Yay! Chapter 4 inking is complete!! Now I either start toning chapter 3 or start inking chapter 5.

 

But first: Wirepop: Papercuts!!. It’s an anthology collection by Wirepop.com artist, including myself, which will be on sale at Anime Boston and online thereafter. I contributed a 10-page story called “Ten Years Ago Today”, which is currently on my site, but I’ll be VERY happy if you’d pay US$7 + shipping to buy the anthology. Because the other works are by very talented artists and writers, and US$7 for 96 pages is a BARGAIN.

 

Manga as a Loan Word
Last time I got bogged down in the history of the words, but this time I get to side-step the history and get straight to the point. And the point is: to explore how the word “manga” is being used in English-speaking countries. In the mainstream at least, it’s not difficult to track; the word “manga” has only very recently began to seep from the anime subculture into mainstream consciousness.

Now, “manga” in English is ofcourse a loan word. A loan word is a word borrowed from another culture to fill a conceptual gap within the “host” culture. English itself already abounds with loan words, as does Japanese – The word “anime” is loaned from French, as is the term for apartment block: “Maison”. Clearly, loan words are an important way of introducing foreign concepts, and plays a pivotal role in diffusing new ideas across cultures and continents. If a loan word is used enough in a culture and language, then you can say the once-foreign word and concept has become part of that culture, and the culture reacts to it no longer as an alien idea, but as a home-grown products. “Manga” hasn’t reached that stage yet, but there are already things in motion that will, for better or worse, integrate it into English-speaking cultures.

 

Manga as a Marketing Tool!
It’s inescapable that the first thing to happen to the word “manga” is for it to be seized upon as a marketing tool. It’s the hyper-commercialised world we live in – not only is “manga” touted around as if it were marketing gold, but the word is often used in connections with things that clearly AREN’T manga. Manga Entertainment used it to sell anime, and the stampede by publishers to release books claiming to teach you “How to Draw Manga” which DON’T tell you how to draw manga is prime example of this. Not only do ordinary consumers confuse manga with anime, but they have been led to believe that the term “manga” refers to a style or drawing, when in fact the word simply means “comics” in Japanese.

The confusion around the term “manga” created a situation where people believed “manga” referred to the “big-eyed, small-mouthed, large-chested mult-coloured hair schoolgirls” stereotype that still pervades despite the invasion of REAL manga into bookstores. That many manga didn’t have such things is somewhat lost, since the stereotype is self-perpetuated by the type of manga companies choose to release in America and much of the English-speaking world. Most of them are aimed at teenagers, who DO tend to have this stylistic look to it, which perpetuates the belief that manga = big eyes. The perception hasn’t been helped by the contrasts between the traditional superhero comics and manga – manga looks so different and stylised to the realistically-drawn superheroes that people can’t help but accentuate the differences. Luckily, more and more companies are diversifying in the titles they choose to release, so the big-eyed stereotype is diminishing and will probably be rendered moot over time, with people concentrating on genre and story-telling instead to differentiate it from “comics”.

 

Semantics Semantics
Instead, a new debate rages over the Internet over the use of the word “Manga”. The crux of the debate is this: since “manga” is a Japanese word, shouldn’t it ONLY be used to describe sequential art drawn by the Japanese, and not by any other culture? You have “manhua” by Koreans, “manwha” by the Chinese, and “comics” by the Americans – point being, since there is an equivalent word in English, we shouldn’t be borrowing words from another culture when we already have one. Therefore, an “American manga” is a non-existent concept, because “manga” is Japanese and to call something American-made “manga” is ignorant at best and sacriligious at worst. Or so the argument goes.

I’ve never paid much attention to such arguments, largely because it’s nullified by the fact that the Japanese often call their manga “comics”. Many Japanese department stores have “comikkus” signs, largely because it’s cool to use English in Japan and they could care less about linguistic purity. People in Hong Kong also sometimes call their manwha “comics” – though in this instance it seems to be because the world is getting smaller and people switching from one language to another is common. Obviously, while some people maintain that the wording must be correct, globalisation tends to just steamroll over these instances as the speed at which cultural concepts migrate from one culture to another. Clearly, the hybrid creature that is emerging from the mixing of styles globally means that you can only maintain the “manga”/”comics” battle for so long before pop culture decides for you.

What is perhaps more interesting is whether the word “comics” will impact negatively on the sales of English-language produced manga. While I may be exaggerating here, there is no denying that the word “comics”, as mentioned in my previous post, carries a certain stigma. It conjures up images of adolescent boys absorbed in testosterone-fuelled stories, and despite the best efforts of independent comics, can’t seem to shake that image. In that sense, perhaps it may be better to use an unfamiliar word to refer to this new breed of manga-ised comics, simply because “manga” has less negative connotations attached to it (however, the manga stereotype of big-eyed porn still persists amongst people who saw the Urostsukidoji anime in 1998 and is still mired in their preconceptions).

It is still too early to decide what role the word “manga” will play in the English-speaking world. Will it exist side-by-side with the word “comics”; two words to refer to the same conceptual thing, but referring to different stylistic schools? Or will it refer to a certain type of story, whereas the word “comics” will become associated ONLY with superheroes and 4-panel newspaper strips? One thing is certain: it’s a word that is here to stay, as it describes something that has no precedent in English-speaking cultures; so even if it ends up circling the fringes of mainstream culture, it is bound to remain there. Only time will tell how influential it will be.