Week5 Graphic Novels

 I think that graphic novels are similar to a movie. Compare to comics from previous weeks, graphic novels using the cinematic way of expressions. This is interesting to see the technique from different media.

 The biggest difference between comics from previous weeks and visual novels is the expression of sequence. In previous assignment comics, the pictures in each frame are much more like a photograph. Pictures have a connection between each other and had a story flow, but it shows only the shot of key action of each sequence. In this case, the setting of camera angle, background, point of view, the subject was dramatically changed between frame by frame.

 On the other hand, visual novels show not only the key shot of the action but several actions before or after the key action, which could be called a sequence. In this case, the difference between each picture is not obvious. Sometimes the camera is a totally solid angle without any changes between, and the only character has movement.

 This technique creates a sense of time, a specific atmosphere, and an additional range of expression. Comparing these two ways, comic books explain the story briefly by using the least amount of pictures while visual novels use more pictures to explain it, which could be considered as unnecessary. I think this “unnecessary moment” is the key part of visual novels. By having these moments, I can feel the atmosphere of the place and feeling of the character. In this case, I could feel the loneliness atmosphere of the shop and the character’s boring feelings, which I never could feel it with a brief explanation. It also creates another range of expression. In this case, I can get the ironic meaning from the dialog in the final frame, which I could not get with the comic books’ concise expression.

Both expressions work in certain ways. The brief expression makes a higher rhythm of flow and makes readers feel the exhilaration and satisfy. The sequential expression creates an atmosphere and explains the emotion of the character well, which is the same as the novels and cinematic films.

 In the cinema field, this type of sequence is well used in history. For example, we will focus on the emotion of the character when the sequence filmed the character for a long time. Also, this is a typical way that Osamu Tezuka used in his work. And he is influenced by the cinematic films and animations when he had started to draw manga.

Therefore, visual novels are a similar expression of films. I like to see this type of expression within the comics. I had a lot of fun to read them.