Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (Consumasian) [Paperback]

Sharon Kinsella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000 | ISBN-10: 0824823184 | ISBN-13: 978-0824823184

Adult Manga looks at the rise and fall of Japan's mammoth comic industry since the 1960s. In this stimulating and refreshing work, Kinsella documents the structure and history of the manga industry, probes into its related subculture and the anti-nerd otaku panic, and examines the difficult and fascinating relationship between the artists and editors who create manga. In the process, she argues that Japanese comics have shifted from being a lower class medium for marginal citizens to become a novel form of official communication, recently embraced by big business and national institutions. This ascent of manga through various layers of postwar society reflects the wider transformation of politics and social organization in Japan during the last years of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sharon Kinsella is research fellow and lecturer at Pembroke College, Cambridge University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824823184
• ISBN-13: 978-0824823184
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,157,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the first and not the best..., August 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (Consumasian) (Paperback)

Disingenuously claiming to be "the first detailed analysis of the post-war pop-cultural phenomenon of Japanese adult manga in English", (presumably Anne Allison and Frederik Schodt weren't detailed enough, and Groensteen's L'Univers des Mangas was too French) Sharon Kinsella's Adult Manga throws nuggets of interesting information across sweeping fields of missed opportunities. For a study of the relationship between author and editor, it is an ironically incoherent subbing job, with repeated text, entertainingly random italics and idiotic use of English titles (Tezuka's well-known "Atom Boy", as well as an anime called "Megalopolis" and another one called "Doomed"...). Kinsella also seems to only translate titles on a haphazard basis; some are in Japanese with English translations, and some are not. The Japanese bits, especially about life inside the giant publisher Kodansha, are informative, but she makes so many mistakes talking about the English industry that one can only hope she's not cocking up elsewhere. The best bits are the few sections that consist of "What I did during my paid holiday at Kodansha's offices", although she does not seem to have marshalled the information she amasses. She notes that artists have many assistants, for example, and notes the educational value of photo-real draughtsmanship, but doesn't seem to have realised that one is related to the other, and that using the real world as a baseline is a good way of matching disparate art styles in a busy studio. Bottom line is her book will give you the chance to get gossip and quotes from several interesting Japanese sources, which you otherwise wouldn't have seen. But considering the two-year delay from its original intended publication, I would have hoped for something a little more up to date; some of Kinsella's conclusions were already dated in 1995, and are showing their age now.

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The view from a manga publisher, July 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (Consumasian) (Paperback)

Kinsella's book presents her view of the Japanese manga industry, as colored by her experiences inside it for a few months on a research grant from Kodansha (Japan's largest publisher). While there is much of value here, she is simply misled, mistaken, or wrong in so many other areas it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. For example, contrary to her assertations, very few manga are group efforts written by committee. And while it's true some editors provide plotting assistance to the creators and some are even uncredited co-writers, many are reduced to banging on the door of the artist's apartment hoping some pages will be poked out of the mail slot when the deadline comes around. Her analysis of the international manga translation industry seems to have been written without the benefit of any real research into same. Bottom line--if you know the biz well enough to separate fecal matter from boot polish, some great tidbits here. If not...don't believe everything you read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Well-Written Documentary, June 28, 2001

By 

"ninfragile19" (Lowell, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (Consumasian) (Paperback)

I read this book for two reasons. First is due to my love for anime and manga and the desire to further my knowledge for this cultural phenomenon. The second is because I'm planning on minoring in East Asian Studies, and I thought this book would give me insight as to the comparative politics concerning manga in both hemispheres of the world.

This book has done so, and more. "Adult Manga..." explains, in a well organized and detailed manner, the history of manga, from it's downfall in the 60's to its revival in the 80's. Other aspects about this book that I found very interesting were the attitudes expressed in both the western and eastern cultures. Ms. Kinsella goes on to discuss how manga has made it's place in the status-quo of the Asian region in the world, while at the same time, is struggling to makes itself known in mainstream pop-culture in America.

After I finished this book, I was enthralled by how much I was able to learn, while at the same time, I was also upset about how ignorant I was to ignore some of the most important aspects about manga concerning Japanese society. To paraphrase, manga is, more or less, a direct correllation to the social and cultural trends in Japan. How much of that statement can encompass is left to the reader.

If you think manga was just about big-breasted women, sophisticated mecha-warriors and cute furry animals, think again.