Japanese mango. Mangaka (Japanese: 漫画家, skl.) is a Japanese word for a person who draws a comic book…. Manga in Russia
Currently, Japanese art trends are gaining more and more popularity. A person who wants to learn something new about the culture of the Land of the Rising Sun may have a question about the meaning of the word "manga".
What is manga, every resident of Japan knows, from young to old, but in Russia this direction is only gaining momentum. In Japan, this word refers to a special kind of comics. Only the essence of the information and its presentation in them are not the same as in the American ones we are used to. Caricatures in newspapers, funny pictures, grotesques - all this is manga.
History of appearance
In Japan, comics, which have been known as manga since 1814, appeared a very long time ago. The first progenitors of the modern style are sketches of Japanese monks dating back to the twelfth century. These pictures were of caricature and satirical content, and they depicted violators of the charter of the monastery. There are still images from the life of animals in this style, made by the Buddhist Toba, also dating from the 12th century. The term "manga" was coined by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in the early nineteenth century. With this word, he denoted his caricature sketches, and translated into Russian, "manga" means "sloppy (man) picture (ga)".
Manga acquires the form that is known in our time after the Second World War. Tezuka Osamu made a great contribution to the development of Japanese comics, who, with the help of his students, brought this art form into popular culture. The creators of comics (mangakas) most often work without partners and not only draw manga, but also write text for it. Although in some cases up to 4 people work on the creation of the next work. They know better than anyone how to read manga.
Currently, there are Japanese, Chinese (manhua) and Korean (manhwa) manga. The sound of the term in these languages is somewhat different, but the hieroglyph is the same. Also, not only professional manga is spreading, but also its amateur version - doujinshi. Very often, well-known comic book creators started out as amateurs.
Distribution in Japan
In Japan, comics of this format are so loved that every year more than a billion copies of collections of various topics and formats are released to the masses. They are so popular that more than twenty-five collections are published per family, and about ten issues per person per year. But even these figures cannot convey the scale of this hobby. It often happens that the latest issue of a magazine is left on a seat in a subway car or on a cafe table after reading it. It immediately finds a new owner.
Most often, manga is released in the form of books, which can even compete with reference books in terms of the number of pages. Usually in these books up to twenty stories are printed, and their plot continues for several numbers. There are Japanese comics in the form of colorful magazines. The stories that are most in demand are usually repeated in a special edition in the form of thick books containing different series of the same story. The most popular of them become the basis of serial anime (Japanese cartoons).
The culture of Japanese comics in the Land of the Rising Sun is high, they are read by the entire population of the country, regardless of age, status and gender. The assortment on the shelves of shops or specialized kiosks reaches hundreds of items. Passion for this direction has reached the round-the-clock sale of magazines in vending machines.
Who is reading the manga?
Manga... What comics are, probably, it is not necessary to explain. But Japanese cartoon stories are not just a collection of stories with caricature images. The former Prime Minister of the country called such periodicals one of the ways to bring the country out of the economic crisis and improve its image on the world stage. What is so interesting about her fans? One of the features of this genre is the direction of style to a specific target audience. For example, there are manga comics for boys or girls. Adults - men and women, of various social strata, can also satisfy their interests. And, of course, publishers pay special attention to children. Most of the comics are aimed at children. But even in this category there are gradations: manga is divided into comics for boys and comics for girls.
In addition, manga is divided into genres. Specialized editions satisfy the reader's needs for science fiction, adventure, gambling and pornography, stories about the life and exploits of superheroes, etc. It is very difficult to compile a complete list of specialized genres, and classification by age categories is also rather arbitrary. It's common to see an adult flipping through children's manga. And it happens the other way around: a completely scientific journal in this style may end up in the hands of a schoolboy.
Manga, in which adventures take the reader into a fantasy world, allows you to revel in freedom. The education system in Japan excludes freethinking and prepares everyone according to the same model. As a result, it is only in manga that young people give vent to their aspirations and individuality.
The adult generation, on the other hand, rests when turning over the pages of the next magazine, the subject of which often touches on all urgent issues and allows you to philosophize on unexpected topics. Therefore, manga for adults is not just an interesting pastime, but a world of hidden desires that you want to plunge into again and again. Like a drug.
Distinctive features
A distinctive feature of manga magazines is their volume (up to a thousand pages). But this circumstance does not affect the speed of reading the material - the reader usually spends about half an hour on a magazine of medium thickness (about three hundred and fifty pages). The average Japanese knows how to read manga correctly and masters the material of one page in about 4 seconds. The comics are prepared in such a way that the information from them is assimilated literally at a glance. And this is their main difference from their European or American counterparts, which are overloaded with the text component.
The style of Japanese minimalism familiar from childhood is also inherent in these stories. Therefore, most Japanese people know how to create a manga. Storyboarding, editing, and symbolism are fully utilized in the comics. Instead of a voluminous explanation, the manga contains hints and mystery. A raised eyebrow, a hand gesture, a directed gaze will tell the Japanese more than the most detailed explanations through the text. The time and place of action are indicated by one or two hints in the background - a tree branch, the sun at its zenith, and the emotions of the moment are conveyed by a smile, a tear on the cheek or an angry look. These ways of expressing actions and emotions allow you not to carefully read the text for each picture, but to perceive the image as a whole, barely looking at it.
Drawing in the genre of Japanese comics
Images in Japanese comics are notable for their monochrome. Basically, only the cover of a book or magazine is designed using color, while the comic itself is presented in black and white. Occasionally, in order to highlight especially important points, mangaka colorize individual illustrations.
Before drawing manga, a fan of this genre will need to know the distinctive features of this particular style of image. The drawings are read from right to left, clearly storyboarded, and speech is written in the same way as in American comics - “in clouds”.
The heroes of Japanese comics convey their emotional state with amazing accuracy. To do this, the creators of the manga use a proprietary method - a special drawing of various parts of the face. A criss-cross wrinkle drawn on the character's forehead accurately conveys anger, a raised eyebrow is surprise, and a square mouth is a clear expression of rage.
The peculiar "masks" of the characters convey to the reader hostility and admiration, envy, surprise and joy. For any human emotion, the artists of these comics have a precise way to convey it. And precisely because of this, the main thing when creating a manga is the amazing drawing of the facial features of the characters.
Manga Influence: Research Findings
The transmission of important information by a drawing is already genetically embedded in the Japanese nation. Even writing in this country is closest to fine arts. With the development of television in Japan, the understanding of the superiority of the visual method of transmitting information over text is only strengthening.
Researchers of the influence of manga, as well as teachers and psychologists, note that children who grew up on these comics understand the essence of the problem more easily and find ways to solve it. This is the result of applying informal logic when reading this kind of periodicals. Another achievement of young residents of Japan is attributed to the passion for comics - scientists believe that it is thanks to this that young people easily master programming and other work with computer technology at a professional level. A natural question arises: "Manga - what is it: funny unpretentious pictures or a form of education of the future?"
Manga Science
Japanese comics, their popularity and the effectiveness of assimilation of visual information have attracted the attention of scientists so much that the publication of serious scientific literature and textbooks in this style has recently been gaining momentum.
Thanks to a number of experiments, it was possible to prove that after reading the course of economic theory, presented in the manga style, memorization and mastering of complex economic concepts occurs at an unconscious level. The disclosure of economic topics in adventure stories requires a minimum amount of time to read them (2-3 hours), but the result is amazing. As a result, students calmly operate with terms and know the principles of operation of market mechanisms.
A number of large companies adopt this style and use it when creating instructions, working documents, catalogs. For example, the Taisei Company prepared a manual for workers in the form of a comic book. It explains in detail the new technologies used in the construction of high-rise buildings.
Manga by genre
Since in Japan manga is equated with the genre of fine arts and literature at the same time, the variety of such works is amazing. Come out in a variety of versions of romance and horror, fantasy and erotica, business and sports. History, adventure, romance - all directions and genres cannot be listed!
Manga by genre, as in any other art form, is divided into more popular and those that are in demand only for a specific target audience. The most read are stories that touch on gender relations, martial arts, everyday life and romance.
Kodomo is a genre created especially for kids. This is a children's manga. What is kodomo? What are its distinguishing features? First of all, these comics are distinguished by the simplicity of the plot (sometimes the idea and its development are completely absent). The drawing of the characters is greatly simplified and resembles the American style of performance. There are no scenes of cruelty, and the manga itself is more often entertaining. Mangakas only teach children to perceive their creations.
Shounen is for boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen. How to draw manga for this audience, every mangaka knows. Dynamism, speed of plot development, more adventures and, of course, romance. The themes of rivalry in sports, life and love are very common in this genre, and girls are drawn as exaggeratedly beautiful. This is all that may interest a teenage boy.
But the most popular in Japan is shojo manga. It is designed for the most reading target audience - young girls ranging from 12 to 18 years old. A feature of this genre is that the central character of the plot is a girl or girl. The questions of her self-determination in the surrounding world, the process of the formation of the heroine as a person are touched upon. And, of course, not without romantic adventures.
Here, the conventionality of the image characteristic of the manga is fully manifested, and the characters are very energetic, beautiful and full of enthusiasm in relations with the world around them. Thanks to this, manga for girls is firmly winning the hearts of the younger generation.
Adult Special Comics
A separate target audience for the creators of comics is the adult population of Japan. All the revelations of modern life are found in these works - not only romance, but also cruelty and violence.
Also manga for adults differs in content, in which there are scenes not only of an erotic, but also of a more frank nature. There are also specific genres such as yuri, shounen-ai and yaoi, which are about same-sex relationships.
But there is also a separate style for a female audience - josei. It is characterized by the development of the plot from school to old age. That is, the whole life of an individual is collected in a manga. Stories created for middle-aged women are very realistic and ordinary, and therefore they are in good demand.
Manga in Russia
In Russia, manga comics are a fairly new phenomenon. Interest in this type of art from the Land of the Rising Sun is just waking up. Almost all stories in the style of Japanese comics that can be found and read on the territory of our state are translations of fans and amateurs. Spending their own time and money, they adapt popular magazines in Japan and distribute them via the Internet. As a result, anyone who wants to touch the world of modern Japan can do it free of charge.
Only two publishers are officially engaged in the release of manga magazines in Russia. These are the Comic Book Factory and Sakura Press. You can also find periodicals in this style from several illegal publishers. Therefore, just going to a bookstore and buying a fresh issue of manga, the adventures of which you want to read, is unlikely to work out. One of the first publications published in the Russian Federation was the work of Rumiko Takahashi "Ranma ½".
It is believed that cartoons are created mainly for children. However, in the Land of the Rising Sun, animation, namely anime based on manga, is popular not only among children, but also among adults.
Manga - as part of Japanese culture
Japanese comics, manga are part of the national Japanese culture. They are not limited to any genres and graphics (“large eyes”), but characteristic bright animated works are created on their basis.
The most developed animation culture in the world is considered to be Japanese animation, which includes anime and, of course, manga.
What is manga and what is the difference between it and anime? Few people ask this question, but it is essential and lies in the very nature of these two concepts. They are an integral part of Japanese culture. Manga is the origin of anime. In fact, without it, there would be anime, because only the most popular Japanese comics are further multiplied and come to life. Therefore, it is correct to say that manga is Japanese comics, and anime is already animation.
A brief digression into the origins of "Stories in Pictures"
The manga previously bore the modest and understandable name "Stories in Pictures". Archaeologists found the first mention of cartoon stories in the first centuries of Japan's existence. Researchers have found drawings structurally reminiscent of modern comics in the tombs of ancient rulers, also called kofun mounds.
The spread of comics was hampered by the ambiguity and complexity of Japanese writing. Therefore, manga in Japanese is read from right to left, not left to right, illustrated with many black and white drawings, graphic special effects, and a minimum of text.
Choujuugiga ("Funny Animal Pictures") is considered the first Japanese comic book. They date back to the 12th century and are written by the Buddhist priest and artist Toba (another name for Kakuyu). Choujuugiga is made in the form of 4 paper scrolls. However, during the time of Kakuya, the work he created did not have a modern name.
Strange and funny pictures, characterized by grotesque images, gave a single name - manga.
What is manga and doujinshi?
Oddly enough, seemingly self-contained Japanese animation drew a lot from European cartoons and American comics. This merger took place in the second half of the 19th century. And already at the beginning of the 20th century, Japanese comics found their own niche in Japanese culture. The manga was financed and encouraged by the government. However, comics that ran counter to the interests of the state were banned. It was then that the first fantastic manga hero appeared - a giant robot that opposed the hated USA (1943).
The real revolution took place in the post-war years thanks to Tezuka Osamu. Manga was formed as the main direction of Japan and acquired the features that are characteristic of it today: black and white illustrations on the strips, color cover, rare pictures on the pages, standard expression of emotions with signs, strokes.
Those who draw and create manga are called "mangakas". However, in the Japanese market, there are not only professional manga, but also amateur ones. It was with "doujinshi" that many modern mangaka started.
What is manga? This is a synthesis of cartoon effects, comics, exciting stories. These are the unrealized dreams of cinematographers about cheap, but beautiful and high-quality special effects that attract attention and make viewers follow every step and action of the characters. This is the depth and variety of stories.
The interesting, exciting events that unfold in the pages of manga soon became a haven for many completely unrealized in science fiction, mysticism and others.
Manga has access to cinematic techniques for less money: drawing the action from different angles, close-ups, medium-sized shots, detailing, demonstrating movement in stages, visuality.
It should also be noted the transmission of emotions characteristic of manga characters. It is large-scale, grotesque, but never superfluous. The Japanese themselves in life do not use the mimic transmission of feelings, they simply say: "I'm sad, fun." But manga and anime characters are the exact opposite of their creators. The transfer of emotions is concentrated and realized through poses, costumes, dances, words, through everything that surrounds the character.
Looking through Japanese comics, you can find sparks escaping from your eyes, a whirlwind over your head. European readers sometimes do not fully understand this designation, but readers from the Land of the Rising Sun know this “language” very well. After all, the main templates for the emotions of the characters were developed by O. Tezuka.
It is believed that the more the hero experiences, the more schematic his image becomes, the more his appearance changes from realistic to grotesque. It is this transformation that attracts European fans: it gives dynamism, lightness and expressiveness to manga.
What is unusual in the symbolic language of Japanese comics? Very often, specific designations, known even to a small Japanese, will be new to an unprepared reader, and therefore will be incomprehensible.
For example, the traditional manifestation of anger on the pages of manga is the cross, and the flow of blood from the nose of the hero is a sign of lust and lust, fainting is neither fear nor a sign of poor health, but a sign of surprise.
Based on this, before you start studying manga strips, you should first study its “conditional language”, and, by the way, it is no easier than Japanese characters.
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The word "manga" is quite ambiguous.. This includes political cartoons in newspapers as well. But for the Japanese, this is primarily comics. 4.5 billion books and magazines are printed annually in Japan. A quarter of this number (something around 1.2 billion copies) are comics published in the form of magazines or books.
Dozens of publishers throw colorful magazines into the book market every week, rivaling the thickness of telephone directories. Each of them contains 10-15 different stories, printed with continuation from issue to issue. A significant part of them is designed for a children's audience. There are comics for boys and comics for girls. Their content is markedly different. One-time circulations of the most popular of them reach 3-5 million. But there are also manga for boys and girls, men and women. There are dozens of specialized publications devoted to science fiction, adventures from the life of robots, astronauts or gangsters, ufology, demonology, pornography, gambling, sports ...
The ones that are in the greatest demand are published in the form of books (often as serials in 10-20 volumes), which are distributed throughout the country by tens of millions. And on the basis of the best of them serial cartoons are created.
In all countries, comics are published mainly for children. Adults prefer newspapers and books. And in Japan, almost the entire population of the country is drawn into it. Comic book magazines are everywhere. Dozens of titles to choose from are offered by bookstores and newsstands. For those who cannot imagine a night without their favorite reading, they work around the clock manga street vending machines. Based on the fact that more than a billion copies of manga are published in the country every year, there are 10 magazines for every adult and child, and about 27 for a family. But these numbers alone do not yet reflect the extent of the craze for comics. After all, many people, having leafed through the latest issue, leave it on the bus seat, on the luggage rack of the train, on a table in a cafe. And to the discarded manga the hands of a new reader immediately reach out. It is not uncommon to see an adult enthusiastically leafing through a magazine for schoolchildren. Surveys conducted at a number of Japanese universities showed that among the top ten periodicals read by students, four were manga. The average reader "swallows" a 320-page manga comic in 20 minutes. In other words, he spends 3.75 seconds on each page of a comic book, while still managing to absorb what he read quite well. It's not about any special talent. Just Japanese manga differ markedly from American-European comics.
Manga Creation Technique close - the same principles of symbolism, the same techniques of storyboarding, editing. If an American artist carefully works out all the details of the picture, then only a hint is enough for the manga author. The hero's questioningly raised eyebrow tells the Japanese reader more than a long-winded explanation in an American comic book. Like , manga art gravitates towards the values of the unspoken. They designate the time of action, for example, by drawing the rising or setting sun behind the heroes, the scene of action - the background against which events take place, the mood - a picture of a broken branch, a falling leaf, a tear rolling down the cheek. So japanese reader does not look at each picture, reading the words of the dialogue. He skims the page, taking it as a whole, swallowing the story like a portion of hot noodles - without chewing.
The ability to work not only with text, but also with the pictorial series, one might say, has become part of Japanese genetic code. After all, the entire culture of this country is based on hieroglyphic writing, which is much closer to the picture than any alphabet in the world. It was not for nothing that Sergei Eisenstein spoke of the "kinematicity" of the entire Japanese culture. The widespread use of television in Japan has only strengthened the national predisposition to the image as a medium richer in information than any text message.
However, the phenomenal Japanese love for manga is explained not only by the traditional preference for pictures over text. opens a window to the unrealizable for the Japanese. In the concrete labyrinths of urbanized Japan, children have no place to play. Manga allows you to mentally enjoy the space. The school makes a child a strictly standard part for a mass production conveyor. In reading comics, young people find answers to the needs of repressed individuality. Busy from morning to evening in production or in the office, an adult Japanese in reading manga is looking for an opportunity to relax, dream about something that is not related to the affairs of the enterprise or office. Manga for Japanese- not just easy reading. This is the most accessible method of escapism, addictive visual drug. That is why, having discarded the magazine he just read, the Japanese reaches for a new issue of manga, dreaming of plunging into the world of fantasy again. The page http://animelux.ru/manga/, for example, offers to dive into the same world, for example, which intends to offer readers to download without registration longest-running manga series, and many other Internet sites that scan and translate manga in huge quantities.
Japanese comic book phenomenon attracted the attention of publishers, whose interests are extremely far from the creation of entertaining reading matter. The first to master the new techniques were historians who created school textbooks, the content of which became easily accessible even to the most dumb-headed. Then, in the form of manga, some books began to appear, for example, the series “The Life of Remarkable People”.
The ease of assimilation of the material presented in the pictures is amazing. With this in mind, Japanese publishers have begun to release a series of textbooks "Fundamentals of Economics". Complex economic concepts were revealed by manga artists in specific situations as a curious adventure story. Any book in this series could be flipped through in an hour or two. At the same time, clear formulations of economic laws, marketing schemes, and principles of interaction between market mechanisms remained in my head.
The Taisei construction company has released a comic book for its workers on the use of new technology in the construction of multi-storey reinforced concrete buildings. Sumitomo Insurance Company issued a manga commentary on complex cases of determining the amount of insurance payments in case of traffic accidents. And the Marujun Machine Building Company used the services of manga artists to create a new catalog of spare parts.
Psychologists, educators, researchers unanimously claim that comics are able to convey information much more effectively than "naked" text. Manga develop in readers the ability to quickly grasp the essence of the problem, without relying on the principles of linear logic. It is the experts who see the reasons why the younger generation of Japan is so successful in mastering computers and the basics of programming. © japantoday.ru
(jap. 漫画, マンガ?, [ˈmɑŋgə] (inf.)) f., skl. - Japanese comics, sometimes called komikku (コミック). Manga, in its current form, began to develop after the end of World War II, heavily influenced by Western tradition, but deeply rooted in earlier Japanese art.
In Japan, manga is read by people of all ages, it is respected both as a form of fine art and as a literary phenomenon, so there are many works of various genres and on a wide variety of topics: adventure, romance, sports, history, humor, science fiction, horror, erotica , business and others. Since the 1950s, manga has grown into a major branch of Japanese book publishing, with a turnover of $500 million in 2006. It became popular in the rest of the world, especially in the US, where sales in 2006 were in the region of 175-200 million dollars. Almost all manga is drawn and published in black and white, although there is also color, for example, "Colorful", the name of which is translated from English as "colorful". Based on popular manga, most often long manga series (sometimes unfinished), anime is being filmed. The screenplay script may undergo some changes: scenes of fights and fights are softened, if any, scenes that are too explicit are removed. The artist who draws the manga is called a mangaka, and often he is also the author of the script. If an individual writes the screenplay, then that screenwriter is called a gensakusha (or, more accurately, a manga-gensakusha). It happens that a manga is created on the basis of an already existing anime or film, for example, based on Star Wars. However, anime and otaku culture would not have come about without manga, because few producers are willing to invest time and money in a project that hasn't proven itself in the form of a comic book.
Etymology
The word "manga" literally means "grotesque", "weird (or funny) pictures". The term originated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the publication of Kankei Suzuki's Mankai Zuihitsu (1771), Santo Kyoden's Shiji no Yukikai (1798), Minwa Aikawa's Manga Hyakujo (1814), and in the famous engravings of Katsushika Hokusai, who published a series of illustrated albums "Hokusai Manga" ("Drawings of Hokusai") in 1814-1834. It is believed that the modern meaning of the word was introduced by the mangaka Rakuten Kitazawa. There are disputes about whether it is permissible to use it in Russian in the plural. Initially, the reference portal Gramota.ru did not advise inflecting the word "manga", but recently noted that "judging by the practice of its use, it acts as a declinable noun."
The concept of "manga" outside of Japan was originally associated with comics published in Japan. One way or another, manga and its derivatives, in addition to original works, exist in other parts of the world, in particular in Taiwan, in South Korea, in China, especially in Hong Kong, and are called manhwa and manhua, respectively. The names are similar because in all three languages this word is written in the same hieroglyphs. In France, "la nouvelle manga" (fr. new manga) is a form of comics influenced by Japanese manga. Manga comics drawn in the United States are called "amerimanga" or OEL, from the English. original English-language manga - "manga of English origin".
What is your take on manga?
Manga(jap. 漫画, マンガ, ˈmɑŋgə) f., skl.- Japanese comics, sometimes called komikku(コミック). Manga, in its current form, began to develop after the end of World War II, heavily influenced by Western tradition, however, has deep roots in earlier Japanese art.
In Japan, manga is read by people of all ages, it is respected both as a form of fine art and as a literary phenomenon, so there are many works of various genres and on a wide variety of topics: adventure, romance, sports, history, humor, science fiction, horror, erotica , business and others. Since the 1950s, manga has grown into a major branch of Japanese book publishing, with a turnover of $500 million in 2006. It became popular in the rest of the world, especially in the US, where sales in 2006 were in the region of 175-200 million dollars. Almost all manga is drawn and published in black and white, although there is also color, for example, "Colorful", the name of which is translated from English as "colorful". Based on popular manga, most often long manga series (sometimes unfinished) are made into anime. The screenplay script may undergo some changes: scenes of fights and fights are softened, if any, scenes that are too explicit are removed. The artist who draws the manga is called a mangaka, and often he is also the author of the script. If an individual writes the screenplay, then that screenwriter is called a gensakusha (or, more accurately, manga-gensakusha). It happens that a manga is created on the basis of an already existing anime or film, for example, based on Star Wars. However, anime and otaku culture would not have come about without manga, because few producers are willing to invest time and money in a project that hasn't proven itself in the form of a comic book.
Etymology
The word "manga" literally means "grotesque", "weird (or funny) pictures". The term originated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the publication of Kankei Suzuki's Mankai Zuihitsu (1771), Santo Kyoden's Shiji no Yukikai (1798), Minwa Aikawa's Manga Hyakujo (1814), and in the famous engravings of Katsushika Hokusai, who published a series of illustrated albums "Hokusai Manga" ("Drawings of Hokusai") in 1814-1834. It is believed that the modern meaning of the word was introduced by the mangaka Rakuten Kitazawa. There are disputes about whether it is permissible to use it in Russian in the plural. Initially, the reference portal Gramota.ru did not advise inflecting the word "manga", but recently noted that "judging by the practice of its use, it acts as a declinable noun."
The concept of "manga" outside of Japan was originally associated with comics published in Japan. One way or another, manga and its derivatives, in addition to original works, exist in other parts of the world, in particular in Taiwan, in South Korea, in China, especially in Hong Kong, and are called manhwa and manhua, respectively. The names are similar because in all three languages this word is written in the same hieroglyphs. In France, "la nouvelle manga" (French for new manga) is a form of comics influenced by Japanese manga. Manga comics drawn in the United States are called "amerimanga" or OEL, from the English. original English language manga- Manga of English origin.
Story
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The first mention of the creation of stories in pictures in Japan dates back to the 12th century, when the Buddhist monk Toba (another name is Kakuyu) drew four humorous stories about animals depicting people and about Buddhist monks who violated the charter. These stories - "Chojugiga" - were four paper scrolls with ink drawings and captions to them. Now they are kept in the monastery where Toba lived. The techniques that he used in his work laid the foundations of modern manga - such as the image of human legs in a state of running.
Developing, manga absorbed the traditions of ukiyo-e and Western techniques. After the Meiji Restoration, when the Japanese iron curtain fell and the country began to modernize, artists also began to learn from their foreign counterparts about composition, proportion, color - things that were not paid attention to in ukiyo-e, since the meaning and idea of the drawing was considered more important, than a form. In the period 1900-1940, manga did not play the role of a significant social phenomenon, it was rather one of the fashionable hobbies of young people. Manga in its modern form began to take shape during and especially after the Second World War. The development of manga was greatly influenced by European cartoons and American comics, which became famous in Japan in the second half of the 19th century.
During the war, manga served propaganda purposes, printed on good paper and in color. Its publication was financed by the state (informally it is called "Tokyo Manga"). After the end of the war, when the country lay in ruins, it was replaced by the so-called. "Osaka" manga, published on the cheapest paper and sold for next to nothing. It was at this time, in 1947, that Osamu Tezuka released his manga “Shin Takarajima” (Jap. 新宝島, “New Treasure Island”), which sold a fantastic 400,000 copies for a completely devastated country. With this work, Tezuka defined many of the stylistic elements of manga in its modern form. For the first time, sound effects, close-ups, graphic underlining of movement in the frame were used in it - in a word, all those graphic techniques without which the current manga is unthinkable. "New Treasure Island" and later "Astro Boy" became incredibly popular. During his life, Tezuka created many more works, acquired students and followers who developed his ideas, and made manga a full-fledged (if not the main) direction of popular culture.
At present, almost the entire population of Japan is drawn into the world of manga. It exists as part of the press. The circulation of popular works - "One Piece" and "Naruto" - is comparable to the circulation of books about Harry Potter, however, they are still declining. Among the reasons why the Japanese read less manga are the aging society and the falling birth rate in Japan, as well as publishers who, in the 1980s and 1990s, trying to maintain the same audience and targeting adult readers, were not interested in attracting young people. Now children spend more time playing computer games than reading. In this regard, publishers are beginning to focus on exports to the US and Europe. Former Prime Minister Taro Aso, a fan of manga and anime, believes that manga is one way to bring the country out of the economic crisis and improve its image on the world stage. “By turning the popularity of Japanese soft power into a business, we can create a colossal 20-30 trillion yen industry by 2020 and employ about 500,000 more people,” Taro Aso said in April 2009.
Publication
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Manga makes up about a quarter of all printed matter published in Japan. The vast majority first comes out in thick (from 200 to a thousand pages) magazines, of which there are more than a hundred, and popular manga series are later reprinted as separate volumes, the so-called tankōbon.
The main classification of manga (in any format) is the gender of the target audience, so publications for young people and for girls are usually easily distinguished by cover and are located on different shelves of the bookstore. Each volume is labeled "for six-year-olds", "for middle school age", "for reading on the go". There are also departments of "manga at a time": you buy at half price, after reading you return for a quarter of the amount.
Also in Japan, manga cafes are common (jap. 漫画喫茶, マンガ喫茶 manga kissa), where you can drink tea or coffee and read manga. Payment is usually hourly: an hour costs an average of 400 yen. In some cafes, people can stay overnight for a fee.
Magazines
There are far fewer anime magazines compared to manga periodicals. Manga magazines are published by almost every major publishing house in Japan. The first manga magazine, Eshinbun Nipponchi, was created in 1874. Most publications such as Shonen Sunday or Shonen Jump are published weekly, but there are also monthly publications such as Zero Sum. In common parlance, such magazines are referred to as "telephone books", as they are very similar in both format and print quality. They simultaneously publish several (about a dozen) manga series at once, one chapter (about 30 pages) in each issue. In addition to serials, magazines also publish "singles" (manga, consisting of one chapter, English one-shot), and four-frame yonkoms. Magazines in their focus, like manga itself, are divided into many categories by age and gender - for example, there are magazines with manga for boys and girls, for men and women, for children. The most popular are the youthful "Shonen Jump" and "Shonen Magazine", which are published with a circulation of 2.8 million copies and 1.7 million copies, respectively. And in 1995, the circulation of "Shonen Jump" was 6 million copies.
Magazines use low-quality paper, so it is common practice to paint over black and white pages in different colors - yellow, pink. Through magazines, manga creators were able to showcase their work. Without them, mangaka wouldn't exist, says critic Haruyuki Nakano.
Tankobon
Tankōbon (Japanese: 単行本 tanko:bon) m., skl. — in Japan, the book publishing format. Tankōbon is usually a standalone (i.e., not part of a series) book. Usually (though not always) it comes in hardcover.
When applied to light novels and manga, the term tankōbon can also be used to refer to the books in the series. In this case, such books are called "tankobon" (i.e., "stand-alone book"), in contrast to the publication of light novels or manga in magazine editions. Such tankōbons have 200-300 pages, are the size of an ordinary pocket-size book, have a soft cover that is of better quality than in magazines, paper, and is also equipped with a dust jacket. There is both a manga that was immediately released in the form of tankōbon, and a manga that never came out in the form of volumes. The most successful manga is released in the form of an aizoban (jap. 愛蔵版 idzo:ban) is a special edition for collectors. Aizobans are published in limited edition, on high-quality paper and are supplied with additional bonuses: a case, a different cover, color pages, etc.
Doujinshi
Doujinshi (Jap. 同人誌 before: jinshi) is a Japanese term for non-commercial literary magazines self-published by their authors. Short for doujinzassi (同人雑誌 do: jin zashi). The term doujinshi itself comes from the words do:jin (同人, "like-minded people") and shi (誌, "magazine"). Originally used in relation to junbungaku literature. In recent decades, it has spread to manga and other manifestations of Japanese mass youth culture.
Fiction
The public magazine Morning Bell (明六雑誌) published at the beginning of the Meiji era (since 1874) is considered to be a pioneer among dōjinshi. While not actually a literary magazine, it nevertheless played an important role in spreading the doujinshi model itself. The first dōjinshi to publish fiction was the Stuff Library (我楽多文庫, later simply "Library"), created in 1885 by writers Ozaki Koyo and Yamada Biyo. The doujinshi "White Birch" (1910-1923) had a significant influence on the course of development of Japanese literature of the 20th century, at the origins of which stood Saneatsu Mushanokoji, Naoya Shiga, Takeo Arishima and other prominent writers. Literary doujinshi experienced their heyday at the beginning of the Showa era, becoming in fact tribunes for all creatively oriented youth of that time. Doujinshi, created and distributed, as a rule, in a close circle of authors close to each other, contributed to the emergence and development of the (pseudo)confessional genre of shishosetsu, which is fundamental to the modern Japanese literary tradition. In the post-war years, dōjinshi, as magazines representing certain literary schools and discovering original authors, gradually fell into decline, being supplanted by thick literary magazines (Gunzo, Bungakukai, etc.). Among the few notable exceptions are the Literary Capital (文芸首都) dōjinshi produced from 1933-1969. Some dōjinshi survived by joining and sponsoring major literary magazines. Poetic doujinshi by haiku and tanka authors are still actively produced, but the vast majority of them remain on the periphery of modern literary life in Japan.
Manga
Doujinshi as an amateur manga is most often created by beginners, but it happens that professional authors publish individual works outside of their professional activities. Groups of doujinshi authors in manga are usually referred to by the English term circle. Often such circles consist of only one person.
Circles, of course, can do not only doujin comics, recently doujin software (同人ソフト) is gaining momentum - computer programs, almost always games, also created by amateurs and published by them independently. Recently, in Japan, the term "doujinshi" refers not only to manga and software, but also to all other otaku creativity - from cosplay to fanart.
Subject
Genre directions and plots of amateur comics are very diverse. Traditional manga science fiction, fantasy, horror stories and detective stories predominate - but there are also narratives from the life of office workers, epic sagas about accompanying your favorite rock band on tour, meticulous autobiographical chronicles of raising children, and even multi-page biographies of beloved pets.
However, most often, doujinshi authors use existing characters from famous anime series or video games in their works, drawing fan art on them, often pornographic. The authors of such doujinshi are driven by the desire to expand the scope of the original work, especially when among the heroes there are many pretty girls who you just want to see in piquant situations.
On this basis, the phenomenon of moe arose, meaning a strong attachment to a particular type of character - for example, heroines with glasses or with rabbit ears and ponytails. You can meet an amateur artist who specializes, for example, in the subject of nekomimi-moe: all the characters of his doujinshi will flaunt cat ears, and the characters themselves can be taken from anywhere, even from Evangelion, even from Goethe's Faust. Sometimes only the names of the characters remain from the original manga or anime, and everything else - the style, genre, plot and ways of presenting it - change to diametrically opposed ones.
The mass character of the phenomenon
Doujinshi have long ceased to be something inconspicuous. If earlier they were drawn by hand, and copies were made through carbon paper, then with the advent of digital technology in the early nineties, electronic doujinshi appeared, partially or completely drawn on a computer using graphic programs and released on floppy disks and CD-ROM. The dissemination of content via the Internet has become relevant.
There are quite a few stores that exclusively sell doujinshi. These are not some basements - the largest of the Toranoana chains has 11 stores throughout Japan, of which two are in Akihabara; the main one doubled in August 2005.
Since the end of the seventies, Comiket doujinshi fair has been held in Japan. It is now held twice a year, in August and December, at Tokyo Big Sight, a huge modern exhibition center on the island of Odaiba. Comiket-69, held in December 2005, was attended by 160,000 on the first day and 190,000 on the second. The fair was attended by 23,000 circles, presenting their work to the public.
Having become part of the culture, doujinshi has found its way into anime series. For example, the "Modern Japanese Culture Club" in the Genshiken anime released its own doujinshishi and took part in Comiket several times. The main character of Doujin Work also draws doujinshi.
Style and characteristics
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Manga differs markedly from Western comics in graphic and literary style, despite the fact that it developed under their influence. The script and the arrangement of shots are built differently; in the visual part, the emphasis is on the lines of the picture, and not on its shape. The drawing can range from photorealistic to grotesque, but the mainstream trend is a style whose characteristic feature is mistakenly considered to be large eyes. For example, shojo manga is even called "big eyes will save the world", because brave girls with saucer-like eyes often have supernatural powers, become scientists or samurai warriors. The first to draw in this style was the already mentioned Osamu Tezuka, whose characters were created under the influence of American cartoon characters, in particular, Betty Boop (girls with huge eyes), and after the great success of Osamu Tezuka, other authors began to copy his style.
Traditional manga reading order.
Manga is read from right to left, the reason for which is Japanese writing, in which columns of hieroglyphs are written that way. Often (but not always) when publishing translated manga abroad, the pages are mirrored so that they can be read in the way Western readers are accustomed to - from left to right. It is believed that residents of countries with writing from left to right naturally perceive the composition of frames in manga in a completely different way than the author intended. Some mangaka, notably Akira Toriyama, oppose this practice and ask foreign publishers to publish their manga in its original form. Therefore, and also due to the numerous requests from otaku, publishers are increasingly releasing manga in non-mirror form. For example, the American company Tokyopop, which fundamentally does not mirror manga, has made this its main trump card. It happens that the manga comes out in both formats at once (in normal and non-mirrored), as was the case with Evangelion by Viz Media.
Some mangaka do not consider it necessary to define the storyline once and for all and publish several works in which the same characters are either in one relationship or in another, or know each other, or not. A striking example of this is the Tenchi series, in which there are more than thirty storylines that do not have a special relation to each other, but tell about the guy Tenchi and his friends.
Manga in other countries
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Manga's influence on the international market has grown substantially over the past few decades. Manga is most widely represented outside of Japan in the USA and Canada, Germany, France, Poland, where there are several publishing houses dealing with manga, and a fairly extensive reader base has been formed.
USA
America was one of the first countries where translated manga began to appear. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was almost inaccessible to the average reader, unlike anime. However, today quite large publishing houses produce manga in English: Tokyopop, Viz Media, Del Rey, Dark Horse Comics. One of the first works translated into English was Barefoot Gen, which tells about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the late 1980s, Golgo 13 (1986), Lone Wolf and Cub by First Comics (1987), Area 88 and Mai the Psychic Girl (1987) by Viz Media and Eclipse Comics.
In 1986, entrepreneur and translator Toren Smith founded Studio Proteus in partnership with Viz, Innovation Publishing, Eclipse Comics, and Dark Horse Comics. Studio Proteus has translated a large number of manga, including "Appleseed" and "My Goddess!". Successful manga series were mostly associated with the series of the same name, for example, the famous "Ghost in the Shell", "Sailor Moon", which by 1995-1998. has been published in more than twenty-three countries around the world, including China, Brazil, Australia, the United States and most of the European countries. In 1996, Tokyopop was founded, the largest publisher of amerimanga to date.
The structure of the market and the preferences of the public in the United States are quite similar to those in Japan, although the volumes, of course, are still incomparable. Manga magazines appeared: "Shojo Beat" with a circulation of 38 thousand copies, "Shonen Jump USA". Articles dedicated to this industry appear in major print publications: The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Wired.
American manga publishers are known for their puritanism: published works are regularly censored.
Europe
Manga came to Europe via France and Italy, where anime was shown in the 1970s.
In France, the manga market is highly developed and known for its versatility. In this country, works in genres that have not resonated with readers in other countries outside of Japan are popular, such as dramatic works for adults, experimental and avant-garde works. Not particularly well-known authors in the West, such as Jiro Taniguchi, gained great weight in France. This is partly because France has a strong comic book culture.
In Germany, in 2001, for the first time outside of Japan, manga began to be published in the format of "phone books" in the Japanese style. Prior to this, in the West, manga was published in the format of Western comics - monthly releases of one chapter, then reprinted as separate volumes. The first such magazine was "Banzai", designed for a youthful audience and existed until 2006. In early 2003, the shojo magazine "Daisuki" began to appear. The periodical format, new to the Western reader, has become successful, and now almost all foreign manga publishers are abandoning individual issues, switching to "phone books". In 2006, the manga sold $212 million in France and Germany.
Russia
Of all European countries, manga is the worst represented in Russia. Presumably, this is due to the low popularity of comics in Russia: they are considered to be children's literature, and manga is designed for a more adult audience. According to the director of Egmont-Russia, Lev Yelin, Japan loves comics with sex and violence, and “in Russia, hardly anyone will take up this niche.” According to the reviewer of the magazine Dengi, the prospects are "simply brilliant", "especially since Japanese licenses are even cheaper than American ones - $ 10-20 per page." Sergey Kharlamov from Sakura-press publishing house considers this niche promising, but difficult to market, as "in Russia, comics are considered children's literature."
As far as translation licenses are concerned, the initiative usually comes from Russian publishers. The first manga officially published in Russia was Ranma ½, a well-known work by Rumiko Takahashi. At the moment, there are several legal publishing houses: Sakura-Press (which published Ranma ½), Comic Book Factory, Palm Press and others. Currently, the most commercially successful manga series are licensed by Comix-ART, founded in 2008. In the same year, Comix-ART, a partner of the Eksmo publishing house, acquired the rights to Death Note, Naruto, and Bleach, as well as several other works, including Gravitation and Princess Ai. Russian publishers, as a rule, publish not only manga, but also manhwa, and do not make a distinction between them, referring to both as manga. In particular, Comix-ART, for commercial reasons, calls the amerimanga “Bizengast” and “Van-Von Hunter” manga, and on the official website of the publishing house “Istari comics” in the “Manga” section, for example, there is a manhua “KET” (English Confidential Assassination Troop by Taiwanese author Fun Yinpan.
As well as throughout the world, manga in Russia is distributed in the form of amateur translations - scanlate.
Projects similar to manga magazines in Japan have appeared - the Almanac of Russian Manga by the Comic Factory, which is going to publish manga drawn in Russia. In July 2008, the first major collection of amateur Russian manga "Manga Cafe" was released.
