User:Timothy Perper/Manga3

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Contents 1 Manga after WW2 from Sandbox3 goes here 1.1 Manga After World War II 1.1.1 Shōjo Manga 2 Comments

[edit] Manga after WW2 from Sandbox3 goes here

Material to be added from Sandbox3 when it's finished. For the working page, see Sandbox3. This page is for formatting the text.

Here's the first part of this section; more is coming.

[edit] Manga 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 Japan was rebuilding its political and economic infrastructure (Footnote 1, Schodt 1986). Although United States Occupation censorship policies specifically targeted art and writing that glorified war and Japanese militarism (Schodt 1986), those policies did not prevent the publication of other kinds of material, including manga. Furthermore, the 1947 Japanese Constitution (Article 21) prohibited censorship of all forms (Kodansha 1999). One result was an explosion of artistic creativity in this period (Schodt 1986).

In the forefront of this period are two manga series and characters that influenced much of the future history of manga. These are Osamu Tezuka’s Mighty Atom (Astro Boy in the United States; begun in 1951) and Michiko Hasegawa’s Sazae-san (begun in 1946).

Astro Boy himself was both a superpowered robot and a naive little boy (Schodt 2007). 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 (Schodt 2007). 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 (Schodt 2007). 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 (Kodansha 1999; Schodt 2007). Similar themes occur in Tezuka’s New World and Metropolis (Schodt 1986, 2007).

By contrast, Sazae-san (meaning “Ms. Sazae”) was drawn starting in 1946 by Michiko 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 (Gravett, Schodt). 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 woman, wise mother” (ryousai kenbo, りょうさいけんぼ; 良妻賢母) ideal taught by the previous military regime (Ohinata 1995, Uno to come, Yoshizumi 1995). Sazae-san faces the world with cheerful resilience (Lee 2000, Gravett), what Hayao Kawai (1996) calls a “woman of endurance.” Sazae-san sold more than 62 million copies over the next half century (Schodt 1997; this is a new Schodt ref).

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 (Schodt 1986). This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists (Schodt 1986). Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later shojo manga (Gravett, Lee 2000, Sanchez).

Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shonen manga aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at girls (Schodt 1986, Toku 2005). Up to 1969, shōjo manga was drawn primarily by adult men for young female readers (Schodt 1986, Thorn 2001). Two very popular and influential male-authored manga for girls from this period were Osamu Tezuka’s 1953-1956 Ribon no Kishi (“Princess Knight” or “Knight in Ribbons”) and Matsuteru Yokoyama’s 1966 Mahōtsukai Sarii (“Little Witch Sally”).^{[citation needed]}

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 (Schodt 1986). Sarii, the pre-teen princess heroine of Mahōtsukai Sarii, [Footnote 2] 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 (Yoshida). Superficially Sarii may seem to resemble Samantha, familiar to American viewers as the witch from the 1964 US television show Bewitched, or Jennifer from the 1942 film I Married a Witch,^{[citation needed]} but unlike Samantha, 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” subgenre of later manga (Yoshida). Both series were and still are very popular (Schodt, Yoshida).

[edit] Shōjo Manga

In 1969 a group of women mangaka later called “The Magnificent 24s” made their shōjo manga debut (the term comes from the Japanese name for 1949, when many of these artists were born; Lent existing reference #1, Gravett). The group included Hagio Moto, Riyoko Ikeda, Yumiko Oshima, Keiko Takemiya, and Riyoko Yamagishi (Gravett) and they marked the first major entry of women artists into manga (Schodt, Gravett). Thereafter, shōjo manga would be drawn primarily by women artists for an audience of girls and young women (Toku 2005, Schodt, Thorn). In 1971, Ikeda began her immensely popular shōjo manga Beresaiyu no Bara (“The Rose of Versailles”), a story of Oscar François de Jarjayes, a cross-dressing woman who was a Captain in Marie Antoinette’s Palace Guards in pre-Revolutionary France (Schodt, Gravett, Tchiei 1998b). 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 (Ohinata 1995, Uno to come, Yoshizumi 1995), particularly in her 1975 They Were Eleven, a shōjo science fiction story about a young woman cadet in a future space academy (Hagio Moto, 1975/1996).

These women artists also created considerable stylistic innovations. In its focus on the heroine’s inner experiences and feelings, shōjo manga are “picture poems” (Schodt) with delicate and complex designs that often eliminate panel borders completely to create prolonged, non-narrative extensions of time (Schodt, Thorn, Gravett, Toku 2005). All of these innovations – strong and independent female characters, intense emotionality, and complex design – remain characteristic of shōjo manga up to the present day (Sanchez, Tchiei 1998b).

MORE TO COME

Footnotes (these get mixed in with the references in the final copy but are separate here for clarity).

Footnote 1: This section draws primarily on the work of Frederik Schodt (1986, 1996, 2007) and of Paul Gravett (2004). Time-lines for manga history are available in Mechademia, Gravett, and in articles by Go Tchiei 1998a. (http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/manga/manga2.html)

Footnote 2: Sarii is the Japanese spelling and pronunciation of the English-language name "Sally." The word mahōtsukai literally means "magic operator," someone who can use and control magic. It does not mean "witch" or "magical girl" (which is mahō shōjo in Japanese), because tsukai is not a gendered word in Japanese. This use of an English-language name with a Japanese descriptive word is an example of transnationalism in Tatsumi's sense.

References:

Gravett 2004 already in

Hagio Moto 1975/1996 They Were Eleven. In: Matt Thorn, editor Four Shojo Stories. San Francisco. Viz. Original story published 1975; US edition, which I'm citing, 1996

Kodansha 1999 Japan: Profile of a Nation, Revised Edition. Tokyo:Kodansha.

Kawai, Hayao 1996 The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan. Woodstock, CT: Spring Publications. Chapter 7, pp. 125-142.

Lee, William 2000 From Sazae-san to Crayon Shin-Chan. In Timothy J. Craig, editor Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. pp. 186-203.

Mechademia, An Academic Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts. 2006 Volume 1, inside front cover.

Ohinata, Masami 1995 The mystique of motherhood: A key to understanding social change and family problems in Japan. pp. 199-211. In: Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (editors) Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York. See comment below about the formatting.

Schodt 1986 already in (the Schodt refs without dates are to this.)

Schodt, Frederik L. 1997 Foreward. The Wonderful World of Sazae-San, Volume 1. Tokyo:Kodansha International. pp. 7-9. This is a new Schodt ref

Schodt 2007 Astro Boy Essays; already in

Tatsumi ref already in

Tchiei, Go 1998a A History of Manga, parts 1-6. Listed at http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/backindex.html

This is the complete set; it goes with the first footnote which appears at the start.

Tchiei, Go 1998b A HIstory of Manga, part 6. http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/manga/manga6-1.html

This is the the shojo part and goes in the text.

Referencing these: the first URL above lists all 6 parts. The next reference gives the shojo part (part 6).

Thorn, Matt 2004 Shôjo Manga—Something for the Girls. http://matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/japan_quarterly/index.html

Toku, Masami (editor) 2005 Shojo Manga! Girl Power! Chico, CA: Flume Press at California State University, California.

Uno to come.

Yoshida, Kaori 2002 Evolution of Female Heroes: Carnival Mode of Gender Representation in Anime. http://journals2.iranscience.net:800/mcel.pacificu.edu/mcel.pacificu.edu/aspac/home/papers/scholars/yoshida/yoshida.php3

Yoshizumi, Kyoko 1995 Marriage and family: Past and present. pp. 183-197. In: Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (editors) Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York.

More coming

[edit] Comments

(TP I'm using italics for the titles. I don't know the Wiki format yet. Both the Yoshida and Thorn links are very good.

Sazae-san refs. This ref says "For decades, Hasegawa's affectionate, unglamorized portrayal of an everywoman's good humor and quiet strenght (based on the mangaka's own life) conveyed the feminine insights that would have probably escaped most male cartoonists altogether. - Peregrine Fisher 21:30, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

This ref talks about Shojo, but not Sazae-san. It says "Focusing on moods, plot, and poignant moments of revelation for its protagonists, shoujo anime and manga is one of the most beloved of the medium." - Peregrine Fisher 21:42, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Super good. The first should go directly into the Sazae-san material, and the second down further where we talk about shojo. Maybe somewhere near the the Schodt "picture poems" quote? I'll work these in on Sandbox3 but leave the references here. Timothy Perper 22:03, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Later: I moved the references and the text back to Sandbox3 so I don't have to worry about two separate text locations. Timothy Perper 06:34, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

(TP) Still later. Here's the first part of this material, ready for formatting but with a few references still to come. The Tchiei reference might be tricky. The "Author X in Editor Y's book" references have to be done naming the author and the editor. Timothy Perper 14:11, 21 September 2007 (UTC)