Category: Anime

Here is the conclusion of my article that began in “Medal with Purple Ribbon Winners in the Anime/Manga Industry Part 1“.

In 2012, Moto Hagio, one of the legendary Year 24 Group, was honoured with the Medal with Purple Ribbon. I have mentioned the Year 24 Group before for revolutionizing shojo manga with stories discussing gender roles and sexuality and reinterpreting manga paneling with the addition of flowery artwork and softening, sometimes removing, panel borders so that images flow into each other. Moto Hagio is one of the best known members of this group with titles such as The Poe Clan and The Heart of Thomas having a profound impact on the manga medium.

It may surprise you, given his impact on Western anime fandom, but Katsuhiro Otomo only received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2013. Easily his most famous series is Akira for which he both wrote the manga series as well as directing the anime adaptation of it. However, something I find fascinating about Katsuhiro Otomo is how much work he has done since Akira. In addition to writing other manga series, he has continued to direct with films such as Steamboy and Combustible as well as two live-action films, World Apartment Horror and Mushish, and writing screenplays for other anime films such as Metropolis and Roujin Z.

I was perusing Anime News Network recently when I came across an article noting that Rumiko Takahashi had just won the Medal with Purple Ribbon award. I had never heard of this award but, from what I could tell, it was very prestigious and I decided to do some research. What I found proved interesting enough that I decided that it was worth discussing what the Medal with Purple Ribbon award is and, more importantly, the winners that hail from the anime/manga industry.

The Medal with Purple Ribbon award makes up one part of the Medals of Honor awarded by the Japanese government to “those who have excellent deeds in each field of society“. Originally established in 1881, the Japanese Medals of Honor originally consisted of red (for those who risk their lives to save others), green (for morally remarkable individuals) and blue (for those with remarkable achievements in public welfare or public service). Since then, three other categories have been established with yellow in 1887 (for those who become public role models), dark blue in 1919 (for those who make financial contributions for public well-being) and, returning to the topic of the article, purple in 1955 (for those who have made significant contributions in either the fields of academics or the arts).

There are many subgenres when it comes to the mediums of anime and manga and I would argue that one of the more overlooked are magical girls. While certainly not overlooked financially, I feel that many non-otaku (and even some otaku) look down on the magical girl subgenre as inferior, mindless entertainment. While I can understand how this misconception can develop, I also believe that there are many wonderful examples that disprove the stigma.

The history of the magical girl subgenre has an unusual start. Two of the earliest magical girl titles, Sally the Witch and The Secrets of Akko-chan, saw their creators cite American sitcom Bewitched as an inspiration. As you might expect, these early magical girl series were primarily slice of life comedies with little to none of the combat that we have come to expect from modern magical girl franchises.