A Brief History of Japanese Comics Part 5: 1950's: Gekiga and Children Comics

Welcome to another addition of... A Scroll in Time!

This week...

So, I know I promised to talk about Osamu Tezuka this time but first, I thought it best to explore the comics that developed around Tezuka. After World War II, Japanese comics developed a split between comics aimed at children and more "mature" comics. Here we will look at the division between them and the part that Tezuka played in it all.

Gekiga comics
After Japan’s surrender in 1945, comics took a dramatic upturn. Although comic and magazine circulations had bottomed, comics survived into the 50’s and 60’s through rental shops. 30,000 rental shops, often filled of comics by young, amateur artists, helped fill this market to approximately 160,000 patrons each month by the mid 1950’s [4].

As the comic world developed in an amateur market, the drawing styles also changed from the earlier industry-driven years. With the political limitations eased since the end of the war, artists practiced a more realistic, political form of comic stories. In 1957, teenaged artist Tatsumi Yoshihiro created the term gekiga, or ‘dramatic pictures’, for this style/genre. Opposed to earlier political cartoons and comics directed at children, gekiga is described as a “serious adult manga dramas” and include topics like action, horror, and erotica [4].

Example of gekiga style comic art

According to Kisella, “Early gekiga was characterized by a new degree of graphic realism and themes related to society and politics. It captured a youthful passion which contributed, in the view of some critics, to its striking ‘authenticity’ as a cultural form”.

A generation of artists and soldiers arose out of the last war, and new stories came with them. A new artists group, Gekiga Factory, created an eight-volume manga, Ninja Bungeicho (Secret Martial Arts of the Ninja), which became a very popular rental title during its serialization 1959-1962. Ninja included an anonymous group which fights alongside peasants and beggars against oppressive fief lords. Other stories, spanning into the 1970’s, echoed this same feeling with Kamuiden’s peasant uprisings [4]. Although historical in nature, these synopses seemed to mirror the last few decades well and readers doubtless felt it resembled their own lives.

cover of Manga Boy

Post-war Children’s magazines
Where serialized comics dropped off during the end of the war, red books picked up. New artists attempted to thrive in the red book industry, whether with original content or duplicated. The magazine Manga Boy was one of the first post-war successes. While using the graphic style developed within the red books, Manga Boy became popular almost instantaneously after release [4].

Storylines for any comic at this time changed direction from the wartime loyalty and bravery to an overhaul of science fiction. Fukujiro Fukui and Ichio Matsushita are two artists remembered during this time period which relayed “reflecting a desire to forget the past”. Drawing styles from before the war were picked back up as if, and in many ways literally, beginning where they left off [3].

Osamu Tezuka, an uprising artist, struck fame in 1947. His art style became well known in his red book title, New Treasure Island, and his comic, Jungle Emperor, was featured in Manga Boy. Records estimate that New Treasure Island alone sold between 400,000 and 800,000 copies [3]. His works were immediately copied by other red book artists, and this imitation changed the look of Japanese comics as we know it [4].

Opening sequence to New Treasure Island [updated version];
read right to left, top to bottom

Tezuka’s influence on comics would ultimately help children comics separate from gekiga. It was his opinion that comics should remain childlike and be suitable for children, and thus his stories often reflected this. While many adapted his stylistic influence, many also incorporated storylines, plots, and themes that he introduced. While gekiga continued its mature, darker nature, Tezuka and his followers expanded the scope of children comics, making the two styles near-rivals. Regardless of the opposed storylines, Tezuka’s influence can be seen (literally) in some gekiga artist’s drawing styles [4].

Tezuka’s influences in his stories and art style ranged from a female-only Japanese theatre, his father’s shared love of film, and the American-made Disney comics. Each of Tezuka’s parents had significant effect on his decision of drawing comics and his upbringing brought about plenty of inspiration to write about and on which to base his works. Tezuka’s mother introduced him to the world of Takarazuka theatre, which included an all-female cast in his childhood town of Takarazuka, Japan [6], and his father’s interest of all things modern introduced the family to many new contraptions and movies, which could be played at home on the family’s 9.5mm projector. With this projector, Tezuka would be introduced to many American shorts, films, and animations, including Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters [4]. 

Princess Sapphire of Princess Knight; note
similarities to Disney animations of the time.

Takarazuka Theater inspired works like Princess Knight, a shoujo comic, which makes references to live theatre. Tezuka has historically noted how the Takarazuka theatre’s plays had inspired his works such as Princess Knight. Like the stage plays, Princess Knight is centered upon a charismatic character, a strong premise, and reference to cinematic movement. Characters wear ornate costumes and strike poses often, as a dramatic show of the show’s story. Music is also provided throughout both of these. In a seemingly diversion from his earlier works, where he displays more cinematic elements, Tezuka is even found copying the Takarazuka theatre’s sets, costumes, and music within his Princess Knight series [6]. Power states that this diversion proved the ability of live theatre and cinema to exist in a single work.

Knowing Tezuka’s affinity for Takarazuka theater, it is perhaps unsurprising that he and his Princess Knight series would later become famous for pushing shoujo comics further into public light and helping them gain momentum. Becoming intimately engaged with the theater and its actresses no doubt allotted to his interest in live theater, including in student theater, and enlarging his repertoire for more engaging storylines and scenery. It further allowed him immersion into “woman’s culture”, which provided first hand understanding for his character’s actions and development [6].

Osamu Tezuka is most notably recognizable for his drawing style, as has been stated several times, including his use of larger eyes. What has occasionally been lost to time is the inspiration, however, that this drawing style derived from the drawings of Disney and Max Fleisher [3]. As previously mentioned, Disney films were available in Japan during Tezuka’s youth and his father’s film projector allowed him access to animations that others may not have had. This exposition had an obvious effect on Tezuka’s drawings, who kept certain attributes also seen in early renditions of Mickey Mouse and other character, such as a similarly large eye structure and abnormal physical features [4].

Tezuka wasn’t the only illustrator to use Disney-like drawings and in fact several artists utilized this popular drawing style as a way to get themselves noticed or as a way of following the industry. Not all illustrators kept this style, either. In fact, in the rise of gekiga, notably Takao Saito, Masaaki Sato, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi were among those who replaced their Disney-like style with the more graphic, gritty forms of gekiga drawings. Among the arrival of television, many other artists followed suit and made their way towards gekiga [3].

Tezuka continues to inspire numerous artists, Schodt even claiming “none of the major artists today has escaped his influence”. From his expressive stories and characters, depictive drawing style, to his own rise to fame, a red book author in a time of an amateur-driven industry, provides inspiration to many in hopes of their own recognition. Although unsurprising, the post-Tezuka wave of new comic artists [3] is still awe-striking and effected every generation that followed.

In the next issue...
Actually, I’m not exactly sure. I would love to hear from readers about whether I should continue this timeline of history of Japanese comics past Tezuka or should I begin with my next counter-series and explore the history of American comics? I plan to divulge this anyway but seeing as there is still a bit more to follow in the Japanese history of things, I would like whatever input I can get on which way you would like me to go. Want more of this? Please let me know! Comment on this post, or tell me via Facebook or Twitter! 

  Can’t wait to hear from you and hope you are looking forward to the next continuation of the A Scroll in Time blog!

References/Sources:

[1]Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New York, NY: Collins Design, 2003. Print.
[2]Koyama-Richard, Brigitte. One Thousand Years of Manga. Paris: Flammarion, 2007. Print.
[3]Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. Print.
[4]Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000. Print
[5]Isao, Shimizu. “Red Comic Books: The Origins of Modern Japanese Manga”. Illustrating Asia, John A. Lent. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001. Page 137-149. Print.
[6]Power, Natsu Onada. God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. Print.