Gekiga
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Gekiga (劇画, 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
In the 1950s, mainstream Japanese comics (
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 (駒画) to describe his work Kyūketsu-jū, 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 Yūrei Taxi was the first to be called gekiga when it was published at the end of 1957.[9] Other names he considered include katsudōga and katsuga, both derived from katsudō eiga or "moving pictures", an early term for films, showing the movement's cinematic influence.[10]
In 1959, the Gekiga Kōbō (劇画工房) 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 Kōbō 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.
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
The following is a list of
- Seiichi Hayashi (Red Colored Elegy)[13]
- Hiroshi Hirata (Satsuma Gishiden)[14]
- Ryoichi Ikegami (Spider-Man: The Manga)[15]
- Ikki Kajiwara (Karate Jigoku-hen)[16]
- Noboru Kawasaki (Star of the Giants)[17]
- Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub)[10]
- Goseki Kojima (Lone Wolf and Cub)[10]
- Masahiko Matsumoto (Cigarette Girl)[6]
- Shigeru Mizuki (Shigeru Mizuki's Hitler, titled Gekiga Hitler in the Japanese version)[18]
- Takao Saito (Golgo 13)[2]
- Sanpei Shirato (Kamui)[8]
- Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life)[7]
- Osamu Tezuka (Phoenix, Ode to Kirihito, Apollo's Song, MW)[19][20]
- Tadao Tsuge (Slum Wolf)[21]
- Yoshiharu Tsuge (Screw Style)[22]
See also
- Alternative manga, broad Western term for outlying Japanese comics, including gekiga
- Josei manga, targeted towards adult women
- Seinen manga, targeted towards adult men
References
- 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. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ a b Suzuki, Shige (2013). Manga's Cultural Crossroads. Routledge. p. 53.
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-2938-4. (author copy)
- 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
- ISBN 0-87011-549-9.
- Schodt, Frederik L. ISBN 1-880656-23-X.
External links
- Media related to Gekiga at Wikimedia Commons