Manga 47
Kazuo Koike (1936-2019)
Kazuo Koike, who died on 17th April, was a man of many names. Born Yuzuru Tawaraya in what is now Daisen, Akita Prefecture, he died as Seishu Tawaraya, a Buddhist name, and wrote song lyrics as Fumihiko Azuma. But as a writer, it is the Koike pen-name that found him the greatest fame, in a […]
Monkey Punch (1937-2019)
Kazuhiko Kato, who died on 11th April, always had the air about him of a man who had won the lottery. Born in Hokkaido in 1937, his knack for cartooning soon caused him to drop out of electrical engineering college and move to Tokyo, where he moonlighted as an artist, at first in the below-the-line […]
Books: Shojo Across Media
By Jonathan Clements. Jaqueline Berndt, Kazumi Nagaike and Fusami Ogi’s new edited collection, Shojo Across Media: Exploring ‘Girl’ Practices in Contemporary Japan is another welcome addition to the expanding shelf of books specifically about Japanese popular culture aimed at female consumers. Among the high points, Akiko Sugawa-Shimada looks at girls in anime, specifically magical girls, […]
Books: Passionate Friendship
By Jonathan Clements. Deborah Shamoon’s Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan traces the development of a niche in entertainment that is barely a century old, and yet forms a crucial sector within modern media. She investigates a whole series of tropes and traditions, that themselves form the bedrock of today’s Japanese comics […]
Pumpkin & Mayonnaise
By Andrew Osmond. Some live-action manga adaptations proclaim they are manga adaptations in each and every frame, with lurid colours and effects, absurd costumes and acting that would look broad in a panto. Pumpkin and Mayonnaise, which is screening around the UK and Ireland as part of the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme for 2019, […]