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"Reading manga is like peering into the unvarnished, unretouched reality of the Japanese mind" (31)
This review essentially gives a synopsis of the book's contents to better aid individuals who might want to read this book.
This book serves as a general introduction to aspects of manga that may not be familiar to some and might be considered a sequel to Schodt's first book _Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics_. Schodt begins by spending the first chapter discussing what manga is and why people read it. Things begin to speed up in the second chapter with the etymology of the term manga, a discussion of doujinshi (it turns out that for males, bishoujo and rorikon (Lolita complex) are the most popular genres?!) (37). There is a brief discussion of the term otaku (arrived at the beginning of the 1980s) and the term's negative conotation which is mainly due to Tsutoma Miyazaki who killed three preschool girls between 1988-1989. When his apartment was investigated, much rorikon was found. The Japanese news media had a field day with this story applying the logic that all otaku were like Miyazaki. The chapter continues by examining the question of whether manga is dangerous and examining the issue of censorship vs. freedom of expression. The last issues that Schodt notes are about the highly Western looking characters in manga (which Schodt feels is related to the occupation at the end of WWII) as well as the concept of racism in manga (mostly in older works) and how it is being dealt with.
The third chapter focuses entirely on the history and content of various manga magazine titles. A short summary appears below (A5 and B5 are sizes of the magazine):
-CoroCoro Comic: 400 yen, A5 monthly. For 3rd-6th grade boys;
important theme is humour, contains Doremon and has many tie-ins to
industry.
-Shukan Shonen Jump: 190 yen, B5 weekly. Very popular, wide range
of stories including Slam Dunk, Dragon Ball. Editorial policy:
yuujo [two syllables] (friendship), doryoku (effort), shouri
(victory)
-Nakayoshi: 400 yen, B5 monthly. Very few ads, high % sold, furoku
(freebies) attached, has contained BSSM, MKR, Candy Candy. BSSM
plot designed to have important events occur at February, April and
September (key selling times).
-Big Comics. Seinen (older males); large family of comics: Big
Comic (BC), BC Original, BC Spirits, BC Superior, Big Gold.
-Morning: 250 yen, B5 weekly. Afternoon: 500 yen, B5 monthly.
Morning has diverse selection of works; for men, some works include
Silent Service (Chinmoku no Kantai), Cooking Papa. Afternoon is
sister publication.
-mahjong manga: titles include Kindin Mahjong Original, Kindin
Mahjong Bessutsu, Kindin Mahjong Gold. Stories feature game of
mahjong.
-pachinko manga: stories all feature stories about pachinko; titles
include Manga Pachinker, Pachinker World.
-Combat Comic: 620 yen, B5 monthly. Almost entirely male audience;
war stories.
-June: 750 yen, B5 monthly. Features male male romantic stories;
speculation on the popularity of this genre:
nbsp; "characters...are imagined ideal that combine
assumed or desired attitudes of both males and females. Thus the
hero can be beautiful and gentle like females, but without the
jealousy and other negative qualities that women sometimes
associate with themselves" (122)
-Comic Amour: 390 yen, B5 monthly. Women's erotic
manga..."on nearly every page there is much exaggerated
panting, gasping, groping, sweating and massive oozing of bodily
fluids" (126).
-Yan Mama Comic: 380 yen, B5 monthly. Designed for new mothers by
mothers; the term yan mama refers to a fairly young modern
mother.
-Garo: 550 yen, B5. Eccentric magazine containing titles that are
experimental; titles would probably not be published elsewhere.
The largest portion of the book [over half of my review] deals with artist and their work. This entire chapter will be summarized in one to two sentences per section and is somewhat superficial (100 pp --> 1 p).
-Hinako Sugiura: Her works reflect the historical origin of
manga in design; one of the few mangaka who sometimes uses the
ukiyo-e style.
-King Terry: Famous for being the founder of the bad (art)-good
(spirit) drawing philosophy [huma-uma]
-Z-Chan (Shingo Iguchi): Z-Chan is a story of a boy who lives in
another dimension with a mouse sidekick (Richard Sex). The universe
behind this story is complex and eventually took on a life of its
own.
-Yoshihazu Ebisu: Manga satirist; his works frequently revolve
around salarymen and Japanese company structure(Saraiiman Kiki
Ippatsu--Salaryman had Narrow Escape; Saraiiman
Kyoushitsu--Salaryman Classroom).
-Kazuichi Hanawa: His style was initially Japanese
retro-kitsch-horror but eventually developed into a style using
historical settings including the Heian period.
-Murasaki Yamada: Her work has typically featured both animals and
humans (such as Shouwaru Neko--Malicious Cat). In 1995, she began a
manga version of the Japanese work Otogizoushi, a series of stories
from the Muromoshi (1392-1573).
-Suehiro Maruo: His works are disturbing and are described as
nightmares. "Maruo is to porn...what the nuke is to the cherry
bomb"--Palmer (160). Many of the works are satires on warlike
attitudes (e.g. Nihonjin no Wakuse: Planet of the Jap" which
is the story of an alternative universe where Japan wins WWII).
-Silent Service (Kaiji Kawaguchi): This is the famous submarine
tale that has been very popular in Japan (renegade Japanese nuclear
submarine). However, according to Schodt, the story is too long and
the action scenes gave way to the pontifications of politicians in
the story.
-Akira Narita: This artist is probably best known for his terekura
(telephone club) manga. To do his 'research', Narita
frequented the clubs many times and apparently had a good
"hit/miss" ratio.
-Shungicu Uchida: Her art does not fall into the standard portrayal
of female characters: they seem to have an unusual realism. Her
work "Watashitachi wa Hanshoku Shite Iru" (We are
Reproducing) won a prestigious literary award.
-Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun (Ryouko Yamagishi):
Yamagishi's work featured tells the story of Prince Shotoku,
regent of Japan from 574-622 AD. The are many complex relationships
in the story leading to significant complications.
-Criminal Defence Stories: These stories, published by the Japanese
government explain various aspects of the Japanese legal
system.
-Fancy Dance (Reiko Oharo): Tells the story of a boy who undergoes
monastic training in a Zen temple in modern Japan (9 tankoubon,
about 1800 pp).
-Tomoi (Wakuni Akisato): "Tomoi" is "a very
sympathetic portrait of both AIDS and gays" (193) tha appeared
in "Petite Flower," a bimonthly for women.
-Naniwa Financiers (Yuugi Aoki): This story is about street
financiers, who lend money at outragous rates (30%). This work uses
the Kansei dialect and in fact, former Prime Minister Hata said he
learnt a lot from this series when he was Minister of Finance.
-Yoshiharu Tsuge: One of Japan's eccentric mangaka.
-Banana Fish (Akimi Yoshida): A gritty shoujo manga with death and
blood galore based in New York. Currently being serialised by Viz
in "Pulp"
-Milk Morizono: Ladies manga mangaka whose major works are
H-based.
-The Way of Manga (Fujiko Fujio A): Fujiko Fujio is pen name of
Hiroshi Fushimoto and Motoo Abiko; after the two split, Abiko took
Fujiko Fujio A. One major autobiographical work is Manga Mishi (Way
of Manga) which tells the story of the two artists'
development.
-Doraemon (Fujiko F. Fujio). Fushimoto, creator of the Doraemon
empire. Over 15 trillion yen in royalties for 1979-1994. (217).
-King of Editing (Seihi Tsuchida): This work tells the story of the
manga industry and the troubles that editors deal with (i.e.
getting artists to meet deadlines).
-A Declaration of Arrogant-ism (Goumanizumu Sengen by Yoshinori
Kobayoshi): These are a series of essays in manga format that is
used as the author's soapbox. Other works by Kobayoshi include
Toudai Itchkusen (Toudai Bee-line) which tells the story of an
idiotic student obsessed into getting into the University of
Tokyo.
-AUM Cult Comics: Manga produced by the cult accused of planting VX
gas into a Tokyo subway in 1995. The stories in the manga talk
about how the members find happiness in the cult and about the
guru. One cult member recently began an exposé on his
experience with the cult after being released on probation.
Schodt devotes the fifth chapter to Osamu Tezuka, the "God of Comics". After providing a brief summary of Tezuka's life, Schodt describes his experiences with Tezuka including about how he saw Tezuka without his trademark beret. Schodt also mentions Tezuka's medical degree and skills at conversation. Over his career, Tezuka probably drew over 150 000 pages of manga and 500 separate works (248). Schodt mentions about how Tezuka is relatively unknown outside of Japan and speculates why. Schodt then begins to describe several of Tezuka's titles. Tetsuwan Atom is probably the best known work; this work started the trend of robots appearing in manga. This work appeared in the US under the title of Astro Boy, as many are aware, and was fairly popular. The second title is Adolf, which deals with three Adolfs (one Hitler) in the WWII era [the story is spoilt entirely]. However, it is stressed that Tezuka was anti-war. Schodt moves to "Ribon no Kishi" (Princess Knight) and mentions how this title has been adapted by the Takarazuka Revue, the all female theatrical group. Black Jack is discussed as well; Black Jack is an enigmatic highly skilled unlicensed surgeon who charges high rates; this is perhaps Tezkuka's favourite work. Phoenix gets significant coverage. Phoenix is a collection of 12 stories independent of each other yet interconnected; the unifying theme is of humanity searching for immortality (Dawn, Future, Yamato, Universe, Kou-ou, Resurrection, Robe of Feathers, Nostalgia, Civil War, Life, Strange Beings, Sun). The final title covered is Kimba the White Lion with discussion on how The Lion King 'borrowed' significant elements; according to Schodt, it seems clear that Disney did base its work on Kimba due to similarities and because many of Disney's animators probably watched Tezuka's work while growing up.
Time is spent on how manga influences other fields, especially animation. The first example brought up in Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the differences and interrelation between the manga and anime forms. The second topic is that of the manga artist becoming a film director with Takashi Ishii and how his films (typically invoving a female character Nami who is involved in a dismal relationship) are influenced by his manga experience. The linking of manga and novels is somewhat interesting; some of the current writers use manga style conventions (ie. Banana Yoshimoto [Kitchen]). As well, to help sell novels, manga style illustrations and covers help fill the bill; this trend is increasing in Japan. The one really interesting topic of this chapter deals with non-fiction manga. For a price, any topic can be put into manga such as "A Manual for Lubricating Oil" or one on "Male Esthetics". The Japanese government also puts out a few manga publications each year. Finally, the chapter talks about the increasing prevalence of computers in manga creation.
The last chapter deals with "Manga in the English speaking World." Manga is quite popular in other countries in Asia and some mention is given to how before the 1990s, most of the manga in Asia was pirated. Short mention is given to the popularity of manga in Europe leading to the crux of the chapter, manga in the US. Schodt goes throu a very short introduction of anime's developing popularity in the US (Star Blazers, Robotech) and states that "The real boost in anime fandom...came with the advent of inexpensive video cassette recorders. For the first time, fans were able to copy favourite anime shows and share them with friends" (312). Schodt mentions a few companies such as Viz, Studio Protesus, Mangajin and a few independant titles. There is two pages about Ninja High School and Dirty Pai, two manga like US productions. The rest of the book deals with fandom and people studying manga in a scholarly fashion; this part is rather useless in my opinion; it also fails to note the fangirl influence.
Overall, this book is interesting to read but not essential. More useful is _Samurai from Outer Space_ which discusses cultural elements in anime or even Schodt's earlier book _Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics_ which provides a nice review of manga's history. As well, the last chapter is relatively useless; most fans know the content already. However, on the plus side, the book included several mangaka I had never heard of. Final verdict: read if you can, but it's not too much of a loss if you cannot.
Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. Fredrick L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley CA, 1996. 360 pp, 8 colour, illustrations. ISBN: 1-880656-23-X
Copyright ©2000-2001 Stephen Congly
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