For comic fans, the arrival of Japanese comics in the 1990s was experienced as a real invasion that led to a look full of complexes towards manga.
Despite the fact that almost the entire generation was impacted by the
anime
series of the seventies, with
Heidi
,
Marco
and
Mazinger Z
at the head, everything was forgotten before the overwhelming success that the
Dragon Ball comics
they had in the 1990s, beginning a change that few could predict how far it would go.
Manga, that phenomenon that dazzled young people, was seen as a poor style, for children, which was only characterized by big eyes, exaggerated violence and incomprehensible humor.
If for years comics were reviled as a childish culture and a second-class art, paradoxically those of us who defended tooth and nail the dignity of the comic fell into ignorant contempt for a form of comics that did nothing more than show the richness and diversity of the ninth art.
The stereotype was imposed despite the fact that signs had already been given that the manga was not only Son Goku and companions: since the early eighties, the magazine
El Víbora
had included comics by authors such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi, the great promoter of
gekiga,
the current of author comics that developed in the late fifties around
Garo magazine,
and even dedicated a special to manga where a whole range of styles was displayed and themes that discovered a true paradise for any cartoon lover.
Little by little, manga grew in our country with greater or lesser successes, as the specialist Marc Bernabé has documented in his statistical analyses, but consolidating a line that today makes manga the absolute protagonist of comics, monopolizing the first positions in sales of books (books in general, not just comics) without stopping and reaching almost a third of the total comic novelties that appear in Spain according to the report of the specialized website Tebeosfera.
A success that should be, at least, a call to curiosity.
It is true that for many, having to read comics starting from the end and from left to right may seem like an insurmountable barrier, but it is just a prejudice: they are simple automatisms that the brain assumes in just a few minutes, allowing you to enjoy reading exactly the same than a western comic.
However, it is true that the manga world is becoming a giant of such caliber that its sheer magnitude can scare those who were used to other types of comics, who see the
otaku phenomenon with surprise,
lovers of Japanese culture who they
enjoy
ramen,
j-pop,
anime
and manga, and
cosplay contests.
But don't worry: enjoying Japanese comics doesn't force anyone to dress up as their favorite characters, although it must be recognized that seeing how much fun the youth that floods the manga halls and Japanese culture quotes is having is a lot of envy and they give a lot of want to dress up as Naruto.
demographics and diversity
Of course, before reading manga you have to know certain keys that define to what extent the oiled Japanese industry has known how to specialize in the search for readers.
The first, the concept of "demographics" in the manga, an idea related to the characterization of the preferred reader: thus, the
shonen
was directed towards adolescent boys, while the
shojo
would look for girls of the same age;
the
kodomo
would be recommended for the little ones, while the
seinen
and the
josei
they would be dedicated to young adults and adults, respectively.
A classification that makes more sense from the strict Japanese society, but that is penetrating among Western readers by consolidating itself on an immense thematic variety.
Undoubtedly, it is the
shonen
that is starring in the biggest blockbusters at the box office, with series like
Tokyo Revengers
,
by Ken Wakui (Editorial Standard), or
Haikyû!!
,
by Haruichi Furudate (Comic Planet), breaking all sales records and attracting a lot of publishers to open manga imprints or for small publishers to dare to start the adventure of publishing manga.
And they do it from an undeniable narrative efficiency and from that plot richness that leads from an adventure of youth mafia gangs with fantastic and romantic overtones in the first to a series about volleyball that talks about overcoming and friendship in the best tradition of the remembered
Oliver and Benji
, based on the
Captain Tsubasa
manga
by Yōichi Takahashi.
A style of comics that, developed from the decisive influence of the series by Osamu Tezuka, known as "the god of manga", has been developing through successes such as
Akira Toriyama's
Dragon Ball ;
Naruto,
by Masashi Kishimoto, or
One Piece,
by Eiichirō Oda, and which today continues to top the sales charts with series such as
Attack on Titan
,
by Hajime Isayama (Editorial Standard);
Night Watchmen
,
by Koyoharu Gotouge (Editorial Standard), or
My Hero Academia
,
by Kohei Horikoshi (Comic Planet).
Self-improvement as a fundamental part of the evolution of the adolescent, so typical of Japanese philosophy, is the plot axis of series that are built on themes as varied as the invasions of giant zombies, superheroes or ancestral demons, always connecting with the tastes of younger readers, but that can reach series that mix the adventures of dysfunctional families made up of serial killers, James Bond-like spies and telepathic girls as in
Spy x Family
,
by Tatsuya Endo (Ivrea) or the pure subgenre from
battle royale
(which could be summed up in the immortal “there can only be one left” argument) from
As the Gods Will
,
by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Akeji Fujimura (Manga District).
'Tokyo Revengers', by Ken Wakui.
Despite the difficulties of standing out in a deeply masculine industry,
shojo
stood out in the sixties thanks to authors such as Mōto Hagio, Riyoko Ikeda or Rumiko Takahashi, who consolidated a tradition in which series such as
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
,
by Michiko , stand out today.
Yokote (Arechi);
A Disease Called Love
,
by Megumi Morino, or
Yona, Princess of the Dawn,
by Mizuho Kusanagi (published by Norma).
The
seinen
and the
josei
would imply a step forward in the more adult treatment of the themes, with blurred limits at times, but which could be perfectly represented by the works of Naoki Urasawa
(Monster, 20th Century Boys,
Happy!
or the recent
one ¡ Asadora!,
edited by Planeta Cómic) or Akiko Higashimura and her successful
Tokyo Girls
(Comic Planet).
It is interesting to discover not only how plot diversity is a fundamental key to the success of manga, but also the naturalness with which affective and sexual plurality has been introduced in its stories until they have become their own genres:
yaoi
(or BL,
boy's love)
and
yuri
(or GL,
girl's love)
form a consolidated part of the manga offer, even blending seamlessly with other themes, such as zombies, generating works such as
Boys of the Dead
,
by Tomita Douji (Kodai).
And, of course, let's not forget the little ones: although
kodomo
has not had such an evident diffusion as
shonen,
the offer is wide, although, unlike classic works such as the eternal
Doraemon
,
by Fujiko F. Fujio , the current offer for children is linked to franchises such as
Pokémon
, Inazuma Eleven
or
Super Mario,
with delicious exceptions such as
Chi's Sweet Home
,
by Konami Kanata (Comic Planet).
From the 'gekiga' to the author comic
But there is also room for more adult readings: the range of manga that would fit into the concept of author comics defined by the
gekiga
movement is wide and varied.
Authors such as Osamu Tezuka, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Masahiko Matsumoto, Shigeru Mizuki or Yasuhiro Tsuge are already common in bookstores, with works that deal with the miseries of human beings from well-differentiated themes.
If
Ayako
(Osamu Tezuka; Planeta Cómic) is one of the most forceful and ruthless denunciations of our neighbor's capacity for destruction, works like
The Man Without Talent
(Yoshiharu Tsuge; Gallo Nero) explore an existentialism that transcends the impositions of society, while
Operación Muerte
(Shigeru Mizuki; Astiberri) is a devastating story against the war from his own experience that leaves no room for concessions.
A genre that, curiously, has carried out a continuous exercise of reflection and self-criticism from the memory of its training and work, as we see in the works of Tatsumi
(
Una vida errante
;
Astiberri) or Matsumoto
(
Los locos del gekiga
;
Satori), allowing delve into the evolution of Japanese comics throughout history.
But in addition to these founding authors, the
gekiga
has become popular in Spain thanks to the work of renowned
mangaka
such as Jirō Taniguchi, with titles such as
El almanaque de mi padre
(Planeta Cómic) or
Barrio Lejano
(Ponent Mon), which address the passage of time and memory as a construction of the individual.
The Japanese author's comic has been consolidated not only from this look closer to the western one, but from the particular review of the classic genres that some authors have made: for example, terror in manga has found a particular path showing that the limitations that the genre has found in Western comics can be overcome with an approach as disturbing as those proposed by Junji Ito in works such as
Tomie
or
Uzumaki
(Comic Planet), Hideshi Hino in his disturbing
The Worm Boy
or
Cursed Creature
(La Cúpula), the irreverent Kanako Inuku
(
Terrifying Tales
;
Satori) or the provocative Suehiro Maruo with
The Vampire's Smile
(Panini).
A wide panoply that reaches experimentation, from the pioneer of graphic poetry inspired by the
nouvelle vague,
Seiichi Hayashi
(
Golden Polen
;
Gallo Nero), to the radical proposal of Yuichi Yokoyama
(
Journey
;
Apa Apa), passing through the subversive
heta-uma
by Yusaku Hanakuma
(
Tokyo Zombie
;
Autsaider Comics) or the always unclassifiable Shintaro Kago
(
The Great Funeral
;
ECC Ediciones).
A space in which very personal, autobiographical works are also beginning to be seen, ranging from the torn narrations of Kabi Nagata in
Diary of exchange (with myself)
or
My lesbian experience with loneliness,
edited by Fandogamia, to the exhaustive look to the past of the
Autobiography
of Shigeru Mizuki (Astiberri), in which the profound differences in social demands between Western and Japanese culture can be analysed, beyond cultural divergences.
Not forgetting the classics
The emergence of manga is also favoring a complete recovery of Japanese comic classics that covers all demographics, with the obvious example of the Tezuka Library that edits Planeta Cómic with the impossible task of publishing all the immense work of the great Japanese author, but that without a doubt it favors that we see edited works that at another time would be unthinkable.
Although absolute references had already been published, such as the dramatic story of the nuclear attack on Japan narrated by Keiji Nakazawa in
Pies descalzos
(DeBolsillo), the current bonanza has allowed the publication of some absolute references that are completely unknown in Spain despite their importance.
The mythical
Kamen Rider
,
by Ishinomori Shōtarō (Ooso Comics), as the specialist Oriol Estrada points out, the origin of the particular interpretation of the superhero in Japan, or
Tomorrow's Joe
,
by Ikki Kajiwara and Tetsuya Chiba (Arechi), a rigorous portrait of Japanese society after a plot set in the world of boxing, are good examples, including science fiction gems such as the apocalyptic
Akira
,
by Katsuhiro Otomo (Norma), or the disturbing
space
thriller
Who is the 11th passenger?
,
by Moto Hagio (Tomodomo), as well as the anticipatory tale of environmental awareness
Destino Terra
,
by Keiko Takemiya (Milky Way).
With more than a thousand titles published in Spain in the last year, it is impossible not to find a manga that matches the tastes and preferences of anyone.
It doesn't matter if you are a fan of comics or not, if you like to eat
sushi
or enjoy Japanese cinema.
The manga is capable of attracting anyone with its magnetism, with the only condition, yes, that you start reading from the last page.
Recommended reading
Tokyo Girls 7.
Akiko Higashimura.
Translation by Karla Toledo.
Planet, 2022 (Volume 7 of 9 will be published this fall).
160 pages.
€7.95.
Tomorrow's Joe 1.
Ikki Kajiwara and Tetsuya Chiba.
Translation by Marc Bernabé.
Arechi, 2022 (published two of 12 volumes).
380 pages.
16 euros.
Destiny Terra 1.
Keiko Takemiya.
Translation by Judit Moreno.
Milky Way, 2022 (three edited volumes).
352 pages.
10 euros.
Tokyo Avengers 1.
Ken Wakui.
Translation by Gemma Tarrés Guasch.
Norma, 2021 (the series is in the 10th volume).
384 pages.
16 euros.
Haikyu!! 1.
Haruichi Furudate.
Translation by Sandra Nogués Graell.
Planeta, 2021 (the publisher plans to launch the 12th, 13th and 14th volumes this fall).
192 pages.
€7.95.
Spy x Family.
Tatsuya Endō.
Translation by Nathalia Ferreyra.
Ivrea, 2020 (nine volumes have been published so far).
212 pages.
8 euros.
The man without talent.
Yoshiharu Tsuge.
Translation by Yoko Ogihara and Fernando Cordobés.
Gallo Nero, 2015. 232 pages.
20 euros.
Terrifying stories.
Kanako Inuku.
Translation by Marc Bernabé.
Satori, 2021. 160 pages.
15 euros.
The worm boy.
Hideshi Hino.
Translation by Ismael Funes.
The Dome, 2020. 212 pages.
€11.50.
Exchange Diary (with myself) 1.
Kabi Nagata.
Translation of Luis Alis.
Fandogamy, 2018 (two edited volumes).
160 pages.
12 euros.
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