I don’t know if the author of this article on the Wall Street Journal, questioning the Japanese government’s efforts to annoint manga as cultural embassador, is aware of how apropos her choice of wording is; within doujinshi, “mania/c” is often used to describe the most extreme fetishistic manga, the kind of stuff that would leave the uninitiated and unprepared with a shock-induced brain homorrhage. But for anyone to look at one example and then apply it to an entire artform requires a rather broad brush… which this article handily provides:
Perhaps the biggest problem is the highly sexualized nature of the form, which can be exceptionally seedy, if not illegal. Earlier this year, 13 manga comics, including “Rape Me in My School Uniform” and “Pedophile’s Banquet II,” were labeled “harmful books” by the Kyoto Prefecture for featuring excessive sexual acts involving girls under the age of 13.
The natural tendency of fans would be to defend manga and find logical and factual faults within this piece. But the world has often shown itself not to operate under the principles of logic or facts, and that’s what makes these concerns real. And the sentiment that manga should not be pushed abroad is actually shared by some who may be the most ardent defenders of anime and manga; Hayao Miyazaki most famously worried that the global popularization of anime would lead to the discovery of its underbelly.
The otaku are worried too, albeit for completely different motives. One could argue that the extra scrutiny being given to erotic doujinshi and manga are on some levels a result of the government’s attempt to present a more palatable image to the world community; a Disney-fication, Walton-fication, Puritan-fication of their tiny corner, once hidden from view but now forcibly shoved into the spotlight by Densha Otoko, fad and scandal-loving Japanese media, and a whole new legion of foreign anime/manga fans.
Is a sort of “cultural gentrification” of manga in service of international PR worth it? Well, it’s food for thought…
(Oh, and I blame Comipress for accurately translating those titles. Bad! Very bad!)
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One could argue that the extra scrutiny being given to erotic doujinshi and manga are on some levels a result of the government€™s attempt to present a more palatable image to the world community…
And, in fact, they do. I was just discussing this with a Hen Da Ne employee at my local con. @_@
Hardcore fans of [insert geeky thing here] always worry about the negative aspects their hobby becoming more mainstream. Given just how dirty some manga can get, and given that the hobby in question is being pushed by the government, it seems to me that anime/manga is experiencing an extreme version of mainstream-ification. Mainstream-ification squared. Or something.
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Well, America is portrayed in the foreign press by all the worst portions our pop-culture movements. Just because the western press is doing it to Japanese manga doesn’t mean it’s something new. ^_- The truth is, any nation’s press will over pick one minor thing to use as defining the ‘foreign’ subject as a whole.
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Simon,
I ordered Comic AG #18 and Slave Contract on Thurdsday evening and had them in my hands on Saturday. So, a public “Thank you!” for your quick order response.
By the way, I have noticed that no one seems to have the 2nd edition of Innocence in stock. When you do expect it to be available?
Thanks again!
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