawata in the second...
.
The role of girls and women in manga for male readers has evolved considerably since Arale. One class is the pretty girl (bishōjo
Bishojo
is a Japanese term used to refer to young and pretty girls, usually below university age. Bishōjo is not listed as a word in the prominent Japanese dictionary Kōjien...
). Sometimes the woman is unattainable, but she is always an object of the hero's emotional and sexual interest, like Belldandy
Belldandy
is a character in the popular anime and manga series Oh My Goddess!. She was created by Kōsuke Fujishima as one of three Goddesses who come to Earth to reside with Keiichi Morisato, and she serves as his love interest. She is depicted as a beautiful and powerful young woman, with strong nurturing...
from Oh My Goddess! by Kōsuke Fujishima
Kosuke Fujishima
is a Japanese manga artist.Born in Chiba, Japan, he first came to public attention as an editor of Puff magazine, his first job after completing high school. Fujishima originally intended to be a draftsman, but took the editorial role after failing to get a drafting apprenticeship...
and Shao-lin from Guardian Angel Getten
Guardian Angel Getten
is a manga by Minene Sakurano which was serialized in the monthly magazine Shōnen GanGan from 1997 to 2000. A continuation was published in Comic Blade titled from 2002 to 2005. The manga was adapted into a 22-episode TV anime series produced by Toei Animation which aired from 1998 throughout 1999...
by Minene Sakurano
Minene Sakurano
is the pen name of a Japanese manga artist born on November 29 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.Sakurano made her debut in 1995 with her story Mother Doll, which tied for first place in the 1st Enix 21st Century Manga Prize contest, sharing the prize with Yasaka Mamiko's Kaze no Daidōzoku...
. In other stories, the hero is surrounded by such girls and women, as in Negima
Negima!: Magister Negi Magi
Negima! Magister Negi Magi, known in Japan as is a manga and anime series by Ken Akamatsu . The manga is currently being published by Kodansha and serialized in Shōnen Magazine in Japan. Del Rey Manga published the English translated version in the United States and Canada prior to Kodansha...
by Ken Akamatsu
Ken Akamatsu
is a Japanese manga artist from Tokyo.Sailor Moon was his introduction to anime and manga fandom.In his teens, Akamatsu applied himself to Film Study . Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket . He used the pen name...
and Hanaukyo Maid Team
Hanaukyo Maid Team
is an anime and manga bishōjo series created by Morishige.Hanaukyo Maid Team is about a young boy, Taro Hanaukyo, who has inherited a vast family fortune and, more importantly, the hundreds of employees working at the family mansion...
by Morishige
Morishige
is a Japanese manga artist. Under the name Rondoberu, he made is manga debut in 1996 with , published in the Tsukasa Shobō magazine Comic Ichiban. While his series are known for having an abundance of beautiful female characters, he is also known for addressing serious issues in his works...
. The male protagonist does not always succeed in forming a relationship with the woman, for example when Bright Honda and Aimi Komori fail to bond in Shadow Lady
Shadow Lady
is a manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Katsura. It was canceled partway through its run, resulting in the severe compression of a new story arc and a finale.- Plot Synopsis :...
by Masakazu Katsura
Masakazu Katsura
is a Japanese manga artist who is best known for several works of manga, including Dream Fighter Wingman, Shadow Lady, DNA², Video Girl Ai, I"s, and Zetman. He has also worked on the character designs for Iria: Zeiram the Animation, which was based on the movie Zeiram.-History:He was born in the...
. In other cases, a successful couple's sexual activities are depicted or implied, like Outlanders by Johji Manabe
Johji Manabe
is a Japanese manga artist.He is not to be confused with an animator of the same name , who worked mainly in the 1970s for Oh! Production: A Dog of Flanders, Genshi Shōnen Ryû, Marco, Dokonjō Gaeru, King Arthur, Galaxy Express 999, Lupin the 3rd: Season 1, Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro,...
. In still other cases, the initially naive and immature hero grows up to become a man by learning how to deal and live with women emotionally and sexually, like Yota in Video Girl Ai
Video Girl Ai
is a manga series created by Masakazu Katsura and published by Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. It also has an anime adaptation. The manga is published in English by Viz Communications...
by Masakazu Katsura
Masakazu Katsura
is a Japanese manga artist who is best known for several works of manga, including Dream Fighter Wingman, Shadow Lady, DNA², Video Girl Ai, I"s, and Zetman. He has also worked on the character designs for Iria: Zeiram the Animation, which was based on the movie Zeiram.-History:He was born in the...
, Train Man in Train Man: Densha Otoko by Hidenori Hara
Hidenori Hara
is a Japanese manga artist. He won the 1988 Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen for his Just Meet and Fuyu Monogatari.- References :...
, and Makoto in Futari Ecchi
Futari Ecchi
, also known by other names Manga Sutra, Step Up Love Story or Manga Love Story, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsu Aki....
by Katsu Aki. In poruno- and eromanga (seijin manga), often called hentai
Hentai
is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and computer games. The word hentai is a kanji compound of 変 and 態...
manga in the U.S., a sexual relationship is taken for granted and depicted explicitly, as in work by Toshiki Yui
Toshiki Yui
is a Japanese seinen manga artist born in 1956 in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Some of his early work was published under the name . He has been publishing since 1986....
and in Were-Slut by Jiro Chiba and Slut Girl
Slut Girl
is a six-issue Japanese erotic manga series written and illustrated by Isutoshi. It humorously focuses on the sex-driven relationship between the chief characters....
by Isutoshi
Isutoshi
is a Japanese manga artist, creator of erotic comic series Slut Girl and the non-erotic manga called . He started his career in 1994 producing work that would later be published in dōjinshi by the circle...
. The result is a range of depictions of boys and men from naive to very experienced sexually.
Heavily armed female warriors (sentō bishōjo) represent another class of girls and women in manga for male readers. Some sentō bishōjo are battle cyborgs, like Alita from Battle Angel Alita
Battle Angel Alita
Battle Angel Alita, known in Japan as , is a manga series created by Yukito Kishiro in 1990 and originally published in Shueisha's Business Jump magazine. Two of the nine-volume comics were adapted into two anime original video animation episodes titled Battle Angel for North American release by...
by Yukito Kishiro
Yukito Kishiro
is a Japanese manga artist, born March 20, 1967 in Tokyo, Japan.-Works:*Hito **Kikai **Kaiousei **Hito **Dai-Majin **Mirai Tokyo Headman **Uchukaizokushonendai...
, Motoko Kusanagi
Motoko Kusanagi
is a fictional Japanese character in the Ghost in the Shell anime and manga series. She is a cyborg employed as the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a fictional division of the real Japanese National Public Safety Commission. She is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka in the movies and the Ghost in...
from Masamune Shirow
Masamune Shirow
is an internationally renowned manga artist, born on November 23, 1961.Masamune Shirow is a pen name, based on a famous swordsmith, Masamune. He is best known for the manga Ghost in the Shell, which has since been turned into two theatrical anime movies, two anime TV series, an anime TV movie, and...
's Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell
is a Japanese multimedia franchise composed of manga, animated films, anime series, video games and novels. It focuses on the activities of the counter-terrorist organization Public Security Section 9 in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japan ....
, and Chise from Shin Takahashi
Shin Takahashi
is a Japanese manga artist best known for writing Saikano and Iihito. He was born in Shibetsu, Hokkaidō on September 8, 1967....
's Saikano
Saikano
is a manga, anime, and OVA series by Shin Takahashi, creator of Iihito and Kimi no Kakera. Saikano was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine....
. Others are human, like Attim M-Zak from Hiroyuki Utatane
Hiroyuki Utatane
is a Japanese manga artist and anime director. His wife is manga artist Ryō Ramiya.Utatane began his career with adult works such as Countdown. His more recent works have been seinen works such as Seraphic Feather and Heaven's Prison, though he continues to release some adult works as...
's Seraphic Feather, Johji Manabe's Karula Olzen from Drakuun, and Alita Forland (Falis) from Sekihiko Inui
Sekihiko Inui
is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for Murder Princess and the manga adaptation of Comic Party, for which latter he drew upon his own experiences as a dōjinshi creator at Comiket. Currently, he is drawing a series called Ratman: The Smallest Hero?!.-His Works:# Comic Party is a Japanese...
's Murder Princess
Murder Princess
is a manga by Sekihiko Inui. An OVA series was later produced by Marvelous Entertainment and Bee Train based on the manga. The anime had been licensed by ADV Films but was transferred to Funimation in 2008.-Plot:...
.
With the relaxation of censorship in Japan after the early 1990s, a wide variety of explicitly drawn sexual themes appeared in manga intended for male readers that correspondingly occur in English translations. These depictions range from mild partial nudity through implied and explicit sexual intercourse through bondage and sadomasochism (SM), zoophilia
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...
(bestiality), incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
, and rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
. In some cases, rape and lust murder themes came to the forefront, as in Urotsukidoji
Urotsukidoji
is a Japanese manga and an Original Video Animation releases.-History:Urotsukidōji was created by Toshio Maeda, in 1986, and was a huge departure from his earlier works in that it mixed erotica with humor, and the supernatural...
by Toshio Maeda
Toshio Maeda
is a controversial erotic manga artist who was most prolific in the 1980s and 90s. Several of Maeda's works have been used as a basis for Original Video Animations including the well known La Blue Girl, Adventure Kid, Demon Beast Invasion, Demon Warrior Koji and his most famous work, Urotsukidōji...
and Blue Catalyst from 1994 by Kei Taniguchi, but these extreme themes are not commonplace in either untranslated or translated manga.
Gekiga
GekigaGekiga
is Japanese for "dramatic pictures." The term was coined by Yoshihiro Tatsumi and adopted by other more serious Japanese cartoonists who did not want their trade to be known as manga or "irresponsible pictures." It's akin to Will Eisner who started calling his comics "graphic novels" as opposed...
literally means "drama pictures" and refers to a form of aesthetic realism
Aesthetic Realism
Aesthetic Realism is the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel in 1941. It is based on three core principles. First, according to Siegel, the deepest desire of every person is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis...
in manga. Gekiga style drawing is emotionally dark, often starkly realistic, sometimes very violent, and focuses on the day-in, day-out grim realities of life, often drawn in gritty and unpretty fashions. Gekiga arose in the late 1950s and 1960s partly from left-wing student and working class political activism and partly from the aesthetic dissatisfaction of young manga artists like Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Yoshihiro Tatsumi
is a Japanese manga artist who is widely credited with starting the gekiga style of alternative comics in Japan, having allegedly coined the term in 1957....
with existing manga. Examples include Sampei Shirato's 1959-1962 Chronicles of a Ninja's Military Accomplishments (Ninja Bugeichō), the story of Kagemaru, the leader of a peasant rebellion in the 16th century, which dealt directly with oppression and class struggle, and Hiroshi Hirata
Hiroshi Hirata
is a Japanese manga artist best known in the United States for the samurai manga series Satsuma Gishiden, which is published in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. Hirata's works belong to the subset of manga known as "gekiga" , and his artwork has a realistic style comparable to Goseki...
's Satsuma Gishiden, about uprisings against the Tokugawa shogunate.
As the social protest of these early years waned, gekiga shifted in meaning towards socially conscious, mature drama and towards the avant-garde. Examples include Koike and Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub
is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.Lone Wolf and Cub...
and Akira
Akira (manga)
is a manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, the work uses conventions of the cyberpunk genre to detail a saga of turmoil. Initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine from 1982 until 1990, the work was collected in six volumes by Japanese publisher Kodansha...
, an apocalyptic tale of motorcycle gangs, street war, and inexplicable transformations of the children of a future Tokyo. Another example is Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
's 1976 manga MW, a bitter story of the aftermath of the storage and possibly deliberate release of poison gas by U.S. armed forces based in Okinawa years after World War II. Gekiga and the social consciousness it embodies remain alive in modern-day manga. An example is Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
, usually referred to by its initials IWGP, is a series of urban mystery novels by Ira Ishida. It was adapted into a very successful TV series directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko, and then a manga, released by Digital Manga Publishing in English....
from 2001 by Ira Ishida
Ira Ishida
is a Japanese novelist, actor, and TV commentator.After graduating from Seikei University, he worked for a number of different advertising production companies and as a freelance copywriter....
and Sena Aritou, a story of street thugs, rape, and vengeance set on the social margins of the wealthy Ikebukuro
Ikebukuro
is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits....
district of Tokyo.