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June 2008
In the past I have looked at the origins of manga and defining more clearly what it is and can be, in comparison to anime. However, in establishing what manga is and can be one of the main elements that can't be ignored is audience. Who is the audience of manga? What about this audience makes it so different and unique in comparison to the audience that consume American comic books? Well, despite just the cultural differences there is a huge difference between manga's core audience, the Japanese, and American comic's core audience. The main difference is that almost all of the Japanese people consume manga in some way. Whereas the American comic book audience is primarily dominated by super-hero comics, because that is what most of the American fan base reads, Japan is not limited by a fan base, by a core audience, because manga has a countrywide appeal because it does not limit itself to one genre or one age range.
Now we can debate that American comics have a "wide audience" and that they have "multiple genres". Actually we can't debate it . . . because American comics do have those things. There are people who are young and old who read American comics, men and women, and there are stories from all genres that are published. Fantastic wonderful mysteries, westerns, romances, humorous, slice of life stories that are published every month in American comic books. However, those stories . . . are outnumbered by super-hero stories on a probably 10 to 1 basis. This also cannot be debated. While American comics do have variety and depth that isn't just super-heroes, that variety is not a large percent of the actual volume of material published.
One of the main elements of manga though is the fact that variety is the staple of manga. There are manga for the very young, the very old, and everyone in between. You would be hard pressed to find a comic book whose core audience is senior citizens, but you could find a manga that is. You can find a tokuban or manga magazine that would fit what any person likes to read. You can find a manga story or series that appeals to a mystery fan, or a fan of romance (those are real easy to find!), but the main idea here is that in having such variety and no "set core audience" manga is a standard in Japan. manga is accepted and people in Japan do not ascribe to manga the stereotype, that it is "kid's stuff" because of course it is! And it is also "adult stuff", "teenage stuff", "senior citizen stuff", because the entire demographic in Japan read and enjoys manga. It is everywhere! You can pick up a manga magazine at a kiosk before you ride the train home, right next to the gum, candy, and newspapers that they normally offer in all other parts of the world.
Now this is not to say that there isn't a main demographic that buys manga. Indeed much like comics that main demographic is teenagers and young to middle aged adults. While the older population has manga that are written and aimed at them, that doesn't mean they sell as much as the magazine with the new installment of Bleach in it! This demographic though is also very interesting and different though and has led to the one element of manga that American retailers, mainly bookstores and comic book stores, find most interesting and shocking about manga . . . women like it. A lot.
manga may have some skewing when it comes to the demographic of age in what most magazines aim for since a shockingly small percentage are aimed at senior citizens. However, manga does not have a gender bias. Whereas stereotypically, and factually as well, most American comics are aimed at males (not that women don't read them!). manga though has readers of both genders in almost equal numbers for several interesting reasons. Many, perhaps more then 50%, of the most popular manga in Japan, and even here, are created by women themselves. Let's take some easy examples:
Rumiko Takahashi is a well known manga-ka, or creator of manga. Her main claims to fame are her off the wall romantic/comedy/adventure series. Her first main hit was Urusei Yatsura, a off the wall comedy about the most lecherous teenager on Earth who becomes engaged to an alien princess, dressed in nothing but a tiger striped bikini, after a game of tag. Because of this, and despite his lecherous nature, the boy wants nothing to do with the alien, when all she wants in the world is him. Conflict and plot easily established once we throw in several suitors who want either one member of the couple to be with, and the other dead. Takahashi followed this series up with several different, but similar comedic efforts: One Pound Gospel, Mermaid Forest, Maison Ikkoku (English titles provided for ease) and her two most popular series in America: Ranma ½ and Inu-Yasha. Rumiko Takahashi's body of work is immense; she's been a popular manga-ka since the late '70's, whose main audience has been teenagers, with her books selling in the millions easily and steadily since Urusei Yatsura became popular. To that end that is why in many years, over the past 3 decades, this woman has had to pay the highest amount of taxes in Japan! She makes that much money that she pays the Japanese government more in taxes then any other person alive! (Now she doesn't do this every year, but there have been at least two or more where she has been either #1 or in the top ten.) Quite a feat for what we would simply say is a "comic book artist".
There are other numerous female Japanese manga-ka, who have created immensely popular series. CLAMP, is one of the next ones in terms of popularity, being a group of female manga-ka who work together to produce new series. Like with Takahashi their books sell in the millions every time. Another one would be Yu Watase, the creator of Fushigi Yugi, Absolute Boyfriend, and Ceres, whose series focus often on normal Japanese high school girls confronting abnormal circumstances and challenges that test their strength of will, but leave them as powerful, strong main characters. One of the most interesting facts on the amount of female manga-ka is that they often create series that are most popular amongst teenage boys. The creator of the mega popular, in the U.S. and Japan, series Fullmetal Alchemist? A woman. Rumiko Takahashi's main audience tends to be teenage boys. The gender line and who reads and creates manga is so blurred in Japan that the idea of a gender bias in manga is . . . almost laughable. Where American comic books are mostly aimed at men, also statistically one can find that most of their creators are also men. Not all just most. This demographic could go a long way to explaining the startling popularity in America of manga with women. Or it could all be a fluke . . . but I doubt it.
This variety of demographics and gender in manga is a large part of its appeal and acceptance in Japan. manga, to the Japanese, is universal, and an accepted daily part of their culture. To not find manga available to buy would be like an American not being able to find a John Grisham novel for sale at an airport; it would be shocking! However, one element of manga that cannot be overlooked in all of this is its origins and perhaps the core reason it is so universally accepted in Japan, because it is uniquely and completely Japanese.
Now us foreign devils can look at the drawings in manga and say: "Well, all the characters look like Americans!" or "Westerns and jazz aren't from Japan!" but to the Japanese these cultural elements are taken, absorbed, and then spit back out with their own unique and different flavor. Anything not born in Japan that is brought to Japan becomes Japanese through osmosis. So the long ago absorption of characters having a sort of Walt Disney exaggeration and large eyes in drawings was absorbed and now, over the many years, has become so Japanese that seeing manga with characters that don't have big eyes and don't look more Caucasian then Asian would stand out far more and not seem . . . well Japanese. The unique stance and viewpoint that Japanese culture has, to itself and relating to the world at large is the subject for books, but this "cultural identity" is a large part of manga and why it is has its own very unique identity and voice, that is accepted, created by, and for everyone in Japan. Despite its popularity in America, manga-ka in interviews when asked about this increase in popularity internationally if they consider their "foreign audience" when creating, the answer almost always is "no". They create for the Japanese audience, first and foremost, and they are creating for a homogenous society. Foreign audiences aren't their concern and because it is uniquely a Japanese creation it has perhaps found an acceptance and universal aim that American comic books may never achieve. Nevertheless, just because it is "uniquely" Japanese doesn't mean foreign markets are wanting it any less, quite the contrary. Remember, the Elements of Manga are vast and enjoyable, and I hope that you sample richly of them.
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