Week 10 - Quick Thoughts on Manga
During our class discussion, we talked about the nature of old Japanese manga and how its shift in mood threw a lot of colleagues off, myself included. In fact, it feels inappropriate in my eyes.
Speaking about being inappropriate, the animated version of Barefoot Gen had a particular scene that was pure horror with nothing to gain from it. I am all for freedom of expression, but there was nothing brave about that scene. Someone really animated the atomic bomb scene of people frying and melting and thought, “Wow, I am giving the people exactly what they want. Everyone must face this reality in the most savage way possible because subtlety is for wimps. This is my kink, and you’re gonna accept it.” It was a completely unnecessary and distasteful shock value.
I had a conversation about this with my mom, who grew up with Tezuka’s work, and she said that the shift in moods was meant to evaluate good and bad things on an equal plane. "You should acknowledge the bad things that happen, but you cannot stay sad forever”, which put a spin to my whole perspective. I’ve watched western media all my life, and am most likely projecting what I think is appropriate to media of a very different culture. I’m so used to movies that want us to participate in the immersion of grief. After all, we identify ourselves through characters in media.
I just realized that Tezuka really enjoys telling epic tales. Those types of stories are generally indifferent towards character development and don’t emotionally sabotage you. So, maybe it’s not a culture thing I’m trying to grasp at, but rather the fact that I just don’t enjoy epics? Maybe, it’s a bit of both.
I read Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and I really enjoyed it. It is totally my style. It was discussed in class how this manga artist was deeply inspired by European cinema, and how it impacted his pacing in his work. Anime is full of extremes, which is why I generally don’t enjoy it very much, but his work doesn’t feel “too much”. It is personal, it is digestible, realistic, mature, and smooth.
Speaking about being inappropriate, the animated version of Barefoot Gen had a particular scene that was pure horror with nothing to gain from it. I am all for freedom of expression, but there was nothing brave about that scene. Someone really animated the atomic bomb scene of people frying and melting and thought, “Wow, I am giving the people exactly what they want. Everyone must face this reality in the most savage way possible because subtlety is for wimps. This is my kink, and you’re gonna accept it.” It was a completely unnecessary and distasteful shock value.
I had a conversation about this with my mom, who grew up with Tezuka’s work, and she said that the shift in moods was meant to evaluate good and bad things on an equal plane. "You should acknowledge the bad things that happen, but you cannot stay sad forever”, which put a spin to my whole perspective. I’ve watched western media all my life, and am most likely projecting what I think is appropriate to media of a very different culture. I’m so used to movies that want us to participate in the immersion of grief. After all, we identify ourselves through characters in media.
I just realized that Tezuka really enjoys telling epic tales. Those types of stories are generally indifferent towards character development and don’t emotionally sabotage you. So, maybe it’s not a culture thing I’m trying to grasp at, but rather the fact that I just don’t enjoy epics? Maybe, it’s a bit of both.
I read Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and I really enjoyed it. It is totally my style. It was discussed in class how this manga artist was deeply inspired by European cinema, and how it impacted his pacing in his work. Anime is full of extremes, which is why I generally don’t enjoy it very much, but his work doesn’t feel “too much”. It is personal, it is digestible, realistic, mature, and smooth.
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