Manga--A Cultural Phenomenon

Manga, a unique style of comic books created in Japan with millions of devotees worldwide, are populated with characters that are instantly recognizable for their simple lines; wide, round eyes; and "big hair." Literally translated from the Japanese as "whimsical pictures," manga began as a childhood diversion, later developing into an extremely lucrative business that produces dozens of high-circulation magazines, anime (" animation"), and video games, and they have become an integral part of Japanese society.

The contemporary version of manga dates from 1947 when Osamu Tezuka, a 19-year-old medical student, combined the rudiments of a centuries-old Japanese art form with a story based on the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. Tezuka's New Treasure Island sold 400,000 copies, pioneering a genre that transcends the boundaries of age, interest, and gender. Often referred to as the "father (or god) of manga," Tezuka is also credited with creating the distinctive look of manga characters, which can be seen in his most famous creation, Astro Boy, created in 1952.

Manga are usually published in newsprint-style magazines of 250 to 850 pages, each magazine featuring a number of serial stories. An individual story will take up about 30 or 40 pages, often ending in a cliff-hanger to keep the reader anxiously awaiting the next installment. A popular serial may run for years--Tezuka was still authoring Astro Boy in 1989, the year of his death (and 37 years after the serial's creation). Long-running serials usually are collected in book form to allow new readers to catch up on past events.

Like the Japanese language, manga are drawn and read from right to left. Experts point out that even in printed form, manga art tends to be cinematic and that the arrangement of manga frames, or koma, is highly sophisticated, making for a seamless presentation of the narrative. The stories themselves tend to be based on the development of character, in contrast to plot-driven American comics. It has been noted that manga characters, again unlike most of their American counterparts, grow and develop, that they display an admirable work ethic, and that they are not as focused on battling evil as are American comic-book heroes. Another interesting contrast with American comics is that the facts of one story featuring a character or group of characters are not necessarily consistent with the facts in another story featuring the same characters. Thus two characters may be best chums in one story and total strangers in the next.

The biggest contrast between manga and other comic books is, however, simply the size of the industry and its integration into Japanese society. The Japanese respect manga as an art form and a legitimate category of popular literature. Although the vast majority of manga are targeted specifically toward young boys and girls, they also include work drawn for teenagers and adults, covering literary genres as diverse as science fiction, melodrama, historical fiction, and horror stories. They are also used in travelogues and as teaching tools in manuals and educational materials. Japan even boasts manga cafes where devotees can sip coffee and catch up on the latest tales.