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mildcurry's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.0
I picked this book up for $5 at my local vintage shop. I'm an avid reader of manga, so I’m always interested in any academic treatments of it that I can find in English.
Its author, Frederick L. Schodt, seems to have been something of a pioneer in bringing manga to an American audience. He has been translating manga since the 70s, and is responsible for the translation of more than one classic series into English (notably Astro Boy and Rose of Versailles). In a 2010 interview with Publishers Weekly, he says that one of his motivations for writing Manga! Manga! was to bring more attention to Japanese pop culture.
His dream has largely been realized. In my lifetime, I’ve watched manga in English go from a niche hobby available only through fan-produced bootlegs to one of the largest sections at the local Barnes and Noble. I currently check out most of the manga I read as ebooks from my local library; a luxurious ease of access that would have been completely unfathomable in 1983, when this book was first published.
Schodt’s book, often referred to as the bible of manga, is a comprehensive and extensively researched treatment. It traces the history of manga from early Japanese picture scrolls, through war time political cartoons, to the ambitious storytelling in Osamu Tezuka and his successors. The pages are bursting with quality pictures, meticulously annotated for the understanding of an English speaking audience. The book offers an accessible introduction to the world of manga to the uninitiated, and a full and juicy history to fans.
Unfortunately, the experience of reading is brought down by Schodt’s inane commentary. When venturing into any exploration of the social and cultural forces that shape manga, Schodt will invariably write something overly simplistic or stereotypical. He uncritically repeats tired ideas like men wanting action stories and women wanting romance stories. He often falls back on stale descriptions of Japanese society that focus on an obsession with hard work and honor. Twice he mentions that Japan’s constitution bans war as evidence for the Japanese people being inherently peaceful, while neglecting to mention that their constitution was imposed on them by the United States after World War II. In the section on women’s comics, he mentions that Japanese characters are often depicted with blonde hair and blue eyes when drawn in color. His explanation for this is merely “mental gymnastics” on the part of the women artists and readers. He also seems completely ill-equipped to handle the themes of queerness that have been present throughout manga’s history. He liberally applies the term “bisexual” to anything outside of gender or sexuality norms, bafflingly using it for both the stories of Nobuko Yoshiya (arguably the progenitor of modern yuri) and the dual gendered protagonist of Tezuka’s Princess Knight.
I can see how a book like this was an instrumental part of paving the way for manga’s popularity in the United States. I can see how it reigned as a “bible” when there wasn’t much else to go on. I think that the comprehensive amount of information it contains about important authors and works in manga’s history can still be quite valuable. But the modern scholar of manga should take advantage of living in a world that Schodt could only dream of, one where there is a wider availability of scholarship on manga in English, and we no longer have to rely on this book.
Its author, Frederick L. Schodt, seems to have been something of a pioneer in bringing manga to an American audience. He has been translating manga since the 70s, and is responsible for the translation of more than one classic series into English (notably Astro Boy and Rose of Versailles). In a 2010 interview with Publishers Weekly, he says that one of his motivations for writing Manga! Manga! was to bring more attention to Japanese pop culture.
His dream has largely been realized. In my lifetime, I’ve watched manga in English go from a niche hobby available only through fan-produced bootlegs to one of the largest sections at the local Barnes and Noble. I currently check out most of the manga I read as ebooks from my local library; a luxurious ease of access that would have been completely unfathomable in 1983, when this book was first published.
Schodt’s book, often referred to as the bible of manga, is a comprehensive and extensively researched treatment. It traces the history of manga from early Japanese picture scrolls, through war time political cartoons, to the ambitious storytelling in Osamu Tezuka and his successors. The pages are bursting with quality pictures, meticulously annotated for the understanding of an English speaking audience. The book offers an accessible introduction to the world of manga to the uninitiated, and a full and juicy history to fans.
Unfortunately, the experience of reading is brought down by Schodt’s inane commentary. When venturing into any exploration of the social and cultural forces that shape manga, Schodt will invariably write something overly simplistic or stereotypical. He uncritically repeats tired ideas like men wanting action stories and women wanting romance stories. He often falls back on stale descriptions of Japanese society that focus on an obsession with hard work and honor. Twice he mentions that Japan’s constitution bans war as evidence for the Japanese people being inherently peaceful, while neglecting to mention that their constitution was imposed on them by the United States after World War II. In the section on women’s comics, he mentions that Japanese characters are often depicted with blonde hair and blue eyes when drawn in color. His explanation for this is merely “mental gymnastics” on the part of the women artists and readers. He also seems completely ill-equipped to handle the themes of queerness that have been present throughout manga’s history. He liberally applies the term “bisexual” to anything outside of gender or sexuality norms, bafflingly using it for both the stories of Nobuko Yoshiya (arguably the progenitor of modern yuri) and the dual gendered protagonist of Tezuka’s Princess Knight.
I can see how a book like this was an instrumental part of paving the way for manga’s popularity in the United States. I can see how it reigned as a “bible” when there wasn’t much else to go on. I think that the comprehensive amount of information it contains about important authors and works in manga’s history can still be quite valuable. But the modern scholar of manga should take advantage of living in a world that Schodt could only dream of, one where there is a wider availability of scholarship on manga in English, and we no longer have to rely on this book.
skjam's review
5.0
Back in the early 1980s, manga and anime fandom was tiny, with almost no material being available in English save dubs heavily edited for American children’s television and expunged as much as possible of their Japanese roots. It required a certain amount of determination, luck and a little madness to collect these foreign entertainments. One of the first cracks in the dam was this book, published in 1983. (The edition I am reviewing is the 1986 paperback with updated sales figures.)
The book begins with a look at the manga industry itself, the insanely high sales figures, the wide variety of genres and the demographics covered. This is compared to the relatively tiny and narrow American comic book market. (To be fair, Japan was going through an economic boom and the U.S. comics market would do much better in the latter half of the Eighties, but it’s still striking.)
From there we proceed to the history of manga, starting from the delightful Animal Scrolls of the 12th Century. While there was a thriving culture of humor magazines with cartoons and political cartoons, magazines with just comics were primarily for children until after World War Two. Then there was a phase where independent non-children’s manga were primarily made for the pay library market. But with cheaper printing processes and especially the mass-market success of Osamu Tezuka, weekly and monthly manga anthologies sold at newsstands became the standard format.
The chapters that follow cover general themes found in manga: The samurai spirit and Japanese tradition, often translated into modern-day sports. Romance and emotional drama catering to girls and women. Business comics both dramatic and silly. And taboo-breaking manga, dealing with subjects from sex to teen rebellion against society.
There’s another chapter on the details of the industry, showing how artists, publishers and accountants work together to produce the manga everyone loves to read.
And then a chapter on the future of manga. This is naturally the one that’s most interesting in retrospect. Mr. Schodt predicted that manga would never become successful in America due to the difficulties of translation and resistance to foreign goods. He thought only a handful of classics would ever be brought successfully to market, and primarily for the scholarly venues. As it turned out, there was in fact a tremendous thirst for manga, which just needed to find the right distribution channel.
The book closes out with four manga samples. The first is a brief interlude from Osamu Tezuka’s classic Phoenix in which a sculptor has a vision of the undying bird. Reiji Matsumoto’s Ghost Warrior is a complete story about two Japanese soldiers separated from their units during World War Two. (Note: sexual situations.) Ryoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles is represented by the chapter where Marie Antoinette refuses to talk to Madame DuBarry, setting off a diplomatic crisis. Keiji Nakazawa’s searing Barefoot Gen depicts the events of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. (Note: Horrific depictions of injury and corpses.)
There’s a brief index and bibliography at the back, and plenty of illustrations throughout.
This is an excellent introduction to the subject of manga, and a snapshot of what the industry looked like in the mid-1980s. Younger readers may be a bit disappointed by the dated material–many of today’s top creators weren’t even born when this book was published! Still, recommended to anyone with an interest in manga as a primary text.
The book begins with a look at the manga industry itself, the insanely high sales figures, the wide variety of genres and the demographics covered. This is compared to the relatively tiny and narrow American comic book market. (To be fair, Japan was going through an economic boom and the U.S. comics market would do much better in the latter half of the Eighties, but it’s still striking.)
From there we proceed to the history of manga, starting from the delightful Animal Scrolls of the 12th Century. While there was a thriving culture of humor magazines with cartoons and political cartoons, magazines with just comics were primarily for children until after World War Two. Then there was a phase where independent non-children’s manga were primarily made for the pay library market. But with cheaper printing processes and especially the mass-market success of Osamu Tezuka, weekly and monthly manga anthologies sold at newsstands became the standard format.
The chapters that follow cover general themes found in manga: The samurai spirit and Japanese tradition, often translated into modern-day sports. Romance and emotional drama catering to girls and women. Business comics both dramatic and silly. And taboo-breaking manga, dealing with subjects from sex to teen rebellion against society.
There’s another chapter on the details of the industry, showing how artists, publishers and accountants work together to produce the manga everyone loves to read.
And then a chapter on the future of manga. This is naturally the one that’s most interesting in retrospect. Mr. Schodt predicted that manga would never become successful in America due to the difficulties of translation and resistance to foreign goods. He thought only a handful of classics would ever be brought successfully to market, and primarily for the scholarly venues. As it turned out, there was in fact a tremendous thirst for manga, which just needed to find the right distribution channel.
The book closes out with four manga samples. The first is a brief interlude from Osamu Tezuka’s classic Phoenix in which a sculptor has a vision of the undying bird. Reiji Matsumoto’s Ghost Warrior is a complete story about two Japanese soldiers separated from their units during World War Two. (Note: sexual situations.) Ryoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles is represented by the chapter where Marie Antoinette refuses to talk to Madame DuBarry, setting off a diplomatic crisis. Keiji Nakazawa’s searing Barefoot Gen depicts the events of August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima. (Note: Horrific depictions of injury and corpses.)
There’s a brief index and bibliography at the back, and plenty of illustrations throughout.
This is an excellent introduction to the subject of manga, and a snapshot of what the industry looked like in the mid-1980s. Younger readers may be a bit disappointed by the dated material–many of today’s top creators weren’t even born when this book was published! Still, recommended to anyone with an interest in manga as a primary text.
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