Japan plans 'Nobel Prize of Manga'

[The Xenos]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/05/22/manga.nobel.ap/index.html

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan will hand out its first "Nobel Prize of Manga" this summer for artists in the comic book genre abroad, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday -- another step in its efforts to harness the power of pop culture diplomacy.

The International Manga Award -- which manga enthusiast Foreign Minister Taro Aso likened to a "Nobel Prize" when he first proposed it last year -- will be given to an artist working abroad whose work best contributes to the spread of the manga form worldwide, the ministry said in a statement.

Manga, a name used for Japanese-style comic books, often combine complex stories with drawing styles that differ from their overseas superhero counterparts, particularly in their frequent emphasis on cuteness.

The winner and three runners-up will receive a certificate and trophy at an awards ceremony set for July 2, and will spend 10 days in Japan meeting with local comic book artists and publishers, the statement said.

"Manga and anime have been spreading overseas and are selling quite well," Aso said in announcing the award at a regular press briefing. "I want to further boost the communicative power of these so-called pieces of pop culture."

Anime is the Japanese term for animated films.

Aso has argued that warm feelings for Japanese comics and animation can translate into warm feelings for Japanese foreign policy.

He has proposed sending animation or cartoon artists overseas as cultural ambassadors, and the government has named a panel of executives to advise ways to market Japanese animation and culture to foreign audiences.

The award committee, to be composed of manga artists and publishers, is expected to make its selections around June 22, the ministry statement said.

The prize carries no monetary reward, ministry official Nobuyuki Watanabe said. The trophy's design has yet to be finalized, but it would be something "appropriate," he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Well, as many regulars to this board know, my opinion is that calling non-Japanese work manga is pure crap. I think it's an insult to both Japanese comics (actual manga) and the comics of their native country. It's an oversimplifacation of things and reeks of sterotyping. I don't think it's good for the artform.

Now we have the Japanese government promoting it. I see it as just political BS and Japanese politicians trying to promote their culture over others. I think it's quite self serving and really short changes the work of other countries.

Also, who wants to take bets that a Korean artist is NOT going to be winning this prize?

Hell, just the whole "Manga, a name used for Japanese-style comic books, often combine complex stories with drawing styles that differ from their overseas superhero counterparts, particularly in their frequent emphasis on cuteness." line is such stereotypical bullcrap and an insult to the medium of comics.

Nevermind it's an insult to the actual Nobel Prize to compare this BS political prize from Japanese politicians.

So, long rant short, I think this bit of news stinks.

Oh and add to that the example of manga they give is from the later volumes of Hunter X Hunter just goes to show what a crap article this is. I keep hearing Hunter has totally derailed artistically. Not that it was a shining example of art to begin with. Nevermind that it's not quite a prime example of 'cuteness' in manga anyway.

[MKTerra]

Nevermind it's an insult to the actual Nobel Prize to compare this BS political prize from Japanese politicians.I wonder if its official name really is "Nobel Prize of Manga," and whether the name "Nobel Prize" is trademarked by whoever handles the originals.

[Citizen V]

Im suprised something like this has not been done.Manga is extremly popular in Japan.

[Armless Penguin]

Why can't I call non-Japanese work manga when Japanese people do? I see nothing wrong with OEL manga so long as it preserves the basic look and feel of its Japanese influences.

On another note, the Nobel Prize name probably won't last. I'm calling it now. Interested to see who will win, though.

[The Xenos]

Yeah, the 'Nobel Prize' comment was just a comparison. I don't see any way they would use it without getting in trouble.

As for calling American books manga or OEL manga, I'll try to keep my rant brief. To me, manga from Japan is very different from these books you see Tokyopop or others sell. First of all, to call manga an art style is an oversimplifacation as comics in Japan (manga) have so many various art styles.

Ah, here's an image I made a while back and still keep handy to illustrate this point.

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7789/mangastyles1copynt4.th.jpg (http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mangastyles1copynt4.jpg)

Plus many of these are simply not published in any way similar to how the majority of manga is published. In Japan, you have chapters of manga published in huge weekly or monthly anthologies on cheap paper that are usually disgarded. Here you have Tokyopop and others publishing full volumes and should be moreso called graphic novels. Others using the term manga even publish in inividual issues like most American comic books.

To me, as soon as you go away from 'manga = comics origially published in Japan', you start oversimplifying things and you're not using the term right. Nevermind that it's just become a buzzword to sell comics.

Here, to me, Japan itself it trying to cash in on the manga buzzword. There's money to be made in stengthening the buzzword manga and Japanese politicians sure want to cash in on that no mattter how dilute the term becomes.

[jabrams007]

I keep having this discussion/arguement with some of my other friends.

On the one hand, I don't really care if you want to call Japanese influenced comics manga even if they're not from Japan. Yes, there are many different art styles in Japanese comics and at least in the West, this tends to be simplified into the super-deformed, big eyes style even though all my favorite Japanese comics don't use this style at all (Sanctuary, Lone Wolf and Cub, Slam Dunk, Akira, Uzumaki, etc).

That being said, who cares? Xenos, I hate to pick on you, but your arguement about comics in Japan being published in weekly or monthly digests vs in tpb form in the US is kind of besides the point. You're talking about how they're made and distributed, not what makes them different. How often they're published, what kind of paper they use, even if they're colored or not is all a matter of the materials used to make them, it really has nothing to do with the comics themselves.

To me, what separates Japanese comics from traditional US comics are its subject matter and it's pacing. Comics from Japan have always been a lot more "cinematic" and "decompressed" than traditional superhero comics (although that's starting to change). Plus, in Japanese comics, there are so many different subjects that have been written about. When was the last time you saw a US comic about a sports team or a chef, or even a kid detective? THAT's what I think when someone says the word Manga to me.

Sooo, if non-Japanese creators want to adopt the more cinematic style of japanese comics, if they want to write about something other than superheroes and pick quirky or weird storylines, if it has some resemblance to Japanese comics, why not call them manga?

I also think, to some degree, that it's good for comics as an entire medium.

If you can get someone who's never read a comic before to pick up a Manga, enjoy it and then read an OEL from Tokyopop, like that, see something from the new Minx line from DC, and from there, check out some Vertigo or Oni Press stuff, everyone wins! Comics in the US are dying. The average reader's age is in the 20's-30's. If we can pull in new readers, both adults and children with manga and OEL stuff, it keeps the entire medium alive.

That being said, I hate calling anything Manga. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but in most of this long (and getting longer) post, I've referred to them as Japanese comics, or comics from Japan. By separating comics into two distinct camps, Manga on one side, and everything else on the other, you do a disservice to both.

Only in comics do we refer to products created in Japan as something else. We don't call Haruki Murakami novels "hon" (Japanese for book), we don't call the latest Beat Takeshi movie "eiga" (Japanese for movie) and we certainly don't call any of the countless games from Japan "terebi gaimzu" Why is it only in comics, and only Japanese comics that we feel the need to use another term? Comics from Italy are Italian comics. Comics from France are French comics. Why is Japan special?

If by calling OEL stuff Manga, it gets more people to read comics, that's good, but at the same time it also hurts the graphic medium as a whole. You end up in situations where people only read Manga because they don't like what they perceive to be Western comics and they miss out on all the great books that Western comics have to offer. And on the flip-side, people who only read Western comics because they don't like all the the super cutsey look or whatever are missing out on all the kick-ass Japanese comics out there. You have elitist idiots on both sides of the spectrum.

The very fact that we're having this debate at all is what's wrong with comics. We're so busy argueing over semantics that we're overlooking that at the end of the day, it's words and pictures on paper. It's all the same.

I wish comics were as popular and as well regarded as both books and movies. I wish I could get my friends to read Sandman, or Maus, or Buddha, or Nausicaa without them rolling their eyes and inwardly laughing at the idea of reading a comic. If that's ever going to happen, we need to stop trying to cut off our noses to spite our faces. We need to stop differentiating what is and what's not stylistic differences, not differences in the same medium.

There... rant over. Please return to your former discussions.

[The Xenos]

I agree with you. The diversity of manga is a key of why it does so well in Japan and why it's so popular here. Only recently have US comics really started to reach outside and get noticed. Though still it's mainly more indie publishers or smaller imprints pushing the genres. Superheros are still the top in the mainstream. Of course, with the exception of manga. Though most of those are Japanese superheros of shonen manga. Though, again, there is the exception of the burst of shojo titles like the hit Fruits Basket.

Though I disagree in that the publishing format, like the popularity of the anthology, is important. Those phonebook anthologies are a viable format for comics in Japan. New artists show their work in them and don't get full volumes of work out first. They are mixed in with more popular works to gain readership. It really changes the whole dynamic of the industry and how new talent gets noticed.


Yet it seems that is unfortunately not what the buzzword means. The big eyes style stereotype is what is being sold first and not quite the diversity. While straying away from superhero cliches, it seems that manga inspirated American books calling themselves manga often seem to fit their own cliches, in that big eyes style or too familiar storylines.

Plus pacing of manga in chapters versus these full graphic novels tends to be different. A weekly or monthly title is often very different from these full volumes you see published. Hell, I can't even use the term manga chapters anymore. Tokyopop took that term and is using 'Manga Chapters' as a bullcrap name for a line of graphic novels for kids with lower page count. See. It's crap like that which just ruins the word.

Now I'm fine with calling something manga influenced, but too often I just see the word manga abused for me to let my guard down.

You know, I am half temped to dump the word manga and just call them Japanese comics. Reject the buzzword entirely. The thing that keeps drawing me to using 'manga' for Japanese comics is that I want to respect Japanese creators in Japan and call their work by its native name. I want to show respect to them by calling their work by a native name. Conversely, I think it's rude and cultural theft to call my work or any other non-Japanese published author's work manga.

And you are right. If people turn their nose up at western or Japanese comics, they're missing out. I've said this myself too. Though I tend to find it's more manga fans ignoring US books, maybe I just hear from manga fans more and don't realize all the US comics fans missing out on manga.

[Pikachu]

漫画 If your Japanese IME language function is turned on... you should be seeing the Kanji for the Japanese word: manga.

That said, the word translates from Japanese to English as: picture book.

The literal translation of the kanji equals 1) MAN = senseless + 2) GA picture (images). Which traditionally equated to random images connecting to form a picture story... i.e. you get the appropriate kanji symbols.

As it so happens I've done a considerable amount of research in the area of Japanese art and their historical usage of image as storytelling.

For me, the word manga means a 'visual tradition' of story telling unique to Japanese culture. Whereas other cultures have strong ties to a more ancient oral tradition.

I think much of this very deep and rich tradition of image and story telling has to do with Japan's exceedingly developed use of visual images as a means of communication. Heck, the language itself is composed of highly advanced ideograms -many of them hieroglyphic in nature.

Perhaps because of this, I think of manga as a unique and sophisticated form of Japan's vast historicity with image as storytelling. Now, in terms of how the word is being used nowadays, I believe, it's important to realize that one main characteristic of language (I'd assume most languages) is that, as a whole, it is a progressive and fluid thing.

Being fluent in Japanese, I understand the dictionary meaning of manga to mean: comic book. Nothing more nothing less. But if we spoke only in a dictionary vocabulary we'd sound a little too grandiloquent, and as such, we have to give room for a language to breath. We must allow for new forms of words including this one, and I think manga within a short time has come to mean more than just its dictionary form. That indeed, the word that is being used today happens to have developed a layer of meanings. Its vocabulary has expanded to encompass new contexts and ideas, not limited to its basic rudimentary meaning, but even this seems fitting as the symbols which comprise the word also have plural meanings with multiple nuances to their makeup. So then, it is no surprise to me that the new usage of the term manga includes it to be a stylistic term which denotes a particular or unique quality or feeling we get when reading (specifically but not limited to) Japanese comics.

This is why I am perfectly happy calling non-traditional-mangaesque comics and art which try to emulate and capture the Japanese medium in one capacity or another, whether it be in tone, style, pacing, design, etc., all of it, is manga. It would seem to me, that in the total composition, these new variations of the word represent the new forms of manga as well, and in a small way, these new forms of manga (yes manga!) are a sort of offshoot of the original which preceded them. This is a bit of cultural borrowing, and if we take Japan's rich 'visual story telling tradition' and borrow from their techniques and apply/incorporate those into our art as well, then I think we're better off for it. This is just part of the scope and diversity of an ever maturing art form like manga. It doesn't make OEL manga (or any other manga form) lesser in terms of practice or execution, it merely makes them different.

This is why OEL Manga is the perfect new-age terminology for comics produced elsewhere being made to resemble Japanese comics. It is a term which at once directs us to notice the influence, manga itself, and at the same time calls to our attention that it is not the purebred manga itself. Yet even this new terminology can be contained in the vastness of the art itself, because if anything the simulacrum breeds terminology for the sheer reason that it is merely a semblance of a more vital and purer work, and so must be named. And when the copy becomes so exact to the original that they are indistinguishable, then you cease to have semblance but you in fact have replica. This is why, with an art form as malleable as manga is that it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference between one manga form and the next. And instead of nitpicking about the newly invented words for a seemingly endless stream of doppelgangers likening themselves to a rather traditional Japanese artistic visual medium, most of the vernacular too inadequate to explain the full force of the emotional and visual artistic experience, it is rather quite easier to call it what it is (for a lack of a better word), i.e. manga. But "Japanese comics" works just as well, however, Manga sounds cooler... so I'm going to go with that.

That's my two cents. :D

Pika!

[The Xenos]

Well, you raise a good point on how manga has a rich tradition and you could call books that take all that from manga by the same name.

Of course, my argument back is that the majority of these American and international books calling themselves manga are only superficially inspired by manga and don't deserve to share the name. Hell, I used to think that Joe Maduria comics or Adam Warren were manga style. Then I got into actual manga and I saw its variety of art and storytelling and realized how superficial it was to call their art simply 'manga style'. Manga is so much more than that and I just don't see it in most of these US books using the name.

To me, a comic like Frank Miller's Ronin is more inspired by manga than the majority of these big eyes and speed lines books. Plus, let's not forget that these artists surely bring something from their own culture and it's not purely Japanese.

Nevermind that marketing departments like at Tokyopop are just slapping the name manga on everything. They're calling radio dramas based on US books 'manga podcasts' for crap's sake. They call little graphic novellas 'manga chapters'.

And again, I think that most manga is published and paced in chapters while many US books under the banner are sold in full volumes also shows another difference. Of course, anthologies and the whole publishing market that exists in Japan just won't work here. For even a simple reason as that Amierca recycles paper so much less than Japan, American books cannot come close to Japanese manga and its market.

[Frankengear]

New here and i was just browsing the posts.. but i would have to agree that alot of the "" Manga "" we see is watered down to say the least. i might not have been able to fully understand the structure or form of all the books ive seen but i can tell the difference, and being a bit of a pureist when it comes to the genre i can see Xenos point..

[The Xenos]

Aha. I'm going be even more of a purist and nitpick you using the term 'genre'. Like artstyle, "manga" isn't a single genre as it has many genres within it.

I'm an annoying little stinker, ain't I?