Week #10

Buddha and Ranma Vol#1


     This week, I read Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha (Vol.1) and Ranma (Vol.1) by Rumiko Takahashi. To be honest, I have never read the work of Osamu Tezuka (especially as a Japanese, I really should’ve, but the manga I read in my childhood were mostly Doraemon by Fujiko Fujio, Mitsuru Adachi’s works, and other recent ones such as One Piece). I’m glad that I got a chance to read them this week as he gave a huge influence to a lot of Japanese artists (and even worldwide). Moreover, I found some interesting differences between American comic books and Japanese manga; and thus I felt that I was able to know a little bit more about my own culture from reading manga.

     The difference I felt the most between American comics and manga was their character archetypes. When I was reading American comics in the previous weeks, I feel that many comics/comic strips often have the characters based on archetypes: hero, villain, heroin, clown, ordinary one, etc, and they basically follow their roles throughout the stories (e.g. the clown is basically always silly, the hero doesn’t get too silly. *But these are just my personal opinion based on my limited knowledge on comic books!!). On the other hand, for example in Buddha, there are many sides to some characters although they have their basic archetypes. I personally see that Tatta is an anti-hero, and Chapra is a tragic hero. However, they don’t always fit those templates. There are serious, comical, charming, and many more personalities combined within each character. For example, the pictures below show the significant range of Chapra’s expressions; when he has a crash on a daughter of the king, his face is totally changed and comical. I feel that these depictions make each character lovable and also create comic reliefs in the story. 




     Regarding Ranma, it made me think of the depiction of heroins in Japanese manga/anime. The heroin, Akane is depicted as a kind of manly, rough and strong character despite of her pretty character design; at the same time, she is actually kind and she just cannot be honest especially to Ranma. This type of heroin, I would say, is REALLY popular in Japanese culture including manga, anime, movie, and TV drama. I found this interesting because those Japanese heroins are almost opposite of those traditional American heroins such as Disney princesses. Disney princesses are usually gentle, honest, and kind of an “ideal” figure of female (Funny thing is that those “perfect” female characters are often secondary roles in manga/anime, and especially in romance stories, they are turned down by the main character…) 


     It was an interesting experience to see the difference between American comics/animation and Japanese manga/anime. If I have a chance to learn further, I want to know why this difference occurred. Is it because of cultural difference? The difference of the pioneers? It will be interesting to learn.

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