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. 

Week10 Japanese manga -video-

 Of course, I have been looking forward this week a lot from the time when I saw the syllabus of this course at the beginning of this semester. I am a big fan of Osamu Tezuka, I believe you can see a lot of the evidence from my previous blog posts.

 I would like to add another information on video, about amateur manga and fan fiction culture in Japan. For these days, amateur manga and fun fiction manga is one of the biggest genres in Japanese comics. There are many events about it throughout the year. Even the biggest one, which is called Comic Market, is held once in each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Creators bring their artworks, most of the time it is manga but sometimes games and goods as well, and sell it to the customers or creators also buy or trades other creators' work. Unlike official publishing, they create a story, make an art, print, and sell all by themselves. This is an important place to communicate with artists.

Tokyo Big Site, the most famous place for Comic Market

 Not only the physical meeting, but the internet is also an important place for creators to sell their works. Pixiv.net is one of the most famous illustration SNS in Japan. For these days, many amateur manga artists became pro manga artists from publishing their work on pixiv.net. Companies and publishers also check pixiv account a lot to find a new artist.

https://www.pixiv.net/

 I already knew the most of the instructions that told in video, but because of that, I felt really happy with it. There’s no wrong information and any stereotypes. When I had the Game History class last year, I feel sad with the textbook because the instruction about Japan-made games was totally stereotypically wrong. In one section, it says like the theme of Japanese games is a sort of adult novel game. It is not wrong, we have that kind of games and it’s cannot be seen in another country, then it could be called as characteristic of Japanese culture. However, it is not all of us. The majority of the game genre in Japan is not the type of game. Also, there was a lot of spell mistake of Japanese names both in-person and titles. I know Japan is such a strange country for Americans. I appreciate the video class because that was the most accurate information that I ever had before.

Week9 French Comics

 I have a lot of fun reading this week's assignment. I felt that the French comics are not only comics but also an art. My favorite works are Moebius and Metal Hurlant by Jean Giraud. I have been so impressed how wide is his range of art stile in these works. The character design in Moebius is more comical and stylized while humans in Metal Hurlant are so realistic. Even their styles are different, I could see the basic knowledge of human anatomy in both of them. I would like to say them as academically well-studied comics. 

I also really like how he draws the background, especially machines. His works are a really good reference for my illustration works.

 This is my illustration. I like to draw complex machines with an inked pen. When I draw an illustration in this way, I am always focusing on making rhythm. Rhythm means the composition which is created by several components of artworks such as color, value, complexity and so on. Giraud’s works are great to learn these things.

 Machines are messy with buttons and codes, but it still clear to see because he made a rhythm. Some places are very simple while some others are so complex. When there is no color and no tone, the composition will be created with complexity for the most. I think I can learn a lot from his work.

I like Ciraud's art style. I think one of the reasons is the similarity of Japanese manga. Especially Metal Hurlant and Nausicaa of the valley of the wind are similar in its style of art. I think both of them are simply well drawing. 

W9 French Comics -video-

With your instruction about Tintin, I remembered the reading from week two, Understanding Comics. I believe the author of the Understanding Comics also used Tintin as one of the examples of the iconic character in a realistic background. I agree with your instruction; Japanese manga may have influenced by Tintin because most of all Japanese manga background is realistic. I quickly search on the internet with words like “how to draw manga book”. As a result, almost all books really focused on how to draw the background as realistic as possible while they are focusing on introducing how to draw more stylized or comic-like characters.

This page introducing how to make the drawn house more realistic.

This is the instruction of the character creation of manga.

I had a lot of fun with the instruction of Ligne Claire because I think this is the biggest difference between Japanese manga and Tintin, even manga is influenced by it.

ENG) equal -> add strength

As you see with this instruction, Japanese manga tends to have more line differences to make depth and material difference.

from Buddha by Osamu Tezuka

Also, Japanese manga loves shadows. Even Japanese manga in the early era tends to create tone by pen scratches but not by colors other than comic strips. For example, Osamu Tezuka uses a wide range of types of pen-based tones. This deep shadow also creates depth on 2D paper as line thickness creates.

 I found the likeness of scratch tone technique in another French comic, and I would like to talk about it in the next post.

Week8 Stereotype -Video-

 Both Born Sexy Yesterday and Predatory Romance in Harrison Ford Movies provide me an interesting perspective because I could find both tropes in Japanese anime. 

 When I was a junior high school student, one of my favorite anime was Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou). I did not realize back then but I would like to say this anime is the typical anime about born sexy yesterday girl. The protagonist is a typical high school student who does not have superior talent. Other characters around him are talented at a certain point but eccentric. Mashiro, heroin is the new resident of the on-campus house, where the main character lives. She is a great artist who talented in art but does not have any common sense about social life. The main character teaches and takes care of her, the same as to do for a pet.  

 The interesting fact is; the background world view of this anime is not science fiction but high school life. These tropes getting more common now in Japan, especially in “Light Novel” (a Japanese term means visual novel for a teenager) field. This anime is also created by a light novel that targeting the male and having almost all elements mentioned in the video. The main character treats the worldwide famous artist as a pet in this anime. 

 I am a woman but I like adorable girl character. However, I always feel not complete satisfaction with the story. The YouTube video gave me the reason for the discomfort of this anime. Since I am not male, I do not feel a sense of superiority by watching the main character taking care of heroin in such a way.

 Also, I felt that I have seen the woman's anger mythology before, and I found that it is similar to one of the genres of character development, “Tsundere”. This type of character usually very angry with the male character but sometimes turn into affectionate. Usually, it is popular to have this kind of character in Japanese novel games that targetting male customers. 

 This term also creates a problem. For example, even a woman seriously hesitates the approach, someone misunderstands it because she is tsundere, which means she is not hated in her mind but shy. It makes serious stress and miscommunication. I would not say this is bad, but separating virtual media and real life is important.

As the video says, much Japanese anime and manga have such tropes a lot especially in the products for a male customer. These videos are really fun to see because I could get new perspectives on the media. I would say it is not bad because these are produced by customer's needs. However, it may create another sexual stereotype.

Week8 Stereotype

 I could see how March carefully not to have any stereotypes within their story because this book is about racism. I could understand racism is one of the biggest issues in the U.S. and people very sensitive about it. However, I believe that stereotype is a really useful tool for developers.

I am using stereotypes in my game a lot especially to show the job, characteristics, and circumstances of characters, which I would like to call them surface-level information. It is important to present this information to the player quickly by visual and by the first impression.

 First of all, the game requires a quicker decision of customers than any other media such as animation and film because the video game is interactive work between the player and the story. While the animation and film keep go through without any viewer’s action, games require the player to play: move the character, choose a response, or fight against enemies. We do not have so many times to introduce the information of character because the player may not choose to speak with the character (and video game player hates to be forced by the developer to do something). In this case, the stereotype is helpful to show a quick introduction about the character in a short time. 

 Also, the stereotype does not always work a bad way because sometimes it creates surprise to the player. In general, the player will be excited with the story about the bad guy (or visually looks bad guy through the story) turns into the companion of the main character. For example, if there is a deep foodie guy with a crazy smile, the player may hesitate him by looking at his surface-level information. However, if his inner level of personality was good and player realized it during or the end of the story, the character will be the best appearing character in the game. This gap between surface-level information and inner level personality is a great strategy of character creation.

 I guess this character does not seems friendly for the first time, and it created to be felt like so from the player.

This game is a multiple ending game, and following this character leads to the true ending, which is not supposed to be seen for the first gameplay.

 In both ways, a stereotype is a great tool for creators. Using it effectively makes the characters appearing to the player. However, to use stereotypes effectively, I am needed to know the stereotype correctly because the wrong treatment of stereotypes makes the wrong treatment of humans and culture, such as the racism issues which told in March.

Week7 Barefoot Gen and Maus

Barefoot Gen is one of my traumatic manga. When I was an elementary school student, this was the only comic that arrowed to be in the library in the school. I have never experienced war, but when I read Barefoot Gen, I am experiencing the scary and horror of the war. Since this manga is sort of realistic, I feel a lot of scary and sad with this manga even now. This is a really good manga to educate children about how scary the war is to not make them do the history again. 

However, this manga is a little too scary which makes children hesitate to read. The first time I read this manga, I believe that was when I was 7 years old, I could not read the entire story because I felt many scary and could not read anymore because I will cry when I read this (Then I said this manga is my traumatic manga at the first paragraph). The time I could read everything was after I became a high school student, which is almost ten years later from the first time. Compare to Barefoot Gen, Maus is more acceptable for children because the characters are not human but represented to the mouse. For educational wise, Maus is easier to be spread to everyone.

Both mangas tell a strong message to the reader because it is based on the authors’ experience. It arrows to us to experience as well by reading them. I should have the same theory when I making a game because the game is also providing experience to the player. Those readings are really valuable to me to reconfirm the important thing to tell a story.