I was thinking some more on Saito Tamaki’s identification of the prevalence of beautiful fighting girls in manga and anime. To be fair, Tamaki doesn’t really look at it as an issue of what gets represented outside of Japan. And I’m not saying such representations aren’t popular in Japan, as they clearly are. I think I see it more like this: outside of the U.S., many people probably think of American comics as being about superheroes vis-a-vis the Marvel cinematic dominance (and the D.C. desire to become cinematically dominant). While this is mostly true in the sense of what’s broadly popular in the U.S., Americans also have direct marketplace access to other types of comics, which are non-superhero oriented and offer something different in their storytelling. The works of Robert Crumb and Chris Ware come to mind. Japanese artists of analogous import are likewise worth knowing, but maybe we may have to be willing to step outside of what’s popular to get to know them.
For example, continuing in the vein of my last blog post, how many outside of Japan are familiar with Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms? Kouno’s manga is an astounding work that offers a multi-generational tale of atomic bomb survivors and their experiences with shame, guilt, love, gender, and sexuality. I’ll write more on it later, but if you don’t know it you should try to find a copy and sit down with it sometime. It’s has no beautiful fighting girls, but it is a thing of beauty.
Unnatural Sight 