Week Ten: Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

Buddha is the comic I read for this week is by Osamu Tezuka God of Manga. He starts this work in 1972, and wanted to take on more serious matters. It's definitely of the more interesting works as it brings up more ideas about the world. It's his own interpretation of Gautama Buddha the founder of buddhism. It was one of his last epic works that he ended up creating. It takes place in ancient india, a lot of issues were going on at this time and people were suffering. Soon a young prince was born named Siddhartha, who would embark on a important journey becoming Buddha. And attempts to help people that are desperate.

I was able to read some of the biography that was passed around in class.

Tezuka was a principal figure in starting the industry of manga and anime. He's created 700 volumes, and 150,000 pages in his lifetime. He will have a whole cast of characters that are designed to be able to be modified. Tezuka would popularized manga in post-war Japan. He created the style of "big-eyed" characters, creating anime, and influencing other creators after. Tezuka would mentor several artists and over time would develop Gekiga. Gekiga had more expressions than normal Manga, eventually this would become a standard for Manga.

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is the film we watched in class and it brings up elements like environmental awareness and peace. The animation and manga in Japan would go hand in hand and animation is also influenced by other factors in Japan. It all started in the 20s and 30s with paper cuts and puppetry animation. I plan on finishing the movie on my own time.

After discussing the film, we talked about about manga in Japan and it's importance in it's culture. Manga style also could be described as playful pictures or whimsical sketches. Manga was created in Japan, and they have a complex pre-history earlier in Japanese art. Early forms of manga could be found in scroll painting. The scrolls were long strips of paper, left to right pictures of images and stories that are being told and illustrated. There's a lot of comedy and playfulness in these early images, or showing mudane life. Manga is still very popular in Japan, and sales are way higher in Japan than America. The comics market is still expanding in America, however manga is still making more sales currently.

Other important types and categories of Manga that was talked about in class:

Shonen was popularized by Dragon Ball and One Piece. The audience is usually around younger boys usually following a formula of a younger boy growing up.

Seinen was towards men in their 20s to 50s. Lone Wolf and the cub, and Ghost in Shell both explore mature themes.

Shojo Manga usually directed towards women, usually involving love and relations.

Josei is the adult form of Shojo, usually developing real relationships and talks about late adolescence and fashion. 

Yaoi Manga and Yuri Manga are gay erotica that are also popularized and fetishized. They will develop romantic crushes and domestic relationships.
Gender and Orientation and Diversity is also being developed in manga in the recent years, even though there is a lot of homophobia in Japan yet, is still being in the process of being accepted.