The Manga Counter-Revolution

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hisuiconIf you have attended a number of industry panels at the major anime conventions in the last few years you will remember an insistence on there not being a manga bubble. The rapid growth of the U.S. manga industry was the natural pace of a maturing market and that while there might be a slowing of growth there would not be a crash. And here in 2010 we see the end of Go! Comi and CMX, layoffs at VIZ, and uncertain futures for Del Rey, Tokyo-Pop, and Aurora. It seems there has been a manga crash after all.

Over the last few years there have been major changes in both the anime and manga industries of the U.S. While the anime industry was (is) unstable, the manga industry had been on a steep incline with more and more companies entering the market and a huge library of titles gracing shelves. But maybe manga was just playing catch up to its older brother.

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Keith Anyan, The Tin Man of To Terra…

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SPOILERS FOR TO TERRA…

I watched They Were 11 very early in my fandom, loved it and still do considerably, but it was To Terra… that solidified my interest in classic 70’s manga and the magnificent Showa 24. This is thanks to both the epic spanning story, a cast that stays with you long after the final page, and the beautiful artwork seen throughout. To Terra… is able to combine the strengths from shojo, Keiko Takemiya’s usual realm, and from shonen which To Terra was positioned as but it has so much to offer you can’t pin down To Terra… easily.

To Terra… like many of the classics of science-fiction is not only a wonderful story that explores a possible future but is also complex sociopolitical examination of the present. The characters contained within examine ideas like eugenics, class struggle, environmentalism, discrimination, and safety vs. freedom. But unlike many of the characters with in the novel, it’s hard to place Keith Anyan into a neat box that says what role he plays. Solider Blue is the old mentor who passes down both his legacy and his unfulfilled dreams. Jomy is a reluctant leader that must awkwardly learn to fulfill his destiny. But Keith, he is at times a hero and at others an anti-hero; someone who defies and questions the system and yet is its greatest champion.

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“Crash Sayla Mass” is the creepiest thing ever.

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We already did an overview podcast of Mechademia which included the third volume but we didn’t get to every little thing that we found interesting. Since this collection included the first Gundam essay so far, we thought we would pull it out for discussion (plus there is no way we couldn’t take a minute to say how creepy that sculpture is). It features a translated essay, Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art by Takayuki Tatsumi, and then a response from the translator, Christopher Bolton.

When we were on the Manga Out Loud podcast Ed Sizmore discussed the idea that in academia the progress and exchange of ideas is facilitated by follow ups on establish papers. In the spirit of promoting an academic mindset  in the anime and manga communities we decided to take a stab at writing out own response to one of the articles instead of just doing a review of the third book. Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art discusses how the novel Starship Troopers influenced Gundam and in turn influenced the way authors view the relationship between man and machine in fiction. The translator then wrote a response in which he talks about his recollection of the Gundam Generating Futures exhibit where Tatsumi’s article originally appeared in the catalog for.

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