CONTEMPORARY COMMUNICATION, the CULTURE of MANGA Christiana Constantopoulou Manga and Anime
French Journal For Media Research – n° 6/2016 – ISSN 2264-4733 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTEMPORARY COMMUNICATION, THE CULTURE OF MANGA Christiana Constantopoulou Professeure de Sociologie de la Communication Université Panteion, Athènes - Grèce Manga and Anime The popularity of anime and manga has helped westerners gain a broader understanding of Japanese culture. Manga is a generic term for all graphic novels and comic books originally published in Japan. Manga is read either in serialized comic books, monthly magazines, or graphic novels. All formats are available in English translation, graphic novels, however, are the most common and can be found in both major bookstore chains and local comic shops. The graphic novels are usually presented in "manga-style," meaning a right-to-left format. The word Manga, when translated directly, means “whimsical drawings”. Manga are typically 'comic books' as the West understands them; rather, they represent pieces of Japanese culture and history. The 'manga' style has an extensive history, beginning sometime in the 10th century; scrolls from that period depict animals as part of the 'upper class', behaving as a typical human would in similar situations. Such scrolls would go on to be known as the Chōjū giga or “The Animal Scrolls”. Scrolls found later on in the 12th century would depict images of religion such as the Gaki Zoshi (Hungry Ghost Scrolls) and the Jigoku zoshi (Hell Scrolls). While both dealt with various aspects of religion, unlike “The Animal Scrolls”, these provided a more instructive viewpoint, rather than a comedic style. Manga are more significant, culturally, than Western comic books (though many fill the same role).
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