Manga
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| See also: | Manga Fandoms, Doujinshi, Scanlation, Comics | |
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The term manga (Japanese: 漫画, whimsical pictures) generally refers to Japanese comics in Western countries, and is used as a synonym for "comics" in Japan itself.[1] Occasionally Japanese artists will insist on a specific terminology, similar to some Western artists distinguishing between "comics" and "graphic novels". The Korean equivalent to manga is called manhwa, and the Chinese is manhua. English-language comics that have been heavily influenced by the style of manga are often called Original English-language Manga (OEL manga).[2]
In Japan, it's fairly common for manga to be made into anime, so that while there are many fandoms with manga canon, in most cases the fandom is based around the anime, which generally achieves wider release, and may be acquired by an American company for translation and distribution, or, more recently, for translation and TV broadcast. However, it is not equally likely for all genres and demographics of manga to be adapted. (See below.)
One of the first manga to be integrated into media fandom was From Eroica With Love in the late '80s - early '90s.
Manga Fandom
Manga and Anime
Manga and anime fandom tend to greatly overlap, especially since many anime are close adaptations of manga stories. Fans will occasionally use the term "animanga" instead of just anime or manga, showing the close association between the two mediums. Many fannish practices, such as Japanese word usage, are shared between anime and manga fans.
Some fans may consider themselves fans of solely one over the other.
For more shared characteristics of manga and anime fandom, see animanga.
Demographic vs. Genre
Most manga in Japan are first printed in installments in weekly, monthly, or quarterly manga magazines. These magazines are divided by demographic, with the vast majority being either shounen or shoujo. There are also many seinen magazines and some josei ones. (These four categories correspond roughly to boys', girls', men's, and women's respectively.) In addition to these categories, there are BL magazines (which may or may not be considered to be a subset of shoujo), unisex children's magazines, and some specialty magazines, many of which are only partly devoted to manga. (For example, a magazine for pachinko afficionados might contain pachinko-themed manga in addition to articles, pictures, and interviews.)
In the past, it was rare for English-speaking manga fans to have access to or awareness of manga magazines. Most English speakers encountered manga either in the form of professionally translated manga (which is usually in a graphic novel format), scanlations (where the original format is often unclear), or Japanese-language compiled volumes of various sizes. Because of this, the terms 'shounen', 'shoujo', 'seinen', and 'josei' are often applied based on the content of a series rather than its original target demographic. Individual fans and websites differ on whether they consider these legitimate loan words that have a new meaning in English or a misuse of Japanese words.
As English-speaking fans gain more awareness of manga magazines, it is increasingly common to see people using the demographic terms in the Japanese manner.
German publishers, however, started publishing their own manga magazines in the early 2000s, such as the Daisuki (2003-present), a shoujo magazine, and the shounen magazine BANZAI! (2001-2005), which led to an increased awareness of the publishing of magazines in Japan among German fans.
M/M manga
Manga featuring male/male sexual content exist for both straight female and gay male demographics. The former has been known variously as shounen ai, june, BL, and yaoi. The latter is known as bara (the word for 'rose' in Japanese). Only the former commonly has any English-speaking fandom.
Anime's effect on manga fame
Historically, fans in the US have usually gotten into manga through anime. This is still common today, and many other countries show the same pattern. Manga licensed for professional translation into English usually target this market. However, manga that have anime versions--the manga most likely to be popular with English-speaking fans including scanlators--are only a small fraction of the overall manga market in Japan.
These manga series are comparable to Hollywood blockbusters: many of them are very good, and some of them are aimed at a mature audience, but very few of them are experimental or edgy or cater to niche markets. The entire manga industry is comparable to the US novel publishing industry both in the range of subject matter covered and in the presence of many niche markets.
In particular, manga aimed at adult women are disproportionately unknown in the West. Shoujo and seinen are much better known, but these manga demographics include a much wider range of subject matter and art styles than is found in the anime versions. Shounen is both the best known and the most well-represented.
Other Types of Japanese Comics
Some artists in Japan refer to their work as 'komikkusu' (comics) rather than 'manga'. These artists may publish in magazines that do not fall within the shounen/shoujo/seinen/josei framework or in other formats (e.g. first printing in graphic novel form instead of first publishing serially in magazines). The word 'komikkusu' is also used as a general term for all comics regardless of national origin, especially comics that are collected in books (as opposed to individual manga chapters in multi-series manga magazines). This term may indicate that a work is highly experimental or just that the speaker is a bit pretentious. 'Gekiga' is also used as a more sophisticated alternative to 'manga'.[3]
Yonkoma or 4-koma ("4 cell") is a Japanese comic strip format.[4] Artists working exclusively in this format are usually published in newspapers or other non-manga magazine contexts, and the subject matter is often ruminations on middle age or daily life, usually presented in a humorous manner. The style is sometimes used by more traditional manga artists for gag sections of longer manga. Yotsubato, for example, features an entire 4-koma chapter.
Race in Manga
In the West, it is common to see people describe manga characters as "looking white". This has been used to justify casting white actors in live action adaptations of some series, and is a frequent source of wank.
In his article Do Manga Characters Look "White"?, professor of manga Matt Thorn writes:
- Japan, however, is not and never has been a European-dominated society. The Japanese are not Other within their own borders, and therefore drawn (or painted or sculpted) representations of, by and for Japanese do not, as a rule, include stereotyped racial markers. A circle with two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth is, by default, Japanese.
- It should come as no surprise, then, that Japanese readers should have no trouble accepting the stylized characters in manga, with their small jaws, all but nonexistent noses, and famously enormous eyes as “Japanese.” Unless the characters are clearly identified as foreign, Japanese readers see them as Japanese, and it would never occur to most readers that they might be otherwise, regardless of whether non-Japanese observers think the characters look Japanese or not.
References
- ↑ wadoku.de entry on manga, accessed 2009.10.25
- ↑ Introduction to Original English Language Manga, accessed 2009.10.25
- ↑ Dreamland Japan: writings on modern manga by Frederik L. Schodt. (1996) pp.33-35
- ↑ Yonkoma on Wikipedia, accessed November 10, 2009.
