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SPECIAL REPORT

The Impact of Japanese Comics and in

By Ng Wai-ming

Photo : © Fujiko Pro, © , © CO., LTD. is a superpower. It has art) comics are very popular in Chinese replaced the as the communities in Asia. In the 1970s and world’s largest exporter of comics and early , pioneering comic artist animation. In Asia, Japanese comics like Huang Yulang and Ma Yingcheng, and animation have been very popu- forged the -style kung fu lar and influential from the 1980s to comic tradition. Both Huang and Ma the present. Nowadays, almost all incorporated Japanese elements in the Asian nations have their own edi- making of kung fu comics. tions of Japanese comics and their Huang’s Little Rascals (xiao liu- televisions show Japanese animat- mang, 1971-1975) set the precedent in ed series on a daily basis. this genre. Its story is about Different forms of Japanese comic seven Hong Kong martial and animation culture, such as art heroes who fight against comic café (manga kissha), comic gangsters in different dis- rental, dojinshi (amateurish manga) tricts in Hong Kong. Its and cosplay (costume play), have story and drawing style penetrated the consumer culture in were influenced by Asian cities. Mochizuki Mikiya’s Wild Merchandise of Japanese Seven, a popular comic cartoon characters, such about seven heroes who as , , fight against the evils. The main Chibimaruko-chan, Crayon difference between Little Rascals Shinchan, Sailormoon, and Wild Seven is that the former is Dragonball, Tare Panda, a work of Chinese martial art, Pokemon, and is very whereas the latter is a James popular among Asian children Bond-like story in which and young people. Asian busi- people use modern weapons. nessmen also make use of Nochizuki’s realistic style, in Japanese cartoon characters to particular, his drawing of vio- promote their products or ser- lent scenes, inspired Huang. In vices. Japanese manga has 1975, Little Rascals was renamed played a role in changing the School of Dragon and Tiger (long- youth culture and the people’s fumen, 1975-present). In School of perception of Japan in Asia. Dragon and Tiger, Hong Kong mar- Youngsters in Asia are crazy about tial art heroes, having destroyed things Japanese. Unlike their grandpar- , Hong Kong gangsters, find Japanese ents and parents, they hold a positive and Korea are also discussed briefly for , right-wing organizations, image of Japan. To them, Japan is the comparison. samurai and ninja, their new enemies. land of Hello Kitty, Pikachau, This “righteous Chinese versus evil Doraemon, Ultraman and Final Japanese Impact on Asian Comic Japanese” scenario has set the formula Fantasy. This article looks into the and Animation Production for Hong Kong kung fu comics. impact of Japanese comics and anima- Ma’s Chinese Hero (zhonghua yingx- tion in Asia, focusing on Asian comic Most Asian comic and animation iong, 1983-present) revolutionized and animation production as well as artists are under very strong Japanese Hong Kong kung fu comics in drawing Asian popular culture and entertain- influence in terms of drawing, format, and story. Ma was indebted to Ikegami ment industry. Hong Kong and atmosphere, perspective, story and plot, Ryoichi and Matsumori Tadashi in , two consumption centers of and the production system. drawing and to Koike Kazuo and Japanese comics and animation in Asia, Hong Kong has its own comic tradi- Huang in story. Ikegami is Ma’s are used as main examples for analysis. tion and its kung fu (Chinese martial favorite comic artist and the realistic

1 Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 SPECIAL REPORT

Figure 1 Photo : Aaaaaa? Photo : © Inoue Takehiko I.T. Planning, Inc.

and delicate drawing of Asian faces and Hong Kong artists fighting in Ikegami’s attempt to create their and Men’s Group (otokogumi) have an own animated films impact on Chinese Hero. Ma also with the help from the learned a lot from Matsumori’s God of Japanese. Campaigned Fist (kenjin) and God of Sword (kenjin) as the first Hong Kong- in drawing of fist and sword fighting. made commercial ani- Koike, the scriptwriter for Ikegami and mated film, Chinese Matsumori, is skillful in controlling the Ghost Story is indeed a pace, creating climaxes and adding product of Hong Kong- humanistic dimensions to fighting Japan collaboration. story. Influenced by Koike, Ma draws Hong Kong provided The comic edition of Music Up which is made in Japanese style. according to the script, adds humanistic the capital, directorship, in story, and creates a climax at voice recording, script and ideas, Kuei will be made into a television car- the end of each episode. Adopting the whereas the Japanese did the actual toon series, live-action drama serial and kung fu comic formula set by Huang, production, such as drawing, coloring, animated film. Recently, Taiwanese the main storyline of Chinese Hero is and digitalization. This kind of collab- on-line animators have begun to experi- about Chinese martial art heroes oration will increase. For instance, in ment animated serials and movies. A against Japanese evil organizations. early 2002, Hong Kong and Japanese three-hour on-line animated film, Love Huang and Ma are the founding boss- artists and televisions discussed a pro- 1/2E, has been serialized. Its story is es of the two of the largest comic pro- ject of joint production of television similar to Love Story and duction companies in Hong Kong and cartoon series based on Yong’s nov- Beautiful Life and its drawing is very they, together with contracted comic els. In April 2002, a Hong Kong pro- Japanese. Besides, influenced by the artists under them, continue to produce ducer and a Japanese director Japanese, Taiwanese animators pay a large number of kung fu comics. announced their plan to produce an ani- attention to the important role of “voice New-generation comic artists in mated film for the Asian market. actors or actresses.” (seiyu). This is an Hong Kong, such as Situ Jianqiao and Taiwanese comics are the most area that most other Asian nations have Li Zhida, have received a stronger Japanese of all Asian comics. Many overlooked. Japanese influence than pioneering Taiwanese comic artists copy the In China, Japanese comics and ani- artists like Huang and Ma. Situ’s early Japanese style faithfully and can mation are very popular and influential work, Saint of Gambling (dusheng), hardly find any Taiwanese elements in among young artists and consumers. borrows heavily from Dragonball and their works. However, there are Chinese artists have a mixed feeling Ultraman in character design and ideas. Taiwanese artists who have attempted toward Japanese comics and animation. His recent works like Supergod Z to create something original based on On the one hand, they are learning from (chaoshen Z, 1993) and King of Fist their mastery of Japanese techniques. the Japanese. On the other hand, they Fighters Z (quanhuang Z, 1996) are The most successful example is per- are under pressure from the govern- inspired by Japanese video games, such haps Zheng Wen who has skillfully ment and publishers or production as Street Fighters and King of Fighters. combined Japanese (particularly companies to cut down Japanese influ- Li is a creative artist who experiments Ikegami Ryoichi and Kojima Geseki’s) ence in order to develop Chinese-style different comic styles in short stories. and Western comic styles with Chinese comics and animation. Regardless of His realistic and delicate drawing style painting and calligraphic skills in his official policy to promote Chinese-style is influenced by Otomo Katsuhiro, comics, such as Stories of Assassins works, Japanese influence is getting Mochizuki Minetaro and Maruo (cike liechuan, 1985) and Stories of stronger in Chinese comics and anima- Suehiro and his discursive expression Eastern Zhou Heroes (dong Zhou tion. Works serialized in the two most and plot are inspired by Murakami yingxiong chuan, 1990). popular comic magazines in China, Haruki’s novels. Taiwanese animators have only pro- Beijing Comics (Beijing katong) and Although Hong Kong has a strong duced a few commercial animated King of Comics (katong wang), are comic tradition of its own, it is a new films and television cartoons, but they largely influenced by the Japanese. comer in animation production. Hong are very active in making on-line ani- Music Up (wo wei ge kuang, 2001), a Kong has only produced several ani- mation. The most successful Taiwanese popular television cartoon series, mated movies and it makes no televi- on-line animation is perhaps Ah Kuei, a adopts almost 100% the Japanese-style. sion cartoons. Hong Kong animators satirical and humorous short piece, in Its producer flatly admitted that Music are learning from the Japanese and which character design and visual pre- Up is the “Chinese edition of Slam Americans in making animation. sentation are influenced by Japanese Dunk.” (Figure 1) Chinese Ghost Story (xian qian, 1997) animated works, such as Crayon Chinese animators become familiar directed by Xu Ke is an example that Shinchan and Chibimaruko-chan. Ah with the Japanese style not only by

Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 2 SPECIAL REPORT

Figure 2 Photo : Aaaaaaaaaaaa?

Doraemon.” ticular movies and television dramas. Korean comics and ani- Japanese impact is especially strong in mation are very similar to Hong Kong and Taiwan. their Japanese counter- In Hong Kong movies, the most parts in drawing, style salient Japanese impact is the adoption and technique, but they of Japanese manga into Hong Kong differ in the language and live-action movies. These include City story. Korean comic Hunter, , Prince Peacock, Dr artists and animators are Kumahige, Sign is V, GTO, Black under strong Japanese Jack, Iron Fist (tekken), Street Fighters, influence. In the past, Kindaiichi’s File of Events, Killer Ichi many Korean animators (koroshiya ichi) and Initial D. (Figure acquired Japanese know- 2) Works like City Hunter, Prince Initial D is being made into a Hong Kong live-action movie. how by helping the Peacock, Killer Ichi and Initial D are Japanese do uncreative collaborative films between Hong self-study, but also through on-site job and labor-intensive jobs in animation Kong and Japan and have acquired the training. Thousands of Chinese anima- production. Now, they are confident copyrights from Japan. However, not a tors work for the Japanese in making enough to make their own animation few Hong Kong producers and direc- Japanese animation in China. Under and draw original pictures for Japanese tors have ignored the copyrights when Japanese supervision and guidance, animation. Besides television cartoons they adapt Japanese comics into Hong they are put in charge of uncreative and and animated films, Korean animators Kong movies. They can do so because labor-intensive jobs, such as drawing produce on-line animated short pieces. they use Chinese translated titles and the details and background, coloring Korea is leading Asia in on-line anima- not Japanese original titles. For exam- and digitalizing. Nowadays, the major- tion. Cute and humorous characters ple, GTO becomes Hot-Tempered ity of Japanese television cartoons and created on-line, such as Mashimaro and Teacher (mala jiaoshi). Japanese artists animated films are partially made in Pucca, have become very popular in and companies only own the copyrights China to cut production cost. Chinese Asia. Most of these Korean cartoon of Japanese titles and not translated animators are learning from the characters look like Japanese cartoon titles. In order to avoid legal responsi- Japanese through this kind of “division characters created by Sanrio and San-X bility, Hong Kong directors and of labor” in animation production. and now they are competing with scriptwriters usually revise the story, Southeast Asian nations, such as Japanese products in the Asian market. sometime turning the Japanese back- Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Recently, increasing number of ground into Hong Kong and protago- Vietnam, are also under the spell of Korean and Japanese artists work nists into Chinese. In addition, some Japanese comics and animation. together to make comics and animation. Hong Kong movies adopt names from Southeast Asian nations seldom pro- For example, in May 2001, Comic Chinese translated titles of popular duce commercial animation and thus Punch, a Japanese comic magazine Japanese comics and animated series, Japanese impact can be seen mainly in published by Shinchosha, decided to such as Macross, Touch, and Inaga comic production. Many Southeast publish both Japanese and Korean Table Tennis Club (Ike! Inaga Asian comic artists copy the drawing, comics. Yang Kyong Il has been work- Takkyubu), although their stories have story, atmosphere, technique and style ing with Hirai Kazumasa to produce a nothing to do with their associated of Japanese comics. Singapore comics comic, Zombie Hunter (shiryogari) in Japanese works. Japanese comics and have a very strong Japanese flavor. For Japan since 2000. In addition to animation influence the content of example, Huang Xiaowen’s Dragon comics, Korean and Japanese animators Hong Kong movies. For example, a Boy (1999) is a copy of Dragonball and have collaborated in producing televi- number of Hong Kong movies about Chen Zhikun’s Potato Republic (1999) sion cartoon series [e.g., Alexander cooking competition have been pro- is influenced by Toriyama Akira in (2000) and The Adventure in a Flying duced in recent years. They are style and Shotai no sushi in content. Ship (pata pata hikosen no boken, inspired by Japanese comics and ani- Some Singapore comic artists have 2002)] and animated films [e.g., mated series about Japanese cuisine, acknowledged their indebtedness to Audition (2002)]. such as Mr Ajikko, Shotai no sushi, Japanese comics. The most popular Food Fight, A Sweet Relationship Singapore comic artist, Huang Japanese Impact on Asian Popular (oishii kankei), and Chinese Cuisine as Zhenmeng, said: “Comic artists who Culture and Entertainment Industry Number One (chuka ichiban). have influenced me most are Tetsuka Humorous elements and expressions in Osamu and his and Three- Japanese comics and animation have Japanese comics and animated series, Eye Child as well as [a a strong impact on Asian popular cul- such as nose bleeding when guys get team of two artists] and their ture and entertainment industry, in par- sexually excited and falling on the

3 Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 SPECIAL REPORT

Figure 3

Photo : © Yoko Kamio

and most Asian comic artists and ani- mators are familiar with and indebted to Japanese comics and animation. It seems that “the flying geese theory” can also be applied to comic and ani- mation industry in Asia. Japan is the leader who transfers technology and shifts the production line to Asia. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea are in the second group, whereas China and Southeast Asia are in the third group. manga (girls’ comic), While Asia is learning from Japan, created a commotion Japan should also know more about in Taiwan. Its four comic traditions in Asia and work with handsome actors, F4, Asian artists as partners in making Hana yori dango and Yamada Taro mon- gatari were adapted into popular have become national comics and animation. Nowadays, Taiwanese television drama serials. icons. Meteoric except the works of a small number of Garden has preserved Korean (e.g., Yang Kyong Il), ground when people are sur- many Japanese ele- Taiwanese (e.g., Zheng Wen), and prised, have become clichés in ments to the extent Hong Kong artists (e.g., Li Zhiqing) Hong Kong comedies. that even names of who have published their comics in Some Japanese comics and main characters are Japan, Asian comics and animation are animated series, such as Love Japanized. In early largely unknown in Japan. Japan and and Sincerity (ai to makoto) and 2002, a Taiwanese Asia can learn from and supplement Story of Firefighters (me gume television drama serial each other in comic and animation pro- Photo : © AI MORINAGA no daigo), have been adapted based on the Japanese duction. In recent years, the growth of into Hong Kong television drama seri- comic Yamada Taro mongatari was comics and animation has come to a als. Although the titles, settings, char- also well-received. (Figure 3) Due to standstill in Japan. Knowing more acters and stories have been revised, their overwhelming success, at least six about Asian comics and animation can people who are familiar with Japanese Taiwanese dramas based on Japanese generate artistic inspiration and busi- manga can tell right the way that they shojo manga will be made in 2002 and ness opportunity. In the age of cultural are Hong Kong drama editions of 2003. It will create a boom of globalization, collaboration between Japanese comics and animated series. Japanized dramas in Taiwan. Japan and Asia in producing comics Japanese cartoons enrich Cantonese In China, youth and lighthearted dra- and animation will increase in various pop in Hong Kong. Hong Kong artists mas modeled after Japanese dramas forms, such as joint production, divi- like to make Cantonese covers of have been produced in recent years and sion of labor, translation and dubbing. Japanese theme songs for popular tele- some borrow their storyline or plot Japan can provide capital, know-how vision cartoons, including Doraemon, from Japanese comics. For example, and experience, whereas Asia can offer Angel Queen, Heidi, Dr Slump, Kitaro, Love Until the End (jiang aiqing jinx- cheap labor, ideas and market. Both Ninja Hattori-kun, , ing daodi, 2000) is regarded as the Japan and Asia will benefit from this Ikyyusan, Chibimaruko-chan, Card Chinese edition of Love White Paper kind of transnational cultural interac- Captor Sakura and Digimon. Some of (ashinaro hakusho). In addition, The tion and cooperation. these Cantonese covers were once very Wise Innocent Kid (jiling xiaobudong, popular. In recent years, Hong Kong 2001), copies the story and even the singers also sing Cantonese covers of theme song from Ikkyusan and some theme songs for Japanese animated plots from GTO. Like Ikkyusan, its Ng Wai-ming is an associate pro- films, such as Doraemon, Pokemon, story is about an intelligent monk who fessor of Japanese studies at the and Digimon. uses his wisdom to solve problems. Chinese University of Hong Kong. In Taiwan, the influence of Japanese Like GTO, in one episode, the monk He has been working on the impact of comics and animation is particularly destroys the wall in order to encourage in Hong strong in television dramas. In the late his student. Kong and Singapore and has pub- 1990s, Detective Conan and Invisible lished articles on Japanese comics, Man (tomei ninken) were made into Concluding Remarks animation, video games, popular Taiwanese television dramas. In 2001, music, television dramas, sushi and Meteoric Garden (hana yori dango), a Japanese influence is extremely Hello Kitty in academic journals. Taiwanese drama based on a shojo strong in Asian comics and animation,

Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 4