Well, didn’t think a meme would be apt for this moment but I really feel that it has been a journey from this blog to this moment.
(more…)Category: Insights
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The Silence on Josei Manga
So Ed Chavez posted a really interesting question on twitter the other day. Why aren’t we talking about Josei?
It made me think a bit about the genre, reflecting on the things that have been posted and realised, yes, we’ve been quite mum about Josei. There’s hardly any people talking about it. Interestingly, there are people saying Josei in relation to a manga and loved them dearly (Wandering Son, Pink, Helter Skelter, Sakuran, etc.) but it is a surprise that as readers and to a degree, critics, haven’t really voiced what we think of the genre. Even academics hardly pay attention to josei with only one book and a handful of articles discussing the genre.
Is it because it’s hard to talk about what women want? Is it because women would rather escape in the pages of shoujo or shounen and be immersed in a fantasy rather than face the reality of loneliness, fears, and worries of an adult woman?
Maybe. I say that as a woman who hardly talks about Josei as a genre. I’ve actually mentioned a couple of Josei titles and authors in this blog but I really haven’t exhausted the genre as I have boys’ love.
At most I can reflect on my interactions with my friends and sixty percent will admit that they refuse to touch Josei things for various reasons (too boring, too sad, rather read shounen, i like my shoujo/bl fantasy, etc.) and the remaining forty will admit that reading Josei has been painful. Beautiful but painful. Josei manga touches on issues that trouble women at their worst, containing insecurities piled up by years of media identifying how women should be. What women must be.
In yesterday’s discussion, Ed Sizemore raised the point that maybe it’s because the likes of Frederik Schodt didn’t talk about it. Well he did in Dreamland Japan but back then it was labeled as Ladies’ comics. レディースコミック (Ladies’ Comic) is a different animal compared to what we know as Josei. He featured Comic Amour and Yan Mama for mothers. He also did a feature of Milk Morinaga but I’m surprised he didn’t touch upon comic magazines like Feel Young, Young You, or Chorus where all the josei action was really happening. I mentioned that Schodt’s focus on Ladies’ comics was at most a predecessor to what we know as Josei today. In reflection, maybe Schodt’s feature is also the reason why people hardly talk about it. If women are so hooked on crazy fantasies of housewives, then really it’s not worth investing time on it. Back in the day, I reckon that we identify a Josei title if it had some kind of explicit sex in it since they never really showed that in shoujo (and boy was I sooooo wroooong about this). There was also a time that josei titles were associated with yuri too.  Surprisingly, this messy view of josei is also true for me in the academe, where in my old university, the sociological exploration on why women are drawn to these kinds of materials are considered irrelevant. The reality is I needed to get out of that university just to find one that would consider this a relevant issue.
It’s interesting how quick we are to dismiss the interest of housewives while people still continue to sing and dedicate issues of journals and books to Osamu Tezuka. I find this particularly frustrating when manga has so much to offer but sadly, that’s just how the world turns and sadly things like this stay outside of the radar.
Take for example the interest in Insufficient Direction by Moyoco Anno. It’s basically a story that captures the relationship of Moyoco Anno with her husband Hideaki Anno. But looking at the asks in Vertical’s tumblr; people are more concerned in reading more about Hideaki Anno’s thoughts on his works or influences rather than read about his marital bliss. But what about Moyoco? Can’t we be interested with Moyoco Anno’s work process and inspirations too?
The silence on Josei might also be a reflection on our own neglect for things related to women. It’s not just men neglecting women but even women neglecting women. And this might be deliberate for some but it can also be something that we’ve just forgotten or taken for granted. I wonder if it’s a reflection of our submission to “the man†and how we can’t be bothered fighting the system anymore. Interesting how this thought has suddenly become a feminist argument but really, if anything, Josei manga is perhaps one of the most feminist genre out there and that should be recognised.
I think, more than ever, it’s time we should be talking about Josei. With more Josei titles coming in English, people can finally have an idea on how amazing this genre is and how diverse and subversive it can be.
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Sneak Peek at 2011 Manga Taishou List
It’s Manga Taishou season again and I haven’t even started reading Therma Romae (once… I find my copy somewhere). Out of all the award ceremonies, I tend to enjoy the selection in Manga Taishou because these manga do not disappoint at all. Some awards tend to let some title win awards in order to boost its popularity. I honestly don’t know how some of these awards go behind the scenes, but yeah, so far, some winners are rather questionable. I cannot say the same for Manga Taisho though. When I look at their list, it all boils down to which manga were most amazing in the past year.
The list of the nominees is out and here’s my two cents on who have a shot of bringing home the Manga Taisho… well, at least those that I have read…
Otoyomegatari. The Bride Stories by Kaoru Mori. A very strong contender and quite popular to both critics and fans. I have full faith that there’s a high chance that Mori-san might bag this one. Can’t say much about the committee but if they gave it to Therma Romae last year, they might give this eclectic beautiful title a chance. I mean for chrissakes, she’s holding a kind of antelope on her shoulders. I’m quite sure the expectations will be high on this one.
Sangatsu no Lion. March Comes in Like a Lion by Chica Umino. This is quite an interesting tale and it’s one of those heartwarming stories that you can’t stop reading. The shougi is a nice extra but it ain’t anything like Hikaru no Go. This might have a good chance and I’m trying to think if there was something amazing that happened since its last nomination. This is Chica Umino and if you’ve read Honey and Clover, you can imagine the pace of this story. Between this and Otoyomegatari… my bet’s on the latter.
Omo ni Naitemasu by Akiko Higashimura. Filling in the loss of the amusing Himawari in Morning is her new work Omo ni Naitemasu. My friend and I have been fans of Himawari and we were hoping that this title would follow. While the humor is there, the plot in itself is a little difficult to swallow. The female lead is a mistress/muse to an artist and sometimes you just want to whack her head for longing such a horrible man. It’s a cohesive story but not exactly the best of the lot.
I think what I love more about looking at the list is the number of titles I have yet to read. So far, these are the ones that caught my eye.
Don’t Cry Girl by Tomoko Yamashita. This girl’s a BL artist and I enjoy her work immensely. I’m not exactly sure what this title is – if it’s a seinen or a josei. Either way, it looks interesting.
I am a Hero by Kengo Hanazawa. I’ve been trying to find this comic but it often escapes my mind. Maybe I should give it a shot next time.
Un chocolatier de l’amour perdu by Setona Mizushiro. It has macarons on the cover. While it’s quite josei-ish in art… it looks yummy.
Hana no Zubora Meshi by Masayuki Kusumi & Etsuko Mizusawa. I doubt this manga is about food but that girl on the cover looks like she’s enjoying what she’s doing (with those morsels of rice all over her face.) It looks yummier and maybe… just maybe… I might get to enjoy this one.
I wish all of the nominees good luck and I can’t wait to hear the results of this one!
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Oh My Jump Heroines
How do you like your Shounen Jump heroine?
Do you love her dressed in a pristine school uniform, where her smiling face (and possibly panties or if your lucky, cleavage) grace every panel? Do you like her making bentou for the hero, sharing laughs right before he enters the greatest of his greatest battles? Or do you love her strong, the type who would smack the hero when he is wrong and is generally unforgiving to anyone who insults her short skirt but is soft to the hero who basically ignores her D-size bra? If she has one.
For years, legions of Jump readers, particularly women from the Western frame of thought ((Oh yes! Orientalism plays a key part here!)), would write a post or two complaining why women in a particular Shounen Jump manga is often misrepresented. An interesting rant came by my timeline today, a disheartened Katekyo Hitman Reborn! fan who cannot forgive Akira Amano for making cooks out her heroines. In her blog, she pines about why the female characters in Reborn have been ill-presented, nothing but dolls whose only purpose in the story was to make the boys look better.
Yeah. Right.
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Translation Woes
Mr. Welsh, I feel you. There is an ongoing frustration among English manga readers of not getting their hands on some really good mangas. My friends alone would make it a habit to ask me what happened in the latest Nodame or Moyashimon not because they can’t buy the manga in Japanese (it’s a lot easier for us here) but because they cannot read it. At least for Nodame, it’s being translated (you just have to be patient about it), but there are a wealth of mangas that would some time to get translated, or probably will never get translated at all.
I always wondered why some mangas never see the light of licensing among the US publishers. For most, it’s whether it will make a sale. 20 or so manga bloggers who blog about Japanese titles wouldn’t probably make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Putting it into english and in a quality that readers like would mean costs. And I think most of us know that. Although fans would say they’ll buy it, more often than not, it’s only those who really can afford it do buy the manga the moment it comes out in the list. And they’re not a lot among manga fans. But sometimes, they do take a risk. Who knew Nodame would hit big when Del Rey got it? So there must be something other than costs on why they license and probably not license a title.
In a conversation with Ed, he told me how publishers in Japan sometimes push titles for licensing. He asked me about a particular title and what I thought of it since it was in consideration for licensing and I was thinking “Why not get Chi’s Sweet Home instead?” Ed enlightens me that even if english publishers want to get something more popular (e.g. Moyashimon), because they are already popular in Japan and probably earning a lot, publishers won’t push these titles for licensing and would probably place it at the end of their agenda. It’s not saying that they won’t be licensed, but instead, they just want to perhaps make up for the cost of a manga that was probably eating up their resources, hence the push for the obscure titles that are good but not exactly popular in the Japanese market.
To be honest, that’s rather upsetting because it only means that for some titles that we like, we’ve got to lobby for it to get it and that would take some time. A manga’s popularity sometimes ride on its popularity in Japan. When you hear the buzz about it from those who are in the scene, you wish that you can easily get it. Like I’m sure fans of Moyashimon who managed to see the anime want to get their hands on the manga. The manga’s richer in story compared to anime, but yes, it’s only in Japanese and quite difficult to read too (especially since it doesn’t have furiganas for those sc). When the hype for a series is gone and your patience has worn down, sometimes you lack interest in getting that said title to the point that you don’t wish to get it at all. And there is little market in nostalgia for mangas and this is probably why Slam Dunk never really got past the first two volumes in my country. We can at most, be really hopeful that eventually, it will come to our english-speaking shores. Hopefully not too late because we’re really missing out on a lot. Because there are lots of mangas that are left untranslated and they have stories that I’m sure we’ll learn and enjoy. Stories like St. Oniisan, Moyashimon, Detroit Metal City, Touch, H2, Cross Game, Rough, Himawari, Kimi ni Todoke, Arigatou, Zipang, Candy Candy, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Glass no Kamen (Glass Mask), Cat’s Eye, Tokimeki Tonight… As more time passes, more and more mangas are coming with great stories.
In this scenario, would our best bet to get these read in English would be those scanlating groups online? Scanlating’s a whole post altogether (and a lot of people have said a word or two about it) but although I see the convenience and accessibility of scanlations, it’s still nice to read a manga leisurely in your couch knowing that you fed your favorite mangaka and his assistants for at least a day.
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Making manga out of anything
I’m in the midst of post amazement season. I’ve been watching/reading this really funny series named Moyashimon. It’s been running for a month and I’ve been pimping their widget, the yellow thingie at the side that has rounded floating objects that would scream “Kamosuzo (( Let’s Brew! ))” and every second or so. To the untrained eye, they’re just mascots. But for those who know, they’re actually… bacteria.Yes. Those icky microbes that some of us are afraid to mess with has a manga of their own named Moyashimon and I’ve been pimping it to everybody I know at work, at home, at my friend’s blogs (and my personal blog), and basically everywhere!
Honestly, bacteria. Who would have thought of that?! A true cohesive story about a boy who can communicate with bacteria. As Itsuki-sensei says it in every episode, “Sugoi yo ne (( Trans. Amazing, isn’t it?))”. The series even has E.Coli and Dysentery presented as cute and lovable characters. YES! Even E.Coli and Green Fungi (P. Chrysogenum) are too cute to resist!! I’m completely forgetting that they’re lethal and icky bacterias!!
I mean, this is, part in part, a fan who is just in awe of the extent of manga’s topics. What have they not done? Giant Robots. Done. Soo done. Animals. Done. Talking animals. Done too. Zombies. Done. A galactic bakufu that features a pet duck, a lazy rounin, cross-dressing geishas and the shinsengumi. DONE! Mermaid Yakuzas. SOOO DONE. What is left?
…I’m actually stumped.
So let’s play a little game, shall we? I’d like to ask my readers (and if you want, ask your friends too, if they’re interested) if they think that there’s a topic or a theme that manga hasn’t handled yet. And readers can also answer if these topics have been done. Think the craziest!
Like I’m sure there’s no manga yet that has one of those chemistry cooking things wherein you cook your food (like curry or pasta in liquid nitrogen). I’m also sure that I haven’t read a sentai BL manga (ooooh! Imagine the tension among teammates!). I was about to say about a super pessimist guy that not even a ghost can make him more negative (Oh wait, Oda Eiichiro just did that in OP). I’m stumped… honestly! I’m really stumped. So, do you have any themes that you think mangakas haven’t written and should write about it? :3
On a side note… if you can read Japanese, read Moyashimon manga. If not, then watch the anime. There are subs lurking around in places. :3
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Finding your place in this strange copyright mess
Okay. So Japan requests that America should put some kind of regulation with the distribution of anime online (( Link via Manga Blog)) . Perhaps in the same strength that Odex tries to control the Singapore market? A part of me says that this kind of deal is fair. When I read stories of animators and mangakas and their hard lives, it’s just right to put some money in their pocket for the thousands of animes and mangas downloaded at a time.
But, there’s also a part of me who is rather troubled. For a small country like mine, a country who doesn’t have a large array of licensed animes and mangas for sale on the shelves (except for Voltes V and Daimos and a dreadful set of mangas), downloading online seems to be the best option if you’re really a big fan of this genre. Some can wait. But for those who can’t, IRC and torrents are the way to go. Not everyone has big paychecks to order their favorite mangas and anime online. $15 dollars for a manga (if you include the shipping) is quite costly for many fans. All the more if they have to spend $30 for a DVD of an anime. Many anime fans are students and many (like myself) wait until they get a decent job for them to even start investing on these kinds of things.
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Mixing East with the West.
This weekend, I can’t help but enjoy John Jakala’s slew of ideas with regards to mixing mangakas with amecomi. :3 Actually for the past two weeks, he’s been enjoying the idea of mixing eastern stories with that of the west. My favorite was the Yotsuba with Calvin and Hobbes (soo cute!) and now, even drabbling with the idea of Takeshi Obata drawing Batman. Well, why not!? Although I highly doubt they will ever drabble into creating something like that, it’d be amazing if they were commissioned to do something like it. Just make sure you have someone like Jeph Loeb as the genius to write a story for Obata, I’m sure he’ll pull it off. I mean, he made go interesting! There’s so much he can do! (obviously, I’m a fan. lol.)
What was interesting was Ed of Mangacast pointing out which of the American counterparts would draw something from Mangadom. Would you see Frank Miller drawing something like Monster or maybe Vagabond? Would you imagine Jeph Loeb writing something like Liar Game? I know a Filipino comic artist, Elmer Damaso, is drawing Speed Racer for Seven Seas (Yay, Mer!), but I guess he counts now for the American manga industry. Going back to Seven Seas, imagine Madeline Rosca drawing Card Captor Sakura and other youthful Clamp stories. It’s quite interesting, and perhaps if America’s doujin community is as nurturing as the Japanese market, we could have seen the likes of these experiments in the West.
Another interesting mix is the study on the concept of Superheroes being similar in both the West and the Japanese. Many manga fans have scrutinized the American heroes saying they don’t compare with their American counterparts. Some of my comic reading friends think that manga charas don’t compare with their superheroes. Well, read and weep, disbelievers! This article fleshes it out for you how they can be similar too… in some aspects. :3
Lovely weekend reads that made me wish that there was a Kinokuniya nearby for me to flock and oggle over books for. *prays December*. Well, this three day weekend allowed me to catch up on some fun reads, including some highly sought after Metal Gear doujins! (Yay!! Snakey-wakey schmex!!) *sigh* I hope next week, I don’t get eaten by work again. :3
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Global manga confusion.
Not being able to read some of my feeds during the weekend caused me to react late about some things about this whole Global Manga rantage. The need to blog about the topic is almost ‘monumental’. In history, it is often in rabid rants and rages that people actually realize that they have to formalize something. Hence, our friend’s rantage provoked some thoughts which eventually lead to the beginning of the Global Manga Manifesto. It is an attempt to conceptualize, maybe someday formalize a burgeoning movement in the comic industry. Perhaps someday, it’ll be something that comic historians might check or follow.
To make this whole discussion more ‘global’, the issue has also been opened among the Filipino comic enthusiasts around the year 2000. During that time, a crew of manga enthusiasts published a ‘monthly’ comic called Culture Crash. It was a brave attempt in trying to mix their manga influences and American influences together. Local comic artists considered this as unoriginal because they just copied manga style. The truth is, for a manga reader, only a few elements of it really reminded readers of manga (usually just in the character design and setting) but everything else seems to be a hodgepodge of American and maybe even Filipino comic art. It is something beyond the pre-conceived notion of a manga but rather an evolved art form that utilizes some manga elements. Perhaps it is in this same notion that the term global manga has been created.
The thing I’d like to question is the technicality on the use of the word global and manga together. I was discussing with a friend on the issue and she and I are a bit confused with the whole idea. Global manga is such a colloquial term among foreign manga enthusiasts that it is indeed a proper terminology for manga-styled comics published outside of Japan. However, I somehow feel conflicted, maybe confused, that somehow Japan doesn’t seem to be included in this global manga effort. If Japanese manga is manga, and global manga is ‘distinct and not isolated from Japanese manga’, then it kind of refutes the idea that it is global, meaning Japanese manga should be a part as well as integral to this whole global manga movement. Any comic that is ‘distinct and not isolated from Japanese manga’ created and published in Japan should rightfully be a part of this movement.
But how does the West define Japanese manga and its correlations? How do you know when a drawing of global manga is distinct already from what is out there? Is Maruo Suehiro still a manga or a global manga? How can you say that Elmer Damaso’s Speed Racer be different from how Yellow Tanabe draws Kekkaishi? Isn’t the mere mention of global and manga a complete contradiction already? If global is encompassing, then manga is limiting. Am I right in being confused here?
I think that if they are included, they are part in part a source or a point of reference, but they don’t feel like they’re part of this genre. Unless I maybe misreading it, either the definition of global manga is really just manga created outside of Japan by non-Japanese people, maybe something closer to ‘外漫画’ or it really is just an overcomplicated politicized definition of manga. Because from my understanding, manga has always been global in its essence. The only thing that made manga ‘manga’ is the fact that it’s in the Japanese language, published in Japan, and has a Japanese perspective. In the end, like others, it’s just a comic, which in Japan, they call ‘manga’. The reason why we appreciate manga today is the fact that it is global in terms of art, style, theme, and narration.
Manga, as I have understood it, has been global from the very beginning. The art itself is an evolution from the infusion of classical Japanese art forms such as Toba-E and Ukiyo-E with editorial comics, and later on the popular comic as we know it. Many scholars also recognize that even Osamu Tezuka has taken inspiration from Western cartoonists. In its earliest commercialized conception, it has been very global with its whole east and west concoction. You even have the likes of Jiro Taniguchi who pushed the range of manga art closer to its French relative, the bande dessinee? The blog SameHat! SameHat! is a reminder of how diverse the genre of manga can be that even Japanese artists no longer fall on what is easily considered as manga. These are artworks ‘distinct but not isolated’ from its Japanese form. In Japan, these are still called manga. English-published studies of manga still call these works mangas. Should we then start calling these ‘Global manga’ as well?
For me, why not just call it manga if you really want to be considered a part of it? I mean it is, in the end, an effort to attain the style, right? Or if you feel that you are a step higher or a far deviation from manga, just ‘something something’ graphic novels? Or Manga-styled comics? Maybe a new name like ‘Mangaism’. Anything else but global manga, because it creates ironies upon ironies.
The concept of global manga confuses the manga nut in me. I think if people just looked back in Manga! Manga! and more manga history books and perhaps read older mangas and compare it with the new mangas, they will see and understand that the ‘global’ characteristics of manga. It’s been there, before people even thought of drawing comics in the same style as mangas.
Definitions are a pain. Unless the lines are clearly marked, this quest for a Global Manga Manifesto will be a little troubling. But as the Japanese put it… ganbatte ne. ^^v These ‘global mangas’ definitely need a voice but I believe they should start shaping a truly distinct identity.
For me, honestly, some of these ‘global mangas’ no longer needs to be called ‘global mangas’. You guys are doing a great job that you can already merit the word mangas itself. I think that’s part in part why the International Manga Competition was named International Manga Competition and not International Global Manga Competition. You are part of the art.
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It’s been a year…
… and I missed my celebration! ??????(?????????) ?????????????!! I honestly wasn’t able to keep track of when I actually actively started this blog and it turned out that my site went in motion on August 23 and I forgot to celebrate. lol. I’ve been busy during the past few days as well due to the bookfair so the date just slipped away. Gomen ne. ^^;;
A lot has happened back when I started. Back then, I was on student allowance and now I’m fortunate to at least have something to sustain the hobby. lol. More so, there’s been a lot of developments in terms of manga in the Philippines.
In the past year since I started, there’s been a surge of English translated manga in the Philippines. Booksellers have become sophisticated in their choice of mangas and have started to bring in a lot of more popular titles as well as some to cater for those who have eclectic tastes (but trust me, just like in the US, finding them can be a total pain. -_-;;) . Another interesting thing to note is the resurgence of Japanese mangas in the Philippines through Manga Kissa 10 and the JFMO library. Although you won’t be able to buy the manga, at least you would have access to the weekly magazines and the likes.
But perhaps the most interesting development this year was the discovery of my friend while going through their local Japanese grocery. In this said grocery, they started selling tagalog translated volumes of Doraemon. The book is not as well printed as its American counterparts. If I have something to compare it with, it’s closer to the Malaysian manga releases. Not so sure if it’s the same for Indonesian prints. The paper’s closer to newsprint and the print was closer to that of the weekly magazines than it is that of a tankoubons. For the cheap price of P60 ($1.20) , it’s the best kind of print they can do.
In terms of translation, the manga turned out quite well. The conversations were casual and some things were appropriately contextualized. Mochi was turned to Bibingka ((a local rice cake, not the same texture but both are ‘essentially’ rice cakes)) and the translators were not afraid to use colloquial terms over those that would deem to be more proper in literature. Sound effects and variations thereof were also translated which made it all the more fun. In short, the translators made an effort to keep the spirit of Doraemon by sticking towards a translation that is closer to home. I hope that this characteristic and its cheap cheap price could spiral a new industry in the Philippines.
I just realized this morning that this was not the first tagalog translated manga in the Philippines. (Sorry about that Ed. ^^;;) Barefoot Gen was also published in the Philippines for a short while before the 80s. In fact there was a big effort after the war to distribute Barefoot Gen to the Filipinos to show the impact of the war to the Japanese, but I’m not so sure what happened afterwards. The choice to translate Barefoot Gen was more of a political effort than a commercial effort. What makes this Doraemon release special is the fact that it’s being released commercially. As I told Ed this morning, there are around 4 volumes available and this could be the start of something new for mangas in the Philippines. Many countries in South East Asia makes a big effort in translating Japanese manga to the local dialect. Indonesians has a bustling translated manga industry. The same goes for Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. These countries have been ahead in the game, and it should be time for Philippines to follow suit. Hopefully… HOPEFULLY, this publisher could get more licenses with more titles and start publishing them here.