From: Sako Ikegami <sako>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 10:33:46 +0900

Dear Kathleen,

Thank you for the words of encouragement. But as I've said, this area is one of the most serious "culture gaps" for me.

To answer your question about manga's image among adults,

According to Wikipedia, the first manga/anime dates back to the 12th century, to "Chojugiga" a famous scroll painting depicting animals (monkeys, frogs, rabbits, turtles, and storks) frolicking in a country scene. Eventually, Ukiyoe artists such as Hokusai followed suit. But manga as we know it today is largely influenced by the postwar creators such as Tezuka Osamu.

As a young man, he saw his first Disney movie, "Bambi" and was so impressed he sat through some twenty-odd showings of it. One of first major TV anime series, Tetsujin 28-go (Iron man 28), was broadcast in the early sixties followed closely after by Tezuka's hit Atom (Astro Boy) series. So people of my generation pretty much grew up in a world innundated with manga and anime. Perhaps because of this, my impression has been that EVERYONE
(at least those fifty and younger) reads (or has read) manga as a matter of course. And this includes librarians, teachers, and parents.

Whether it's viewed as literature is another question. I would say, probably not. Manga is manga and has its own time and place, although sometimes children (and adults ) need reminding.

I'm generalizing here, but Japanese literature, particularly for children seems rather toned down compared to novels from the U.S. and elsewhere. However, with manga, the creators feel more free to give reign to their fantasies so we wind up with some very exciting material. My personal gripe is that I'm sometimes afraid readers, particularly young ones, will lose a sense of that border between fantasy and reality. I guess the same danger lies in any form of media, but perhaps because manga comes replete with the images it's even easier to wade in too deeply.

Sako
Received on Thu 22 Apr 2004 08:33:46 PM CDT