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February 2009
Ah . . . the Elements of Manga. A new year will bring a new cycle of creativity, expression, and books to the stores. Yet in figuring out what Elements of Manga to explore I had little materialize for consideration. Then a package arrived on Monday (with much fanfare over how it arrived, where, and how it was retrieved but I won't bore you with that) and I ended up opening not just a box with goodies, but a treasure chest of ideas to explore about the Elements of Manga that bring us a little closer to the superhero realm we all tend to indulge in so much.
The Elements of Manga, uniquely Japanese and quite foreign to most English readers, do not become any less foreign when the subjects are familiar to us . . . quite the contrary they seem . . . weirder. Take for example the lovely book that now graces my bookshelf: Bat-Manga drawn and written Jiro Kuwata, designed by Chip Kidd (and yes I wrote it that way on purpose ... for those who aren't aware of the controversy). It is a beautiful book collecting chapters from the manga serial done in the 1960's during the The Batman television craze. Fun stuff, but for a traditional comic fan who knows his Batman stuff, and for fans of the Adam West show . . . not quite the same. This Batman and Robin duo is, as Jiro Kuwata himself states, designed for a Japanese reading audience and thus . . . is just kooky.
Now this is not the only example of a manga-ka doing American superheroes in a manga format, though it is one of the earliest, but the trend isn't that overwhelming. There have been many attempts to bring American superheroes to the Japanese market, done by Japanese artists (so those who scoff at Devils Due's attempts to do a Vampire Hunter D comic should realize there is precedence in Japan) and none of them have gone on for that long. The longest track records are several years, and then they end, fade away, and are ignored by the next attempt to bring the character to Japanese audiences.
The two best examples are not surprising: Batman and Spider-Man. These two characters have each received several attempts to be made into manga stars and both have . . . well never fully caught on. Marvel and DC's premier superhero stars, the golden children these two are, belong uniquely to America and the attempts to make them Japanese have not become publishing phenomena, even though both characters are fairly well known in Japan. Both Spider-Man and Batman have had series broadcast in Japan, though Spidey's was actually created there in a weird live action, Power Rangers looking creature, and had manga published accordingly. However, with Spider-Man there are always elements changed. He's either made a young kid, a brooding Japanese adolescent, someone who controls his own fleet of Spider-Mecha (seriously look it up!), he is never Peter Parker for these series. Batman however is always Bruce Wayne, in all attempts I know of, but most of the stories are short burst attempts, such a Kia Asayamia's or the recent Death Mask manga, pieces that would fit just as well in the old Legends of The Dark Knight series. Batman is open to interpretation, but certain essentials remain and aren't changed, and these interpretations are short lived.
Why though? Why do manga versions of the American superheroes never really last long. Well, there are several reasons and potential reasons. First, the recent Witchblade manga was not designed to be continually ongoing, just while the show was on. This is a common occurrence that also was done with the original Batman manga covered in Bat-Manga. Next, creators do usually reach limits in Japan in terms of how long they want to toil on properties other people own. It is the truth that most manga-ka own their characters and therefore get a lot of the money made of them, so why make less working on someone else's character? However, there is another possibility that should be addressed.
Japan is not ignorant of American superheroes and their complex universes, far from it. Many Japanese fans can debate and nit pick X-Men continuity with the same fervor that many American fans do. But how you may ask? Well you may not ask because it is quite obvious how, the same way we read manga (well most of you read manga. . . ): translations. The X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, and all the other fun ones are translated into Japanese and sold in thick books, colored often with nice glossy paper, for Japanese fans. However, much like the British fans the complaint many Japanese fans have is that there are rarely continued collections, and stories can be piecemeal, and several companies have started the translations and not kept them going. Ouch. However, to make up for this data books are released that explain, with tons of pictures, everything you need or want to know about the characters you love from America.
What this leads me to wonder is if most manga takes on American superheroes don't fall flat then because . . . well they aren't the originals, and the fans know they aren't. Spider-Man and Friends is a cute kiddy version of the Marvel characters, but we all know that isn't the real Spidey. The real Spidey does not have a cousin May who becomes Spider-Girl, pretty sure on that one, (though if Marvel wants to try that reveal it will make OMD look like a mild irritant in terms of fan reaction!) but it is a fun little series of figures and stories and cute to introduce kids to. However, no fan expects kids to stop there and never proceed on. Spider-Man and Friends is a "gateway" leading toward the bigger (and IMHO way better) normal comics. So for Japan these manga attempts are similar, gateways that make fans hungry for the "real" thing, or at least they seem to. Again, other factors such as the more "temporary" phase of manga seem to be large factor. Manga unlike American superheroes have only a handful of examples of series that have been going on and on forever. Most manga only have a five to seven year life span for the really popular series, unlike our superhero staples that just keep going and going. Perhaps one of the most enduring Elements of Manga is that they change with the times, either way sampling of them during their fun phases, superhero or not, is something I suggest you do frequently.
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