Code
10-13-2007, 05:17 PM
http://blog.newsarama.com/2007/10/12/yujo-doryoku-shori-the-fiery-spirit-of-battle-manga/
I found this article an interesting read.
It's basically an in depth look into the various trends in action manga with comparisons to superhero comics, by a former Viz and U.S. Shounen Jump editor.
Here's a few summary paragraphs.
In both American and Japanese comics, there is one question that never gets old: “Do you think character X could beat character Y?” Despite the relative popularity of Japanese girls’ comics and increasingly fluid gender demographics, shonen manga is still the #1 demographic category, and within shonen manga the #1 genre is “battle manga.”
...
(1) The Hero Gets in Fights.
Scott McCloud rightly points out in Making Comics that manga have become more fantastical over the past 25 years. Compared to American comics, manga still dominates in the field of sports stories, high school tales, and realistic martial arts; but realistic stories are increasingly outnumbered by tales with science fiction/fantasy elements. (And there’s little separation between those two; “hard” science fiction is as out of fashion in Japan as it is in America.) In this way, American comics and Japanese comics have grown closer together, in a common realm of fantastic battles.
...
(2) The Hero Trains to Be Stronger.
There is one area where guts and determination vaguely intersects with real-world pragmatism, and that’s training. When shonen manga heroes are not fighting, they’re toughening themselves up: carrying heavy weights, doing odd jobs, dodging bees while tied to a tree, running from dinosaurs, running for hundreds of miles at a time, doing handstands on the back of a rickety chair, doing finger-stands on the edge of a knife, fighting blindfolded, using gravity machines to exercise under 100 times Earth’s gravity, and so on. Manga operates on the rule that “what does not kill you, makes you stronger.” The Japanese Work Ethic, though not as unconditionally unquestioned as it was in the ’80s, still blazes in shonen manga. On the contrary, while the American comics reader is aware that Batman is always lifting weights and the X-Men have the Danger Room, the writers generally gloss over this boring stuff. When training is a story element at all, it’s usually in a character’s background, such as when Daredevil trained under Stick. And Stick, after all, was inspired by Frank Miller’s love of Asian martial arts and ninja.
...
(3) The Hero Gets Stronger, and Faces Successively Stronger Opponents.
This is the key rule, the biggest factor without which all else would be meaningless. Battle manga and superhero comics are both formulaic, but since battle manga have endings, they can follow a path of constant escalation. Over the course of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Goku goes from a bulletproof little kid to a hero more powerful than all the gods in the universe. Over the course of Ranma 1/2, Ranma is initially overpowered by Happosai, but trains and learns how to defeat him. Plot progression is expressed by a series of battles, but these battles are not defensive fights to maintain the status quo, as in American comics; rather, they follow the hero’s journey, from inexperience to victory, to victory, and so on to a transcendent ending, or more likely an overdue ending when the franchise gets old and the author can’t come up with new ideas any longer.
...
If battle manga don’t engage the reader intellectually as much as the best of American superhero comics (again, Shaman King is perhaps an exception), this is because there is already seinen and josei manga for creators who want to do something more serious. In America, on the other hand, there is a long tradition of creators testing the limits of the one genre — superheroes — which can ensure a steady paycheck and reach more than a few thousand readers. But there’s nothing wrong with drawing comics explicitly for younger readers, or even for enjoying them as an adult. The many formulaic shonen manga are outweighed by the many which experiment with the genre, which exceed expectations, and which show the cartooning skill and individuality which only a creator-owned comic can possess. And I’ll admit it: I just love a good fight.
I found this article an interesting read.
It's basically an in depth look into the various trends in action manga with comparisons to superhero comics, by a former Viz and U.S. Shounen Jump editor.
Here's a few summary paragraphs.
In both American and Japanese comics, there is one question that never gets old: “Do you think character X could beat character Y?” Despite the relative popularity of Japanese girls’ comics and increasingly fluid gender demographics, shonen manga is still the #1 demographic category, and within shonen manga the #1 genre is “battle manga.”
...
(1) The Hero Gets in Fights.
Scott McCloud rightly points out in Making Comics that manga have become more fantastical over the past 25 years. Compared to American comics, manga still dominates in the field of sports stories, high school tales, and realistic martial arts; but realistic stories are increasingly outnumbered by tales with science fiction/fantasy elements. (And there’s little separation between those two; “hard” science fiction is as out of fashion in Japan as it is in America.) In this way, American comics and Japanese comics have grown closer together, in a common realm of fantastic battles.
...
(2) The Hero Trains to Be Stronger.
There is one area where guts and determination vaguely intersects with real-world pragmatism, and that’s training. When shonen manga heroes are not fighting, they’re toughening themselves up: carrying heavy weights, doing odd jobs, dodging bees while tied to a tree, running from dinosaurs, running for hundreds of miles at a time, doing handstands on the back of a rickety chair, doing finger-stands on the edge of a knife, fighting blindfolded, using gravity machines to exercise under 100 times Earth’s gravity, and so on. Manga operates on the rule that “what does not kill you, makes you stronger.” The Japanese Work Ethic, though not as unconditionally unquestioned as it was in the ’80s, still blazes in shonen manga. On the contrary, while the American comics reader is aware that Batman is always lifting weights and the X-Men have the Danger Room, the writers generally gloss over this boring stuff. When training is a story element at all, it’s usually in a character’s background, such as when Daredevil trained under Stick. And Stick, after all, was inspired by Frank Miller’s love of Asian martial arts and ninja.
...
(3) The Hero Gets Stronger, and Faces Successively Stronger Opponents.
This is the key rule, the biggest factor without which all else would be meaningless. Battle manga and superhero comics are both formulaic, but since battle manga have endings, they can follow a path of constant escalation. Over the course of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Goku goes from a bulletproof little kid to a hero more powerful than all the gods in the universe. Over the course of Ranma 1/2, Ranma is initially overpowered by Happosai, but trains and learns how to defeat him. Plot progression is expressed by a series of battles, but these battles are not defensive fights to maintain the status quo, as in American comics; rather, they follow the hero’s journey, from inexperience to victory, to victory, and so on to a transcendent ending, or more likely an overdue ending when the franchise gets old and the author can’t come up with new ideas any longer.
...
If battle manga don’t engage the reader intellectually as much as the best of American superhero comics (again, Shaman King is perhaps an exception), this is because there is already seinen and josei manga for creators who want to do something more serious. In America, on the other hand, there is a long tradition of creators testing the limits of the one genre — superheroes — which can ensure a steady paycheck and reach more than a few thousand readers. But there’s nothing wrong with drawing comics explicitly for younger readers, or even for enjoying them as an adult. The many formulaic shonen manga are outweighed by the many which experiment with the genre, which exceed expectations, and which show the cartooning skill and individuality which only a creator-owned comic can possess. And I’ll admit it: I just love a good fight.