19. Reviving the Power of Storytelling: Post-3/11 Online ‘Amateur’ Manga

For the post-disaster anti-nuclear demonstration, see Williamson, ‘Largest Demonstrations.’

Ethnomusicologist Noriko Manabe documented how music was utilized in the anti-nuclear demonstration after 3/11. In addition, Jon Mitchell discusses an anonymous graffiti artist ‘281_Anti Nuke’ who has been active around Tokyo.

I use Japanese names in this chapter in Japanese order—family names followed by given names, except when authors prefer Western rendering of their names in their essays in English.

It should be noted here that we also witnessed the swift rise of international responses and alliances made through this popular medium. Within six months of the disaster, French artist/editor Jean-David Moravan started a comics anthology project, Magnitude 9: Des Images pour le Japon, which includes both Japanese and American cartoonists’ works and illustrations. In the UK, the Comics Alliance also initiated a comics anthology, Spirit of Hope, in which domestic and international artists contributed their short comics/manga works. Within Japan, cartoonist Adam Pasion, who lives in Nagoya, started a similar comics project, Aftershock: Artists Respond to Disaster in Japan, through the online fundraising website Kickstarter. The project was successfully funded for publication, collecting about $3800, over $1000 more than the goal. These comics publishing projects, initiated by a few individuals located in geographically different places, were connected and developed into a collective project, demonstrating domestic and international cooperation through comics production beyond linguistic and national borders. These domestic and international examples testify again to the fact that comics exist not only as a form of entertainment or of individual expression but also as a medium for communication as well as one that shapes solidarity and cooperation.

The word ‘amateur’ might be generally associated with ‘unskilled,’ it does not necessarily apply to these two artists. The term ‘non-commercial’ might be more precise, but as I shall discuss later, Kizuki (and possibly Misukoso, too) have produced and sold their works at manga/fanzine events, which can be considered as a commercial activity. For this reason, I use ‘amateur’ or ‘non-professional cartoonist’ in this chapter.

Manga scholar Jaqueline Berndt discusses the importance of exploring ‘manga’s sociocritical potential,’ stating that Japan’s triple disaster ‘suggest[s] the need to reconsider what role manga may play in contemporary Japanese society besides serving short-sighted economic and national purposes, or affective interest of (sub)cultural groups.’ After pointing out some methodological problems of manga criticism, she claims that ‘the real task (of manga criticism)’ is ‘not only to foreground the affective aspects of manga culture as such but also to highlight their fundamental relationality, involving creators, editors, and readers, generic genealogies, and sites of media consumption.’ My chapter partially responds to this assertion by examining the alternative, non-traditional way of manga production and circulation.

The English translation of Misukoso’sField of Cole is available on Amazon Kindle. When a publisher asked to publish her manga, she proposed the condition that her manga would be translated and published in English with the hope that non-Japanese readers would also remember the disaster victims.

Chris Cooper, ‘Japan’s Tsunami, Quake Spurs Manga Novel,’ Bloomberg Businessweek, May 27, 2012, accessed October 8, 2013, http://​www.​businessweek.​com/​news/​2012-05-27/​japan-s-tsunami-quake-spurs-manga-novel-for-forgotten-victims

As of 15 December 2013.

Fan-yim Lam, ‘Comic Market: How the World’s Largest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dōjinshi Culture,’ Mechademia, vol. 5 (2010): 232.

By social media, I refer to the Internet-based interactive and communication websites or applications through which users can exchange and share information and self-created contents.

Several professional manga artists to emerge from this participatory culture include the popular cartoonists Togashi Yoshihiro, Kōga Yun, CLAMP, Yoshinaga Fumi, Ono Natsume.

According to Kinsella, until 1988, ‘approximately 80 per cent of dōjinshi artist attending Comic Market were female, and only 20 percent male.... During the 1990s, however, male participation in Comic Market increased to 35 per cent.’ See Kinsella, Adult Manga, 112. From a more recent statistic from ‘Comic Market 35th Year Survey: A Report,’ as of August 2010, the number of staff and attendees is more than half of the total number, and among the category of manga creator groups, 34.8 percent are male creators, while 65.2 percent are female creators.

Yoshimura Kazuma, ‘Essei manga no tokuchō,’ in Manga no kyōkasho, ed. Shimizu Isao and et al., (Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 2008), 197. While as a genre essay manga has been cultivated mainly by female cartoonists, in recent years several male cartoonists have produced highly acclaimed works such as Azuma Hideo’s Disappearance Diary and Fukumitsu Shigeyuki’s Uchi no tsumatte dō desho? (What Do You Think of My Wife?).

Japanese popular culture scholar Sugawa-Shimada claims the socio-critical aspect of some essay manga by saying that, through the humor and comedic trope, essay manga can address ‘taboos themes, such as alcoholism, divorce, and death.’ See Sugawa-Shimada, ‘Rebel with Causes,’ 172.

As for gekiga and its social and political criticism, see Suzuki, ‘Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s Gekiga and the Global Sixties: Aspiring for an Alternative.’

See Inoue’s tweet on 13 March 2011, accessed on 5 May 2012, https://​twitter.​com/​inotomo2009/​status/​4714320019600998​4

There was no official statement about the anime series after the cancellation until 2013. In October 2013, the anime series was (re-)planned and broadcast on NHK-BS.

See the publisher’s official announcement. Available at: http://​www.​nihonbungeisha.​co.​jp/​info/​20110317/​index.​html

In his book, Japanese media studies scholar Itō Mamoru analyzes the mass media discourse and claimed that the TV media shaped the ‘optimistic view’ immediately after the nuclear accident in Fukushima. See Itō, Terebi wa genpatsu jiko wo dō tsutaeta no ka, 65–67.

Ibid., 148.

Joe Sacco, ‘Joe Sacco: Presentation from the 2002 UF Comics Conference,’ ImageText, 1, no. 1 (2002): n.p. Accessed November 3, 2013, http://​www.​english.​ufl.​edu/​imagetext/​archives/​v1_​1/​sacco

Another example is the one by Ōtsuka Hisashi, an elementary school teacher in Fukushima, who produced a manga about the high school students who have gone through life-changing experiences due to the disaster. It was scripted by his colleague Satō Shigeki. Available from: http://​www.​yomiuri.​co.​jp/​feature/​eq2011/​information/​20120926-OYT8T00685.​htm

The manga was first posted on the website managed by Nakayama for free access. See her website, http://​www.​kozakana3.​justhpbs.​jp

Currently, the booklet format of the manga is available on the site: http://​www.​kozakana3.​justhpbs.​jp/​index.​html. Nakayama’s interview was taken from an English-language news article in The Japan Times. See Kosaka. ‘Mom Who Boggled,’ n.p.

This ‘declaration’ was retracted by the next ruling party in March 2013.