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Introduction

Origin

Manga often translated literally by “ridiculous image”, is composed of ga (ja 画), “drawing”, “engraving”, and man (ja 漫), “involuntary”, “diverting”, “without goal” but also “with the wire of the idea”, thus one could as well translate it by “free draft”, “fast draft” or “clumsy image”.

The term becomes current at the end of the 18th century with the publication of works such as Mankaku zuihitsu (1771) of Kankei Suzuki or Shiji No yukikai (1798) of Kyoden Santo and at the beginning of the 19th century with Manga hyakujo in 1814 of Minwa Aikawa. Also in 1814 Hokusai, the painter of famous the vague, names the images of grimaces which it started to draw hokusai manga , it is the latter work which made known the word in occident.

Some concepts

The draftsman of manga is called Mangaka. He is subjected at very fast intervals of publication, and always does not profit from a total freedom on its work, according to the reception near the public. If the manga is a strong success, the author will have to prolong his history, even if he wanted to finish it. Contrary, certain works little known will not see their continuation and end published.

The manga are often read in the opposite direction of the Western cartoons: from right to left what corresponds within the meaning of Japanese reading. That brings a certain confusion since the reading of the words is done then in the opposite direction of that of the boxes (what is not the case in Japan). If the young people adapt to it rather easily, the adult readers have difficulties. Introduced in France in 1978 with the review the cry which kills , the manga are published in this direction in Occident only since approximately 1995. However, the French editors do not yield systematically with this specificity. Certain editors then choose simply to turn over the images, which causes doubtful inconsistencies (a droitier which becomes left-handed, a blow carried in the middle which loses its direction with a reversed image or a safety Nazi carried out of the left arm in the History of the 3 Adolf ). Others entirely adapt the works while turning over only certain images, changing the page layout and by redrawing certain graphic elements, which has as a merit to make correspond the form of the Phylactère S with the horizontality of the Western written forms (Casterman in particular, in its collection Écritures ). , but generates however a overcost significatif.
La majority of the editors currently adopted the direction of Japanese reading, with an aim of economy and respect of work, even if that can be likely to cut them of an assistantship broader than accustomed genre.
Ailleurs than in France, and in particular in the United States, the adaptation generally yields within the meaning of reading European.

Diffusion

With the difference of Europe and the United States, the market of the cartoon in Japan is not a niche market but beautiful is well a phenomenon of mass which touches an enormous share of the population (one estimates at 50 % the number of Japanese who reads at least a manga per week) and generates an important economic activity. It is advisable to know that the manga Japanese are less expensive than in Europe, their price bordering the 400 yens (2,85 € at the beginning of 2006), whereas in France, the price of a manga generally ranges between 5,50 and 8 euros according to the format and the editions.

The manga , which is published in the magazines of prepublication, is more regarded in Japan an object of great consumption that as a valuable article. However, of the editions connected and stitched with the image of those appearing in Occident, are intended to be collected and preserved.

The enormous popularity of the manga competes with the large sizes of the cartoon européenne ; thus, the 42 volumes of Dragon Ball were sold with more than 250 million specimens in the world, a figure which exceeds that recorded by the adventures of Tintin with 24 albums published with more than 200 million specimens.

To note the presence of the Manhwa : Korean cartoons, very similar to the manga , whose publication and diffusion are done also increasingly dynamic.

History of the mangas

Initiating cultural movements

The manga , although very anchored in the Japanese Culture modern, finds its origins in the period Nara, with the appearance of the first Japanese painted rollers: the Emaki mono . These indeed associated paintings with texts penmanships which ensured, together, the account of a history which one discovered as was held the roller. The first of the emakimono , the Inga kyō , was the copy of a Chinese work and marked a clear separation between the text and painting. However, as of the middle of the 12th century, the first emakimono of Japanese style appear, whose Genji monogatari Emaki is the most former preserved representative. The latter often utilized of short explanatory texts after long painted scenes. This priority granted to the image - which can ensure only the narration - is today one of the most important characteristics of the manga . In the same way, at the time of the period Edo, the Estampe S were initially intended for the illustration of books, but, very quickly, the power struggle was reversed and one saw the appearance of “ books with regarder ” in opposition with the “ books with lire ”, before the total disappearance of complementary writings and the birth of the print “ indépendante ” in only one illustration: the Ukiyo-e . It is Katsushika Hokusai besides (1760 - 1849), the founder of the Estampe of landscape, which literally gave its name to the manga (“ drawings grotesques ”), thus naming its famous caricatures which it published of 1814 with 1834 with Nagoya. Lastly, and in particular in the manga of the type Shōjo , the Art nouveau occupies a dominating place among the influences of the Mangaka S, while knowing that this movement was caused partly by the Japonisme in Europe, following the discovery of the prints by the Westerners.

The cartoon

The manga however did not know its current form - that of Cartoon - which at the beginning of the 20th century, under the influence of the commercial reviews étasuniennes. Various series, comparable with those of on the other side of the Atlantic, thus transfer the day in the Japanese newspapers. Very the antimilitarist Norakuro (the black dog) of Tagawa Suiho, and Bōken Dankichi (adventures of Dankichi) of Shimada Keizo, will be the most popular series in Japan until the middle of the Forties during which all the press like all the cultural activities and artistic undergo the censure of the military government, this last not hesitating to mobilize these mediums at ends of Propagande.

Post-war period

Under the American occupation, the Mangaka of post-war period are subject to the enormous influence of the Comic - strips which then are translated and diffused in great number in the Japanese daily press. One of them, influenced by Walt Disney, will revolutionize the kind and will give rise to the modern manga : it is about famous the Tezuka Osamu. It is indeed Tezuka which will introduce the movement into the Japanese cartoon by graphic effects like features or Onomatopée S underlining all the actions comprising a displacement, but more especially by the alternation of the plans and framings as it is of use with the Cinéma, thus breaking with a theatrical tradition , the characters always being up to that point represented in foot, at equal distance and the center from the image. Animation being the true objective of Tezuka, it carried out the first series of Japanese animation for television in January 1963, according to one of its works: Tetsuwan Atom , more known in France under the name of Astro, the small robot . Finally, the passage of paper to the small screen became current and the commercial aspect of the manga became extensive, since it goes now until joining the toys and video games, the latter being able even to be at the origin of a manga . But let us return to the manga on paper in which Tezuka was not satisfied to upset the mode of expression since its curiosity and its fertile imagination pushed it to explore the various kinds of them - then mainly infantile -, like inventing the new ones, participant in this way in emergence of manga for adults in the Sixties with which it could tackle “serious” subjects more and more complex scenarios, without however losing of its humor nor to betray its deep humanism, its antimilitarism and its fear with respect to the domination of the company by science.

Thus, the manga “ grandissant ” at the same time as its readers and diversifying according to the tastes of an increasingly important public, the edition of the manga represents today more than one third by its pullings and more than one quarter by its incomes of the unit of the Japanese edition. This is why the manga became a true social phenomenon since it touches all the social classes like all the generations thanks to its cheap price and with the diversification of its subjects. Indeed, the manga , as a mirror but a also social model, milked of all the conceivable topics: life at the school or the college, that of the employee, the sport, love, the war, terror, until more didactic series like the Japanese or Chinese traditional literature, the economy and finance, history of Japan, kitchen and even the highway code, thus revealing its teaching virtues.

In 1985, Tezuka Osamu receives the cultural price of Tōkyō, and in 1990, the year which followed its death, the Musée of modern art of Tōkyō devotes an exposure to him. This event marks the introduction of the manga into the Japanese cultural history.

In France

In France, the manga builds its sulfurous reputation at the beginning of the Années 1990, by the diffusion of Japanese cartoons with a public for which they were not intended. At that time the manga was known little about, whereas the Japanese publications were with the segmentation. But the real rise of the manga in France begins with Akira in 1994 published by Glénat, which contrary to the manga Dragon Ball had not had the televisual support to carry it.

At the beginning of 2006, France is, with 10 million annual specimens, the largest “consumer” of manga in the world after Japan and in front of the United States. The manga represent 45 % of the turnover of the cartoon and constitute more the strong progression behind the fiction youth, being placed in second position of the most dynamic sectors of the edition.

The system of prepublication

The manga Japanese are very seldom published directly in the form of volumes connected. They appear first of all in a way cut out in magazines of prepublication, specialized magazines which are devoted to them.

The rates/rhythms of publication of these magazines can vary much, energy of the weekly magazine to the even quarterly monthly publications. The series are often published there by chapters of a score of pages. Inside the same magazine, paper can sometimes change color, in order to quickly distinguish - the manga are read always quickly - the various series from/to each other.

These magazines, good market, run out in great number, i.e. in million specimens, and are read a little everywhere. One finds some sometimes abandoned in the trains, the subway trains, the coffees, etc They feed a system of multiple readings: a magazine would be read by several people.

Mainly black and white, the first pages of the magazines are often colors, putting in turn at the honor one of their series high-speed motorboat on this site, often so that the chapter in progress is a beginning of volumes.

It is only in the one second time, when a manga meets a certain success, that it is published in volumes connected, similar to those which one finds in France, thus starting a second career. These volumes connected are called Tankōbon (format pocket), bunkōbon (more compact format, used for republications) or wide-round of applause (format “ luxe ”, larger than the format pocket). In the absence of success near the public, a series will be able to see its stopped publication, the mangaka not very front being prevented to find fine a rapid with its history and to allow a possible publication in volumes. Certain reviews decide from now on end of a series as of the end of the second volume, leading to final stories in four volumes. In certain cases, a manga with success can be seen adapted in Anime (Cartoon).

Some weekly magazines of prepublication:

Certain titles usually reach the 400 weekly pages, with pullings bordering the 6 million specimens.

Techniques specific to the kind

Technically speaking, the manga are almost always in black and white. Indeed, they are published most of the time initially in inexpensive reviews, on recycled paper, and often only the first pages of the review (correspondent to a setting in front of a particular series) are entitled to color. Thus one separately finds sometimes pages color with the right in the middle of works published thereafter.

Let us note in the passing that the mangas often count a number of pages (of boards) very important. As example, a European data base will contain forty boards when the manga counts of it more than one hundred, and sometimes even more than two hundreds. In addition, the manga is generally a series in several volumes. With final, the full number of boards telling a history in a manga is much higher than in a data base with European (even if it is about a series). This affects consequently much the structure of the account and its narration. From where techniques suitable for the manga .

The drawing, in general, is less “ statique ” that in the Western cartoons. The manga uses a temporal cutting near to that of the Cinéma, often adopting its framings and using a decomposition of time and action. The characters often have large eyes, which makes it possible to reinforce the expressivity of the face. Many graphic codes are used to symbolize the emotional or physical state of a protagonist. The astonishment, for example, is often translated by the fall of the character; fainding, by a cross replacing the eyes. In the manga City Hunter (known on the French small screen under the name Nicky Larson ), the anger of Kaori (Laura) is often translated by the unexpected exit of an enormous bludgeon which it strikes on the head of its partner.

There are also a frequent use of onomatopoeias relating to the movements, actions or thoughts of the characters. Let us note in the passing which Japanese is much richer than French in onomatopoeias and than their field of application is broader, including concepts surprising such as the onomatopoeia of the smile ( niko niko ), of silence ( shiiin ) or of the flutter ( pika pika , from where the name of Pikachu).

A characteristic to note is that the majority of the characters often refer Western, beyond the simple layout of the large eyes of the characters. A red-headed samurai, an exorcist with the blue eyes or a fair schoolgirl do not have anything astonishing for the Japanese reader, even if they are supposed Japanese being or of Japanese culture. The simple need for distinguishing physically between two characters is not always enough to explain this aspect of the narration, since some mangaka choose to give to all their characters a purely Japanese aspect, without that not posing a problem with the comprehension of the history. Some see a way there of posting an attraction for the Occident, which appears largely elsewhere in the daily life in Japan.

The decorations of the scenes are sometimes excavated than for a Western cartoon. That can go as far as making evolve/move the characters in a white decoration. This party taken results in to in general focus the attention of the reader on the history and the dialogs in particular. One thus notes a certain resurgence of the theatrical aspect.

Lastly, the characters often adopt expressive attitudes with excess: anger, the jealousy or the embarrassment are shown easily, whereas this attitude is rather badly seen in the Japanese culture, where the calm one and reserve are of rigor in the social reports/ratios. The passage of the absurdity and comic with serious or to the drama, without any transition, also forms part of the narration, without never causing interrogation on behalf of the reader who accepts by advance this convention of reading.

Another characteristic is the play of the author with the reader. Thus, in Rough , one can see the characters making publicity for others manga of the author, or collecting Phylactère S fallen on the ground.

In a general way, one can note a greater freedom as for the interaction between the drawings and their support (play with the executives, characters leaving the executives, etc)

In the manga intended for youth, the kanji , Chinese characters or Sinogramme S, are often accompanied by Furigana to facilitate the reading.

Types of manga

The reviews of manga are generally intended for a precise category of age:

Josei (ja 女性) for the young women and adults;
Kodomo (ja 子供): for the young children;
Redisu (ja レディース, Lady' S ): for the adult women.
Seijin (ja 成人): for the adult men;
Seinen (ja 青年): intended for the young men and adults;
Shōjo (ja 少女): intended for the young girls teenagers, manga sentimental;
Shōnen (ja 少年): for the young adolescent boys.

Also certain particular kinds are distinguished:

Nekketsu : Term meaning extreme blood indicating the manga shônen putting in scene of the defending exaltés hero of the traditional virile values such as courage, the friendship and the going beyond of oneself;
Ecchi (ja H or ja エッチ): manga erotic (attention, the term Ecchi is also used for the stylized erotic images manga );
Gekiga (ja 劇画): manga dramatic of the years 1960-70;
Hentai (ja 変態): manga pornographic heterosexual (idem that for the Ecchi , however to the difference in the images Ecchi , the images Hentaï often present explicit scenes);
Jidaimono (ja 時代物): manga historical;
Moé (ja 萌え): manga turned towards a feeling or a fetishistic affection for a character;
Shitei : manga of the humorous type for small and large;
Shōjo-have (ja 少女愛): sentimental lovesong between women;
Shōnen-have (ja 少年愛): sentimental lovesong between men;
Suiri (ja 推理): police officer, manga turned towards the murder;
Yaoi (ja やおい): sexual lovesong between men, kind intended for the women (certain scenes can be sometimes censured).
Yonkoma (ja 四コマ): manga in four boxes (equivalent of the comic strip ), often humorous;
Yuri : sexual lovesong between women, kind intended for the men (certain scenes can be sometimes censured).

In the French-speaking countries, only four categories are usually published: Shōjo , Shōnen , Seinen and Shitei .

Specific vocabulary

Bishōnen (ja 美少年): pretty boy, almost androgyne.
Bishōjo (ja 美少女): pretty girl.
Cosplay : The " term; CosPlay" comes from a contraction between two words which are " Costume" and " Play" , which is a practice aiming at disguising itself as a character celebrates manga , of video game or quite simply out of star Japanese woman. The “cosplayers” frequently meet and reconstitute the mythical scenes associated with their character.
Dōjinshi (ja 同人誌): amateur production, often parodic.
Fan fiction : literally “history written by a fan”; account with nonlucrative goal taking again the world of a manga (or more largely of a video game, a book…), in which the author made there evolve/move characters with his liking.
Lemon : Fan fiction (written account) in erotic or pornographic matter putting in scene characters of the world of the manga , Japanimation or video games
File : Fan fiction (written account) romantic with erotic scenes simply suggested and putting in scene characters of the world of the manga , Japanimation or video games.
Mangaka (ja 漫画家): a draftsman of manga .
Matched (or meka ) (ja メカ): Used very often for the mangas and/or animate on the robots or armours of combat covered by the characters. The term comes from the Anglo-Saxon word " mechanic" translated literally by " mécanique". Example: the series Mobile Follows Gundam .
Otaku (ja お宅, ja おたく, ja オタク): if, in Occident, this term indicates in a general way one impassioned of manga , in Japan it has a different and pejorative significance. It nominates a person so impassioned by a subject (a series TV, models, a singer…) that it ends up cutting real-world by being locked up in an interior world
Yonkoma (ja 4 コマ漫画, ja 4 コマ): Cartoon in four staged boxes, generally humorous.

Derivative products

Often, the successful series are adapted in Anime . But sometimes, in fact the Anime are used to create cartoons, either simply inspired by the animated version (as it is the case for Evangelion ), or directly copied starting from the animated images. For that, one puts on page of the images extracted the desired work, on which one adds dialog. These particular cartoons are then called Animekomikkusu ( Anime comics ).

Associated with the manga , one finds the Artbook S , collections of illustrations color and original images, including short stories sometimes. In the same way, because of growing popularity of the manga , the derivative products are increasingly numerous: figurines, books, calendars, key-ring, cuddly toys, clothes, costumes, accessories…

In France, many festivals called conventions made their appearance these last years. These conventions are gathering points for the fans of manga or modern Japanese culture in general, proposing projections, plays, spectacles of Cosplay and often supplemented by a space where côtoient themselves professional (stores of books and other products) and amateurs (clubs and associations exposing their own works).

One counts among the most known conventions: Cartoonist, Epitanime, Japan Expo, Tokyo Zone (France), Polymanga (Swiss)…

Kind and number of the word “ manga ”

The Japanese words do not have a grammatical Genre; consequently it is possible to say a or a manga . The author Frederic Boilet overheated the spirits of many fans accustomed to grant the word to the masculine, while speaking about manga to female (in particular within the framework of its movement free-Japanese the News Manga ). Its arguments cannot be completely rejected. The fact is that Jules and Edmond de Goncourt, while speaking for the first time in France about manga , at the end of the 19th century, did it by granting the word to the female one. For this time, manga had been often employed with female, and this until the recent popularization of the use to the masculine (in the years 1990 by the first specialized newspapers and television). A second argument could be that the equivalent phrase in French, cartoon, is already of female kind.

At present, one can however note that it is the male kind which very largely prevails.

The second problem relates to the agreement with the plural : in accordance with the spelling reform adopted in 1991, “ The borrowed words form their plural in the same way that the French words and are accentuated in accordance with the rules which apply to the words français. ” . However, this reform not being still obligatory, the old rule of use of plurals in their original form persists. Thus, one can as well as meet manga mangas , the two orthographies being correct.

See too

Animates alphabetically (drawing-animated)
Cartoons of science fiction
Gashapon
Liste of mangakas
Manga coffee
Mangaka
Manfra (running French-speaking of data base of style manga )
Manhua
Manhwa
Scanlation

External bonds

Mangas category of the directory dmoz.
the magazine Web of Arte devoted to the manga.

Random links:

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