Week10 Japanese Comics

W10 Japanese Manga

 I have been read most of all comics posted on the course site. I was so happy to have Ranma 1/2 as a reference because Rumiko Takahashi is my second favorite manga author. My favorite manga from Rumiko Takahashi is Inuyasya, a story about a high school girl tripped to the Sengoku Era, which is about 500-800 years ago. 

Inuyasya by Rumiko Takahashi

 Compare to Osamu Tezuka’s wide-ranged accepted manga, I think Rumiko Takahashi created the basis of today’s otaku (manga geek) culture because of the stories and characters of her manga have the strong characteristic. I mean, maybe too strong for a normal customer but acceptable, or appearing for otaku. For example, most of the characters from Uruseiyatsura are very strange. Or maybe none of the characters from the manga has “normal” characteristics. The main character looks ordinal high school student, but he is a lustful boy. His rival is handsome, good at both study and sports, and rich. However, the character becomes not cool when he is in either dark or narrow space. Female characters are so cute or so beautiful by appearance, but most of them are so strong, which is stronger than any male character. I found that it is very hard to tell why they’re so strange by words. Please trust me, they are all so strange.

 Rumiko Takahashi’s manga may not be accepted for normal customers, but great for a certain type of people, who called otaku nowadays. It because the gags and stories in her manga have some sort of violent, gross, or sexual elements that may create filthy and discomfort (I’ve never had such a feeling, but maybe because I am already otaku). Also, her works are much harder to understand than Tezuka’s manga because her gags are fewer reactions compare to his works. For example, when Black Jack did the superior operation, other characters react (or explains) how his operation is great every time. On the other hand, Rumiko Takahashi usually does not put reaction to every behavior of the characters. 

 For example, this is one of the pages from Uruseiyatsura. This is a scene of a rich family conversation between son, his young sister, and his father. If I roughly translate, it would be like this in English;

Sister: Then, brother, you’re going to do matchmaking…?

Boy: I will!

Sister: N, no…

Sister: Brother! You’re vulgar!!

Father: Because she is sensitive age…

 As you can see, there is no reaction about “the strength of the sister who can use a huge hummer” and “where she suddenly gets it”. This hummer is not just an expression of the gag, but this sister's character actually strong as she can use it. If it is Tezuka’s comics or even other authors’ comics, they may have some reaction from other characters about her strength which is far from ordinal people. Since these characters are family, this scene is obviously lacking reaction. However, many scenes do not have many reactions that other authors may have. These types of non-direct gags or metaphoric gags are one of the biggest characteristics of Rumiko Takahashi’s manga. 

 However, her works are appearing for not only otaku but also girls. Because women characters in her manga are strong and ideal for girls. For example, most of every woman's characters in Uruseiyatsura are much stronger than any male characters. Girls in Ranma 1/2 are famous for their cute costumes and everyone is really strong. The heroin in Inuyasha is an ordinal high school girl, but she has a superior power than the hero is. Rumiko Takahashi’s work is shojo manga, but girls are ideally strong at a certain point(s). In other words, her manga is shojo manga but kind of taking off gender gaps. 

Rumic girls

 These strong characteristics of her manga make me a fan of this author. Her works are awesome for both shonen manga readers and shojo manga readers. I highly recommend to everyone to read her works.