Edward Jiao
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In recent years, Japanese media has received a considerable amount of increase in popularity in the western world. With art forms ranging between music, animation, video games and graphic novels, it is clear that the popularity of entertainment originating from Japan is becoming an ever-growing industry with increasing influence among its consumers in North America. Among these mediums, manga (Japanese-made comics) contains a quickly expanding audience in the west; interestingly enough however, the same can not quite be said for the popularity of American-style comic books in Japan. This is an important issue to understand, as the reasons for the lack of mainstream success of American comic book characters and franchises may be heavily influenced by the difference between Japanese and American culture. As such, this paper will attempt to analyze and indicate fundamental differences between the presentation of manga and comic books through a number of concepts.

The differences in the ways comics are presented and treated between the American and Japanese cultures is an interesting one; a major difference is that while major American comic book publishers tend to favour a single universe where many of their series can overlap (some better known examples include Marvel Comic’s “Avengers” series and DC Comic’s “Justice League” series), much of the publishing within the realm of manga tend to contain universes independent of other stories. What this means is that much of the story or backstory content in American comics may actually come from a compilation of many different story arcs that may not even relate directly relate to one another, in contrast to a manga series which would need to set up its exposition from a blank slate. This is important to consider, because this affects the method of storytelling commonly used in these two different cultures, which may bring a closer understanding to why American comics have trouble gaining exposure in a society where manga is so universally accepted. Indeed, the concept of culture is a crucial factor in the growing success of manga in the west and the staling sales of American comics in the east. It is important to remember, however, that the concept of differing cultures is not an idea independent of all the other ones that will be discussed; instead, it serves as a “hub” where concepts discussed later will fall into.

Both Japanese and American comic book series commonly feature detailed and elaborate stories for its characters. However, as previously mentioned, the Japanese handle this differently from the Americans. Manga does not usually base its universe on a single one that can cross over multiple different franchises; each world created is unique and stands on its own. This ultimately affects how the concept of the hero is handled. As manga effectively creates an entirely new universe for each new series, much more time is needed to properly develop the environment and the characters. There is no material that the audience can be expected to know beforehand. Naturally, this would mean that the story itself would be more character-driven; there often is the need to include a hero’s origin story, which means that the main character(s) would be dynamically changing through the course of the narrative. In contrast, understanding of a character’s backstory (sometimes even a character from a different series) is more or less expected; comic books, partly due to their shorter length, do not spend time setting up character-related exposition as much. Instead, the story focuses on the events more than the character; the expectation is for a comic book hero is to exercise their abilities in order to overcome a hardship. On the other hand, a main character in a manga series often spends their journey in the “initiation” phase, where they have yet to actually overcome the obstacles for them to become heroes at all. Indeed, this naturally makes manga more accessible to the general consumer, whereas a comic book would have a certain “learning curve” for a new reader. Additionally, manga, by nature, is designed to have a wider target audience than comic books are. While comic books can generally be considered to belong in its own subculture, manga, by contrast, is mainstream (Woods, 2010, p.73).

When considering the personality traits and morals of hero characters, the actions chosen in similar situations can often differ. For example, when presented with a situation where an individual and a larger group are both in danger, a hero is confronted with a choice to attempt to save one of the two parties, or both; not all heroes will choose the same option. Such is the concept of value injected into the storytelling. It should be no surprise that two separate cultures would present different values on its creative work. Indeed, there does appear to be a difference in the type of heroes each culture prefers. Japanese manga, animation and video games prominently feature characters resembling that of a classical hero; optimistic, just and kind. The main characters from popular American titles, however, tend to bear resemblance closer to that of an antihero; that is, the exclusion of a heroic trait (such as compassion) to an otherwise classic hero. When considering the most popular characters in American comics, the “flawed” hero archetype does seem to have substantial popularity, with characters such as Iron Man, Deadpool and Batman. Certainly, while the classic hero may have been more favoured traditionally, many of the popular characters now deviate from that archetype. The “pure” values of the classic hero are becoming corrupted; the protagonist does not necessarily appear just in all situations anymore. The situation is different in Japan, however, where the antihero-like character is generally, at best, a supporting character to the main hero. The idea that the protagonist is a righteous character appears to be seen more favourably than the darker, grittier antihero counterparts. This is important to consider; the type of character and stories the American audience typically enjoys may very well be uninteresting for readers in Japan.

Something not considered as often when discussing the differences between Japanese and American comics is the concept of text. In English, one is generally limited to the alphabet to spell words. However, Japanese includes the following three writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji (Daniels, 1996, p.209). What this allows are more creative possibilities when working with the text. For instance, when trying to convey sound effects, an artist has the opportunity to artistically stylize the word that spells out a particular sound effect. For example, an artist may draw cracks on the letters that spell out “crack”. Writing in Japanese, predictably, contains similar techniques. However, because of the multiple writing systems that are integrated into their language, a new choice is given to the artist. Depending on the circumstances, using one type of writing over another may carry special meaning that can further immerse the reader. Manga creator Hikawa Kyoko uses a technique akin to this in “Kanata Kara” (Woods, 2010, p.151). Kyoko’s use of a combination of Katakana and Kanji creates a symbolic representation of evil and its manipulative nature.

At first glance, this may potentially appear as a non-issue to American comic books, since they enjoy immense popularity in the United States despite the English language supporting only one writing system. However, it is necessary to remember that the presence of multiple ways of writing is within the cultural norm for Japan; in order to create a successful franchise to appeal to Japanese readers, it becomes essential that the potential of the writing aspect of their culture is realized and satisfied. Simply adopting an American method strictly based on its success in another culture will not guarantee the same reception from a different demographic.

It is clear that the utilization and presentation of text within the art of comic books or manga is an important aspect for the reader; however, this falls into something broader; the concept of aesthetics. Moving beyond text itself, it is a comic’s art style that is immediately identifiable and attributable to the culture from which it comes from. There are obvious trends reflected in the presentation from either culture; many American comics tend to favour more realistic portrayals and interpretations of its world and characters when compared to manga. In fact, it can be argued that a staple of manga are the specific ways characters are drawn. Typically, characters are shown to be drawn with larger than normal eyes and sometimes exaggerated expressions. Additionally, super deformity is also common in Japanese manga, where a character’s proportions are largely skewed for an endearing or comedic affect (Shen, 2012, p.2067) (this is also known as “chibi”). It would be safe to assume that readers would generally react to the distinct styling of comics from Japan and the United States differently. Indeed, the greater success that manga experiences in America when compared to comic books in Japan may be in part due to the art style. Certainly, it may be difficult to draw objective conclusions from something that relies so much on the audience’s subjective experience. However, that does not mean that art style should be ignored when attempting to create a new character for Japanese audiences. It is critical to gauge the reaction the Japanese audience have towards the grittier and more realistic art direction that so many American comic books have, especially when one considers that trends in not only manga, but animation and video games too, seem to indicate that the Japanese demographic would favour the opposite.

It is important to consider the multiple differences between Japanese and American culture before attempting to create a character for the Japanese audience. As previously discussed, there are many potential factors pertaining to American comic books that may affect the interest level of a comic’s target audience in Japan. There are many cultural discrepancies between the two nations; differing perspectives on how a hero should be and how text and art is delivered can largely affect the potential success of an American-made franchise in Japan, despite comics being so accepted, accessible and mainstream there. It is important to conform to Japanese culture for minimal risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Woods, T. (2010). Manga an anthology of global and cultural perspectives. New York: Continuum.

 

Daniels, P. (1996). The world's writing systems. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shen, L., Luo, S., Huang, C., & Chen, B. (2012). San wei jiao se mo xing zhi SD feng ge zhuan huan ji shu = Super-deformed stylizing 3D character models. In Computer Graphics Forum (Vol. 31, p. 2067–2075). Blackwell Publishing.