Style of Japanese comics
Gekiga
(
劇?
,
lit.
'
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
[
edit
]
In the 1950s, mainstream Japanese comics (
manga
) came from Tokyo and were 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's adaptation of cinema techniques, they were not interested in making humoristic comics for children in Tezuka's
Disney
-esque style. They wanted to write consistently dramatic stories with aesthetics influenced by
film noir
and crime novels.
[4]
Gekiga
were more graphic and showed more violence than the children's manga that came before them.
[5]
[6]
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."
[5]
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."
[5]
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".
[5]
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 as opposed to buying.
[7]
[8]
In November 1956, Masahiko Matsumoto used the term
komaga
(
駒?
)
to describe his work
Ky?ketsu-j?
, 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
Y?rei Taxi
was the first to be called
gekiga
when it was published at the end of 1957.
[9]
Other names he considered include
katsud?ga
and
katsuga
, both derived from
katsud? eiga
or "moving pictures", an early term for films, showing the movement's cinematic influence.
[10]
In 1959, the Gekiga K?b?
(
劇?工房
)
formed in Tokyo with eight members, including Tatsumi, Matsumoto, and
Takao Saito
.
[8]
The group wrote a sort of "Gekiga Manifesto" that was sent to various publishers and newspapers declaring their mission.
[7]
[9]
The Gekiga K?b? disbanded in 1960 over internal divisions;
[11]
although as an organized group it was very short-lived, its influence was long lasting.
[8]
[7]
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.
[8]
[6]
In response to the success of
Garo
, Tezuka founded the magazine
COM
in 1967 for more experimental works.
[8]
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
."
[5]
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the children who had grown up reading manga wanted something aimed at older audiences and
gekiga
catered to 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."
[8]
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.
[6]
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."
[12]
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."
[8]
For a long time
gekiga
was not translated into other languages, but after 2000 more and more publishers dedicated to graphic novels began translating and releasing
gekiga
. More recently, publishers like
Drawn & Quarterly
began publishing several English editions of works by Tatsumi and
Yoshiharu Tsuge
, among others, increasing the exposure of the genre in the Western graphic novel market.
Notable artists
[
edit
]
The following is a list of
manga artists
known to have created
gekiga
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
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 (October 16, 2015).
"Interview: 'Golgo 13' creator Takao Saito"
.
Financial Times
.
Archived
from the original on December 10, 2022
. Retrieved
February 4,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
Wells, Dominic (September 23, 2014).
"Meet the men behind manga: Gekiga exhibition launches at London Cartoon Museum"
. London, Hollywood
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
Holmberg, Ryan (October 22, 2014).
"Proto-Gekiga: Matsumoto Masahiko's Komaga"
.
The Comics Journal
. Retrieved
February 22,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Nunez, Irma (September 24, 2006).
"Alternative Comics Heroes: Tracing the genealogy of gekiga"
.
The Japan Times
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Santos, Carlos (July 22, 2010).
"Manga for Grown-Ups: Gekiga, Garo, Ax, and the Alternative Manga Revolution"
.
Anime News Network
. Retrieved
July 27,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Garner, Dwight (April 14, 2009),
"Manifesto of a Comic-Book Rebel"
,
The New York Times
, retrieved
July 27,
2018
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"Gekiga: Alternative Manga from Japan"
.
The Cartoon Museum
. Archived from
the original
on April 4, 2019
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
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 (August 1, 2009).
"From Gekiga to Good Raymond"
.
PopMatters
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
Holmberg, Ryan (June 30, 2014).
"Enka Gekiga: Hayashi Seiichi's Pop Music Manga"
.
The Comics Journal
. Retrieved
August 17,
2019
.
- ^
Mateo, Alex (December 16, 2021).
"Gekiga Manga Creator, Akira Logo Designer Hiroshi Hirata Passes Away"
.
Anime News Network
. Retrieved
December 16,
2021
.
- ^
Thompson, Jason
(August 19, 2010).
"Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Spider-man: The Manga"
.
Anime News Network
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
"From Kajiwara Ikki Part 1: The Dangerous Charm of a Dark World"
. ComiPress. February 6, 2008
. Retrieved
July 28,
2018
.
- ^
Clements, Jonathan
(2013).
Anime: A History
.
Bloomsbury Publishing
. p. 143.
- ^
Mizuki, Shigeru
(November 2015).
Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler
. Translated by
Zack Davisson
.
Drawn and Quarterly
. p.
place 8 of 316
.
ISBN
978-1-77046-210-6
– via
Internet Archive
.
- In the introduction by
Frederik L. Schodt
- ^
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
. November 7, 2017
. Retrieved
August 17,
2019
.
- ^
Ressler, Karen (July 20, 2018).
"Drawn & Quarterly to Publish Collected Works of Yoshiharu Tsuge"
.
Anime News Network
. Retrieved
July 27,
2018
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Schodt, 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
.
External links
[
edit
]
- Media related to
Gekiga
at Wikimedia Commons
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