User:Timothy Perper/Manga4

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Part 2 of Origins of Manga Manga After World War II


In the following decades (1975-present), shōjo manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously evolving different but overlapping subgenres.[1] Major subgenres have included romance, superheroines, and redisu / josei, whose boundaries are sometimes indistinguishable from each other and from shonen manga (Schodt, 1996; Gravett).

In modern shōjo manga romance, love is a major theme set into emotionally intense narratives of self-realization.[2] Japanese manga/anime 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.[3]

These romances are sometimes long narratives that can deal with distinguishing between false and true love, coping with sexual intercourse, and growing up in a complex world, themes inherited by subsequent animated versions of the story (Schodt 1996, Toku)[2] These “coming of age” or bildungsroman themes occur in both shōjo and shonen manga.[4][5]

In the bildungsroman, the protagonist must deal with adversity and conflict [5], and examples in shōjo manga of romantic conflict are common. They include Miwa Ueda’s Peach Girl,[6][7] Fuyumi Soryo’s Mars[8], and, for older readers, Moyoco Anno’s Happy Mania[9], Yayoi Ogawa’s Tramps Like Us [10], and Ai Yazawa’s Nana[11], among others. 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[12], Kyoko Hikawa’s From Far Away[13], Yû Watase’s Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play[14], and Chiho Saito’s The World Exists For Me[15]).

Yet another such device involves meeting unusual or strange people and beings, for example, Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket [16]-- one of the most popular shōjo manga in America [17]-- 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[18], heroine Mahiru meets a group of supernatural 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 (Schodt 96, Kawai; Toku). Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi Seiramun: "Pretty Girl 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[19] (Grigsby to come). The combination proved extremely successful, and Sailor Moon became internationally popular in both manga and anime formats (Schodt 1996)[19]. Another example is CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth, 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.[20]

The superheroine subgenre also extensively developed the notion of teams (sentai) of girls working together[21], like the Sailor Scouts in Sailor Moon, the Magic Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth, and the Mew Mew girls from Mia Ikumi's Tokyo Mew Mew[22]. By today, the superheroine narrative template has been widely used (e.g., Kanan's Galaxy Angel[23] and Nao Yazawa's Wedding Peach[24]) and parodied (Rune by Tamayo Akiyama[25]).

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 [1]. This “Ladies Comic” subgenre (in Japanese, redisu, redikomi, and josei) has dealt with themes of young adulthood: jobs, the emotions and problems of sexual intercourse, and friendships or love among women.[1][26][27][28][29]

Redisu manga retains many of the narrative stylistics of shōjo manga but has been drawn by and written for adult women (Schodt 1996, pp 124-129). Redisu manga 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. (Schodt 96)[26][27] Examples include Ramiya Ryo's Luminous Girls[30], Masako Watanabe's Kinpeibai, (Toku) and the work of Shungicu Uchida (Schodt 96). Another subgenre of shōjo/redisu manga deals with emotional and sexual relationships among women (akogare and yuri),[31] in work by Erica Sakurazawa,[32] Ebine Yamaji,[33] and Chiho Saito[34] among other artists. Other subgenres of shōjo/redisu manga have also developed, e.g., fashion (oshare) manga, like Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss[35][36] and horror/vampire/gothic manga, like Matsuri Hino‘s Vampire Knight [need ref], Kaori Yuki's Cain Saga,[37] and Peach-Pit‘s Rozen Maiden[38][39], which interact with street fashions, costume play ("cosplay"), J-Pop music, and goth subcultures in complex ways.[40][41][42]

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.

Subsection ends here. Shonen is next.


Footnote 1: "The transformation into a superhero is in fact an allegory of becoming an adult." From Graillat, Ludovic 2006-2007 "America vs. Japan: the Influence of American Comics on Manga." Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, Volume 10. http://www.refractory.unimelb.edu.au/journalissues/vol10/graillat.html. Accessed September 23, 2007. Literally, bildungs = education and roman = novel in German, hence a novel about the education of the protagonist in "the ways of the world" (Moretti).

Footnote 2: Peach-Pit is the nom de plume of Banri Sendou and Shibuko Ebara. "A couple of DearS: An interview with Peach-Pit." TokyoPop Manga Magazine. Fall, 2005. pp. 42-43.


Allison, Anne 2000. "Sailor Moon: Japanese superheroes for global girls." In: Timothy J. Craig (editor) Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 259-278. ISBN 978-0765605610.

Bando, Kishiji (no date) "Shoujo Yuri Manga Guide." http://www.yuricon.org/essays/symg.html. Accessed September 23, 2007.

Cain Saga http://www.shojobeat.com/manga/gc/bio.php.

Crescent Moon http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1244.

Drazen, Patrick 2003. Anime Explosion!: the What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge.

From Far Away [1]

Fruits Basket http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1194/FruitsBasket/1.html.

Fruits Shoichi Aoki 2001 Fruits. New York: Phaidon Press. ISBN 0714840831.

Fushigi Yugi http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1539

Galaxy Angel http://www.broccolibooks.com/books/ga/ga_index.htm.

Grigsby in Lent 1999.

Hagio Moto: http://www.tcj.com/252/e_hagio.html

Happy Mania [2] http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1115.

ICv2 2007. "Top 50 Manga Properties for Spring 2007: Fruits Basket." ICv2 Guide to Manga, Number 45, pp. 6, 8.

Ito, Kinko 2002. "The world of Japanese 'Ladies Comics': From romantic fantasy to lustful perversion." Journal of Popular Culture, 36(1):68-85.

Ito, Kinko 2003. "Japanese Ladies’ Comics as agents of socialization: The lessons they teach." International Journal of Comic Art, 5(2):425-436.

Izawa, Eri 2000 ."The romantic, passionate Japanese in anime: A look at the hidden Japanese soul." In: Timothy J. Craig (editor) Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 138-153. ISBN 978-0765605610. http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/r/e/rei/WWW/manga-romanticism.html. Accessed September 23, 2007.

Jones, Gretchen 2002. "'Ladies’ Comics': Japan’s not-so-underground market in pornography for women." U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal (English Supplement), Number 22, pp. 3-31.

Macias, Patrick, Evers, Izumi, and Nonaka, Kazumi (illustrator). 2004.Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811856904.

Mars http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1029

Masanao, Amano 2004. Manga Design. Koln, Germany: Taschen GMBH. pp. 526-529. ISBN 3822825913.

MKR http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1017/MagicKnightRayearthI/ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1565.

Moretti, Franco 1987. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture." London: Verso. ISBN 1859842984.

Nana http://manga.about.com/od/mangatitlesaz/p/nanaprofile.htm http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/nana-gn-1.

Ogi, Fusami 2004. "Female subjectivity and shoujo (girls) manga (Japanese comics): Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics and Young Ladies’ Comics." Journal of Popular Culture, 36(4):780-803.

Paradise Kiss http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1044.

Peach Girl [3] http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1041

Poitras, Gilles 2001. Anime Essentials: Everything a Fan Needs to Know. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge. ISBN 1880656531.

Ramiya Ryo (no date) "Luminous Girls." Tokyo: France Shoin Comic House. ISBN 4829682019.

Revolutionary Girl Utena use P&C

Rozen Maiden http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1565.

Rune http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/right-turn-only/2004-11-20.

Sakurazawa http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2003/12/reviews/06/

Shamoon, Deborah 2004. "Office slut and rebel flowers: The pleasures of Japanese pornographic comics for women." In: Linda Williams (editor) Porn Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 77-103.

Tokyo Mew Mew http://www.tokyopop.com/shop/1114/TokyoMewMew/1.html.</ref>

Tramps Like Us http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=3877.

Vampire Knight need

Wedding Peach http://www.viz.com/products/products.php?series_id=198.

Winge, Theresa 2006. "Costuming the imagination: Origins of anime and manga cosplay." Mechademia: An Academic Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 1:65-76.

World Exists for Me (http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1477/TheWorldExistsforMe/2.html)

Yamaji, Ebine http://gaycomicslist.free.fr/pages/blogarch.php?month=2006-10

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Ogi, Fusami 2004. "Female subjectivity and shoujo (girls) manga (Japanese comics): Shoujo in Ladies’ Comics and Young Ladies’ Comics." Journal of Popular Culture, 36(4):780-803.
  2. ^ a b Drazen, Patrick 2003. Anime Explosion!: the What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge.
  3. ^ Izawa, Eri 2000 ."The romantic, passionate Japanese in anime: A look at the hidden Japanese soul." In: Timothy J. Craig (editor) Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 138-153. ISBN 978-0765605610. . Accessed September 23, 2007.
  4. ^ "The transformation into a superhero is in fact an allegory of becoming an adult." From Graillat, Ludovic 2006-2007 "America vs. Japan: the Influence of American Comics on Manga." Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, Volume 10. Accessed September 23, 2007. Literally, bildungs = education and roman = novel in German, hence a novel about the education of the protagonist in "the ways of the world."
  5. ^ a b Moretti, Franco 1987. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture." London: Verso. ISBN 1859842984.
  6. ^ Beveridge, Chris (05/14/2007). Peach Girl Vol. #1 (also w/box) (of 6). Anime on DVD. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
  7. ^ Peach Girl Volume 1. Tokyo Pop. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
  8. ^ Publisher's description: http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1029
  9. ^ Thorn: http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/japan_quarterly/ & publisher's description: http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1115.
  10. ^ Review at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=3877.
  11. ^ Reviews at http://manga.about.com/od/mangatitlesaz/p/nanaprofile.htm & http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/nana-gn-1.
  12. ^ http://www.tcj.com/252/e_hagio.html
  13. ^ Review at http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2005/03/review/06.php
  14. ^ Review at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1539
  15. ^ Publisher's description: http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1477/TheWorldExistsforMe/2.html.
  16. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1194/FruitsBasket/1.html.
  17. ^ "Top 50 Manga Properties for Spring 2007: Fruits Basket." ICv2 Guide to Manga, Number 45, pp. 6, 8.
  18. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1244.
  19. ^ a b Allison, Anne 2000. "Sailor Moon: Japanese superheroes for global girls." In: Timothy J. Craig (editor) Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. pp. 259-278. ISBN 978-0765605610.
  20. ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1565. & http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1017/MagicKnightRayearthI/
  21. ^ Poitras, Gilles 2001. Anime Essentials: Everything a Fan Needs to Know. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge. ISBN 1880656531.
  22. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.tokyopop.com/shop/1114/TokyoMewMew/1.html.
  23. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.broccolibooks.com/books/ga/ga_index.htm.
  24. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.viz.com/products/products.php?series_id=198.
  25. ^ Review at http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/right-turn-only/2004-11-20.
  26. ^ a b Ito, Kinko 2002. "The world of Japanese 'Ladies Comics': From romantic fantasy to lustful perversion." Journal of Popular Culture, 36(1):68-85.
  27. ^ a b Ito, Kinko 2003. "Japanese Ladies’ Comics as agents of socialization: The lessons they teach." International Journal of Comic Art, 5(2):425-436.
  28. ^ Jones, Gretchen 2002. "'Ladies’ Comics': Japan’s not-so-underground market in pornography for women." U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal (English Supplement), Number 22, pp. 3-31.
  29. ^ Shamoon, Deborah 2004. "Office slut and rebel flowers: The pleasures of Japanese pornographic comics for women." In: Linda Williams (editor) Porn Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 77-103.
  30. ^ Ramiya Ryo (no date) "Luminous Girls." Tokyo: France Shoin Comic House. ISBN 4829682019.
  31. ^ Bando, Kishiji (no date) "Shoujo Yuri Manga Guide." http://www.yuricon.org/essays/symg.html. Accessed September 23, 2007.
  32. ^ http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2003/12/reviews/06/
  33. ^ http://gaycomicslist.free.fr/pages/blogarch.php?month=2006-10
  34. ^ Perper, Timothy & Martha Cornog 2006. "In the Sound of the Bells: Freedom and Revolution in Revolutionary Girl Utena." Mechademia, An Academic Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 1:183-186.
  35. ^ Masanao, Amano 2004. Manga Design. Koln, Germany: Taschen GMBH. pp. 526-529. ISBN 3822825913.
  36. ^ Publisher's description at http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1044.
  37. ^ http://www.shojobeat.com/manga/gc/bio.php.
  38. ^ http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1565.
  39. ^ Peach-Pit is the nom de plume of Banri Sendou and Shibuko Ebara. "A couple of DearS: An interview with Peach-Pit." TokyoPop Manga Magazine. Fall, 2005. pp. 42-43.
  40. ^ Shoichi Aoki 2001 Fruits. New York: Phaidon Press. ISBN 0714840831.
  41. ^ Winge, Theresa 2006. "Costuming the imagination: Origins of anime and manga cosplay." Mechademia: An Academic Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 1:65-76.
  42. ^ Macias, Patrick, Evers, Izumi, and Nonaka, Kazumi (illustrator). 2004.Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811856904.