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Gekiga

January 07, 2023

Gekiga (劇画), literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. Gekiga was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is aesthetically defined by sharp angles, dark hatching, and gritty lines, and thematically by realism, social engagement, maturity, and masculinity.[1]

History

In the 1950s, mainstream Japanese comics (manga) came from Tokyo and was aimed at children, led by the work of Osamu Tezuka.[2] Before Tezuka moved to Tokyo, he lived in Osaka and mentored artists such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Masahiko Matsumoto who admired him.[3] Although influenced by Tezuka and his cinematic style, Tatsumi and his colleagues were not interested in making comics for children. They wanted to write comics for adults that were more graphic and showed more violence.[4][5] Tatsumi explained, "Part of that was influenced by the newspaper stories I would read. I would have an emotional reaction of some kind and want to express that in my comics."[4] The name gekiga was coined in 1957 by Tatsumi and adopted by other more serious Japanese cartoonists, who did not want their trade to be known by the more common term "manga", meaning "whimsical pictures".[citation needed]

Irma Nunez of The Japan Times wrote that "rather than simply use 'gekiga' as a banner to legitimize adult content and realism in manga, ... they developed a whole new aesthetic."[4] Matsumoto's son said that these artists felt that the shorter stories Tezuka started writing after moving to Tokyo, narrowed his expression as action needed to be explained in speech bubbles.[3] Nunez explained, "Structural integrity was one of the pioneers' primary concerns. They experimented with how best to blend images with the text; how a closeup might express the interiority of a character; how to synchronize a story's action with the pace of the reader's gaze as it covered the page."[4]

 
Examples of a manga-style figure (left) and a gekiga-style figure (right)

Rather than working for the mainstream publications, the gekiga artists worked in the rental manga industry; where the work of several artists were printed in collections, that readers borrowed from stores and then returned like video rentals.[6][7] In November 1956, Masahiko Matsumoto used the term komaga (駒画) to describe his work Kyūketsu-jū, instead of manga. Matsumoto's son later claimed this work was the basis for what would later be known as gekiga.[3] Yoshihiro Tatsumi's work Yūrei Taxi was the first to be called gekiga when it was published at the end of 1957.[8] Other names he considered include katsudōga and katsuga, both derived from katsudō eiga or "moving pictures", an early term for films, showing the movement's cinematic influence.[9]

In 1959, the Gekiga Kōbō (劇画工房) formed in Tokyo with eight members, including Tatsumi, Matsumoto, and Takao Saito.[7] The group wrote a sort of "Gekiga Manifesto" that was sent to various publishers and newspapers declaring their mission.[6][8] The Gekiga Kōbō disbanded in 1960 over internal divisions;[10] although as an organized group it was very short-lived, its influence was long lasting.[7][6]

The avant-garde magazine Garo, founded in 1964, was an outlet for experimental and unconventional works that were "visually or thematically too challenging for the mainstream market". With works like Sanpei Shirato's Kamui, it quickly gained a following among college students.[7][5] In response to the success of Garo, Tezuka founded the magazine COM in 1967 for more experimental works.[7]

What I aimed to do was increase the age of the readership of comics. It wasn't that I was trying to create anything literary, but I did want to create an older audience. I didn't do that single-handedly, but I did succeed to a certain level. And, again, part of that was accomplished out of necessity. There was an incommensurable difference between what I wanted to express and what you could express in children's comics.

 —Yoshihiro Tatsumi, on being called the "grandfather of Japanese alternative manga."[4]

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the children who had grown up reading manga wanted something aimed at older audiences and gekiga provided that niche. The Cartoon Museum describes the gekiga audience: "Drawn in a more realistic and atmospheric style with grittier story lines, gekiga attracted older teenagers, university students and eventually adult readers."[7] That particular generation came to be known as the "manga generation" because it read manga as a form of rebellion, which was similar to the role that rock music played for hippies in the United States.

Some authors use the term gekiga to describe works that only have shock factor. In 1968, Tatsumi published Gekiga College because he felt gekiga was straying too far from its roots and wanted to reclaim its meaning.[5] In 2009, he said, "Gekiga is a term people throw around now to describe any manga with violence or eroticism or any spectacle. It's become synonymous with spectacular. But I write manga about households and conversations, love affairs, mundane stuff that is not spectacular. I think that's the difference."[11]

The Cartoon Museum wrote that by the 1980s, gekiga became integrated into various types of manga. "For some younger people the term gekiga is now consigned to the history books, but its legacy lives on."[7]

For a long time gekiga was not translated into other languages, but after 2000 more and more publishers dedicated to graphic novels began to explore the history of Japanese gekiga. More recently, publishers like Drawn & Quarterly began publishing several English editions of works by Tatsumi and Yoshiharu Tsuge, among others, gaining more attention for the genre in the Western graphic novel market.

Notable artists

The following is a list of manga artists known to have created gekiga.

See also

References

  1. ^ Galbraith, Patrick W. (2019). Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 52. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1220mhm. ISBN 978-1-4780-0509-4. JSTOR j.ctv1220mhm. OCLC 1148100778. S2CID 240980856.
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Leo (2015-10-16). "Interview: 'Golgo 13' creator Takao Saito". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
  3. ^ a b c Wells, Dominic (2014-09-23). "Meet the men behind manga: Gekiga exhibition launches at London Cartoon Museum". London, Hollywood. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  4. ^ a b c d e Nunez, Irma (2006-09-24). "ALTERNATIVE COMICS HEROES: Tracing the genealogy of gekiga". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  5. ^ a b c d Santos, Carlos (2010-07-22). "Manga for Grown-Ups: Gekiga, Garo, Ax, and the Alternative Manga Revolution". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  6. ^ a b c d Garner, Dwight (2009-04-14), "Manifesto of a Comic-Book Rebel", The New York Times, retrieved 2018-07-27
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Gekiga: Alternative Manga from Japan". The Cartoon Museum. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  8. ^ a b Suzuki, Shige (2013). Manga's Cultural Crossroads. Routledge. p. 53.
  9. ^ a b c Shamoon, Deborah (2011). Mangatopia: Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World. Libraries Unlimited. p. 21.
  10. ^ Booker, M. Keith. Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas (ABC-CLIO, 2014), p. 162.
  11. ^ Ho, Oliver (2009-08-01). "From Gekiga to Good Raymond". PopMatters. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  12. ^ Holmberg, Ryan (30 June 2014). "Enka Gekiga: Hayashi Seiichi's Pop Music Manga". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  13. ^ Thompson, Jason (2010-08-19). "Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Spider-man: The Manga". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  14. ^ "From Kajiwara Ikki Part 1: The Dangerous Charm of a Dark World". ComiPress. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  15. ^ Clements, Jonathan (2013). Anime: A History. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 143.
  16. ^ Brophy, Philip (April 15, 2010). "Tezuka's Gekiga: Behind the Mask of Manga". In Johnson-Woods, Toni (ed.). Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-8264-2938-4. (author copy)
  17. ^ Booker, M. Keith (October 28, 2014). Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. ABC-CLIO. p. 601. ISBN 978-0313397509.
  18. ^ "Slum Wolf". Publishers Weekly. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  19. ^ Ressler, Karen (2018-07-20). "Drawn & Quarterly to Publish Collected Works of Yoshiharu Tsuge". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2018-07-27.

Further reading

January 07, 2023
gekiga, this, article, expanded, with, text, translated, from, corresponding, article, japanese, august, 2009, click, show, important, translation, instructions, view, machine, translated, version, japanese, article, machine, translation, like, deepl, google, . This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese August 2009 Click show for important translation instructions View a machine translated version of the Japanese article Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the English Wikipedia Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality If possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at ja 劇画 see its history for attribution You should also add the template Translated ja 劇画 to the talk page For more guidance see Wikipedia Translation Gekiga 劇画 literally dramatic pictures is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes Gekiga was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s It is aesthetically defined by sharp angles dark hatching and gritty lines and thematically by realism social engagement maturity and masculinity 1 Contents 1 History 2 Notable artists 3 See also 4 References 5 Further readingHistory EditIn the 1950s mainstream Japanese comics manga came from Tokyo and was aimed at children led by the work of Osamu Tezuka 2 Before Tezuka moved to Tokyo he lived in Osaka and mentored artists such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Masahiko Matsumoto who admired him 3 Although influenced by Tezuka and his cinematic style Tatsumi and his colleagues were not interested in making comics for children They wanted to write comics for adults that were more graphic and showed more violence 4 5 Tatsumi explained Part of that was influenced by the newspaper stories I would read I would have an emotional reaction of some kind and want to express that in my comics 4 The name gekiga was coined in 1957 by Tatsumi and adopted by other more serious Japanese cartoonists who did not want their trade to be known by the more common term manga meaning whimsical pictures citation needed Irma Nunez of The Japan Times wrote that rather than simply use gekiga as a banner to legitimize adult content and realism in manga they developed a whole new aesthetic 4 Matsumoto s son said that these artists felt that the shorter stories Tezuka started writing after moving to Tokyo narrowed his expression as action needed to be explained in speech bubbles 3 Nunez explained Structural integrity was one of the pioneers primary concerns They experimented with how best to blend images with the text how a closeup might express the interiority of a character how to synchronize a story s action with the pace of the reader s gaze as it covered the page 4 Examples of a manga style figure left and a gekiga style figure right Rather than working for the mainstream publications the gekiga artists worked in the rental manga industry where the work of several artists were printed in collections that readers borrowed from stores and then returned like video rentals 6 7 In November 1956 Masahiko Matsumoto used the term komaga 駒画 to describe his work Kyuketsu ju instead of manga Matsumoto s son later claimed this work was the basis for what would later be known as gekiga 3 Yoshihiro Tatsumi s work Yurei Taxi was the first to be called gekiga when it was published at the end of 1957 8 Other names he considered include katsudōga and katsuga both derived from katsudō eiga or moving pictures an early term for films showing the movement s cinematic influence 9 In 1959 the Gekiga Kōbō 劇画工房 formed in Tokyo with eight members including Tatsumi Matsumoto and Takao Saito 7 The group wrote a sort of Gekiga Manifesto that was sent to various publishers and newspapers declaring their mission 6 8 The Gekiga Kōbō disbanded in 1960 over internal divisions 10 although as an organized group it was very short lived its influence was long lasting 7 6 The avant garde magazine Garo founded in 1964 was an outlet for experimental and unconventional works that were visually or thematically too challenging for the mainstream market With works like Sanpei Shirato s Kamui it quickly gained a following among college students 7 5 In response to the success of Garo Tezuka founded the magazine COM in 1967 for more experimental works 7 What I aimed to do was increase the age of the readership of comics It wasn t that I was trying to create anything literary but I did want to create an older audience I didn t do that single handedly but I did succeed to a certain level And again part of that was accomplished out of necessity There was an incommensurable difference between what I wanted to express and what you could express in children s comics Yoshihiro Tatsumi on being called the grandfather of Japanese alternative manga 4 By the late 1960s and early 1970s the children who had grown up reading manga wanted something aimed at older audiences and gekiga provided that niche The Cartoon Museum describes the gekiga audience Drawn in a more realistic and atmospheric style with grittier story lines gekiga attracted older teenagers university students and eventually adult readers 7 That particular generation came to be known as the manga generation because it read manga as a form of rebellion which was similar to the role that rock music played for hippies in the United States Some authors use the term gekiga to describe works that only have shock factor In 1968 Tatsumi published Gekiga College because he felt gekiga was straying too far from its roots and wanted to reclaim its meaning 5 In 2009 he said Gekiga is a term people throw around now to describe any manga with violence or eroticism or any spectacle It s become synonymous with spectacular But I write manga about households and conversations love affairs mundane stuff that is not spectacular I think that s the difference 11 The Cartoon Museum wrote that by the 1980s gekiga became integrated into various types of manga For some younger people the term gekiga is now consigned to the history books but its legacy lives on 7 For a long time gekiga was not translated into other languages but after 2000 more and more publishers dedicated to graphic novels began to explore the history of Japanese gekiga More recently publishers like Drawn amp Quarterly began publishing several English editions of works by Tatsumi and Yoshiharu Tsuge among others gaining more attention for the genre in the Western graphic novel market Notable artists EditThe following is a list of manga artists known to have created gekiga Seiichi Hayashi Red Colored Elegy 12 Ryoichi Ikegami Spider Man The Manga 13 Ikki Kajiwara Karate Jigoku hen 14 Noboru Kawasaki Star of the Giants 15 Kazuo Koike Lone Wolf and Cub 9 Goseki Kojima Lone Wolf and Cub 9 Masahiko Matsumoto Cigarette Girl 5 Takao Saito Golgo 13 2 Sanpei Shirato Kamui 7 Yoshihiro Tatsumi A Drifting Life 6 Osamu Tezuka Phoenix Ode to Kirihito Apollo s Song MW 16 17 Tadao Tsuge Slum Wolf 18 Yoshiharu Tsuge Screw Style 19 See also EditAlternative manga broad Western term for outlying Japanese comics including gekiga Josei manga targeted towards adult women Seinen manga targeted towards adult menReferences Edit Galbraith Patrick W 2019 Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan Durham Duke University Press p 52 doi 10 2307 j ctv1220mhm ISBN 978 1 4780 0509 4 JSTOR j ctv1220mhm OCLC 1148100778 S2CID 240980856 a b Lewis Leo 2015 10 16 Interview Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito Financial Times Archived from the original on 2022 12 10 Retrieved 2018 02 04 a b c Wells Dominic 2014 09 23 Meet the men behind manga Gekiga exhibition launches at London Cartoon Museum London Hollywood Retrieved 2018 07 28 a b c d e Nunez Irma 2006 09 24 ALTERNATIVE COMICS HEROES Tracing the genealogy of gekiga The Japan Times Retrieved 2018 07 28 a b c d Santos Carlos 2010 07 22 Manga for Grown Ups Gekiga Garo Ax and the Alternative Manga Revolution Anime News Network Retrieved 2018 07 27 a b c d Garner Dwight 2009 04 14 Manifesto of a Comic Book Rebel The New York Times retrieved 2018 07 27 a b c d e f g h Gekiga Alternative Manga from Japan The Cartoon Museum Retrieved 2018 07 28 a b Suzuki Shige 2013 Manga s Cultural Crossroads Routledge p 53 a b c Shamoon Deborah 2011 Mangatopia Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World Libraries Unlimited p 21 Booker M Keith Comics through Time A History of Icons Idols and Ideas ABC CLIO 2014 p 162 Ho Oliver 2009 08 01 From Gekiga to Good Raymond PopMatters Retrieved 2018 07 28 Holmberg Ryan 30 June 2014 Enka Gekiga Hayashi Seiichi s Pop Music Manga The Comics Journal Retrieved 17 August 2019 Thompson Jason 2010 08 19 Jason Thompson s House of 1000 Manga Spider man The Manga Anime News Network Retrieved 2018 07 28 From Kajiwara Ikki Part 1 The Dangerous Charm of a Dark World ComiPress 2008 02 06 Retrieved 2018 07 28 Clements Jonathan 2013 Anime A History Bloomsbury Publishing p 143 Brophy Philip April 15 2010 Tezuka s Gekiga Behind the Mask of Manga In Johnson Woods Toni ed Manga An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives Bloomsbury Publishing USA p 134 ISBN 978 0 8264 2938 4 author copy Booker M Keith October 28 2014 Comics through Time A History of Icons Idols and Ideas ABC CLIO p 601 ISBN 978 0313397509 Slum Wolf Publishers Weekly 7 November 2017 Retrieved 17 August 2019 Ressler Karen 2018 07 20 Drawn amp Quarterly to Publish Collected Works of Yoshiharu Tsuge Anime News Network Retrieved 2018 07 27 Further reading EditSchodt Frederik L Manga Manga The World of Japanese Comics New York Kodansha International 1983 pp 66 67 124 125 ISBN 0 87011 549 9 Schodt Frederik L Dreamland Japan Writings on Modern Manga Berkeley Calif Stone Bridge Press 1996 pp 34 54 231 242 283 284 ISBN 1 880656 23 X Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Gekiga amp oldid 1126721613, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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