MANGA'S FIRST CENTURY

Digging into a popular medium’s roots.

Manga, in its current form, is inextricably linked to Japan’s cultural profile and exercises aesthetic influence on cartooning trends worldwide. But Japanese cartooning—manga as a medium—has always been at once a reflection of and a testing ground for cultural conventions, as well as a canvas for creative experimentation. Horbinski’s adaptation of her doctoral dissertation considers manga’s development through five eras, exploring publishing practices, the expansion of fan culture, and the development of gender- and age-segregated genre trends. Some manga histories begin with the classical ukiyo-e (woodblock print) tradition, and others lean in on Osamu Tezuka’s copious midcentury output, but Horbinski begins her study with Kitazawa Rakuten’s deliberate reimagining of Western-style political cartoons introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Next, the book considers comics as a locus of cultural cohesion and dissent during the Japanese government’s power consolidation approaching World War II. After the war, capitalism drove culture, and manga sold widely and well and was consumed ravenously, causing many artists to put in long hours for low pay in response to public demand. The 1960s and ’70s saw genres splintering and narrative experimentation broadening, with impressively varied results. Even Tezuka, midcentury manga’s standard-bearer, formed an avant-garde magazine for aspiring artists—understanding that manga must respond to its moment. Finally, the author arrives at century’s end, wherein manga commingled content and themes with anime and video games. What’s truly impressive about Horbinski’s project is that she returns, insistently, in every decade, to the many layers of historical precedent for manga’s marvelously multifaceted nature. What might appear uniform or formulaic to the untrained eye is instead, by Horbinski’s excellent estimation, a priceless, powerful record of Japan’s modern cultural development.

Deeply considered and information rich, a useful, fascinating work of comics history.