Manga/Anime's Comments on Japanese Society - Research Paper Example

Japanese Manga and Animes have a huge fan following in Japan and it has a sizeable amount of followers on a global front as well. Unlike normal comic book, Manga is supposed to be read from right to left according to the Japanese writing style. Even though, Japanese Animes and mangas is more like art form involving a stylized exaggeration in the representation and formation of character. 1Unlike normal cartoons, Japanese Animes have strong plot and does not have the same element of slapstick comedy involved.

Animes and Mangas have a strong plot and there visual characteristics may involve a strong influence of Japanese Calligraphy in the brush strokes used to draw various characters. The changes in the anime are quite ostensible and the quality of the animation has also improved. Some of the oldest Animes include Momatoro’s divine sea warriors, which was made in 1944 and some notable Animes from recent decades include Akira. 2 The various physical aspects of the cartoon characters shed light on the cultural aspects and influences of the artists.

Japanese anime and Manga characters may have true to life features, however their physical proportion and the size of their heads may vary according to the nature of their character. The most striking feature of Japanese anime and Manga characters is their eyes. Anime and Manga characters have large eyes and the pioneer of this style of drawing was Osamu Tekuza, who adopted this style of drawing his characters after he was greatly impressed by the technique used to draw Disney cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop.

The inclination of the artist to draw large eyes clearly shows the desire of the Japanese population to emulate American style and it can be speculated that this method of their drawing may show a strong cultural influence of America on the Japanese society. However, Tezuka often stated that he adopted this style of drawing because it made it easy for him to make his characters emote by drawing large eyes. There is a racial stereotype that has been established by the western community that often portrays them as emotionless and it is also considered to be social faux pas to show emotions, it is yet another arguable aspect of Japanese mangas and Animes that they use such exaggerated expressions in their art as a method of self-expression.

3 Some of the expressions may exhibit elements of slapstick comedy that demonstrates the Japanese sense of humor. Some examples of these facial expressions include a great sweat around the character’s head to show that he or she is embarrassed. An angry character is usually shown with a mallet that he or she conjures and starts hitting the other or fiery eyes to show anger of aggression towards a thing or a person. In Animes and mangas, then characters are also often shown to get nosebleeds, which show that the character is around his or her love interest and in case of female character; this aspect of their character is shown by red cheeks to show that the character is blushing.

Other slapstick comedy elements are shown by the ‘X’ mark that comes over the character’s eye to show that he or she has been knocked out or is ill. Japanese rely too much on stress marks in order to show emotions and usually the emotional display is quite exaggerated. Japanese Manga and anime characters also have