Lots of people think manga is a sinonym of sex and violence. This page tries to give an introduction to japanesse comic, to give a most extensive vision.
....and SOON IN THIS PAGE:
We can find antique prints we can consider ancestors of japanesse comics: the "Chojugiga", humouristic drawings were animals are human-like. They appeared in the 7th Century and are composed by 4 papyrus rolls plenty of black&white paintbrushed drawings, and the author was a priest named Toba (1053 AC..1140 AC).
Next centuries we can find more papyrus rolls satirizing politics and society (the "Mibun Sida", a japanesse medieval class structure). But were not widely spread: only aristocrathic people or members of religious order could get them. The first "popular" comic was the "Ukiyo-e", drawings printed on wood which appeared in Edo Period (1600 AC..1867 AC). People wasn't agree with the Japan society, so it leads to lots of satiric prints... Ukiyo-e become a way to have fun. Usually appeared phantoms or spirit tales, or even erothic stories (named "Shunga"). One of the Ukiyo-e artists, Hokusai Katsushika, was the man who created the word "Manga" for a tittle: "Hokusai Manga" (1914)
The origin of modern japanesse comic began in middle 19th Century. In 1853 Japan ended his isolationism with the other countries, so lots of pressman went into Japan. One of them was Charles Wirgman, an english newspaper cartoonist who was working as Ilustrated London News Japan correspondent. In 1862 began publishing the "Japan Punch", a britanic-humour fanzine which satirized Japan society. The problems this fanzine and some others (as "Tobae", founded in 1887 by a french pressman named George Bigot) with the government encouraged some rebel teenages to become japanesse cartoonists and storywriters (as Rakuten Kitazawa, Tofujin, Shousei Oda, Yukata Aso, ...). This was the beginning of the expansion of comic into the japanesse society
Even at the years of World War II comic was present in Japan: the "Kamishibai", comics which illustrations were shown to a gathered audience while the artist was telling the story. Kamishibai keep comic alive during the war.
Finally Japan was defeated, so people need something to have fun while the national reconstruction was made. Comic adapted itself to the moment, so it becomes a cheap publication printed only in black and white with a worse printing quality. There was a strong censorship, so politics themes were not available. New themes were born: heroes, samurais, sports, love stories, funny tales... This was the beginning of the big Japan comic market. The childhood grew up, but they never stopped reading manga, son finally ALL the people use to read manga: from the worker to the women at home, kids, young people, teenagers.... more themes were added, and there appeared kids themes and grown-up themes (but usually adults read kids comics, too). Manga market became huge. Each month uses to appear magazines with 500 pages more or less with episodes of different series. The cartoonist job is well-paid, but they have to work so quickly that they often get ill because of stress... but if a cartoonist become famous he gets an incredible fortune in just a few years (for example Akira Toriyama or Rumiko Takahashi).
Now-a-days manga is still published in black and white with a bad printing quality. A Manga magazine is usually read by more than one person and then throwed to trash (Japan has lots of Space problems). Only the best-seller series are re-printed in a better quality to collect them. Recently has appeared a Merchandising market (objects with drawings of manga characters) that give more money to the authors.
The incredible amount of people who buys manga in Japan leads to a wide list of themes, from sports to love comedy.
It has been menctioned above the incredible diffusion manga series have in japanesse society. There's an incredible sort of series, but only the ones which had success get the "animated series" version: it's "Anime". They are often weekly or monthly 30 minutes-long episodes. This makes companies have a cartoonist team working very quickly to have the next episode at time.
This fact is visible in animation quality, because the minimun number of drawings per second are made (usually less of the 24 ones needed to deceive nacked eye), so movements are not perfect. When the manga series has a few issues, the animated version is better made, and usually episodes are longer.
Last years have seen the arise of "OVA"'s: an hour-long chapters which are selled in video at shops as films. The animation in OVA's is better than the TV series one, and the FX are better, too. Some OVAs are special chapter of TV animated series (as Dragon Ball or Ranma 1/2 OVAs): some others are from mangas without a TV version (as Macross or Oh my Goddess!).
The top of japanesse animation is in Long films. "Akira", (by Katsuhiro Otomo) had an incredible animation and show to all the world the art Japan was able to do when they don't have to go quickly. Lately have appeared new films as "Porco Rosso", that have a very good animation, too.
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Last updated by Profesor-X on 8/10/97