LMST 265F : Manga and Anime

Akimi Yoshida is known for her working and expanding the border of romance manga. Her work Bananafish is considered one of the best manga in 20th century Japan. The first impression I read this manga is that her drawing style is really influenced by Katsumi Otomo, the original artist of AKIRA. Shojo manga is one of the famous manga genres in Korea where I lived and I love shojo manga so Bananafish was easy to start reading. Ash is perfect when we just see him. He is smart, handsome and he got hard training from Mafia so that he is able to shoot a gun, even perfectly. Such an ideal boy. However, actually, his mother left him alone and the mafia boss with a sexual obsession with young boys abused him. I think he symbolizes people who do not know love or how to love. He is grown up in bad circumstance and cannot feel normal emotions. He should have hidden his emotions and feelings to live in the world. However, he met a boy named Eiji. He is the first and only person who comes to As...

Manga has the power to send the message with drawings and story. Most of the Japanese manga I read had a long storyline, but with the chance of reading "alternative manga", I got more interest in short mangas and the characteristics of short mangas. I want to keep more focus on the manga we had in class "I saw it" which is a short manga by Keiji Nakazawa. The basic plot is an autological story that the story of himself about suffering atomic bomb in Japan. I am from South Korea which went through Japanese colonial occupation in WW2. I learned the history of WW2 from the perspective of Korea which was a colony of Japan. This comic book was my first step to see the history with the perspective of Japan, especially the 20th century. I was shocked by the realistic description of the actual situation and harm of the atomic bomb. I first thought just that this is horrible but now I realize that is the power of documentary manga. Showing the reality to the audience ...

Gibhli is one of my favorite Japanese animation company. I love the world and message that Hayao gives to the audience. Nausicca was one of the favorite anime films from Miyazaki. Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind is originally from a comic book by Miyazaki Hayao. The work contains the message of saving nature and the horrible result of human's greed. The polluted world is depicted very realistically even the genre is a fantasy. The main story is about the process of a girl who tries to save the world and nature. That the main character is a girl is an interesting thing for me since most of Japanese anime girl characters are depicted in sexualized or they exist for the assistance of the male characters. Japan suffered the atomic bomb problem resulted from a war in the 20th century and I think that affects the perspective of Japanese people. Miyazaki shows his negative perspective of war and polluted nature. They all know that the change of the world always affect...

This week, we got a chance to watch feature Japanese animation film named The garden of words and talk with Dr. Shige Suzuki. The movie is directed by Makoto Shinkai who also directed the movie "Your name". I thought that Makoto Shinkai has different taste from me since "Your name" was not that impressive to me. However, the garden of words came to me in a different way. Every background drawing was stunning like any other movie directed by him. The whole drawing style and color were amazing. Gihlbli has more desaturated color compared to Makoto's work. He has a talent for mixing color with saturated and natural colors. This film has a "boy meets girl" story but the story does not unfold in a cliche way. I think he tried to show the subtle change of emotion of the relationship of two different people and how they affect each other. This is pretty similar to his latest movie "your name", but this film has a slower tempo and it is more aimed...