Category: Manga

The Influence Of Manga On The Dark Souls Series

Published October 11, 2021

As I’m sure readers of my blog are well aware of, I’m a big fan of the Dark Souls series and, in turn, the works of Hidetaka Miyazaki. Understandably, as with any creator of media, he’s been influenced by a wide variety of media such as other video games, literature, Western tabletop games etc. However, I thought it might be particularly interesting to take a look at the influence of manga on the Dark Souls series since it feels like we don’t often hear of the influence of manga on other media.

Let’s start off with the manga most often referred to when it comes to the influence of manga on the Dark Souls series, Berserk. Created by the late Kentaro Miura, Berserk is set in a dark fantasy world and follows Guts, a swordsman who ends up joining a mercenary division named Band of the Hawk, led by Griffith. The manga was critically acclaimed, has been adapted into several anime TV series and films and has been cited as an influence on various manga series and video games.

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The Four Dere Archetypes Found In Japanese Popular Culture

Published October 4, 2021

There are a lot of tropes that can be discussed when it comes to Japanese popular culture but certainly some of the more popular ones are the four “Dere” archetypes found in these media. Admittedly, I was only familiar with two of these archetypes prior to researching topics for this article so I was quite surprised to learn that there were more than I was already aware of. Given that, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at and examine these archetypes.

First, let’s take a look at the general term “Dere”. Dere, written in Japanese as デレ, is a shortening of the word deredere which means lovestruck. Within Japanese popular culture, these dere archetypes are typically female although there are occasional male examples. It’s also important to note that, while dere is famously associated with Japanese media and has been named thusly, there are plenty of examples of characters from other cultures that fit into these archetypes.

Tsundere

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The Incredible Importance of the Year 24 Group

Published September 27, 2021

Having recently spoken about the history of the medium of manga as well as the gekiga movement, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the incredible importance of the Year 24 Group, whom I’ve spoken about before in plenty of articles but have never dedicated an article to.

Let’s begin by discussing their name as well as how it’s also a bit of a misnomer. The name “Year 24 Group” refers to the year Shōwa 24 which is equivalent to 1949 in the Gregorian calendar. The implication here is that the women who made up the Year 24 Group were all born in 1949, something that only applied to a few of them. The name also makes you think that they were a collective who all worked together but, in reality, the term merely categorises a group of women who were born around the same time that would go on to reinterpret what shojo manga was.

Various characters drawn by the Year 24 Group. — A collage of characters from Year 24 Group manga.

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An Overview Of The Ghost In The Shell Franchise

Published September 23, 2021

I’ve recently been reviewing the Ghost in the Shell manga on my YouTube channel and it has truly surprised me how different the Ghost in the Shell manga can be compared to the anime films and TV series that I’ve watched. Whereas I tended to think of Ghost in the Shell predominantly as an anime franchise, which in many ways it is, this experience has made me think about the Ghost in the Shell series as a whole and I recently decided that it was time that I provide an overview of the Ghost in the Shell franchise.

Of course, the most logical place to start with an overview of the Ghost in the Shell franchise is the original manga that started it all. Originally serialised from 1989-1991, Ghost in the Shell was written by Shirow Masamune, who previously got his start by drawing an original doujinshi story. The manga is set in the near future and follows Section 9, a special division of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs that deals with cyberterrorism and cybercrime. While Section 9 is made up of many members, we predominantly follow Motoko Kusanagi, often simply referred to as “The Major”, as she investigates a series of seemingly unrelated events that are not what they first appear to be.

The cover for the first manga volume of Ghost in the Shell.

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The Interesting History Of The Gekiga Movement

Published September 13, 2021

I recently wrote an article titled “The Amazing History Of The Medium Of Manga” and during that article, I decided to devote a paragraph to the gekiga movement. However, when I was perusing my older articles, I realised that, despite mentioning them several times, I’d never written an entire article devoted to gekiga. Therefore, I decided that it was important that I quickly rectify this and write about the interesting history of the gekiga movement.

In order to explain the gekiga movement, I first need to explain the reason why they came about in the first place. Prior to the rise of gekiga, manga was predominantly aimed at children and avoided topics and themes that would be considered too adult. One of the first mangaka to express his disapproval of this was the legendary Yoshihiro Tatsumi who would go on to coin the term “Gekiga” in 1957 which replaced the character 漫 in the word 漫画 (manga which literally translates as whimsical pictures) with the character 劇 to create 劇画 (gekiga which literally translates as dramatic pictures).

Yoshihiro Tatsumi, the man most credited with founding the gekiga movement.

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My Complete And Total Opposition To Piracy

Published August 26, 2021

When it comes to the general anime and manga fandom in the West, I’ve noticed that there are many who not only embrace piracy but hold it up on a pedestal, criticising those who point out the problems with their practises by claiming that true anime and manga fans pirate, that they can’t afford it, that anime and manga take too long to be translated officially etc. Today, I thought I might take a look at the history of anime and manga piracy, the flaws in the arguments in favour of piracy and why I have both a complete and total opposition to the practise.

First, we should take a look at the history of anime and manga piracy and why the modern implementation of it is completely different to the historical. Around the 1980s, anime clubs began to be established in numerous cities within the United States. These clubs access to anime was restricted as anime was rarely licensed in America and, when it was, tended to be butchered from its original form. In order to show anime at these clubs, VHS copies of anime in their original format with fan made subtitles known as “Fansubs” began to be produced so that fans could watch these shows. However, while technically illegal in that a copyrighted work was being distributed without the express permission of the copyright holder, the scale was so limited and controlled, due to the fact you needed to have a physical VHS in hand, that they were often ignored. In contrast, modern fansubs are produced for and distributed via the internet, a platform that is notoriously difficult to control content on and the scale is no longer a few thousand people but millions upon millions.

海賊版、無くしていきたいです。
海賊版が次から次へ湧いて出てきても、読者の方々が海賊版を読まないでいてくれさえすればいいのです。
お金を払ってまで読みたくないな、と思われたならそれは私と作品の実力不足なのでそれはそれでいいのです。海賊版で読むくらいなら読まないで欲しいです。
— Gino0808@❄️🦀ドラマ化！ (@0808gino) January 4, 2021

The manga artist Gino0808 stated that they didn’t want you to read their manga at all if you were going to pirate it.

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Hideaki Anno, The Ultimate Otaku

Published August 23, 2021

With the release of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time and the announcement that the OVA series Gunbuster is getting a Blu-ray release in America with a brand new English dub, the name “Hideaki Anno” seems to be on everyone’s tongues recently. However, while I could certainly write an article on the filmography of Hideaki Anno (which I should probably do someday), I’ve become more interested in him lately due to his lifestyle, his passions and being, in my own words, the ultimate otaku.

I should probably first define what an otaku is. The term “Otaku” is basically the Japanese equivalent of the word “Nerd” and while the word can refer to a variety of interests in Japan, in the West the word is typically associated with enthusiasts of Japanese popular culture, specifically anime and manga. While the word is considered to be offensive in Japan, typically because it implies a lack of social skills, the word has been embraced by the Western fandom to identify themselves. However, even the most seemingly passionate of Western otaku pale in comparison to Hideaki Anno, the ultimate otaku.

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An Overview of Tankobon And Other Interesting Manga Formats

Published August 16, 2021

I’ve spoken before about how manga is typically released within manga magazines in Japan. However, I have not spoken about (or if I have, only touched upon) how manga is released when a number of chapters are collected together and released in a single book. Considering how important these releases are for the medium of manga, both within Japan and without, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at an overview of tankobon and other formats.

Having already mentioned it, let’s take a look at tankobon and what they are. The most typical way for manga chapters to be collected into, tankobon are volumes of manga that typically collect 180-200 pages of a manga (although exceptions do exist) into a single book. These books are typically 11 cm by 17.5 cm and higher quality paper than what would be seen in a manga magazine. Most Western releases of manga are released in this format as well although it’s worth pointing out that the majority of Western tankobon are slightly bigger with dimensions of 13 cm by 19 cm.

A size comparison between volume 15 of the Japanese edition of Bakuman (left) and the volume 15 release of the Western edition of Bakuman (right).

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Manga Series With The Most Volumes

Published August 2, 2021

Recently, it was announced that the manga series Golgo 13 had broken a record set by Kochikame in 2016 for most volumes released in a series, surpassing the latter after they released their 201st volume. This feat is highly impressive and I decided that it was time to take a look at a few manga series that are noteworthy for having an incredible number of volumes.

Of course, we should start with the new champion, Golgo 13. Originally beginning in October, 1968, in Big Comic, Golgo 13 already had the record for longest-running manga series. Golgo 13 follows an assassin named Duke Togo who operates under the alias Golgo 13 and is one of the greatest snipers in the world. The series is episodic with Duke Togo hired to assassinate a particular target, going over the challenges associated with these jobs and Duke Togo taking an incredibly difficult shot that successfully kills the target. Golgo 13 is an incredibly successful series, having sold around 300 million copies and becoming the best-selling seinen manga of all time. It’s also amazing to note that Takao Saito, the mangaka, only recently took his first hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic! Despite this success, the series is highly underrepresented in English, having only seen a best of compilation by Viz Media.

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The Tokyo 2020 Olympics And Japanese Popular Culture

Published July 26, 2021

As this article is being written, the amusingly named Tokyo 2020 Olympics are due to begin on the 23rd of July, 2021 and proceed until the 8th of August, 2021. Barring some catastrophe, it seems unlikely that they are going to get postponed again like they were last year. Taking this into account, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and how Japan has decided to use it as a vehicle to promote Japanese popular culture worldwide.

First, I should clarify that I myself have little to no interest in the Olympics and I can only imagine that I’d end up watching them if someone physically restrained me to a chair and forced me to watch them! However, I do confess that I’m quite interested to see how the Japanese government handles their “Cool Japan” push in the context of the games and whether this is ultimately a success.

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