Influence of Hierarchy of Animation and Manga Production on their Stories - Essay Example

How Does Hierarchy Within Animation and Manga Production Influence the Contents and Stories of Manga and Anime? How Does Hierarchy Within Animation and Manga Production Influence the Contents and Stories of Manga and Anime? Literature Review Humankind has always had the desire to make images move. The aspiration to make images move has in recent past provoked a lot of the most creative advancements in the areas of Science and Technology. The history of animation is however, traced way back in the early 19’s where the pioneers looked into terms of establishing cartoons from combination of primitive cinema practices and indigenous arts. For over 60 years, the animation has been one the major and popular f form of entertainment in Japan. According to research, manga is believed to have been inexistence in the c11th century. During that time, the word manga was used to describe drawings. The present form of manga originated from America during the times of comic trips in the beginning of the 20th century (Schodt 1996: 22). Japan saw a big difference and impact of the American culture with amusing books and films being brought to entertain the occupation forces. After the World War II, new artist in the animation are sprouted in japan. These artists changed the manga rebranded it to new style to help television animation in Japan. Tekeza –artists- initially influenced by the Disney animations created a popular manga that was appealing to all ages. They created a broad variety of work from children to adult stories with moral heroes and peep plots. Among the Tezuka’s famous jobs of the time are Jungle Empire and Astro Boy. As the spirit of evolution of animation continued to rock Japan, a quality animation by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki took over the market scene of animation. The film Spirited Away won her an Oscar due to the quality art work and the controversy of the female heroes in a society which is male dominated. Keywords Manga: the term Hokusai popularized is now used to refer to Japanese-style cartoons in print form. Anime: short for animation, anime refers to Japanese-style animated stories. Tezuka Osamu: the artist, born in 1928 in Osaka, who created many of Japan’s best-known manga and anime. Introduction Japanese animation (anime) and the comics (manga) have increasingly become popular in many countries. This is because the Japanese animation and comics have a different style to the other styles. The anime and the manga cover for all the categories of animation and contain genres that range from child to adult. The words animation, animator and animated are all derived from a Latin word ‘’animare” which means to give life to a nonliving thing. In the contest of video film, the word commonly refers to the act of artificial formation of impression of movement in animated forms and lines. Therefore, in definition the word means the practice of making an impression of movement which has been indirectly recorded in the convectional photographic sense from a film made by hand. However, it ought to be noted that this definition does not sever other forms of animation. Based on the current technology, images are being formed within the computer and animated rather the old convectional photographic sense cell, model and hand drawn animation. This hence proves that the definition turns out to be insufficient in describing all the forms of animation. With the emergence of new practices such as the 3D and the stop motion animation; the practice took a different direction. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, there was a major revolution fired by drastic digital changes that took place. Animation hence changed from computer animation due to the digital forms. The availability of digital equipment and Software at affordable prices in the contemporary period enabled to demonstrate and distribute their work. However, throughout this trajectory of animation has been deeply self- reflexive intermediate. According to Norman McLaren (1987: 11), animation is not art of moving drawings but is reasonably the art of the movements that are drawn. Therefore, McLaren asserts that the true idea that the principle of animation is in the formation of movements on papers, manipulation of clay and alteration of model. Many animators continue to come up with diverse definition based on what they do and animate. For example, the animators of Zagreb School in Yugoslavia seek to stress the definition by emphasizing the anesthetic and philosophic aspects of animation. They seek to argue that animation is an act of giving life and soul to design by transformation and not copying of the reality. This combination was essentially experimental since the process of animation was at the stages of starting. The first work of animation was released the 1920’s by The Walt Studios, which was the only studio with classic stage back in the time. Many people traditionally and unbelievably acknowledged the work and it set the phase for more animation. The history of animation holds several of aspects: the redefinition the aesthetic in cartoons that was held by many pioneers and studios of the time. The non-objective forms of animation exemplified the works many artist such as Norman McLaren. In 20th century the model of the hierarchy of effects has received a wide spread attention from both the young and the old. Artists of the amines and manga are aware of the growing market for the comics’ books and therefore the focus turns to be on the content to input. The content ought to be more appealing to the otherwise the market for the anime and manga is going to dwindle. Many people are tending to use the animation to market their works. The model of hierarchy of the effects model has thus provided information about advertising. The growing market is requiring the diversification, a featuring of more titles every month. Strategies to enable a good plan are there the rout to take for better market stand. The model acts like a conception; tool to predict the consumers behavior (Barry 2002). According to studies therefore, little research has been carried out to identify the effect of use of the animated banner. With the acknowledgement of the female fans and of the topics to even the real thing that affect the society are some the things that affect the content of a comic story. The relationship between human beings and how they do things is the bases of the hierarchy in the comic stories and films from Japan. Hierarchy leads to the creation of the parenting in a film or a story. The events that surround the creation of a story and its eventual development into being broadcasted as a film. In overseas countries anime is first encountered by most fans contrary to Japan where most fans do read manga comic books, of which most don’t rise to the status of anime. For instance sailors moon manga,began as a monthly comic Nakayoshi. It was later on elevated by Toei and produced as a television series. Keroro gunso is another good example of a manga that was serialized in Japanese monthly manga magazine Sho’nen Ace which caters for teenage boys and young adults anime fans. It was later on made into a series directed by Sato Jun’ichi with its TV debut in 2004. This was only after a successful acceptance of its manga version. In overseas, of is first broadcasted in animated series from Japanese television. As the series gains popularity the original comic work is translated from its native language Japanese and published in various languages e.g. English, French, and Spanish into book form (Ono 1996:6) Hyoe Narita executive vice-president of Viz Media agrees that many children have seen an aime version of manga and this in turn has encouraged them to read the manga series in the magazines. (Chujo, 2000:7). The efforts to move manga to overseas have proved to be unfruitful and futile too. This is concurred by a fan from Ohio State describing her journey from anime to manga thus (cooper-chen 2010:79-80) “My siblings and I were sitting around flipping through channels, and we stopped at cartoon network….my brothers found “Dragon ball Z” and “Fiche Mayo” and I took the liking to “Gundam” and “ Rurouni Kenshin”….. After I d seen everything cartoon network had to offer I turned to manga. I’d always been a good reader, but it was actually my small sister (the one who hated reading) that got me hooked. She was babbling on and on about some deranged family in a book called Marmalade Boy and she practically forced me to read it….”(cooper-chen 2010:79-80) An anime-to-manga process brought those books format graphics novels to U.S readers “sailors moon” begun in syndication in 1995, due to its initial failure. Stuart Levy, founder of Tokyo pop, “had no trouble acquiring the right to the kodansha manga was still nascent (Benenza, 2009:110). Today anime and manga complement each other well both in Japan and overseas countries. Gender differentiation is another factor that influences the content of anime and manga stories. The clear cut dividing girls, boys, young women and young men markets have found riches worldwide. Japan ranks the highest (95) of all countries on Hofsteds (2010) masculinity scale, showing extreme gender role differentiation. The gender differentiation also affects the development a story line. This is especially whenever characters cross the wide gulf between the sexes. For example, the anime “ Ranma “half of it is based on a manga by Rumiko Takahishi, features a boy who turned into girl after dipping into a magic pool in china . When the boy was splashed water from the magic pool he turned into a girl. Language gateways also played a major role in influencing the contents and stories of manga and anime. Manga was originally written in Japan. Actually in the United States they were broadcasted in animated form in Japanese television and had them translated into English through the amateur sub tittles. This helped in spreading the gospel of animation to the English speaking countries (Macias 2006). Nowadays English, French and Chinese are pathways through which the cartoon arts are spread worldwide. This has also improved the market for animated films all over the world therefore creating a fortune to the producers and the creative brains behind the animation films. Animation schools have been developed and even intellectuals have been converging in seminars and conferences to discuss the improvement of animated films which were originally comics (manga). One good example is the School of Animation in the University of Chinese of communication in china. Intellectuals have also taken the academic interest in animation that is why they organize festivals that help them come together as panelists to visualize the study of manga/animation. On February 17th, 2013 during the Japan media arts festival a talk session on manga/ animation took part as part of an event called the media arts library café at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo. The talk session mainly involved the reporting, by panelists on their results of their project to map manga and animation studies undertaken both in Japan and overseas. The overture of CG into the live action movies in 1990’s lies in the wake of increasing intellectual concern in animation. In the past movies had served as permanent account on films but they are now easily manipulated to craft animated movies and series too. This new move exposed a relationship between animation and movies. Japans academic interest in animation was triggered by the reaction of the United States of America and Europe to Japanese popular culture and their academic approach taken to its study. Animation studies can be compared to film studies, which also take in a range of come within reach of looking at movies. Animation has taken the way to acknowledge that animation is already a culture enjoyed and loved by many people in the society. It has also accepted that despite the consequences of its place in the cultural hierarchy, the make use of animation as a visual languages is by now well-known in live action film, computer games, advertisements, digital device interfaces and various other media. Comic magazines like Pokémon have also become a favorite in many households and its being read by many children aged between 6- 8 years. Publishing firms are making money through the magazine. Key words CG-abbreviation of the Japanese gairago computer graphics RANMA-by law KODASHA- A Japanese comic writer of a manga magazine Nakayoshi. There has also been an increase in genre preference. Different age groups prefer different genres. Fantasy on the different genres has affected the content and the story line of different animated films (anime) and comics (manga) too. Older teens prefer features and characters with supernatural powers e.g. super man. A character that can do unimaginable things like fly, disappear etc. They also prefer worldly beings. Even if the action takes place in familiar areas e.g. Japanese high schools (e.g. Bleach, kekkaush, inuyasha) There are also those youngsters who enjoy watching science fiction stories a good example is Keroro Gunso. A Japanese animation that is about aliens arriving from a foreign planet and a war involving space shifts starts between protagonists and antagonists. Japanese also have a taste for horror action animations such as Tommie, parasite and (particularly it was unsuccessful) uzamaki. There are also animation films that are about love stories for young ladies and girlish series for girls. Preferences patterns in Asia influence the content of animation production and also the market for japans illustrated in storytelling. It’s through this process of storytelling that leads to the writing of comic books and later on to the production of animated films. Great and celebrated story tellers in the history of Japan are the writers of Nakayoshi that was among the first animated series to be broadcasted on Japanese television. It’s a common habit for people to embrace foreign programs, or rather products that are completely outside their own culture and still feel engaged with the themes of friendship and perseverance. “The powerful appeal of exotic, non-local programming (Elasmar, 2003:80) can help in explaining the success of anime/manga outside Japan. Staubhar (2007) poised that people prefer local, provisional or national content. They prefer such content because they believe the productions have met at least the minimum set standards. Regional content is second and alien content come third, which has an appeal of encompassing new ideas. According to Ono (1997:7), the creation of cartoons has won fans overseas even though Japanese cartoonist never gave thought to the viewer and readers in overseas. They admit to have the Japanese audience in mind while writing the mangas (comics).Kawkatsu concurs with Ono stating that publishers and producers target only the local readers and viewers and they have no intention whatsoever to alter the Japanese cultures and tradition right-to-left to suit the overseas readers and viewers. Key words Nakayoshi- a good friend, a monthly shojo manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. Uzamaki-it’s a pun on spiral because it refers to a three dimensional spiral like a whirlpool or vortex. Despite the views still Japanese animation is accepted both locally and internationally and loved by most people in the society if not by everyone. This explains why china is the base for Japanese produced animation films for over thirty years now. Japanese cartoons made their way into china’s market in 1979. This was after the Astou Boy one of Japans most influential character, was used as an image representative to promote Casio Cal. Millions of anime and manga consumers currently live in china, creating such a big market for anime and manga products. This has also prompted the Japanese to shift their bases to their readily available market in china. Each year consumers spend RMB100 billion or $14.6 billion on anime and manga production (yang, 2008).this clearly shows that there is a lot of foreign exchange. The government benefiting highly from the animation industry through revenue payment. China Central Television (CCTV) begun to air the black and white “Astro Boy” cartoon series in 1980. This was after it was translated and dubbed in Chinese. It was followed by “Doraemon” and “kimba the white lion”. Chinese youngsters love for Japanese animation has led to a number of positive impact, such that the historical constraints that have existed between the two countries before is not such a big deal to them.they love and adore the Japanese films without a second thought. This has promoted good public and diplomatic relations between the two nations who could not see eye to eye in the past. It is no wonder that the Chinese youngster have loved the Japanese culture and embraced it wholly. In every university and high school in china there is an existence of an anime club said Dr Wang’ Lei Assistant Dean Animation School in Chinese University of Communication (Personal communication, Beijing January 2009). In efforts to make sure that the Japanese animation has not taken over the Chinese animation industry the authorities have also produced their own animations series and comic books too. The Chinese government has also prohibited the airing of” Death Note” a Japanese anime. However the fans still watch it via DVDs, pirated television shows and peer to peer sites. Technology has also been a catalyst in spreading the production and content of manga and anime products. This has been made easier through the internet. Manga can be written online and sent to the producer via email and the person works on the characters and within a short time it is broadcasted. Better still for a manga fan would scan the pages into a computer i.e. from the original manuscript. Having in mind he or she is not the writer or the original story teller. The fan then sends the manga to a translator via email. The translator will then translate it into English, Chinese or French. Then it will proceed to a proof reader who will go through and check that every word is used in its context. The final stage which involves a ‘cleaner’ would remove the Japanese and insert the translated words into the speech bubbles and finally release it to websites for fans to have easy access to it. They will be able to watch it from the site or download it for free. In some websites, the “net allows publishing, archiving, copying and distribution on unprecedented scale” (Macias, 2006). The website www.manganews.net lists more than 500 translators groups, from one person operation to multination cooperatives. Sometimes within hours of airing an anime series in Japan, fans from china can download an amateur subbed version from the internet (Chen ET lat 2006) Once translated into French, cartoon creations gain a stamp of authorization that furthers their reception in Europe and North Africa Bossiou (2006:149) refers to France as not anything less than,” the most developed export market for manga” , pointing out that in December 2005 alone 16 publishers put out 91 new volumes during 2001-2005, offering France increased five-fold. Therefore so long as an anime has been translated into French one is assured that it will reach a wide range of viewers and readers too. CONCLUSION. Animation has really experienced rapid and sudden changes over the years. Moving from comic book to a televised programme on television, DVDs, internet, gaming and so on. The art of animation has been a cut to the obvious movies; it has given viewers another choice to choose in the wide range of film production. Aided by technology animation has broken out the traditional domain of cinemas and has become a familiar and unnoticed component of the visual landscape. For the animator there are both gains and losses. It’s never been easier to create a show digital animator. Though those created have been well embraced and have got a market that is well established. Animation has also helped in sharing of culture. Mangakis (comic writers) do write within in the locality of Japanese, meaning they follow their traditions and cultures to come up with the mangas. Chinese people, overseas people have not discriminated the production on basis of race or nationality instead they all enjoy it. China and Japan have a long history of misunderstanding. So it’s only logical they continue fighting until today. But it’s ironical that the large market base for Japanese animated films is china for over 30 years. Therefore the animation has created good diplomatic relations with their long time foe. There has also been promotion in writing talents in many people. The comic writers are promoting their talents and learning new skills when they write. Job creation too is another advantage to graphic designers. Animation industry has encountered challenges too. For instance when the animate film death note was prohibited from airing in national television there has been a lot of piracy on the television shows to create DVDs. Meaning the producer encountered loses and public image damaged too. Animation has also been blamed for increased violence among young kids e.g. Pokémon which is a scientific fiction action animated series. Young children as young as six years have been reported to have engaged themselves into fighting. This is simply what they read and watch on television. The use of abusive words has also led to question on the morality teachings these animated films have on its viewers. Most of the viewers are youngsters; they form anime clubs in schools. Most of these clubs end up being more harmful than the initial intention of being useful to them. It’s in these clubs that they try to imitate their best characters moves in fighting and also the dressing. The gaming animation has been proved by research to have negative impact on the players too. The viewers and creators are mostly young people therefore it’s branded as’ kids stuff”. People who read mangas have talked of addi ction to the magazine. A day doesn’t pass before they grab their copies. These comic books are short and so much captivating such that one is always looking forward to the next issue anxiously. At times the readers forget to to do important stuff such as their home works, eat food, study and even affects ones social behavior to some extent. It’s also eliminating job opportunities for actors actresses and creating job opportunities for people doing the voice over’s. Therefore it’s a necessary evil too. To the clothe designers its another opportunity to make money because if one designs a t-shirt with a character from the animated film or even a shoe, wrist band many young people go for such brands so as to be identified with the rest. Finally it’s good to note that animation has both negative and positive effects. Parents should monitor their children, what they watch. They should not assume that because its cartoon it’s safe for their children how about the content? Is it safe? The people in charge I mean authorities should make sure that the films are rated and are safe for public viewing having passed the accepted code of conduct. If the movie is not safe then it should be prohibited and the best measures should be taken to ensure that they don’t reach the public eyes. As we promote foreign Japanese animated movies it’s also good to remember to promote our own local animated films Animation creators should also consider the adult population who see the animated films as childish and come up with what the adults can watch. This is not say that there are those adults who don’t watch animated films , there are there but the majority don watch them terming them as too childish. BIBLOGRAPHY. Ada. P. 2006. Japans Manga Contributors to Weird Horror short stories. Bouissou, J. 2006 “Japans growing cultural power: Manga in France”. Elesmar. M. 2003. the impact of international television paradigm shift Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hofsted, G. 2001. Culture Consequences Thousand Oaks. CA sage Joon, YANG’ K. 2013. Wochi Kochi Magazine, Animation Researcher. Kawakatsu M. 2006. “A manga ambassador “Japanese book news 50:14. Ono .K .1996. Manga publishing; “trends in the united states” Japanese book news 16:6-7. Straubhaar .J. 2007. 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