tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/manga-12866/articlesManga – The Conversation2024-01-12T13:28:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2206322024-01-12T13:28:57Z2024-01-12T13:28:57ZGen Z and millennials have an unlikely love affair with their local libraries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568487/original/file-20240109-27-hil6q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries can be an oasis from doomscrolling and information overload.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/NYC_Public_Library_Research_Room_Jan_2006-1-_3.jpg">Diliff/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former.</p>
<p><a href="https://shorturl.at/FQS26">In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials</a>, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour.</p>
<p>Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022. </p>
<p>Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/06/21/millennials-are-the-most-likely-generation-of-americans-to-use-public-libraries/">Pew Research Center</a>, which showed that 53% of millennials had gone to their local library over the previous 12 months. By comparison, that same study found that 45% of Gen Xers and 43% of baby boomers visited public libraries.</p>
<p>So why might Gen Z and millennials – sometimes characterized as <a href="https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/gen-z-has-1-second-attention-span-work-marketers-advantage">attention-addled</a> <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1748191/how-millennials-became-a-generation-of-homebodies">homebodies</a> – still see value in trips to the public library?</p>
<h2>A preference for print</h2>
<p>We found that Gen Zers and millennials prefer books in print over e-books and audiobooks, even though their other favorite reading formats are decidedly digital, such as video game chats and <a href="https://medium.com/fiction-friends/whats-a-web-novel-and-why-should-you-be-excited-about-them-1181ae02be3b">web novels</a>. American Gen Zers and millennials read an average of two print books per month – nearly double the average for e-books or audiobooks, according to our data.</p>
<p>The preference for print also manifests itself in the types of books Gen Z and millennials are borrowing and buying: 59% said they prefer the same story in graphical or manga format than in text only. </p>
<p>And while some graphic novels, comics and manga can be read on a screen, print is where these intricately illustrated books truly shine. </p>
<h2>Beyond reading</h2>
<p>We were most surprised by our finding that 23% of Gen Zers and millennials who don’t identify as readers nonetheless visited a physical library in the past 12 months. </p>
<p>It’s a reminder that libraries <a href="https://ischool.syr.edu/12-things-you-can-get-at-libraries-other-than-books/">don’t just serve as a repository for books</a>. Patrons can record podcasts, make music, craft with friends or play video games. There are also quiet spaces with free Wi-Fi, perfect for students or people who work remotely. </p>
<p>Younger generations tend to be more <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/insights/topics/talent/recruiting-gen-z-and-millennials.html">values driven</a> than older ones, and libraries’ ethos of sharing seems to resonate with Gen Zers and millennials – as does a space that’s free from the insipid creep of commercialism. At the library, there are no ads and no fees – well, provided you return your books on time – and no cookies tracking and selling your behavior.</p>
<p>U.S. census data also shows that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-2020-census-data-shows-an-aging-america-and-wide-racial-gaps-between-generations">younger generations are more racially diverse</a> than older generations. </p>
<p>Our survey found that 64% of Black Gen Zers and millennials visited physical libraries in 2022, a rate that’s 10 percentage points higher than the general population. Meanwhile, Asian and Latino Gen Zers and millennials were more likely than the general population to say that browsing library shelves was a preferred way to discover new books.</p>
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<img alt="Two young Black women work from a desk at a library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Libraries are chock-full of resources – including free Wi-Fi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-wearing-turban-using-laptop-while-sitting-royalty-free-image/1439945442?phrase=young+people+at+library&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>A crucial moment for libraries</h2>
<p>Though libraries have been forced to <a href="https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/09/american-library-association-releases-preliminary-data-2023-book-challenges">reckon with book bans</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tennessees-drag-ban-rehashes-old-culture-war-narratives-201623">politicization of public spaces</a>, Gen Zers and millennials still see libraries as a kind of oasis – a place where doomscrolling and information overload can be quieted, if temporarily. </p>
<p>Perhaps Gen Zers’ and millennials’ library visits, like their <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/29/dumb-phones-are-on-the-rise-in-the-us-as-gen-z-limits-screen-time.html">embrace of flip phones</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-gen-z-ers-drawn-to-old-digital-cameras-198854">board games</a>, are another life hack for slowing down.</p>
<p>Printed books won’t ping you or ghost you. And when young people eventually log back on to their devices, books <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/BookTok">make excellent props for #BookTok</a>, the community on TikTok where readers review their favorite books.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathi Inman Berens receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Delmas Foundation, the Panorama Project and the American Library Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Noorda receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Delmas Foundation, the Panorama Project and the American Library Association.</span></em></p>Though they’re sometimes characterized as attention-addled homebodies, younger people see a real value in libraries − one that goes beyond books.Kathi Inman Berens, Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities, Portland State UniversityRachel Noorda, Associate Professor of Publishing, Portland State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2132372023-09-14T20:04:49Z2023-09-14T20:04:49ZWith the popularity of One Piece, has Netflix hit the winning formula for live-action anime adaptations?<p>What began as a friendly pirate-based <a href="https://www.viz.com/read/manga/one-piece-volume-103/product/7495/digital">manga</a>, Netflix’s One Piece features the eternally optimistic Monkey D. Luffy (pronounced Loofy), a young man with magical stretchy powers that gathers a crew of eccentric loners to crew his Straw Hat Pirate brigade and set out in search of the legendary One Piece pirate treasure. </p>
<p>The production quality of this series is excellent, from sets, costumes and make-up, it seems that every cent of its estimated <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a44988074/netflix-one-piece-budget-cost/">US $138 million budget</a> has been well used. </p>
<p>With a 95% viewer rating on <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/one_piece_2023/s01">Rotten Tomatoes</a> and One Piece sitting at the top of Netflix’s <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/tv">global viewing stats</a> in its second week in the top 10, it’s clear that Netflix has struck a winning adaptation formula, with a <a href="https://mashable.com/article/one-piece-live-action-netflix-review">Mashable</a> review declaring that “Netflix does the impossible”.</p>
<p>At first glance, One Piece could be seen as a blend of Harry Potter and the Pirates of the Caribbean, a mixture of fantasy and pirate aesthetics. One Piece’s postmodern take on the pirate genre has characters dressed in neat business suits, and contemporary t-shirts. But it is the general mix of the manga’s fun, action and drama that the series captures so well.</p>
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<h2>From Manga to Anime to Live-action</h2>
<p>One Piece first appeared as a manga in 1997 and holds the distinction of being the world’s most published manga with over 100 compiled book volumes, with sales of over <a href="https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-08-04/one-piece-manga-sets-guinness-world-record-with-over-500-million-published/.188352">500 million</a>.</p>
<p>The manga’s initial success saw its first animated TV series produced by Toei Animation in Japan in 1999, with over 1,000 episodes now in circulation. There have been 11 feature-length animated movies, including 2022’s <a href="https://www.onepiece-film.jp/en/movie-en/">One Piece Film: Red</a>, and 4 short films, all produced and initially released in Japan.</p>
<p>The first attempt to bring the One Piece anime to the west, stalled immediately. In 2004, an American company purchased the rights to the series, but dubbed and reedited the show to be more child friendly, resulting in a quick backlash from audiences. In 2007, the show was picked up by another company (now Crunchyroll) and packaged for DVD and broadcast in its original, uncut format. </p>
<p>In 2020, anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, <a href="https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2020/2/22/crunchyroll-expands-one-piece-territories-to-europe-and-mena">released the anime </a> across its platforms in Europe and the Middle-East.</p>
<p>While manga and anime such as Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon have long attracted a global audience, One Piece is aimed at a slightly older audience. Until now, it has not received the same kind of international attention (and marketing).</p>
<p>One Piece’s journey from manga, through anime to live-action has precedence across all genres in Japan, not just in children’s cartoons. From the sweet family drama of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or entry, Our Little Sister (2015) to Takashi Miike’s ultra-violent Ichi the Killer (2001), Kengo Hanazawa’s zombie hit, I Am A Hero (2015) and any number of high school based films such as Akira Nagai’s After the Rain (2018), the journey from manga to live-action is often keenly awaited by Japanese audiences.</p>
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<h2>Keeping it ‘real’</h2>
<p>The adaptation of “sacred” Japanese manga and anime series have copped more than a little criticism from audiences, well beyond the dedicated otaku (enthusiasts). If you’re not sure how passionate fans can be, here’s one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43K-H_dtQ9g">spirited review</a> of the series, that he’s thoughtfully limited to just under one hour. At one point he breathlessly exhorts “Make no mistake, I am going to spend the vast majority of this video just absolutely slobbering over this!” </p>
<p>When Scarlet Johansson was chosen to play the lead role in the live-action version of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Tlz8DKyNM&t=70s">Ghost in the Shell</a> (2017), the opposition mobilised accusing the producers of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/16/dreamworks-scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing">whitewashing</a> the film.</p>
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<p>But it’s not just Western casting that gets the ire of fans and critics. The live-action remake of Kiki’s Delivery Service (2014), best known for the 1989 Studio Ghibli anime, was poorly received in both Japan and the West. The remake copped a <a href="https://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-kikis-delivery-service-1201121673/">Variety review</a> claiming that it was marred by its “charmless heroine, leaden storytelling and dime-store production values”.</p>
<h2>Casting the crew</h2>
<p>Perhaps one of the keys to this series immediate success is its international casting. </p>
<p>Luffy is played with ineffable joy by Mexico’s Inaki Godoy, who captures the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpli9XAMYks">wild-eyed optimism</a> of the original manga character. Australia’s Morgan Davies plays the cabin boy Koby, bringing a delightfully androgynous innocence to the role. </p>
<p>Spanish-English actor, Taz Skylar is the be-suited Sanji, who joins the Straw Hats as their cook. </p>
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<p>American actor Jeff Ward excels as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zpkX3Z3hk">Buggy the Clown</a>, perhaps the character most responsible for the story’s appeal to older audiences. Like Pennywise in Stephen King’s It, or Heath Ledger’s Joker, Buggy’s grotesqueness will fire up the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-so-scared-of-clowns-heres-what-weve-discovered-199352#:%7E:text=Coulrophobia%2C%20or%20the%20fear%20of,a%20lack%20of%20focused%20research.">coulrophobia</a> (fear of clowns) in even the best of us.</p>
<p>The surprising inclusion of just one Japanese actor in the regular cast features Mackenyu as the sword-wielding Zoro (so much of One Piece borrows from other movies, folk-tales and popular culture). Mackenyu is a Japanese teen film star, and the son of the great Sonny Chiba, martial arts and action star (in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films).</p>
<p>The excellent casting in One Piece tops off the series’ ability to remain breathtakingly fun. Like Ryan Gosling’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meZbLQMR8rE">over-the-top performance</a> in Barbie, the entire cast of One Piece look like they’re <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AimLyU73M">having a blast</a>, and the enthusiasm shows in their performances. </p>
<h2>Secret to success?</h2>
<p>So how did Netflix do it? How did they create an adaptation that captured the excitement of both the manga and anime and doesn’t, well, suck? </p>
<p>This series of One Piece stays true to its characters, supported by a strong cast and a healthy budget that allows high production standards and special effects. </p>
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<p>Many of the props, including some of the boats, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_zpkX3Z3hk">were actually built</a>, so the actors aren’t just green-screening their performances. The result is a rollicking, swashbucklingly fun pirate adventure. The Netflix executives must be feeling as chipper as Luffy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter C. Pugsley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, the enormously successful Japanese manga and anime franchise, brings the series to a truly global audience.Peter C. Pugsley, Associate professor, Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886362022-09-16T12:18:13Z2022-09-16T12:18:13ZHayao Miyazaki’s ‘Spirited Away’ continues to delight fans and inspire animators 20 years after its US premiere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484891/original/file-20220915-25735-4sr3t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=208%2C7%2C1069%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Critics praised the film for its stunning visuals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://film-grab.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Spirited_Away_051.jpg?bwg=1569839416">Studio Ghibli</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature “Spirited Away” premiered in the U.S. 20 years ago, most viewers hadn’t seen anything like it.</p>
<p>Disney distributed the film. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/20/movies/film-review-conjuring-up-atmosphere-only-anime-can-deliver.html">But as one critic pointed out</a>, “Seeing just 10 minutes of this English version … will quickly disabuse any discerning viewer of the notion that it is a Disney creation.”</p>
<p>It tells the story of a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro who, when traveling with her parents, stumbles across what appears to be an abandoned theme park. As they explore, the parents are transformed into giant pigs, and Chihiro soon realizes that the park is occupied by strange, supernatural spirits. She ends up working at a bathhouse as she tries to figure out a way to free herself and her parents so they can return home.</p>
<p>The film went on <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/spirited-away-film-oscars-records-history-1235052088/">to win an Oscar</a> for Best Animated Feature. Twenty years later, it’s <a href="https://www.timeout.com/film/best-animated-movies">frequently</a> <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/40-greatest-animated-movies-ever-19817/fantastic-mr-fox-2009-3-208589/">listed</a> as one of the best animated films of all time. </p>
<p>Yet as <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/visual_art_and_design/our_people/directory/davis_northrop.php">a scholar of manga and anime studies</a>, I’m often struck by how popular the film became – and how fondly viewers remember it – given that so many of its elements would have been alien to American audiences.</p>
<h2>The manga revolution</h2>
<p>Many of the first anime films were inspired by manga, or Japanese comics.</p>
<p>Some of the <a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/12/27/beginners-guide-manga">hallmarks of modern manga</a>, such as characters with big eyes, streaks to signal movement and different-sized panels <a href="https://immortalliumblog.com/the-importance-of-manga-paneling/">to convey action, character and emotion more effectively</a>, can be traced to the work of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12244368/osamu-tezuka-story-explained">Osamu Tezuka</a>, the so-called “<a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/tezuka-osamu-god-of-manga/">God of Manga</a>.” </p>
<p>Tezuka was influenced by his childhood and Japanese culture, but he was also inspired by American movies, television and comics. </p>
<p>When Tezuka was a child, he attended the performances of <a href="https://www.oldtokyo.com/takarazuka-gekijo/">Takarazuka</a>, an all-female theater group in Tokyo whose actresses tended to have well-lit, expressive eyes. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yPDHCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=pathe+projector+miyazaki&source=bl&ots=C961kgFDGy&sig=ACfU3U0AxM0ui5H20mba36S6o6XB_rJbsg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiBmsaY4pb6AhVsSkEAHXK3DBkQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=pathe%20projector%20miyazaki&f=false">His father also showed him</a> American animation on a <a href="http://www.pathefilm.uk/95gearpathe.htm">Pathe projector</a>, and he was drawn to wide-eyed characters like <a href="https://media.allure.com/photos/58a2111cb02f3ebc310e2e78/master/pass/PBDBEBO_EC028_H.JPG">Betty Boop</a> and <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/c/ce/Profile_-_Bambi.png/revision/latest?cb=20190313173158">Bambi</a>. Together, they inspired the big, expressive eyes that would become characteristic of Tezuka’s work.</p>
<p>Tezuka’s debut manga, titled “<a href="https://tezukaosamu.net/en/manga/207.html">New Treasure Island</a>,” was published in 1947 and became a hit with Japanese youth. Soon an entire manga industry sprang up, churning out vibrantly creative and emotionally relatable comics in a wide range of genres.</p>
<p>Miyazaki was 21 years old when Tezuka’s popular manga “<a href="https://adultswim.fandom.com/wiki/Astro_Boy">Astro Boy</a>” appeared on TV in Japan in 1963. NBC soon picked it up, airing 102 episodes in the U.S. and exposing millions of Americans to Japanese anime for the first time.</p>
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<p>Over the ensuing decades, Americans enthusiastically embraced a range of manga and anime series through franchises like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0214341/">Dragon Ball</a>,” “<a href="https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Narutopedia">Naruto</a>” and “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54730487">Demon Slayer</a>.” </p>
<h2>Doing anime differently</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Miyazaki-Hayao">Miyazaki began his career</a> in 1963 as an entry-level animator for Toei animation. He went on to work on a number of animated TV shows and films before founding his own production company, Studio Ghibli, with his longtime friend and collaborator, Takahata Isao, in 1985. </p>
<p>Anime is often based on successful manga series, and it involves creating a vibrant character kingdom and the construction of a world that often lends itself to spinoffs like movies, television shows, musicals, toys and massive merchandising opportunities.</p>
<p>In this sense, many of the films that came out of Studio Ghibli were not really traditional anime. Most lack the merchandizing tie-ins that have become ubiquitous in franchises like “Pokemon” and “Yu-Gi-Oh.” And while some of Ghibli’s films originated as manga, many of them did not. Miyazaki and his team also broke from industry norms by hiring artists as full-time staffers, rather than as underpaid freelancers.</p>
<p>As Miyazaki once said, “Animation has the potential to be far more than just about business, or merchandising, or selling character goods; it can have its own ambitions.” </p>
<h2>When the line between good and evil blurs</h2>
<p>When “Spirited Away” was released, the only feature-length Japanese animated film most Americans would have likely been exposed to in theaters was “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/10/akira-anime-japanese-cartoon-manga">Akira</a>,” which had a limited run in 1990. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences <a href="https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991031382479703276/01VAN_INST:vanui">didn’t even award an Oscar for Best Animated Feature until 2001</a>, because Disney and Pixar so thoroughly dominated the genre. </p>
<p>Compared with traditional Western animation, manga and anime tend to reflect a more adult and complicated view of morality, rather than the “good versus evil” paradigm common in children’s media. </p>
<p>“Spirited Away” centers on a spirit world that, while present in various other manga and anime films, challenges non-Japanese audiences. It is unclear whether the spirits will harm or help the protagonist. Miyazaki, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/20/movies/film-review-conjuring-up-atmosphere-only-anime-can-deliver.html">New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell wrote</a>, captures “that fascinating and frightening aspect of having something that seems to represent good become evil.” </p>
<p>The world appears to be inspired by a class of spirits known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami">kami</a>” that are venerated in the religion of Shinto, although Miyazaki has noted that he invented his own spirits, rather than use previously known kami. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11032374/">Demon Slayer</a>,” a 2020 anime film that was a hit in the U.S., <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54730487">also contained characters</a> from the spirit world.</p>
<p>As kami expert <a href="https://www.popmatters.com/yokai-attack-the-japanese-monster-survival-guide-by-hiroko-yoda-and-matt-al-2496114419.html">Matt Alt</a> told me, “Only a place with countless shrines, each venerating their own locations and local deities, could have dreamed up something like ‘Spirited Away.’” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl sits on a train next to ghosts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484883/original/file-20220915-9420-1renes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world of ‘Spirited Away’ includes supernatural entities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://film-grab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Spirited-Away-052.jpg">Studio Ghibli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet thanks to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/8geg4b/spirited-away-ghibli-miyazaki-15th-15-year-anniversary-best-animation-hannah-ewens">the beauty of the film’s visuals</a> – as well as the fact that, deep down, it contains universal storytelling tropes – Miyazaki can get viewers to buy into his world. No matter how strange <a href="https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Stink_Spirit">a shape-shifting sludge spirit</a> might appear to audiences, they can still relate to the spunky, and sometimes sullen, Chihiro. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Turning_Point_1997_2008/VB4hEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">As Miyazaki explained in an interview</a>, the film’s idiosyncrasies ultimately enhance its universality: “No one waves weapons about or has showdowns using superpowers, but it’s still an adventure story. And while an adventure story, a confrontation between good and evil is not the main theme either. This is supposed to be the story of a young girl who is thrown into another world, where good people and bad are all mixed up and coexisting.”</p>
<p>“In this world,” he continues, “she undergoes rigorous training, learns about friendship and self-sacrifice and, using her own basic smarts, somehow not only survives but manages to return to our world.”</p>
<h2>A lasting imprint</h2>
<p>While Walt Disney and other American creators made a huge impression on Tezuka, the influences of anime can be seen in countless <a href="https://collider.com/best-movies-inspired-by-anime-the-matrix-avatar/">American films</a> and <a href="https://www.absoluteanime.com/boondocks/">TV shows</a>.</p>
<p>This sort of cultural cross-pollination, which I detail in my book “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/manga-and-anime-go-to-hollywood-9781623560386/">Manga and Anime Go to Hollywood</a>,” has been going on for decades. </p>
<p>Miyazaki’s films also have made a unique imprint on the imaginations of a generation of Western animators.</p>
<p>John Lasseter, the former chief creative officer of Pixar, <a href="https://www.awn.com/news/john-lasseter-pays-tribute-hayao-miyazaki-tokyo-film-festival">has said</a> that whenever he and his team got stuck for ideas, they would screen a Miyazaki film for inspiration. Domee Shi, the director for Pixar’s “Turning Red,” <a href="https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3169814/animes-influence-pixars-turning-red-spirited-away-director">specifically cited</a> “Spirited Away” as a huge influence. And a 2014 episode of “The Simpsons” <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2014/01/simpsons-miyazaki-tribute-annotated-anime-episode-says-goodbye-to-hayao-miyazaki-here-are-the-references-video.html">even contained a tribute</a> to Miyazaki. </p>
<p>Tezuka once said that a story was like a tree, which is only as strong as its roots.</p>
<p>To me, Miyazaki and his team achieved the highest level of filmmaking by not only creating gorgeous visuals, but by also crafting relatable lead characters, a compelling supporting cast and rich, enthralling worlds. Engaging viewers with a creative story arc, he always found a way to land with a timeless message.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Turning_Point_1997_2008/VB4hEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Miyazaki noted</a> that Chihiro ultimately returns to her ordinary world “not by vanquishing evil, but as a result of having learned a new way to live.”</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the class of Japanese spirits that those in “Spirited Away” evoke. It is “kami,” not “yokai.”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Northrop Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the fact that many of its elements were alien to American audiences, the film became a sensation.Northrop Davis, Professor of Media Arts, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263532019-11-12T02:31:23Z2019-11-12T02:31:23ZKitchen aromas and angels with water guns: Japanese visual storytelling comes alive at OzAsia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301030/original/file-20191111-194624-o1nm1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C3673%2C2456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Totes Adorbs ❤ Hurricane is 'a euphoric spectacle amid pop-culture icons and idols'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">OzAsia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The Dark Master and Totes Adorbs ♥ Hurricane, OzAsia Festival, Adelaide, 22 October - 8 November</em></p>
<p>In theatre, the <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2016/mark-shenton-we-must-not-overlook-the-importance-of-the-play-text/#_=_">play text tends to drive the storytelling</a>. The interpretation of this text, known as dramaturgy, determines the artists’ approaches to dialogue, characterisation, movement, set design, and other production elements. Dramaturgy’s purpose is to help the audience imagine a world on stage, and to understand how this world works.</p>
<p>In some performances, however, the visual production elements – not the text – take the lead in creating the world on stage. This visual dramaturgy enables artists to present alternative narratives by stimulating the spectators’ emotional and physical engagement and by creating immersive experiences.</p>
<p>Visual dramaturgy has been part of Japanese performance culture for centuries. Its reliance on spectacle is responsible for the popularity of kabuki dance-drama, which many believe <a href="https://castle.eiu.edu/studiesonasia/documents/seriesIII/Vol%204%20No%201/s3v4n1_OBrien.pdf">gave rise to fan culture</a> in Japan. The close spectator-performer relationships in kabuki became possible through innovations in theatre architecture, especially the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/hanamichi"><em>hanamichi</em></a>, a rampway extending into the auditorium.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301023/original/file-20191111-194633-y7vh67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 1800s print, we see kabuki performers and the hanamichi on the left.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, we can see the importance of visual storytelling in Japanese culture in manga, where emotional intensity and supernatural encounters are presented as something quite palpable. While western comics and graphic novels tend to favour dialogue-driven action, in manga, visual representations of characters and their emotional and physical states take centre stage.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-deep-influence-of-the-a-bomb-on-anime-and-manga-45275">The deep influence of the A-bomb on anime and manga</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Visual dramaturgy remains central for contemporary artists in Japan, as was thrillingly demonstrated through two key works at this year’s OzAsia festival</p>
<h2>The Dark Master</h2>
<p>The Dark Master is Kuro Tanino’s stage adaptation of a <a href="http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2219808">manga of the same title</a>. Presented by theatre group <a href="http://niwagekidan.org/english">Niwa Gekidan Penino</a>, it is set in Osaka at a small traditional eatery catering mostly to locals, who come to enjoy a delicious meal, read a newspaper or watch a baseball game over a beer. </p>
<p>The chef/owner (Susumu Ogata) is getting on in years. Though his desire to cook remains strong, his body is beginning to give up on him. At least, this is what he tells the 28-year-old Tokyo backpacker (Koichiro F.O. Pereira) who stumbles in one evening, hungry and in search of adventure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301028/original/file-20191111-194656-a8932x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dark Master is a hyperreal, immersive experience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Takashi Horikawa/OzAsia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The chef seizes the opportunity to recruit his replacement. So does the eatery: the front door locks by itself, thwarting the young man’s attempts to leave. The backpacker becomes the eatery’s new owner. The chef withdraws to the second floor, never to be seen again. However, for the next 33 days, he will give his apprentice cooking lessons via a minute earpiece planted in his ear. The arrangement is exhilarating and unnerving.</p>
<p>The audiences’ sensory engagement deepens when appetising smells (the cooking on stage is real) mingle with live, multi-angle video projections showing the young man’s training. Through our own earpieces, we listen in on the chef’s covert cooking instructions, responding with gasps and laughter to comic blunder and culinary spectacle. Surtitles on separate screens provide translation. </p>
<p>Visual dramaturgy produces a hyperreal, immersive experience akin to becoming one with the young chef.</p>
<h2>Totes Adorbs ♥ Hurricane</h2>
<p>Delight in experiencing Totes Adorbs ♥ Hurricane, the latest work from <a href="https://www.performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/1504/1.html">Toko Nikaido</a>’s Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker, comes partly from sheer astonishment: did that angel just shoot me with a water rifle? Are they flinging around tofu and … seaweed?!</p>
<p>The performers’ frenzied dance numbers give a tantalising nod to <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/the-truth-about-viking-berserkers/">berserker warriors</a> in Scandinavian mythology who would shape-shift to non-human form in the frenzy of battle. </p>
<p>We are all transformed into pop-culture berserkers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301031/original/file-20191111-194665-jhhusl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Totes Adorbs ♥ Hurricane is a ‘deliberate overload of colour, lights, and glitter.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">OzAsia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Performers and spectators alike are whirled into a shrine to partake in a euphoric spectacle amid pop-culture icons and idols: skeleton spectres in the woodblock prints of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utagawa_Kuniyoshi#/media/File:Takiyasha_the_Witch_and_the_Skeleton_Spectre.jpg">Kuniyoshi Utagawa</a> appear side by side with anime, video-game characters, and animoji. Digital projections flicker past continuously in a deliberate overload of colour, lights, and glitter.</p>
<p>What appears on the surface as unruly indulgence conceals the careful choreography of dance sequences, songs, and the swift on-stage transformations – <a href="https://www.kabuki21.com/glossaire_3.php"><em>hengemono</em></a> – associated with the best of visual dramaturgy in kabuki. Performers character-shift before our eyes, flinging discarded costumes into the audience. Also carefully choreographed is this audience: we are ingeniously drawn into the spectacle, transforming into the actors of our dreams.</p>
<h2>Meaning where logic fails</h2>
<p>The Dark Master and Totes Adorbs ♥ Hurricane reflect two disparate arms of contemporary Japanese performance: one of hyperreal theatre, and one of underground idol performance. Yet they both showcase the immense creative potential of visuals to create meaning on stage. </p>
<p>When visual dramaturgy leads, the spectators’ sensory and physical engagement cuts through performance conventions and helps us discover meaning in those in-between states and spaces, where experiences ring true even when language and logic fail.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maggie Ivanova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A reliance on visual elements to create the world of performance in Japan traces back hundreds of years through kabuki dance-drama. Two new shows keep that tradition alive.Maggie Ivanova, Senior Lecturer, Drama, Creative and Performing Arts, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/995432018-07-12T20:08:40Z2018-07-12T20:08:40ZHaida manga: An artist embraces tragedy, beautifully<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227484/original/file-20180712-27012-qgjql3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A scene from the best-selling 'Red: A Haida Manga,' a revenge story.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mny.ca/en/work/154/RED">Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“Of all the arts of which traces remain, that of the First Nations of the Northwest coast is certainly one of the greatest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These are the words spoken by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in 1974, at an <a href="https://www.museedelhistoire.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/reid/reid09f.shtml">exhibition</a> of the work of <a href="http://theravenscall.ca/en">Bill Reid, one of the best-known artists of his generation</a> and a member of the Haida people, an Indigenous nation of the Pacific Northwest.</p>
<p>The Haida community and its art also was an inspiration to another, more contemporary artist, <a href="http://mny.ca/en/">Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas</a>, inventor of a new graphic genre: “Haida manga.”</p>
<h2>Formline: A distinct style</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225652/original/file-20180702-116132-15e8y6r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of <em>A Tale of Two Shamans</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Haida manga,” a somewhat incongruous term, describes a hybrid form of visual expression where the artist not only celebrates Haida cultural memory and merges it with Asian brush techniques, but also engages with the challenges facing all modern societies: conflict, war, the impact of human activity on the environment, climate change and intercultural relations.</p>
<p>Yahgulanaas brings to manga a visual and stylistic technique belonging to the cultures of the Pacific Northwest coast: <em>the formline</em>, or figurative line. The formline is a winding line painted in black that swells and contracts, outlining the contours of the picture’s subject.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225653/original/file-20180702-116139-nzk7ac.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of <em>Red</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of formline in mangas such as <a href="https://cotroafs.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=16622778549&amp;searchurl=&amp;cmtrack_data=cm_abecat%3D100203057"><em>A Tale of Two Shamans</em></a> (2001) and <a href="http://mny.ca/en/work/14/RED"><em>Red</em></a> (a 2009 best-seller), also conveys Yahgulanaas’ unwavering belief that, beyond differences in Indigenous and Western ways of thinking, people of all backgrounds can find common ground in shared concerns.</p>
<h2>Bridging communities</h2>
<p>Yahgulanaas was born in 1954 to a Scottish father and a Haida mother from a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359183513486231?journalCode=mcua">long line of artists</a>, who brought prestige to Haida art over the course of the 19th century.</p>
<p>He is a descendant of the famous master sculptor and jeweller Charles Edenshaw (1839-1920), the father of his great-grandmother, on his mother’s side. In his thirties, he asserted his dual heritage by adopting – alongside the surname inherited from his father – the name of his mother’s clan, “Yahgulanaas,” meaning those from the middle of the village, from the Raven moiety – Haida are divided into two matrilineal descendant groups, the Ravens and the Eagles.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225654/original/file-20180702-116114-2idz6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The two shamans in the town of Sk’a.aaws.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">_A Tale of Two Shamans_, 2011</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aware of the differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, he strived from an early age to “<a href="https://www.straight.com/article-98050/re-collecting-the-coast">play the edge between the neighbourhoods</a>” and has clearly positioned himself at the bridge between two communities that are ignorant of, and even hostile toward, each other.</p>
<p>Like fellow Haida artist and activist <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/all-that-we-say-is-ours-guujaaw-and-the-reawakening-of-the-haida-nation-by-ian-gill/article4288266/">Guujaaw</a> (Gary Edenshaw), Yahgulanaas led a fierce struggle against the <a href="http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book/all-that-we-say-is-ours">deforestation of the Haida Gwaii archipelago</a> for many years, including the famous 40-day forest-road blockade on Lyell Island, in 1985.</p>
<p>The protest was a resounding success: The timber company backed down and eight years later, a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/flashbacks-to-bc-history/article1215732/">national park was created</a>, with agreements from both the British Columbian and federal governments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225655/original/file-20180702-116152-5r4144.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=822&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graphic art intersecting several different worlds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Yahgulanaas <a href="https://www.blackdogonline.com/imported-products-20/the-seriousness-of-play">used his talent to serve his communities</a>, publishing comics denouncing logging, the impact of clear-cutting and the environmental risks posed by the movement of oil takers in the Hecate Strait, running between Haida Gwaii and the mainland.</p>
<p>His long years of activism, dedicated to protecting Haida land and the environment, have had a significant influence on his prolific work, which numbers in the thousands. Yahgulanaas is also a multimedia artist with a thriving imagination and a sculptor, creating both monumental works for public spaces and smaller pieces.</p>
<h2>Haida manga, a hybrid genre</h2>
<p>According to Yahgulanaas, the use of the term <em>manga</em> to describe the kind of images he creates was suggested to him by students who saw him as a <em>mangaka</em>, or manga artist, during a trip to Japan.</p>
<p>The name came at the right moment to define a new genre, blending a representational approach typical of Japanese manga with the Haida pictorial style, with touches of Chinese calligraphy, giving great fluidity of form to the lines contouring the panels, and opening up room for more creativity and freedom in storytelling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225659/original/file-20180702-116117-67maxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s approach is different from that of traditional artists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Red</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He then coined the name “Haida manga.” The two terms, at once opposed and complementary, encompass several key themes close to his heart, relating to art, culture, politics and identity.</p>
<p>While Yahgulanaas is clearly proud of his roots, his approach is different from that of traditional Haida artists. A self-taught sketch artist and illustrator, he has mastered a vast range of techniques, including Chinese watercolour, which he learned in 1999 with Chinese painter Cai Ben Kwon. He also gleans inspiration from Japanese woodcuts of the <em>ukiyo-e</em> school – <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm">images from the floating world</a> – and the manga tradition.</p>
<p>Yahgulanaas strives to go beyond traditional art practices with his hybrid visual art, which draws on several different traditions – Haida, Western, Chinese and Japanese, borrowing both techniques and specific forms of representation.</p>
<h2>Beyond the schism of tradition and modernity</h2>
<p>His stories come from the Haida oral tradition. <em>A Tale of Two Shamans</em> is a personal adaptation of a legend gathered in three local dialects by ethnologist <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1959.61.4.02a00120">John Swanton</a> in 1900-1901.</p>
<p>Like that of a great number of Indigenous artists and intellectuals in the region, Yahgulanaas draws on the great classics of turn-of-the-century ethnology (including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Boas">Franz Boas</a>), which now constitute an inexhaustible source of information on the mythology of the societies of the Pacific Northwest coast.</p>
<p>The plot of <em>Red</em> (like many manga characters, the main character has red hair) is inspired by a true story from the distant past, handed down within the Yahgulanaas family. It tells the tale of a young man so blinded by his lust for revenge that he almost drags his community into a bloody war.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dBbLiEqUZ-g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Yahgulanaas talks about <em>Red</em> and his approach.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yahgulanaas’ images are also inspired by visual documents and Haida artefacts.</p>
<p>Both stories are set against a backdrop of Haida Gwaii landscapes. Some scenes take place in traditional villages, with their rows of coastal houses before which stand heraldic and mortuary totem poles.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225656/original/file-20180702-116129-5rcy2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The shaman’s burial box.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A Tale of Two Shamans, 2011</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225657/original/file-20180702-116147-1pkle8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Box collected by Charles Newcombe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal B.C. Museum and Archives</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some readers will easily spot the resemblance between the drawing of the burial box containing the body of the shaman and the artefact collected at Skedans by Charles Newcombe for the American Museum of Natural History, which bears a mountain goat symbol of one of its sides. The clothes and accessories worn by the protagonists are characteristic of “traditional” dress and indicate either the character’s role or social class.</p>
<p>Yahgulanaas also plays with different historical periods. The face of one male character, Elder, is obscured behind a large moustache, as was the style among Indigenous men of the Pacific Northwest coast at the end of the 19th century. One of the female characters, Jaada, wears a western-style dress and carries a satchel, whereas the shaman, Spirit Dangerous to Offend, appears as a bare-breasted young woman with large hoop earrings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225658/original/file-20180702-116143-aa9p1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>A Tale of Two Shamans</em>, p. 108.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A genre suited to Haida traditions</h2>
<p>According to Yahgulanaas, manga is better adapted to the narrative style and specific characteristics of Haida oral traditions than Western comics which, he argues, have a tendency to depict either good or bad protagonists. The characters described in Pacific Northwest coastal myths are highly complex. Take, for instance, the Raven, <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01324646">famed trickster and creator of the world and men</a>, whose contradictory character is both generous and mean.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100267050">Yahgulanaas</a> said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“ I use a unique blend of comic and traditional style to ask the reader to question pre-existing assumptions and fantasies about the People who produced the morally ambiguous narratives – about the Raven for instance.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Duel stylistic reconfiguration</h2>
<p>From an artistic perspective, Haida manga allows the artist to adapt a <a href="https://www.billreidgallery.ca/products/the-seriousness-of-play?variant=12286244126803">traditional style with canonical rules</a> to another pictorial tradition while distancing himself from Western comic traditions through manga.</p>
<p>Yahgulanaas believes this dual stylistic reconfiguration opens up a new conceptual space, highlighting affinities between the different cultures of the North Pacific: those of the Pacific Northwest coast and those of East Asia.</p>
<p>The blending of the two styles is also a political statement, relegating European-American visual influences to the background, with their associations of colonialism and domination of Indigenous cultures:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I was attracted to manga because it is not part of a colonial tradition […] and it is not linked to the colonization of our country. [Also,] manga has roots in the North Pacific, just like Haida art,” <a href="https://www.blackdogonline.com/imported-products-20/the-seriousness-of-play">he explained</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>“The black line becomes a prop for the characters to play with”</h2>
<p>Yahgulanaas takes his experimentation and genre mixing to a new level, using curved formlines as outlines for his panels. This means that, according to the conventions of Pacific Northwest coastal art, the negative spaces created by the figurative black lines become positive spaces where the action takes place and the characters move.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225670/original/file-20180702-116139-7gujgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The line becomes the surface of the water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A Tale of Two Shamans, p. 13</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since positive space is the place where the story takes place, the formlines are part of the narrative itself. Sometimes a scene or a character – or part of their body – spills out of the frame, encroaching on another panel. The black line is also a prop for the characters to play with, what they grab, hang off, or lean over. It is transformed into part of the landscape. In <em>Tale of the Two Shamans</em>, it is the surface of the water where Elder rows his canoe. In <em>Red</em>, it is part of a tree or the edge of a forest, it traces the outline of a character and, in one instance, becomes a weapon, the bow that will kill Red, as if the bow were part of a whole.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225661/original/file-20180702-116126-1ll3hwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The formline becomes a bow, <em>Red</em>, p. 103.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some writers, such as <a href="https://anth.ubc.ca/faculty/nicola-levell/">anthropologist Nicola Levell</a> and art historian <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d1zFGQW2i4">Judith Ostrowitz</a>, have remarked that, for Yahgulanaas, formline is not a purely formal stylistic element used in his mangas.</p>
<p>Rather, it serves as a kind of visual metaphor or dialectic tool to juxtapose a Haida vision of the world with Western ways of seeing, when it comes to space-time, or the connections between the people in it and their relationship to the environment.</p>
<p>Yahgulanaas’ artistic approach goes against the grain of the Western comic tradition, with its white frames where space becomes time, structuring the narrative in a way that, for him, does not suit the Haida way of thinking.</p>
<p>He expressed this idea in picture form, in a comedic ink sketch titled <em>In the Gutter</em> (2011), which pokes fun at the way frames are used in Western comics, attributing political and historical meaning to these blank spaces.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225662/original/file-20180702-116139-1hy9zl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>In the Gutter</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicola Levell, 'Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: The Seriousness of Play,' 2016, p. 75.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Yahgulanaas, filling empty spaces or frames with images and the “full” nature of the formlines (as opposed to the empty gutter) act as a kind of history lesson. The lines denounce the commonly accepted narrative that the land colonized by Europeans was empty space – <em>terra nullius</em> – when it was in fact inhabited by autonomous peoples governed by their own laws. A prime example of this way of thinking can be seen in <em>Red</em>.</p>
<p>With his Haida mangas, he has opened up an international dialogue. In <em>Red</em>, the assembly of images connected by the winding – and seemingly fragmented – formlines cannot truly be understood until the reader has reached the end of the book.</p>
<p>There, a double-page image reproduces a five-by-two-metre fresco, made up of 108 panels painted in watercolour, which inspired the manga.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=223&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225663/original/file-20180702-116147-1cyyzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The formlines of the panels in <em>Red</em>, set side by side, form a new picture. <em>Red</em>, pp. 110-111.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the mural is reconstructed, you can see a stylized image of a supernatural entity, or Haida motif (an animal figure, ancestor or social group). This stylized image is in line with canonical two-dimensional art from the Pacific Northwest coast – although bearing no relation to the plot – links all the panels and pages of the book.</p>
<p>Always happy to explain his work, Yahgulanaas emphasizes that the unexpected presence of the motif should raise our awareness of the various, divergent realities outside of our own world:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The mural is a way of understanding how we are all connected to each other, and moving through the same space.”</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>This piece was published in collaboration with the blog of <a href="https://blogterrain.hypotheses.org/">Terrain</a>, a journal of anthropology and social sciences.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Mauzé ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The “Haida manga” by Indigenous artist Yahgulanaas opens a graphic dialogue between the different cultures of the Pacific Northwest and East Asia.Marie Mauzé, Anthropologue, Directrice de recherche au CNRS, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/968082018-05-17T13:14:00Z2018-05-17T13:14:00ZSeven comics with vital things to say about humanity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219410/original/file-20180517-26295-1pqzvdh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taken from Persepolis. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">1. Marjane Satrapi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Palestinian literary critic and thinker Edward Said read the comic book <a href="http://www.fantagraphics.com/palestine/">Palestine (1997)</a> by Joe Sacco, he called it a work of “extraordinary originality” – and one of the best attempts to capture the country’s turmoil. Originally published as a serial, Palestine was one of the first examples of journalism as graphic art. Sacco uses it to present the Palestinians in a more sympathetic light, telling the story of his travels in the country and the people he met there. </p>
<p>Said, a longstanding Palestine activist who wrote the book’s introduction, compared reading it to the experiences he had as a child – when comics freed him to think and imagine and see the world differently. He <a href="http://journeyofideasacross.hkw.de/anti-narratives-and-beyond/edward-w-said.html">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Comics played havoc with the logic of a+b+c+d and they certainly encouraged one not to think in terms of what the teacher expected or what a subject like history demanded. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219396/original/file-20180517-155573-5kvi6u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scene from Sacco’s Palestine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Sacco.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s a long way from comics as mere light entertainment. Comics offer endless ways to tell stories about ourselves and about one another. What follows is my list of six more groundbreaking examples. They all teach us about our world in refreshing and rewarding – not to mention very funny – ways.</p>
<h2>1. Persepolis (2000-03)</h2>
<p>This is a delightful, funny and moving tale about Iran, very much created with non-Iranians in mind. Marjane Satrapi does a brilliant job of demystifying the country by telling the story of her family and her own experiences growing up there. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219398/original/file-20180517-26266-16e2wyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using stark black and white drawings that bring an unexpected amount of colour, Persepolis immerses readers in a world where girls play with their new headscarves and a young Marjane converses with God and Karl Marx. </p>
<p>The comic was adapted into a must-see <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/">animated film</a> in 2007, which Satrapi co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud. Satrapi has <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/emma-watson-interviews-marjane-satrapi">spoken about</a> how humour can connect people from diverse backgrounds – and the success of Persepolis and her <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6238.Marjane_Satrapi">other works</a> are certainly testament to this. </p>
<h2>2. The Four Immigrants Manga (1931)</h2>
<p>Perhaps the first American full-length documentary comic, <a href="http://www.jai2.com/HK.htm">The Four Immigrants Manga</a> was originally self-published by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama. Over 52 humorous episodes, it recounts the misadventures of four young Japanese migrants in San Francisco in the early 20th century as they try to find work, romance and new way of life. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219402/original/file-20180517-26295-amd0lc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arrival in San Francisco.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Drawn in a style reminiscent of earlier American strips such as <a href="http://www.tcj.com/chics-blondie/">Blondie</a> by Chic Young and <a href="http://comicskingdom.com/bringing-up-father">Bringing up Father</a> by George McManus, each episode ends with a “gag”. Yet the stories by Kiyama – himself an original Japanese immigrant – also offer invaluable insights into the difficult living conditions and struggles against discriminatory policies and legislation that <a href="http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/642-issei.html">the Issei</a> faced after they arrived in the United States. </p>
<h2>3. The Photographer (2003-06)</h2>
<p>The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders tells of the impact of war on civilian populations. Angelina Jolie <a href="http://firstsecondbooks.typepad.com/mainblog/2009/06/angelina-jolie-on-the-photographer.html">lauded it</a> for making “Afghanistan, a distant land, a foreign culture, a courageous and resilient people seem closer, more familiar”. </p>
<p>The story is told from the perspective of Didier Lefèvre, a photojournalist invited to accompany Médecins Sans Frontières on a mission into northern Afghanistan in 1986, during the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/08/the-soviet-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/100786/">Afghan-Soviet War</a>, to document the devastation of war and the attempts of ordinary Afghans to live their lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219411/original/file-20180517-26263-14wwg9g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emmanuel Guibert/Didier Lefèvre/Frederic Lemercier</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Photographer combines Lefèvre’s photographic contact sheets with drawn strips by Emmanuel Guibert to produce a work that is poignant and often mesmerising. </p>
<h2>4. Billy, Me & You (2011)</h2>
<p>Nicola Streeten’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/15/nicola-streeten-graphic-book-death-child">graphic memoir</a> tells of the devastating loss of her two-year old son, Billy, after he underwent heart surgery. Drawn on lined paper and built from the diary she kept at the time, Billy, Me & You explores in harrowing detail Streeten’s anger, rage and despair. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219412/original/file-20180517-26281-1s283i7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicola Streeten</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one particularly memorable sequence, the British artist silently awards people marks out of ten for the reaction to Billy’s death. Sadness and bereavement mingle with the absurd and humorous, revealing how loss and recovery can shape a mother’s life. </p>
<h2>5. Big Kids (2016)</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219414/original/file-20180517-26277-ak92i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael DeForge</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Coloured in a bright pop style, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25666072-big-kids">Michael DeForge’s story</a> about adolescence is at once familiar and strange. It tells of a teenage boy exploring his sexuality while his body changes, but intermingled with moments when his family and friends transition into twigs. Yes, twigs. </p>
<p>DeForge’s abstract style does a great job of mimicking the feelings of discomfort and alienation and that come with growing up. </p>
<h2>6. American Born Chinese (2006)</h2>
<p>Gene Luen Yang’s comic is <a href="http://cbldf.org/2013/07/using-graphic-novels-in-education-american-born-chinese/">now taught</a> in American high schools, and with good reason. This cleverly constructed work weaves together three distinct narratives about (not) fitting in, which unite at the end of the story. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219415/original/file-20180517-26263-1hvt7xd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gene Luen Yang</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It focuses on Chin-Kee, a Chinese boy who comes to America to visit his cousin Danny. Drawing on the Chinese legend of the <a href="http://www.visiontimes.com/2016/11/02/famous-chinese-legends-the-story-of-the-monkey-king.html">Monkey King</a>, as well as cultural stereotypes, it raises penetrating questions about what it means to accept one’s identity and background. It <a href="http://cbldf.org/2013/07/using-graphic-novels-in-education-american-born-chinese/">won</a> the Michael L Printz Award for young adult literature in 2007.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Find out how comics are produced:</strong></p>
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FConversationUK%2Fvideos%2F946207122214295%2F&show_text=0&width=560" width="100%" height="364" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Golnar Nabizadeh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why this art form is rather more than just biff, bang pow.Golnar Nabizadeh, Lecturer in Comic Studies, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/671872016-11-23T08:14:31Z2016-11-23T08:14:31ZWhat is kawaii – and why did the world fall for the ‘cult of cute’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146641/original/image-20161118-19361-x61hs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Musubizm at J Pop Summit; a masterclass in cute</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flickr.com/photos/48015809@N00/19853813364">youngelectricpop via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This is a true story. One Saturday night, I was sitting with a friend in a trendy downtown bar, when two grown women casually strolled past in ruffled dresses, bonnets and parasols, wheeling matching baby carriages. Out of these peeked little poodles wearing complementary pastel baby clothes. We were of course in Japan, but still, what on earth was going on?</p>
<p>Yes, I had once again been confronted by the strange, fascinating world of “<em>kawaii</em>”, or cute culture. Visits to Japanese cities reverberating with squeals of “<em>Kawaaaiiiiiii</em>!!!” may make this fad easy to dismiss as just another exoticism of the East. Yet the presence of costumed adults lining up for London’s own <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3884818/A-host-Harley-Quinns-pack-Jokers-Chewbacca-Thousands-gamers-sci-fi-fans-movie-buffs-descend-London-s-Comic-Con.html">Comic-Con</a>, a <a href="http://www.swarovski.com/Web_GB/en/5174647/product/Hello_Kitty,_Limited_Edition_2016.html">Swarovski-encrusted Hello Kitty</a> worth thousands of pounds, and the profiling of Lolita fashion in <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/inside-the-magical-world-of-lolitas">magazine articles</a> and <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/japanese-street-style/">V&A exhibits</a>, show that cute culture is not just spreading beyond Asia, but it’s here to stay. And it means business.</p>
<p>So, what is <em>kawaii</em> and why here and why now? As the Japanese word for cute, <em>kawaii</em> has connotations of shyness, embarrassment, vulnerability, darlingness and lovability. Think babies and small fluffy creatures. In many cases, it is a signifier for innocence, youth, charm, openness and naturalness, while its darker aspects have led it to be rather brutally applied to frailty and even physical handicap as a marker of adorability. You may not have noticed, but look carefully and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/top-cat-how-hello-kitty-conquered-the-world-831522.html">Hello Kitty has no mouth</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146578/original/image-20161118-19348-j7j7gi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hello Kitty: mouthless, voiceless.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-221131861/stock-photo-zagreb-croatia-october-1st-2014-hello-kitty-children-cartoon-character-printed-on-box-product-shot.html?src=0fl_7OZHiQur15o0AAwcGw-1-16">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As <em>kawaii</em> suggests, cute culture first originated in Japan, emerging out of the student protests of the <a href="http://apjjf.org/2015/13/11/Oguma-Eiji/4300.html">late-1960s</a>. Rebelling against authority, Japanese university students refused to go to lectures, reading children’s comics (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga"><em>manga</em></a>) in protest against prescribed academic knowledge. </p>
<p>As the economy progressed through the 1970s and 1980s, so did consumer subcultures – and cute as a style began to be expressed through childish handwriting, speech, dress, products, shops, cafes and food. Meanwhile, as Japanese women became more visible at work, so the “<em>burikko</em>” or childlike woman emerged, portraying an innocence and adorability that alleviated the threat of female emancipation, increasing her appeal as a potential marriage partner. </p>
<h2>The Lost Decade</h2>
<p>By the 1990s, Japan’s period of economic crisis was well underway, and many Japanese subcultures fled into the international market. <a href="https://www.cardpartner.com/cobrand/app/hello-kitty">Banks</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2751742/Making-fur-fly-Taiwanese-Hello-Kitty-plane-makes-Paris-debut-honour-cute-cartoon-character-s-40th-birthday.html">commercial airlines</a> began to explore cute as a strategy to increase their appeal, and cultural forms followed in the footsteps of the once invincible Japanese corporate machine, spreading the soft power of Japanese modernity. </p>
<p>Where Nissan, Mitsubishi, Sony and Nintendo had carved a path, so trod Japanese anime, film and music. The 1990s also saw the refreshing of the ultimate <em>kawaii</em> brand, Hello Kitty, expanded to include products aimed at teens and adults rather than pre-adolescent girls. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146580/original/image-20161118-19345-1n9ro3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eva Air: taking to the skies with Hello Kitty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/129575161@N05/18391149750/in/photolist-4F5u3s-4F5tYQ-bdFnRr-bdFp1H-4F5u1y-eFaemy-eF47yk-bdFmCH-7nywno-bdEXeV-bdEVZV-7nyxx1-dRxQD2-7nyxTW-bdEUDV-7nuASp-bdES26-bdEYBV-bdFqce-7nyvfd-dQivrK-7nyA9S-dRDoB3-7nuDwT-7nyyGL-7nuA8H-bdETmF-AqkUUC-bnZaZZ-dQp7mj-u2as5N-7nyzKJ-7nuy2R-bnZh5H-oXLgPF-7nyuyf-7nysuw-7nuz5R-7nuBeX-7nyxaf-7nyudh-7nyz47-peSyEA-7nyzoq-7nywLY-CSDGZp-CQoa6C-N7py3E-Loq73T-Loq6GT">Masakatsu Ukon via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of the 1990s wider spread of Japanese culture, <em>kawaii</em> is undoubtedly indebted. However, its persistence well into the 21st century shows that something else is now afoot. Cute culture is everywhere and claimed by everyone, regardless of age, gender and nationality. More than the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror, it is the collectable branded official merchandise of cartoons and comics, the endless animations and <a href="http://marvel.com/movies/all">superhero films</a>, the doll-like dresses of <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/lolita-brolita-japanese-fashion-culture-guide/">“Lolita” fashion</a> and the phone-clutching clusters of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/12/pokemon-go-becomes-global-phenomenon-as-number-of-us-users-overtakes-twitter">Pokemon Go</a> players. </p>
<p>Importantly, it does not seem to rely on Japan, but has become homegrown in multiple locations, with global participants consuming and contributing in equal measure. At first glance, it appears these childlike adults, like the proverbial Peter Pan, don’t want to grow up – but how convenient for business that they can whip consumers into a frenzy, reducing grown men and women into childish, irrational desire. Cute culture is capitalism disguised, repackaged and covered in glitter.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146582/original/image-20161118-19340-ik5zua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pokemon Go, on the road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-452113801/stock-photo-california-united-state-july-2016-hand-holding-a-cellphone-playing-pokemon-go-game-while-driving-indicating-dangerous.html?src=kaMLdGNEHhDTdWsw_XvAmA-1-11">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A force for good?</h2>
<p>Looking at the adult landscape, with its pressures of debt, competition and responsibility, it is no wonder that people want to escape into the infinite time, space and promise of childhood. Cute becomes a way of resisting the adult world. It’s not just a means of escape and denial, but also a way to fight back against the curtailment of possibility. Japanese women used cute culture as a denial of female sexuality and all the subjugation it implied. Meanwhile in the West, cute becomes a foil for millennials against the diminishing of privileges that mark the end of the late-20th century as a Golden Age.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UzGmw7OFTGE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>So, is cute culture good or bad? Perhaps both and neither. A legitimate subcultural form and a soporific soother, it is a form of resistance and a capitalist pacification. Symptom and cure, it is ultimate allowance and refusal. Childhood means the luxury of not growing up, but also denial of adulthood and the refusal of responsibility. But while <em>kawaii</em> may seem like a closing of one door, held in its small furled fist is a key that opens another. To be simultaneously adult and child means to straddle both worlds, a symbol of resistance and boundless possibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hui-Ying Kerr received funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) from 2010 - 2013 as part of her PhD research on Japan in the 1980s. </span></em></p>From Hello Kitty and ‘Lolita’ fashion to Pokemon Go, millions of adults are seeking an endless childhood.Hui-Ying Kerr, Senior Lecturer in Product Design, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/481502015-10-07T01:14:51Z2015-10-07T01:14:51ZExplainer: what is fanfiction?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96123/original/image-20150924-17092-19s69hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fanfiction: all it takes is to imagine a story beyond the canonical work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kristina Alexanderson/flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Consider yourself a stranger to <a href="http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanfiction">fanfiction</a>? It’s unlikely.</p>
<p>If you’ve read E.L. James’ <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10818853-fifty-shades-of-grey">50 Shades of Grey</a> (2011) then you already have at least one title under your belt. If you caught Robert Downey Jr’s turn as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/">Sherlock Holmes</a> (2009), that’s another.</p>
<p>So what is it? At its most basic, fanfiction is a genre of amateur fiction writing that takes as its basis a “canon” of “original” material.</p>
<p>This original material is most often popular books, television shows and movies – but can expand to almost anything, from the lives of celebrities to the travels of inanimate objects like the Mars rover.</p>
<p><a href="http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanwork">Fanworks</a>, including fanfiction and fanart, are created by fans who are invested in the source material. They seek to expand the narrative universe and share their personal creations with other fans for free.</p>
<h2>Fanfiction in other guises</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1224&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96727/original/image-20150930-19539-qad8ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alice in Wonderland fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/randar/10830360545/in/album-72157637616324065/">Mary Blair/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The main impulse behind fanfiction has always been a playful desire to engage with original works. Yet authors are still subject to modern copyright laws. In Australia, the US and the EU, copyright exists for the lifetime of the author plus seventy years.</p>
<p>Many early Disney film adaptations were derivative works based on out-of-copyright novels – think <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/">Alice in Wonderland</a> (1951) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061852/">The Jungle Book</a> (1967). In a way this could be considered a form of fanfiction.</p>
<p>Today, existing restrictions mean those interested in “remixing” copyrighted material create online communities to discuss and distribute their work freely. One of the aims of the fan-led <a href="http://transformativeworks.org/">Organisation of Transformative Works</a> is to fight for the validity of <a href="http://transformativeworks.org/projects/legal">fair use laws</a>.</p>
<p>Still, the amateur status copyright law forces on fanworks is one of the reasons fanfiction as a whole is regarded with some derision.</p>
<p>This is one reason why the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-literary-pilgrimage-from-bronteites-to-twihards-43465">Twilight</a> fanfiction origins of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-is-just-an-old-fashioned-romance-thats-the-problem-37440">50 Shades of Grey</a> were obscured. Due to residual textual and thematic similarities, the question of <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/14/50-shades-copyright-infringement/">copyright infringement</a> remains open.</p>
<p>Still, canonical works have remained a source of creative inspiration.</p>
<p>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/188572.The_Complete_Sherlock_Holmes">Sherlock Holmes</a> (1887-1927) series has spawned a veritable industry of derivative works, both sanctioned and <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-sherlock-holmes-the-copyright-battle-of-baker-street-18544">unsanctioned</a>. Many successful novelists, including Colleen McCullough with <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3919195-the-independence-of-miss-mary-bennet">The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett</a> (2009), publish literary <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/jane-austen-fanfiction">reimaginings of Jane Austen’s novels</a>.</p>
<p>The “fanfiction” classification usually results from the context of creation and circulation rather than anything inherent to the subject matter or quality of writing.</p>
<h2>It’s fiction, Jim, but not as we know it…</h2>
<p>Popular culture academics in the US and the UK trace the beginnings of an identifiable fan culture and community from the 1970s. These tendencies were first identified by <a href="http://henryjenkins.org/">Henry Jenkins</a> in <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219853.Textual_Poachers">Textual Poachers</a> (1992).</p>
<p>There is early evidence of fans coming together around science fiction television shows like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057765/?ref_=nv_sr_2">The Man From U.N.C.LE.</a> (1964-1968) and the original <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060028/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Star Trek</a> (1966-1969).</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96162/original/image-20150925-17079-6po5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853096845/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Comparable communities formed around anime and manga in Japan during the 1980s. The influential all-female manga artist group <a href="http://myanimelist.net/people/1877/CLAMP">Clamp</a> first came to prominence through <a href="http://www.mangahere.co/doujinshi/">Doujinshi</a> (amateur, self-published works) based on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294023/">Captain Tsubasa</a> (1983-1986) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161952/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Saint Seiya</a> (1986-1989).</p>
<p>Today, thanks to the internet, connecting to other fans has never been easier. This level of accessibility has lead to a remarkable proliferation of what was once considered an obscure subculture.</p>
<p>In the digital realm, just one popular archival site – <a href="http://www.wattpad.com">www.wattpad.com</a> – currently hosts a staggering 40 million users a month.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to find a pop culture phenomenon today – from the <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe_Wiki">Marvel Cinematic Universe</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/">Game of Thrones</a> (2011-present) to K-dramas (Korean dramas) like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2449910/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Coffee Prince</a> (2012-present) and <a href="http://www.bollywoodnewsworld.com/whatisbollywood/">Bollywood</a> movies – that does not have fanfiction written about it.</p>
<h2>Why do people write and read it?</h2>
<p>Fanfiction enables readers, writers, and sometimes even <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-the-english-professor-who-taught-fanfic-at-an-ivy-league-university-42664">literary professors</a> to play in an imaginative sandbox, interpreting and reinterpreting events, relationships and characters to flesh out different scenarios.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96131/original/image-20150925-17096-zqiiuj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853507134/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The power of fanfiction stems from the fact that it actively invites writers to break down boundaries considered “natural” in a broader cultural context – primarily around sex, sexuality, and gender.</p>
<p>Fanfiction communities often critically engage with stories not written specifically for them. With doubts swirling over whether Marvel will <a href="http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/the-avengers-why-marvels-refusal-to-make-a-black-widow-movie-is-a-case-of-depressing-hollywood-sexis">ever make a Black Widow movie</a>, is it any wonder female fans feel the need to create their own stories?</p>
<p>These reinterpretations interact with canonical events – actual events from the original text – in different ways, “filling in” unexplored aspects of a scene, or “fixing” things that were dissatisfying or problematic.</p>
<p>Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse’s study, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186225.Fan_Fiction_and_Fan_Communities_in_the_Age_of_the_Internet">Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet</a> (2006), found that fanfiction is primarily written by women, of all ages and sexual identities, and tends to explore – or “<a href="http://the-toast.net/2015/09/30/a-linguist-explains-the-grammar-of-shipping/">ship</a>” – intimate and romantic relationships between characters.</p>
<p>Fans themselves have attempted to quantify the <a href="http://melannen.dreamwidth.org/77558.html">demographic diversity</a> of readers and writers, with over 10,000 participants taking part in one particular <a href="http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/63208278796/ao3-census-masterpost">survey</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96133/original/image-20150925-17087-1s6sv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Game of Thrones fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimikaweb/12853163133/in/photolist-bxMryU-bqTTFk-wEeej6-pPfZG3-cARMRA-caNZGo-kzPzRY-kzMtU2-kzMPAV-9Vir2x-iYaAZT-fk6UMe">MiMiKa Z/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Situated within such a demographic, fanfiction becomes a unique space within which a much more fluid approach to ideas of what is “possible” or “realistic” is encouraged. </p>
<p>As a result, fanfiction faces the same criticism as many genres where <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-kids-men-are-better-writers-than-women-34348">women</a> predominate, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/bodice-rippers-and-bad-education-do-romance-novels-lead-to-sexual-mistakes-2283">romance novels</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/telling-the-real-story-diversity-in-young-adult-literature-46268">young adult literature</a>. Sarah Rees Brennan, a fanfiction writer who went “pro”, <a href="http://sarahreesbrennan.tumblr.com/post/77926940735/ok-dont-get-me-wrong-because-its-just">writes about her experiences</a> in this context. </p>
<p>Those fans not engaged in fanfiction sometimes <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/news/sherlock-fanfic-caitlin-moran/">mock</a> fanfiction writers for being “delusional”, questioning the “realism” of the relationships featured in fanworks. Additionally, since a lot of fanfiction is explicitly erotic, it becomes the target of <a href="http://flavorwire.com/380348/the-most-hilariously-disturbing-band-fanfiction-youll-ever-read">parody</a>. </p>
<p>The sheer volume and variable quality of fanfiction makes it an even easier target. Instead, I’d argue that the uneven quality of fanfiction reflects the low barrier of entry to the community rather than an inherent lack of value in the genre.</p>
<h2>What are examples of the pitfalls?</h2>
<p>This is not to say that the potential for subversion is always expressed unproblematically.</p>
<p>While transgressive in some ways, fanfiction writers and readers remain enmeshed within social power hierarchies. These communities <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/diversity-in-fanfic/">do engage in self-critique</a>, but issues of sexism and racism still persist. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96125/original/image-20150924-17083-7theoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coffee Prince fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/48652201@N06/5589672419/in/photolist-9vWwSp-wUZ1uX-4kn3Up-fPzHRX-hobpyC-i73nMh-bH9D8F-dNZ1Uw-ieMyLc-epzSs9-wCmZGh-ibDReg-ieMBz9-uYDJZ7-goYCy-N5BL-f1XMYQ-dGgFPq-hoaM6t-55bWJD-drY8L1-eX6n7w-dyauYM-kdiq5a-nBAtzJ-ew9of7-ffdsF3-f8rVfY-6xauhX-gcvkvn-bjJzF1-feAgow-6PxGnk-2nEkS-dmqVJq-dCzYoB-51mtG8-ddMNZm-vVELg4-vDb8sv-wCkQMo-vRtY6m-mXtoQQ-erndpA-ejqMzf-fPFPre-abhs3C-ejk5Gx-ejqLUY-nBAcY1">Liz Mogollon/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most English language fanfiction, whether it involves straight or queer relationships, remains concerned with white characters.</p>
<p>This is partly a reflection of the racial biases that still plague the production of the (mostly US) popular films and television shows that form the basis of these communities.</p>
<p>However, it is a worrying trend that even when non-white characters have significant roles in a canonical work, fanfiction very often fails to register this – or worse, undercuts it.</p>
<p>In Marvel Cinematic Universe fanfiction, characters of colour receive significantly less attention than their white counterparts. Clearly, interracial pairings (red) receive far less attention.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/p0pOa/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It is not surprising that <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_America">Steve Rogers (Captain America)</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_Soldier">Bucky Barnes’ (Winter Soldier)</a> close canon relationship has prompted a great deal of fanfiction, but the difference concerning the number of stories about <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Falcon">Sam Wilson’s (Falcon)</a> pivotal relationship with Rogers is startling. The fact that there is more fanfiction for Rogers and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Darcy_Lewis">Darcy Lewis</a>, characters who have never met in canon, is further proof of this imbalance.</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hawkeye">Clint Barton (Hawkeye)</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Phil_Coulson">Phillip Coulson</a> barely interact in the films, they have prompted a very significant output of fanworks. <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Man">Tony Stark’s (Iron Man)</a> close friend <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/War_Machine">James Rhodes (War Machine)</a> is paired with him rarely whereas there are many stories featuring Stark alongside Rogers, <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Pepper_Potts">Pepper Potts</a> and <a href="http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hulk">Bruce Banner (The Hulk)</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, while fanfiction based around non-US media like Bollywood films, anime or K-pop doesn’t have the same problems regarding race and ethnicity, it still must negotiate its own cultural prejudices.</p>
<h2>Disrupting the canon</h2>
<p>As Alexis Lothian, Kristina Busse and Robin Anne Reid <a href="http://queergeektheory.org/docs/Lothian_QFS.pdf">conclude</a>, fanfiction provides a fluid space for (mainly) queer women writers and readers to engage with the various pop cultural narratives that influence their lives.</p>
<p>These negotiations, while messy and problematic, retain the potential to (re)fashion the “canon” to be inclusive of a broader range of human experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96183/original/image-20150925-16039-1je7u1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hunger Games fanart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jade_lilly/8267232152/in/photolist-dAxJ6o-84cjzq-6K69Bk-4HXWuW-9yQaka-wEeej6-7YsygX-88qXsb-9D8Rfu-kzPzBu-aaLEbG-63eamZ-6DDz52-5LTVh1-8NCedK-j7hftv-dCL1Wi-5WF7rn-bQknrB-db39s4-nw1ssy-zKDkk-nfX3r7-kzMFKr-ddTcpM-kzMywr-aDAEgd-aDAEfy-kzMdv6-8yBGKw-fteLMX-CtXxR-4vnGgp-eaZ5V3-eAFTh1-dKDLrV-79bw31-eaTvNX-eaZ7wS-eaZ5MC-dwZXq9-6oX5ro-6oSVXH-6oX4Xm-5Vaurd-eaTuec-7YVQSR-nhHmwM-659DCc-7YZ1tU">Jade Lilly/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rukmini Pande does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fanfiction is nebulous, confusing and often mocked. It’s also explosively popular. So what is it?Rukmini Pande, PhD researcher in the fields of Popular Culture and Postcolonialism, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452752015-08-06T10:07:40Z2015-08-06T10:07:40ZThe deep influence of the A-bomb on anime and manga<p>At the end of Katsuhiro Otomo’s dystopian Japanese anime film Akira, a throbbing, white mass <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyDl_cOWBCE">begins to envelop Neo-Tokyo</a>. Eventually, its swirling winds engulf the metropolis, swallowing it whole and leaving a skeleton of a city in its wake.</p>
<p>The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – along with the firebombings of Tokyo – were traumatic experiences for the Japanese people. It’s no surprise that for years, the devastation remained at the forefront of their conscience, and that part of the healing process meant returning to this imagery in literature, in music and in art. </p>
<p>The finale of Akira is only one example of apocalyptic imagery in the anime and manga canon; a number of anime films and comics are rife with atomic bomb references, which appear in any number of forms, from the symbolic to the literal. The devastating aftereffects – orphaned kids, radiation sickness, a loss of national independence, the destruction of nature – would also influence the genre, giving rise to a unique (and arguably incomparable) form of comics and animated film.</p>
<p>The directors and artists who witnessed the devastation firsthand were at the forefront of this movement. Yet to this day – 75 years after the bombs – these themes continue to be explored by their successors. </p>
<h2>An iconic filmmaker paves the way</h2>
<p>We can see the lasting images of the firebombings and the atomic bombs in the works of artist and director Osamu Tezuka and his successor, Hayao Miyazaki. Both had <a href="http://japanfocus.org/-Yuki-TANAKA/3412/article.html">witnessed</a> the devastation of the bombings at the end of the war. </p>
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<span class="caption">Osamu Tezuka would go on to influence scores of Japanese animators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Tezuka_Osamu.JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>The bomb became a particular obsession of Tezuka’s. His films and comics both address themes like coping with grief and the idea that nature, in all its beauty, can be compromised by man’s desire to conquer it. </p>
<p>His stories often have a young character who is orphaned by particular circumstances and must survive on his own. Two examples are Little Wansa, about a puppy who escapes from his new owners and spends the series looking for his mother; and Young Bear Cub, who gets lost in the wild and must find his own way back to his family. </p>
<h2>Misuse of technology</h2>
<p>The tensions of technology are apparent in the works of Tezuka and his successors. In Tezuka’s Astro Boy, a scientist attempts to fill the void left by his son’s death by creating a humanlike android named <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3UbaB7oPTw">Astro Boy</a>.</p>
<p>Astro Boy’s father, seeing that technology cannot replace his son completely, rejects his creation, who is then taken under the wing of another scientist. Astro Boy eventually finds his calling and becomes a superhero. </p>
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<span class="caption">Astro Boy is one of many characters symbolizing the fusion of technology and nature, and the tension created by its capacity for both advancement and destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/124561666@N02/14381338346">TNS Sofres/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Like Tezuka, the award-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki witnessed some of the American air raids as a child. </p>
<p>Miyazaki’s work often refers to the abuse of technology, and contains pleas for human restraint. In Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the radioactive mutants populate the land; at the beginning of the film, the narrator describes the strange, mutated state of Earth as a direct result of man’s misuse of nuclear technology.</p>
<p>In the postwar years, Japan grew into an economic superpower. Possessing a fascination with technology, the country became a world leader in the production of cars and electronics. Yet in characters like Astro Boy, we see some of the tensions of the modern age: the idea that technology can never replace humans, and that technology’s capacity for helping mankind is only equaled by its capacity to destroy it.</p>
<h2>Orphans and mutants</h2>
<p>There were also the aftereffects of the bombs, some of which are still felt today: children left parentless, others (even the unborn) left permanently crippled by radiation.</p>
<p>For these reasons, a recurrent theme in anime films is the orphan who has to survive on his own without the help of adults (many of whom are portrayed as incompetent). </p>
<p>Akiyuki Nosaka relayed his personal experiences as a child during the war in the popular anime film Grave of the Fireflies, which tells the story of a young boy and his sister escaping from the air raids and the firebombings, scraping by on whatever rations they can find during last part of the war.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Grave of the Fireflies.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Meanwhile, there are often young, powerful female orphans or independent female youths in Hayao Miyazaki’s works, whether it’s in Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, or Castle in the Sky. </p>
<p>Likewise, in Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, <a href="http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/criti_1290-7839_2000_num_7_1_1577">the adults are the ones who squabble</a>: they jockey for power, and their lust for control of the strange, alien technology of Akira causes the atomic-bomb-like catastrophe at the end of the film. The teenaged characters, on the other hand, display common sense throughout the movie.</p>
<p>The message seems to be that adults can be reckless when man’s desire for power and ambition outweigh what is important on Earth. And the children, still untainted by the vices that overtake humanity in adulthood and innocent enough to the point of thinking rationally, are the ones who end up making the most practical decisions overall. </p>
<p>Many families were orphaned by the war, and the bomb as well, so a number of children were also mutated or affected by the bomb. In anime and manga, this is seen in the form of radioactive mutations or having some extraordinary powers, in addition to taking on more adult responsibilities at an early age.</p>
<p>A number of films feature characters who display special powers or abilities, with radiation often being the main cause. Several films exploring the idea of unusual events or experiments resulting in young persons having exceptional abilities include Inazuman in the comic of the same name and the character Ellis in the comic El Cazador de la Bruja (The Hunter of the Witch). </p>
<p>Additionally, the manga series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCHbF9lG3lE">Barefoot Gen</a> tells the story of a family wiped out by the atomic bomb, with a young boy and his mother the only survivors. Author Keiji Nakazawa loosely <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/keiji-nakazawa-comic-book-artist-who-cast-unflinching-eye-on-hiroshima-bomb-dies/2013/01/10/9fa6faa0-5a85-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html">based these comics on his own life</a>: growing up, Nakazawa watched a sister die several weeks after birth from radiation sickness, and witnessed his mother’s health quickly deteriorate in the years after the war.</p>
<h2>Death, rebirth and hope for the future</h2>
<p>Osamu Tezuka believed that the atomic bomb acted as the epitome of man’s inherent capacity for destruction. Yet while Tezuka commonly referenced death and war, he also believed in the <a href="http://japanfocus.org/-Yuki-TANAKA/3412/article.html">perseverance of mankind</a> and its ability to begin anew. </p>
<p>In a number of his works, both a futuristic and historic Japan are seen, with the themes of death and rebirth being commonly used as plot devices to symbolize Japan’s (and the lives of many Japanese) wartime and postwar experiences, including the aftermath of its destruction after the bombs fell. But much like the Phoenix – the mythical bird that sets itself on fire at the time of its death, only to experience a rebirth – Tezuka’s Japan experiences <a href="http://tezukainenglish.com/wp/osamu-tezuka-manga/manga-m-s/phoenix-manga/">a resurrection</a>, which mirrors Japan’s real-life postwar ascension to world superpower. </p>
<p>In fact, Phoenix was the title of Tezuka’s most popular series, one that the artist considered his magnum opus. The work is a series of short stories dealing with man’s search for immortality (given or taken from the Phoenix, which represents the universe, by man’s drinking some of its blood); some characters appear several times in the stories, mostly from reincarnation, a common precept in Buddhism.</p>
<p>Other filmmakers <a href="http://japanfocus.org/-Susan_J_-Napier/1972/article.html">have repurposed this theme</a>. In Space Cruiser Yamato (also known as Star Blazers), an old Japanese warship is rebuilt into a powerful spaceship and sent off to save a planet Earth succumbing to radiation poisoning. </p>
<p>In essence, what we have seen is that the atomic bomb indeed affected Japan to the point that the works of Tezuka and later artists inspired by him reflect on the bomb’s effects on families, society and the national psyche. Much like the cycle of life, or the immortal Phoenix in Tezuka’s case, Japan was able to reinvent itself and come back strong as a powerful world player capable of starting anew, but with the idea that mankind must learn from its mistakes and avoid repeating history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Fuller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the wake of the atomic bombs, a number of Japanese animators would question mankind’s relationship with technology.Frank Fuller, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/326162014-10-13T04:13:49Z2014-10-13T04:13:49ZFantastical sparks: Marzo at the Melbourne Festival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/61484/original/3bw4vgg7-1413155939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marzo: a tale of renewal and love. Photo: Wolfgang Silveri.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne International Arts Festival</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The audience is given few clues before entering the world of <a href="https://www.melbournefestival.com.au/marzo/#.VDsKJi6Swug">Marzo</a>, a dance work currently playing at this year’s Melbourne Festival. We know nothing about the time, the place, or the characters. The stage is minimal; the audience begins by looking into a stark white crater. This sparse setting belies the fantastical sparks of conflict and desire to come.</p>
<h2>Marzo: war and love</h2>
<p>Marzo (March in Italian) is traditionally the time of returning to war in Europe after the long winter. But March is also the beginning of spring, a time of renewal and new love. That paradoxical collision of love and war that connects the six characters in this arresting drama.</p>
<p>The piece begins with a warrior returning to the battlefield, his heavily stylised movement coupled with simple Japanese poetry spoken on top of the bass-heavy score. Two other manga-styled characters – a dancer and a champion – emerge and an epic love/ war triangle emerges, in an often brilliantly synaesthetic play of light, sound and choreography.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most unique aspect of this production is the place of the weirdly colossal beings emerging as forces at central points of the performance. The audience is not sure what to make of the characters at first – and their movement is sometimes comedic. They exist as turbulent forces pushing the characters towards both hate and love. </p>
<p>Often they are perfectly placed to focus the audience’s attention on the relationship between microbial transformations of energy and the energy of human emotion. Their buzzing movement is indeed reminiscent of the behaviour of atoms seen under a microscope.</p>
<p>Audience members may be reminded of Italo Calvino’s 1976 book of short stories <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cosmicomics-Italo-Calvino/dp/0156226006">Cosmicomics</a>, in which he imagines the micro-worlds possible in the transformation of matter. Just as the cellular structures in Calvino’s micro-worlds feel and communicate tensions and desires, so the manga-like characters of Marzo relate their microscopic energies to the extremes of human emotion and attraction.</p>
<h2>Dewey Dell’s latest offering</h2>
<p>Marzo is produced by <a href="http://www.deweydell.com/">Dewey Dell</a>, the production company formed in 2007 by Teodora, Demetrio, Agata Castellucci and Eugenio Resta, after the trio had completed studies at Stoa, an Italian school for rhythmic movement.</p>
<p>Melbourne audiences first experienced their work in 2012 in Cinquanta Urlanti, Quaranta Ruggenti, Sessanta Stridenti and Grave. The company has quickly established a reputation for eccentric productions that experiment with movement and sound. Marzo is their first production to experiment with spoken word and costume. </p>
<p>For this show, the company collaborated with two Japanese artists: the costumes were created by Yuichi Yokoyama, an iconic Japanese comic artist known for his manga creations; Kuro Tanino, the theatre director of the Japanese company <a href="http://www.niwagekidan.org/english.html">Niwagekidan Penino</a>, worked with the company to create the Japanese spoken word pieces scattered throughout the performance. </p>
<p>While the company was clearly looking for new ways to “speak” to its audience, it was actually the variety of movement in the dance, coupled with the glitchy atmospheric soundtrack, that worked best. At times there were probably too many elements – the mix of costume, spoken word, sound, light and movement sometimes seemed out of context or out of sync.</p>
<p>But the collaboration seemed at its best in the costumes of the colossus characters, which both restricted the dancers’ movements, but also added a sense of weightlessness and illusory force that added to our understanding of the forces that drove the dramatic consequences in the piece.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Marzo is playing at the Melbourne Festival until October 14. Details <a href="https://www.melbournefestival.com.au/marzo/#.VDsKJi6Swug">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Bossio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The audience is given few clues before entering the world of Marzo, a dance work currently playing at this year’s Melbourne Festival. We know nothing about the time, the place, or the characters. The stage…Diana Bossio, Lecturer, Media and Communications, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.