1. Pop Culture In/Out Japan: Manga & Anime
Liliana Grimaldo
Brian Ooi
April 18, 2007
Liliana Grimaldo
Brian Ooi

2. History of Manga “Random or whimsical pictures”
Developed from woodblock printed books
Militarism of 1930’s
Post WWII saw rise of Osamu Tezuka
1970s movement towards realism
1970s rise of anime
Manga & Anime

3. Manga vs Comics Cheaper paper, much thicker books
Very affordable magazines with feedback channels – arguably the world’s biggest focus group
Money made through serializing popular comics
Anyone can be an anime artist
Over 1.3 billion manga published every year, ~30% of all books published in Japan
Manga & Anime

4. Genres of Manga/Anime
Shojo: manga/anime that are made with a female audience in mind.
Many deal with romances between young men and women
Kare First Love (manga)
More and more shojo are made dealing with problems girls can face in daily life, or activities girls are interested in.
Shojo Beat magazine
Manga & Anime

5. Genres of Manga/Anime
Shonen: manga/anime that are made with a male audience in mind.
The main characters often go through battles to become stronger
Rurouni Kenshin (manga)
Manga & Anime

6. Genres of Manga/Anime Hentai: pornographic anime/manga.
The target audience are adults and deal with many types of sexual situations
May feature characters from other anime/manga
Manga & Anime

7. Genres of Manga/Anime Yaoi: boy-love-boy type of anime/manga
Romances between male characters.
The term is becoming more widely used than sentai
Newtype USA
Manga & Anime

8. Genres of Manga/Anime Mecha: anime/manga with large robots.
The robots are either independent or controlled by humans
The main plot usually revolves around the humans in the robot
Newtype USA
Manga & Anime

9. Genres of Manga/Anime
Not all manga/anime need to fit into specific categories
It can cross over into different genres
Fushigi Yugi (anime – reverse harem, shojo, shonen)
Manga & Anime

10. Popular Manga/Anime Naruto First published in Shonen Jump (1999)
Ranked Japan’s 17th favorite anime
Ninja with demon trapped within him
Twelve years before the events at the focus of the series, the nine-tailed demon fox attacked Konohagakure. It was a powerful demon indeed; a single swing of one of its nine tails would raise tsunamis and flatten mountains. It raised chaos and slaughtered many people, until the leader of the Leaf Village – the Fourth Hokage – defeated it by sacrificing his own life to seal the demon inside a newly-born child, whose origins are as yet unknown. That child's name was Naruto Uzumaki.
The Fourth Hokage was celebrated as a hero for sealing the demon fox away. He wanted Naruto to be respected in a similar light by being the containment vessel for the demon fox. The village he grew up in, however, mostly shunned Naruto; they regarded him as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood.
A decree made by the Third Hokage made it so that the other villagers were forbidden to mention the event to anyone, even to their own children. However, this did not stop them from treating Naruto like an outcast. Although their children did not specifically know why their parents treated Naruto the way they did, they learned through example to despise the boy. As a result, Naruto grew up as an orphan in a lonesome atmosphere without friends, family, or acknowledgment. He could not force people to befriend him, so he sought acknowledgment and attention the only way he knew – through pranks and mischief. However, that soon changed after Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him. His graduation from the academy opened a gateway to the events and people that would change and define his world, including his way of the ninja for the rest of his life.
Manga & Anime

11. Popular Manga/Anime Ghost in the Shell Manga/Anime/Game
Ranked Japan’s 45th favorite anime
Inspired The Matrix
The overarching story of the manga is of the hunt for a cyber-criminal, The Puppeteer (known as The Puppet Master in the film), whose real identity is unknown. The Puppeteer commits a large number of crimes through a single modus operandi: "ghost hacking", that is, breaking into and taking control of human minds. As the agents of Public Security Section 9 start to unravel the mystery of the Puppeteer, it becomes clear that it is no ordinary criminal, but a unique autonomous artificial intelligence project (Top Secret Project 2501) created by another government agency, the Treaty Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), also known as Section 6. The Puppeteer escapes Section 6's control in pursuit of his evolution through merging with Kusanagi. Kusanagi, although initially skeptical, finally agrees to allow the Puppeteer to merge with her own consciousness, sharing her body, in what is no doubt intended to raise even more questions about the nature of human identity in a world where human consciousness is no longer unique.
Manga & Anime

12. Popular Manga/Anime Doraemon
First appeared on Manga in 1969, Anime in 1973
Spread throughout Asia
31st most popular Anime in Japan
Robotic cat that travels back in time
Manga & Anime

13. Popular Manga/Anime Dragon Ball First appeared in Shonen Jump (1984)
Manga/Anime/ Games
12th most popular
Monkey-tailed boy who fights many battles
The story of Dragon Ball follows the life of Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy loosely based on the traditional Chinese novel Journey to the West (西遊記). The Dragon Ball franchise continues until Goku becomes an adult. The franchise then changes to Dragon Ball Z. During his life, he fights many battles and eventually becomes the strongest martial artist in the entire universe. He is not without help, however, as the manga a large ensemble cast of martial artist heroes and villains which provide the conflicts which drive the story.
Manga & Anime

14. Popular Manga/Anime Full Metal Alchemist Since February 2002
Manga/Anime/Game
Most popular Anime in Japan
2 brothers in fictional world hoping to become alchemists
Fullmetal Alchemist is a fantasy manga set in the early 20th century in a country called Amestris in an alternate-historical Earth with technology dating from early 20th century Europe. In this alternate world, the pseudoscience of alchemy is heavily used in conjunction with acretian soul wanderers, but takes on a further fantastic element not seen in real-life alchemy. Real-world alchemists attempted to transmute gold from lesser metals. In the fictional world of the series, alchemy becomes the science of transmuting matter into different matter through the use of transmutation circles—based on real-world science, yet also magical, with seemingly infinite uses. Talented alchemists may apply to take a State Alchemist test to join the Amestris military's State Alchemists.
Manga & Anime

15. Popular Manga/Anime Pokemon Started off as computer game (1995)
43rd most popular
2nd best selling video game franchise ever
Based on insect collecting
Anime follows Pokemon
Master Ash
Manga & Anime

16. Commercialization of Manga
Anime can sometimes be based on manga or manga can be based on anime
Merchandise that stems from anime and manga
The toys and items are made in the image of the characters
Contribute to the success of the anime/manga
Manga & Anime

17. Commercialization of Manga
Plush toys: Inuyasha
Toys: Hamtaro
Calendar: Fullmetal Alchemist
Key chain: Pokemon
Video games: Pokemon
Anime from manga: Pokemon and Hellsing
Pokemon: marketed in the US to children, in Japan popular among teenagers and adult males, 500 episodes in Japan, countless games
Manga & Anime

18. Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) “Father of manga”
150,000 pages drawn, 400 paperbacks, 500 titles of all works
Star system
“Large eyes” style
Religious slant
(Phoenix)
Manga & Anime

19. Osamu Tezuka
Manga & Anime

20. Exportation of Manga
Changes in American comics, more emphasis on conveying emotions thru illustrations than thru dialogue.
X-Men (1990) vs. X-Men (2007)
Many non-Japanese artists writing manga-like books and illustrations
Manhwa: Korean manga
Manga & Anime

21. The Simba/Kimba Controversy
Disney’s The Lion King said to have copied Osamu Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion.
Similar coming-of-age plot
Matching characters
Very similar visuals
Disney never admit Lion King was based on Kimba; no further action taken
Manga & Anime

22. The Simba/Kimba Controversy
Manga & Anime

23. The Simba/Kimba Controversy
Manga & Anime