What Japan thinks about live action movies based on manga?
December 2, 2009 by Toonleap
Filed under Japan, Live Action, News, Oddities
It seems many japanese dislike the idea of adapting anime and manga series for a live action version of it…This recent survey from iShare via What Japan thinks shed some light about the preference of many Japanese for this adaptations…
Demographics
Between the 5th and 10th of November 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.
Q1: Has any manga that you like ever been made into an anime? (Sample size=531)
All Male
N=315Female
N=216Yes (if yes, jump to SQs) 66.3% 65.4% 67.6% No 33.7% 34.6% 32.4% Q1SQ1: How did you feel when you first heard it had been made into an anime? (Sample size=352)
All Male
N=206Female
N=146Really happy 25/3% 27.7% 21.9% A little happy 31.0% 33.0% 28.1% Nothing in particular 22.2% 23.3% 20.5% A little bad 17.6% 12.6% 24.7% Totally bad 4.0% 3.4% 4.8% Q1SQ2: Have you watched the anime version of a manga you like? (Sample size=352)
All Male
N=206Female
N=146Yes 94.9% 94.7% 95.2% No 5.1% 5.3% 4.8% Q2: Has there been an anime that you enjoyed when you first saw it, but then found out later that it was based on a manga? (Sample size=531)
All Male
N=315Female
N=216Yes 52.7% 51.1% 55.1% No 47.3% 48.9% 44.9% Q3: Has there been a television drama, movie, etc that you enjoyed when you first saw it, but then found out later that it was based on a manga? (Sample size=531)
All Male
N=315Female
N=216Yes 53.7% 47.9% 62.0% No 46.3% 52.1% 38.0% Q4: What do you think about anime versions of manga? (Sample size=531)
All Male
N=315Female
N=216Completely approve 15.4% 19.7% 9.3% Approve to some extent 52.9% 48.3% 59.7% Disapprove to some extent 26.4% 25.1% 28.2% Completely disapprove 5.3% 7.0% 2.8% Q5: What do you think about live-action versions of manga? (Sample size=531)
All Male
N=315Female
N=216Completely approve 4.7% 5.4% 3.7% Approve to some extent 30.5% 28.6% 33.3% Disapprove to some extent 42.7% 41.0% 45.4% Completely disapprove 22.0% 25.1% 17.6% Source: iShare via What Japan thinks
I am not surprised by many of this answers, especially the one about live versions of manga…There have been quite a lot of disasters lately, trying to adapt manga into live action…
Manga and Anime Origins: Kamishibai!
Anime and Manga sure had its origins, but most people don´t know exactly how and when it began…
It was the simple clacking of two wooden sticks on a street corner that signaled to children the start of kamishibai, a popular pastime during Depression-era Japan. Kamishibai means “street theater using painted illustrations.” Author Eric P. Nash examines the little-known art form and predecessor to modern-day anime and manga in his recent book “Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater,” published by Abrams ComicArts.
Storytellers would travel from town to town with their butai (miniature stage) on the back of a bike. The set-up was reminiscent of a “Punch and Judy” show, but instead of puppets the narrator would slide a series of poster boards with water color illustrations in and out of the box. He would act out the script, which was written on cards placed on the back of a board.
Each show consisted of three stories of about 10 minutes each: an adventure for boys, a domestic drama for girls and then a simple comic story. The majority of performances ended in a cliffhanger, forcing eager audiences to return the next day.
Nash, a New York Times writer and research editor and author of several books on architecture, has always been a fan of comics. It was while reading the book “Getting it Wrong in Japan” that he came across “kamishibai,” a word he had never seen before, and decided to dig further. Unable to find any book on the topic in English, he traveled to Japan two years ago to investigate and found more than 300 images in two children’s libraries in Osaka and Tokyo and discovered countless contributions that kamishibai had made to the comics genre.
“A lot of attributes seen in anime are present,” Nash said, “such as Giant Robots and monsters from outer space.” He also mentions the “manga-sized eyes,” wide and oversized, meant to convey emotion found in popular characters such as Jungle Boy.
Golden Bat, created in 1931, was considered to be the world’s first true comic superhero. Although visually resembling Captain America’s nemesis Red Skull, Golden Bat and Superman share more commonalities: the red cape, skill of flight, superhuman strength and a fortress of solitude, albeit in the Japanese Alps.
Kamishibai artists departed from traditional Japanese line art drawing by creating a cartoon-like style and applying chiaroscuro, the Western style of contrasting light and dark, providing depth and mass.
During World War II, the Japanese government used kamishibai for propaganda, as did Americans during the occupation with stories centered on democratic values such as baseball.
The demise of kamishibai coincided with the end of the occupation and introduction of television in 1952.
Many of the form’s writers and artists then migrated into manga in the ’50s such as Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka.
In “Manga Kamishibai,” Golden Bat creator Takeo Nagamatsu summed up his feelings on kamishibai’s role in Japanese society: “Pictures that look nice in someone’s house are great . . . but kamishibai are loved by many children and cheer them up. When I think of these children later growing up to be honorable Japanese adults, it makes me realize the significance of creating kamishibai.”
Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times Liesl Bradner wrote an interesting article about the origins of Manga and Anime, and probably, Otaku should pay attention how it started…
Japanese Manga debuts at British Museum!
It seems Manga is getting a proper recognition around the world…A 250 year old British Museum will exhibit a manga called Munakata Kyoju.
As home to one of the world’s finest collections of historic artifacts, it seems fitting that the British Museum will feature a comic book series about a professor who studies ancient civilizations in its first exhibition of Japanese manga.
Starting on Nov. 5, a two-month long exhibition is showcasing original drawings from the series “Munakata Kyoju” (Professor Munakata), by Yukinobu Hoshino.
While manga has a growing fan base around the world, its legitimacy as an art form has sometimes been questioned.
But its endorsement as an important part of Japanese culture by the 250-year-old museum, which attracts 6 million visitors each year, should go a long way to answering its critics.
The “Professor Munakata” series appeared in 2004 in the Big Comic manga magazine published by Shogakukan Inc. It was also adapted into a TV series.
The protagonist, Professor Tadakusu Munakata, is an ethnologist who unravels mysteries surrounding ancient Japan by visiting archeological sites and places of legend across the country.
Hoshino, who lives in Sapporo, said he was amazed when Nicole Rousmaniere, a Japanologist who first conceived of the exhibition, showed up to make a pitch to him in August.
“She came all the way and told me that she wanted to put my drawings on display at the British Museum,” said Hoshino, 55. “I was stunned.”
Born in New York, Rousmaniere grew up watching Japanese anime. One of her favorite comic books, she said, was Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy.”
After doing her bachelor’s degree and master’s in archaeology and a Ph.D in Japanese art history at Harvard, she taught Japanese art at the University of East Anglia in Britain. She also taught at the University of Tokyo’s graduate school as a visiting professor for three years from 2006.
It was during her stay in Tokyo that she came upon “Professor Munakata” after browsing comic books in a bookshop.
“I feel that Hoshino sensei’s drawings are compelling and beautifully executed,” she said. “I enjoy Osamu Tezuka and Shigeru Mizuki as well, but Yukinobu Hoshino is my favorite.”
Organizing an exhibition for the British Museum is nothing new to Rousmaniere.
She has previously worked with the museum on an exhibition of Jomon dogu, Japanese ceramic figures from the Jomon Pottery Culture, a period spanning between 8000 B.C. and 300 B.C.
Timothy Clark, 50, who heads the Japanese section in the museum’s Department of Asia, approved the project, calling it an experiment linking manga, which is popular in the United States and Europe, with the museum through archaeology.
Hoshino made his first visit to London in early October, taking about 30 drawings with him. The city did not, however, seem entirely unfamiliar, he said.
Hoshino’s inspiration for the protagonist of the series was Kumagusu Minakata (1867-1941), an ethnologist-cum-naturalist who worked as a researcher for the British Museum after he visited London in 1892.
“It felt like it was destiny,” Hoshino said.
During his stay in London, he executed two new drawings.
The exhibition features enlarged versions of Hoshino’s illustrations for the comic. Publisher Shogakukan also supplied 100 volumes of Big Comic for visitors to flip through, so they get a feel for manga magazines and their stories.
Hoshino is now working on a storyline for Professor Munakata’s latest adventure; the ethnologist will visit the British Museum to unravel mysteries from ancient Europe.
“I hope to launch the new series in spring,”
Source: Asahi
It is quite an interesting choice for a manga exhibit in a well known museum. I will not be surprised if We see more manga exhibits around the world…
Interview with a Manga Translator!
How does it feel to be a Manga Translator? Mainichi took the task to answer that question and made an interview for our reading pleasure. The Manga translator interviewed is Simona Stanzani from Italy!
Simona Stanzani has translated a number of hit manga titles, including “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” and “NANA” (both published by Shueisha), and believes that manga and anime are important parts of Japan’s culture. The following interview took place, not in a maid cafe, but in a “megane & suits cafe,” where the male waiters all wear suits and glasses.
MDN: How did you become such an otaku?
Simona Stanzani (SS): When I was a child, many Japanese anime were already being shown on TV in Italy, such as “Lady Oscar,” “Aim for the Ace” and “Rocky Joe.”
The first time we Italians realized that the anime were from Japan was when “Grendizer,” the anime adaption of Go Nagai’s manga began. Before that, anime such as “Heidi” were European stories and the drawings were not so different from Disney’s, so we didn’t really think much of where they had come from.
But Grendizer was such a culture shock that you couldn’t possibly ignore the fact it was Japanese. It had all sorts of weird aliens modeled after Japanese demons. After Grendizer, the second most famous was “Captain Herlock.” I think all the boys wanted to be Herlock.
MDN: I heard you wore a black dress when your favorite character died.
SS: I get moved very easily when watching a movie or reading a manga, so I cried so much over anime like “Candy Candy,” saying, “Oh no! They didn’t meet again!” I think the Japanese are really good at doing this setsunai thing. Setsunai is hard to translate, but to me it has something to do with solitude. It’s a very Japanese way of making people cry, I think.
MDN: So it was manga that prompted you to study Japanese?
SS: Studying the Japanese language actually came as a consequence of my love for manga. I wanted to become a cartoonist, but there was no market in Italy at that time. So my first logical thought was, “Of course I’m going to study Japanese to live in Japan and draw manga.” So I did a two-year intensive course in Japanese at the University of Bologna.
I also studied banking and bookkeeping, which may prompt you to ask, “Why?” I did it because I knew I was not going to work in a company, so if I wanted to be a freelancer, then I had to be able to look after my money.
MDN: I heard that you practiced Japanese through correspondence with pen pals.
SS: I once had a Japanese music magazine, and there was a pen pal corner so I wrote I was looking for pen friends in Japanese and English. Then I got 200 letters! I replied to everybody and I kept 50, and it was like every day I was receiving letters and writing back. I actually learned kanji from those letters.
Obviously I was not speaking Japanese, but they did send me tapes with their favorite songs. So I learned a lot of Japanese songs, for example BOOWY, Yutaka Ozaki and of course a lot of anime songs. This is kind of how I learned speaking Japanese, listening to Japanese songs, and watching anime tapes they sent me as well.
MDN: And you started translating in 1992?
SS: At the beginning, there was a four-person team of editors called the “Kappa Boys,” and I started working with them. And one of the big Italian publishers they worked for introduced manga in 1992. They contacted me asking if I would like to translate, and I replied, “Yes. Why not? Then, I’ll be able to read them before anybody else!” I don’t think I’ve ever stopped translating manga since that job started.
My first job was the translation of the original manga of “Ghost in the Shell”, which was really hard, especially since I’d just learned how to use computers at that time and wasn’t very familiar with the concepts. Ghost in the Shell includes so much cyberpunk stuff, such as cyborg humans whose brains are directly connected to the Internet.
MDN: This is a labor of love for you.
SS: Of course. Sometimes you have to translate stuff you don’t like, but apart from that, the only pressure that I really have is my deadlines. It’s the freedom, really. Also, I welcome a challenge, and I’m a very positive person, so I can always find the bright side even in the worst situation. Even when translating is very hard, on the next page there might be something really amazing. I’m very happy with my job.
MDN: Could you please conclude with a general statement about manga and anime?
SS: I think that manga and anime are a very important part of Japanese culture, and that, at their highest level, they have a pivotal role in modern communication art.
It is time to get rid of the ancient, outdated concept of “if you read manga you become stupid” or to consider them mere commercial entertainment; of course a big share of them is made to sell, but even the most commercial titles do have artistic and cultural value.
Japanese should be proud of anime and manga, because they are very strong and unique means of expression, and a symbol of excellence for Japanese culture in the world.
Profile: Born in Bologna. A self-styled “professional otaku,” who has translated Japanese and anime into English and Italian. Her first published translation was “Ghost in the Shell” in 1992 and went on to work on many other works, including “BLEACH” and “D. Gray-man.” She re-located to Japan in 2007. Her favorite manga character is Sosuke Aizen from “BLEACH.”
Source: Mainichi
The interview was fascinating and proves that if you want something, just go for it with great effort and dedication. After all, it is a labor of love!
Loading ...
