I believe that “all manga” should be a part of a historical MMF.<\/p>\n
By profession, I am a historian and a manga scholar. I am not gonna lie that I find historical value in all of manga because it’s true. Manga represent fragments of beliefs, hopes, and realities of people at a particular time. They’re no different than paintings or photographs. Even the raunchiest of manga can still provide a reflection of its society for manga’s historicity makes it historical.<\/p>\n
However, that’s gonna give us a crazy MMF, right?<\/p>\n
Even if I engage you all in an argument that I must include all manga in this MMF, I won’t. Definitions of history and what should be historical is problematic as it is so to use it to define manga is going to give us a headache.<\/p>\n
So for this MMF, how are we to define what makes a historical manga?<\/p>\n
For now, I can see three dimensions to a historical manga: the biography, the retelling, and the period piece.<\/p>\n
The biography is the straight forward biography<\/strong> (often authorized by the person itself or his family) that hopes to capture the life or experience of a person. The easiest ones are autobiographies. Titles that fall under this are: Barefoot Genji<\/em> by Keiji Nakazawa, A Drifting Life<\/em> by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Onwards towards our noble deaths <\/em>and Nononba<\/em> by Shigeru Mizuki, and Disappearance Diary<\/em> by Hideo Azuma, Project X Series.<\/p>\n Historical retellings<\/strong> are a little different compared a biography. They are imagined biographies or historical events — stories that have some historical basis but for everything else, the writers take liberties in developing historical characters. There are times when these stories are brought into the fantastic but that’s quite rare. Stories such as Vagabond<\/em> by Inoue Takehiko, Buddha<\/em> and A Message to Adolf<\/em> by Osamu Tezuka, Kaze Hikaru<\/em> by Taeko Watanabe and Vinland Saga<\/em> by Makoto Yukimura are some examples of historical retellings.<\/p>\n The last of historical manga are period pieces<\/strong>. Think of them as your versions of period drama on TV (e.g. Downton Abbey). They rarely tackle historical figures, but they do try to capture the culture and the “spirit” of the period they wish to portray. On the Western Front we have Kaoru Mori’s English period pieces such as Emma<\/em> and Shirley<\/em>, and Lovers in the Night<\/em> and Gerard and Jacques<\/em> by Yoshinaga Fumi. On the Eastern End, we have Rurouni Kenshin<\/em> by Nobuhiro Watsuki, Lone Wolf and Cub<\/em> by Kozure Okami, Blade of the Immortal<\/em> by Hiroaki Samura, Stepping on Roses<\/em> and Tail of the Moon<\/em> by Rinko Ueda, Sakuran<\/em> by Moyoco Anno, A Bride’s Stories<\/em> by Kaoru Mori too.<\/p>\n I’m quite sure there are tons more historical manga which I have not mentioned here. Please don’t feel limited by the titles I mentioned here. If you’ve read other historical manga which you’ve enjoyed, feel free to share it with us!<\/p>\n What I’m hoping for this MMF is that people can connect with various histories that can be found in manga. Histories, while one of the stories that never really sell in the English market, is one of the most thriving genres in Japan. But more than that, it is crucial because it shapes identities, particularly, national identities. It is in history, both imagined and unimagined, that people find roots in their values and their composition as a person.<\/p>\n If anything, I’m hoping everyone will understand, perhaps connect with Japan’s perceived identities through their wonderful array of historical manga.<\/p>\n Well, if it even increases manga sales, that’ll make me a happy historian!<\/p>\n So, I’d like to invite all of you to participate in this month’s historical MMF. I’ll be hosting it from 24 March – 1 April 2013. I’d be happy if you contribute reviews, opinions, and insights on this month’s MMF! Send an e-mail to punkednoodle-at-gmail with the header [HISTORY MMF] with your stuff in it. You can also link me up your MMF entries with the hashtag #historyMMF in twitter and tumblr.<\/p>\n I look forward to everyone’s contributions! \/o\/ Let’s bring some history lovin’ this month!<\/p>\n [pt_view id=”5b76dd17af”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I believe that “all manga” should be a part of a historical MMF. 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It certainly is! For this month's MMF, I'm inviting the manga community to discover the joys of food through Oishinbo & Food Manga! I'm sure that we've had our days where we cursed Oishinbo for making us hungry while reading it. Oishinbo is one of many\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 9 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 9 comments","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-oishinbo-and-food-manga\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-oishinbo-and-food-manga\/oishinbo-cooking-ultimate-menu\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":1},"title":"Oishinbo Cooking & Ultimate Menu","author":"khursten","date":"May 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There have been lots of brave souls who tried cooking for the MMF and I'm really happy about that! I thought not a lot of people would bite, but yes, yes, it all worked out! I'm pleased to share with you some recipes from our manga chefs! \u00a0 From Kitchen\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":947,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":2},"title":"Manga Moveable Feast","author":"khursten","date":"March 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Manga Moveable Feast is a fun monthly exchange among manga enthusiasts, fans, and critics on a particular theme. It kind of stemmed from the fact that sometimes we get inspired after seeing someone post about something. Rather then letting these go to waste, members of the manga community decided\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1465,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-801-bl-manga\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":3},"title":"MMF: 801 – BL Manga","author":"khursten","date":"July 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"801. Yaoi. Boy's Love. Tanbi. Shounen-Ai. BL. Pr0n.\u00a0 Call it whatever you want. Fujoshi. Fudanshi. Fujojo. Call us whatever you want. We probably wouldn't care because all we know is that 8\/01 is our special day and here in Otaku Champloo we'll be celebrating a fiesta for what we fujoshi\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-801-bl-manga\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1091,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-oishinbo-and-food-manga\/oishinbo-viking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":4},"title":"Oishinbo Viking","author":"khursten","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In Japan, viking (\u00e3\u0192\u0090\u00e3\u201a\u00a4\u00e3\u201a\u00ad\u00e3\u0192\u00b3\u00e3\u201a\u00b0) means buffet. Now, I don't exactly know why it's called 'viking' but my impression when I first saw that was perhaps Japanese thought that Vikings ate a lot and so it's a feast for Vikings. Wikipedia has a boring answer, but for this Manga Moveable Feast,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/manga-moveable-feast\/mmf-oishinbo-and-food-manga\/oishinbo-viking\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2,"url":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/about\/","url_meta":{"origin":1378,"position":5},"title":"About me","author":"khursten","date":"July 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi, I'm Kristine Michelle \"Khursten\" Santos. Welcome to Otaku Champloo, a personal blog that I started in 2006 where I feature my love for various things related to popular culture from Japan and Southeast Asia, particularly manga and Boys Love. 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\nFor any contributions you can do the following<\/p>\nEntries during History MMF<\/h3>\n