Source: @Tencent Animation World Style Feature

Introduction

Recently, DiscoveryJapan Japan did a special issue in the June 2014 issue with the theme of "The Power of Manga". The format of the feature is mainly to interview well-known and non-famous people from all walks of life, and ask them to list Japanese manga that have had a great impact on their lives, and make a brief comment. Coincidentally, the American io9 website also selected "10 Japanese animations that will affect your life (original title: 10AnimeThatWillChangeYourLife)" in early August. For a while, the "aspiration theory" of anime affecting life seems to have returned to the public eye. So, let me take this opportunity to sort out Japanese manga based on the chronological axis, and see how these two-dimensional images that leap on the paper have left a deep imprint on the spiritual world of generations of readers. Due to space limitations, please note that the scope of this article is limited to comics.

The relationship between comics, society, and individuals

As a kind of cultural product, comics, like novels, films, and other literary and artistic works, do not exist independently of society. It is generally believed that comics carry the author's thoughts and are a platform for "divine communication" between the author and the reader. However, this kind of thinking itself is actually a projection of many factors such as social ideology, the background of the times, and the cultural atmosphere, and it is precisely because the author has been influenced by all aspects of the outside world that he will pour this element of other worlds into his works between the natural and the unnatural, and then radiate into the readership through the works. The individual constitutes the characteristics of the zeitgeist, which in turn influences the work, which in turn impacts and suggests to the reader's mind......

In the final analysis, the influence of comics on readers, in other words, the "aspiration theory of comics", is essentially a subtle infection of the background and trend of thought on readers after it is transformed into a combination of lines and patterns. Therefore, when we discuss the relationship between manga and readers, we may wish to bring it into the specific era to which it belongs, so that we can see the essence of the "influence" more clearly.

About the origin and stereotypes of Japanese manga

There is a perception in the Japanese industry that modern manga in Japan can be traced back to its origins, with the earliest prototypes starting from the late Heian period to the early Kamakura period (12th to 13th centuries AD) "Birds and Beasts", and the stereotyped person was the famous painter Katsushika Hokusai of the Edo period (interested readers can go to the "Hokusai Manga" published by the Japan Blue Fantasy Society, a total of three volumes), but it is like Kemari originated in China, but the birthplace of modern football is still Great Britain after all, The one who really established the cornerstone and development direction of modern and contemporary Japanese comics was the "father of Japanese comics" Master Osamu Tezuka. Therefore, our review will start from the fifty years of the last century, when Mr. Tezuka began to be active. After all, the popularity and appearance of the Japanese manga industry today can more or less find some early traces from this not so distant era.

In the fifties and sixties, the revival and reflection of Showa romance

The reason why we should compare the 50s and 60s is partly because the number of representative works in this period is still small, and on the other hand, it is also because the two periods have strong similarities. The fifties and sixties are a romantic memory for Japan. At that time, Japan had just emerged from the wounds and gloom of the war, and the whole country was in a state of great vitality and vigor. After the catastrophe, there will be a great construction, and at the same time, it will lead to the emergence of all kinds of new trends of thought, just like the explosion of ideas experienced in China in the 80s, Japan, which has been oppressed by the specter of militarism for a long time, has finally been able to loosen some of the shackles around its neck in this era, and all kinds of literary and artistic works have also ushered in a relatively relaxed creative environment.

Perhaps another point that must be mentioned is that in this era, Japan also ushered in the golden age of the creation of the father of manga, Osamu Tezuka.

In the 50s, Osamu Tezuka's most representative and most bearful of the imprint of the times is undoubtedly the classic "Firebird" (Dawn). This work, which focuses on the "Firebird" of immortality and a hundred years of reincarnation to nirvana, should be said to have two important meanings at the time:

For one, it reflects the kind of ideological shock that Japanese society experienced as it rebuilt from the rubble after the devastation and suffering of war. The reincarnation of the firebird for a hundred years is the psychological reflection of the people's historical flow as if they were separated from each other, and the blood of the firebird with the miraculous effect of the elixir of immortality is a kind of hope that the people can subconsciously rebuild their own race. The ultimate philosophical concern is always the human being, which is the most basic element of society. In that unique time period, he constructed an image with the ability to be reborn through hardships, and derived a magnificent story through time and space, in today's words, the inspirational effect is self-evident.

Second, the story pattern of "Firebird" transcends time and space, expands the worldview of Japanese manga and even the entire literary and artistic world, and lays the cornerstone for the romantic feelings of future works that transcend national borders. Although Japan began to emerge from the shadow of isolation from the rest of the world on a certain scale since the Meiji Restoration, it was probably only after the war that Japan was able to truly open its eyes to the world from the perspective of society as a whole. Osamu Tezuka is undoubtedly a leader in this area, and it is not an exaggeration to call him the "first person". The spirit of the times, which later generations called "Showa Romance", can be said to have played a great role in Tezuka's works, and at the same time, it has had an indescribably strong influence on other creators of the same era.

Compared to too many heavy reflections on the nature of life, human sin, and even generational reincarnation in "Firebird", Tezuka's other two heavyweight works in the fifties and sixties, "Astro Boy" and "The Sapphire Prince," seem much more relaxed. The seemingly relatively young age and simple plot setting seems to make the work itself simple, but is this really the case?

Let's review the plot of "Astro Boy": Astro Boy was originally a young soldier made by Dr. Tenma according to the "military style", and after being abandoned, he was adopted by Dr. Chashui. After experiencing the joint education of Dr. Chashui and Bearded Daddy, he gradually grew into a mature "citizen of the earth". To paraphrase the thinker Uchida, Dr. Tenma's idea of machine manufacturing represents Japan's notorious state militarism, while Dr. Chamizu and Bearded Daddy represent the emerging postwar scientism and school democracy, respectively.

Comparing with Tezuka's personal experience, which experienced the tragedy of the Great Osaka Air Raid and experienced the heaviness of Japan's defeat at the age of 16, it is not difficult to see that Astro Boy's work expresses his rejection of war and his praise of scientism and democracy from the very beginning of his creation. In this regard, "Astro Boy" can be said to have set the tone for many later Japanese works with the theme of "war": no matter how sophisticated the weapon is, it should also serve peace, that is, the fact that it is in the form of fighting and acting against war. In that particular era, this positive tone undoubtedly had a fairly positive impact on the slightly chaotic post-war ideology.

In contrast to the slightly heavy anti-war theme, the formation of shoujo comics was also a major event in the comic world of the fifties and sixties. As the originator of all kinds of shoujo comics in later generations, the advent of "Sapphire Prince" not only broadened the creative field of comics, but also introduced more female readers to the palace of comics.

Interestingly, unlike the later situation, most of the early shoujo manga creators were men, and in addition to Osamu Tezuka, there were also Chiba Tetsuya and Matsumoto Ryotto who were engaged in the creation of this field. They fused Takahashi Makoto's girl's paintings and the gorgeous style of Takarazuka's opera into the brushstrokes of the manga lines, creating a gorgeous style that was different from the past. This popularity also reflected another aspect of the social change at that time, that is, with the economic recovery, people's demand for refined aesthetics also increased, and at the same time, women's social status and education process improved, so that cultural products that were more in line with their aesthetic interests also came into being. This is also an inevitable manifestation of the complementarity of cultural output and demand.

Another characteristic of the comic world in the fifties and sixties was the emergence of the rudiments of individual heroism. As mentioned above, the reconstruction of social thought in the post-war period has led people to reflect on traditional national collectivism, coupled with the absorption of foreign ways of thinking, such as the more popular humanism in Europe and the United States, similar to the heroic images with strong individualistic colors in American comics (such as Marvel and DC), which began to take root in Japanese comics. The biggest difference between this kind of hero and the traditional perfect hero who occupies the moral high ground is that the purpose of his battle and the goal of struggle have begun to change from high reasons such as saving the world to becoming more practical, simple, and even a little small - for example, the protagonist often shouts "I'm not fighting for anyone, just for myself" in later anime works.

In fact, the sixties were the time when Japan was in full swing, and young people had a strong call to pursue self-worth, and the sense of resistance to group power also rose and fell, and it was lively. In this social environment, it is natural that individualism and liberalism are learning from the West, and many manga artists represented by Shotaro Ishinomori have begun to create protagonists with a strong sense of self and personal heroism, such as the group of protagonists in "Android 999" with strong characteristics, which has obvious shadows of individual heroism in American comics.

Although this humanistic trend of "fighting for the self" (or "middle twoism" did not develop more fully until the next decade, there is no doubt that when the protagonists of later works either chanted or silently recited the slogan "Fight for the Self" in their hearts, their old-timers who were active in the fifties and sixties had already set the tone for this trend of thought. Although it is difficult to say how much the young people of that turbulent era were influenced by the ideas of such works, a trend has already taken shape.

It is easy to fight the country, but it is difficult to defend the country. Although a large number of new forms of art have emerged in the turbulent years of thought, it needs to be further improved to be truly stable, solid and bigger. After the explosion of development in the fifties and sixties, Japanese manga will usher in their true golden age next.

In the 70s, technology brought about an expansion of thinking and iconoclasm

Recently, Japan's Discovery has entered the seventies of the twentieth century, and with the remarkable accumulation of economic development results, Japanese society has also entered a period of relative stability. In the same way, after the flourishing of Japanese manga in the fifties and sixties, it has also been shaped in terms of content and form. As a result of economic development, the people's self-confidence has increased dramatically, and Japanese society as a whole has begun to develop to examine itself and enjoy the benefits of progress with a more relaxed and peaceful mind. Japanese comics in this period, compared with the beginning of their creation, were a little less passionate and disordered, a little more calm and surplus, the entertainment of comics was more obvious, and the burden of heavy ideological background gradually faded.

In the manga series born in the 70s, many longevity chapters are still active in the public eye. For example, "Doraemon", which began to be serialized in 1970, and "Oolong Police Station", which began to be serialized in 1976, are all super-long series that still insist on meeting readers regularly after thirty or forty years of baptism, in addition, although works such as "Galaxy Railway 999" and "Space Battleship Yamato" in the same period may not be serialized for decades like some super-longevity works, but to this day, you can still occasionally see the emergence of new works of these series of old bottles and new wine. It can be said that if the 60s were the foundation era of Japanese manga, then the 70s were the era when it carried on the past and firmly established the unshakable status of Japanese manga.

Looking at the many comic works born in the 70s, it is not difficult to find that they have some significant common characteristics. As mentioned earlier, Japan finally got rid of the haze of war in the 70s, and the rapid development of science and technology and economic development strengthened their national self-confidence on the one hand, and at the same time strengthened their strong desire to explore unknown areas. The successful Apollo moon landing in 1969 and the first conquest of outer space brought this desire to explore to its zeniest—reflected in the comics, two obvious changes brought about by this "expansion of thinking": 1) the romance of the desire to explore unknown territories (especially the universe), and 2) the re-examination of one's own civilization.

The first point is that in the era of rapid technological advancement, people's curiosity and desire to explore will also increase, especially among children and young people. But at the same time, this kind of romantic feelings will also affect the creation of literary and artistic workers.

In the seventies, it is no accident that a large number of science fiction manga works emerged, and after being deeply influenced by the manga god Osamu Tezuka, a large number of young manga artists (at that time) grew up in this era, Fujiko Fujio (F and A), Yokoyama Guangmitsu, Matsumoto Zero Soil, most of these later generations thundered into the reader's field of vision from the seventy years. The aforementioned "Galaxy Railway 999" and "Space Battleship Yamato" are the best in science fiction exploration works.

A "999", like a poignant and long cosmic odyssey, trains, universes, colonized planets, interstellar travel, these elements that later called the classics of science fiction animation works have been portrayed and matured in this work, and the form of a small story like "Mirror Flower" is not only an allegory of life philosophy, but also a magnificent fantasy of human beings for life forms outside their own homes, and even the heroine Medel's shadow in a black velvet robe with blonde hair, It also became the object of longing and the benchmark of beauty for young people in that era (according to today's parlance, it is a goddess). In DiscoveryJapan's "The Power of Manga" feature, many interviewees of a little age mentioned the impact of this work on their lives, whether it is for the worldview, intellectual curiosity, or even aesthetic consciousness, there is no doubt that works such as "Galaxy Railway 999" and "Space Battleship Yamato" integrate the romance of Showa into the cold machinery and the vast universe, as a manifestation of the spirit of the times of that unique era. For adolescents who are in their formative years, the impact is absolutely non-negligible.

As for the second point, it is a little less broad and more realistic than the desire for exploration and curiosity caused by technology. The accumulation of social resources brought about by scientific and technological progress has increased national self-confidence, and the sense of cultural inferiority with masochistic tendencies that pervaded Japanese society after the defeat of World War II has gradually diluted considerably. Looking back at the manga works before the 70s, it is not difficult to see that these works have adopted an attitude of avoiding Japanese culture, especially modern Japanese culture, intentionally or unintentionally, and the Japanese elements are relatively indifferent, but in the 70s, many works describing modern and modern Japanese society began to emerge, and Japanese readers can see familiar scenes and objects in manga.

An example of this is the super-long-lived work "Oolong Police Station", which depicts the daily life of Japanese citizens from the very beginning, and has kept up with the pace of the times, documenting small changes in various aspects of Japanese society with comic strokes for more than 30 years.

Another mythological work, "Doraemon", can be said to be the best of both worlds, with whimsical props representing the impact of technology on daily life and the stimulation of divergent thinking, and various scenes that closely fit the real life of the middle and lower classes of Japanese people make the vast majority of readers in this work very familiar. If you list the works that have had the greatest impact on readers in the Japanese manga industry in the past half century, this blue tanuki (not a tanuki!) The daily life of his friends can definitely be in the top three, and they cross the barriers of age and gender.

In the "The Power of Comics" feature, when talking about the works that have had the greatest impact on his life, "Doraemon" lists not only young calligraphy stars, but also intellectual giants in their mid-teens, and even female pastry chefs in their "delicate age...... In China, thousands of green beavers can also be found in various groups of people born in the 70s, 80s, and even 90s. It can be said that the romance of the seventies, regardless of nationality or identity, it just belongs to that era and does not carry any threshold.

In addition to the more "great" romantic feelings, the comics of the 70s also have an unconventional and rebellious side. The most representative is several works of the ghost genius Hiroshi Nagai. 1972's "Devilman" became an iconoclastic vanguard with its gloomy worldview, violent and bloody images, and speculation about good and evil that contradicted the traditional theme at every turn, and seemed quite avant-garde at the time. For young readers who grew up in the seventies, bathed in relatively superior material conditions, overly rigid preaching and positive romantic feelings will inevitably get bored, and because of this, works such as "Devilman" seem simple and crude, but have a different connotation, in a sense, can better cope with their inner desire to break the shackles of tradition.

In addition to "Devilman", another work by Nagai Hao that has been mentioned by many people and said that it has had a great impact on his life is "Breaking the School of Shame". Strictly written in the late sixties (launched in 1969 and popular in the seventies), this work pioneered the integration of erotic elements into comics, which is also a challenge to tradition. At the beginning of the creation of Japanese comics, the attitude towards erotic elements was still a bit like walking on thin ice, and showing a little pants or something was basically the limit, but when it came to Nagai Hao, all kinds of ** Ah skirt lifting, voyeurism, full open, the characters in the work released hormones as if they were crazy, completely ignoring what to do in case the ignorant reader was overstimulated and died of nosebleeds. Whether it is good or bad, the precedent set by Hiroshi Nagai has had a huge impact on the accumulation of materials in the Japanese animation industry in later generations. And for readers who have grown up in this era, it may also play a role in "some kind of education" in a certain way.

In the eighties, diversification and commercialization

The 80s were a very special time for Japan. On the one hand, the Showa era is coming to an end, a period of excitement and complexity that is about to pass and may never regain its glory from now on. On the other hand, the emergence of the bubble economy has cast a shadow over the comfortable life of Japanese people, who have become accustomed to a high quality of life.

The generation that followed Japan's post-war baby boom (i.e., the clump generation) had grown up and become the backbone of society, and the generation that followed them, in the eighties, was in adolescence, and these young people at that time grew up in a much more privileged environment than their predecessors, and they valued entertainment and enjoyment more than their predecessors, and were much less inclined to struggle.

The influence of this gradually changing social atmosphere on the literary and artistic circles is very obvious, in the comic industry, the forms of all kinds of comics are more perfect, and they are closer to the aesthetic interests of current comic readers than the works of the fifties and sixties and seventies, and many of today's popular comic elements are also becoming more and more stereotyped in the eighties, and a number of master comic authors have also emerged, many of whom are active today.

In the 80s, Japan's balance of payments reached the highest level in the world, and one of the effects was the diversification of career choices, which was especially evident among women, and the status of women in Japan was further improved, and more people were freed from the shackles of housewives, at least until marriage, and were able to choose their own life path more freely. Although the real stereotype of shoujo manga originated from Riyoko Ikeda's masterpiece "The Rose of Versailles" in the 70s, in the 80s, through the efforts of a group of new manga artists (such as Takumi Kanki and Akiyoshi Yoshida), shoujo manga really "lived" as a large manga genre.

On the other hand, the improvement of social status will also bring about the emancipation of the mind, and the depiction of elements such as ** and workplace life began to gradually appear in the shoujo manga at this stage, which is relatively rare in the early women's comics, and then, the BL elements that were popular in later generations were further stabilized in the shoujo manga of this period, and contributed to the extensive development of BL doujinshi (for example, in the comike held in the summer of 1986, the BL doujinshi of "Soccer Player" accounted for more than half).

June, a women-oriented magazine known for its main BL, has published a graphic novel column written by Keiko Takemiya and Azusa Nakajima since the beginning of the 80th year.,Intentionally or unintentionally cultivated a large number of excellent Tanmei authors - such as Minami Ozaki,She was cutely faced by the CP of Ken Wakashimazu X Hinata Kojiro in "Soccer Player", so after the fanshi group "Angry Evil Stream" created BL fandom to become famous,Further stepped into the commercial field and launched "Absolute Love", and "Absolute Love" has become the cute work of many later generations of rotten girls…… The cycle of history has always been very interesting, and it must be admitted that the rise of entertainment culture and the relaxed social environment in the 80s did give shoujo comics an excellent soil for development.

In contrast, shonen manga also made great strides in the penultimate decade of the twentieth century. During this period, shonen manga not only had a huge impact on the childhood of young and middle-aged people in Japan today, but also radiated to all corners of the world. In China, along with the wave of pirated comics in the 90s, the Chinese market was mainly filled with various well-known comic works of this era. Nowadays, everyone who is familiar with it, such as Atsumitsu, Takahashi Rumiko, Akira Toriyama, Takahashi Yoichi, Araki Hirohiko, Madami Sadada, etc., basically launched their own debut works and even famous works in this era, and the palace of juvenile comics has never been so lively, which also makes comics, especially juvenile comics, further move towards the form of national-level products, and become an unobtainable part of the growth process of teenagers.

Unlike the extremely commercial otaku works of later generations, the shonen manga of the 80s corresponded to a wide range of groups, and the themes were more diverse, and they corresponded to the spirit of the times at the end of the Showa period, with more emphasis on entertainment and the focus of adolescent readers. Passion and love are basically themes that are difficult to absence, and although a "Football Player" that ignores the laws of physics will make physics teachers angry, it is undeniable that it made thousands of children at that time fall in love with football, and Japanese football can grow by leaps and bounds after the 80s, and this super football manga has contributed a lot.

Japanese soccer veteran Hidetoshi Nakata once had a conversation with Yoichi Takahashi, the author of "Soccer Player", and Nakata mentioned in the conversation that in his opinion, "Soccer Player" is the origin of Japanese football culture. "The inspirational expression of the big empty wing in the comic motivates me to devote myself to football without reservation." And the other two veterans of Japanese football, Shunsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Naba, said that Misakitaro in "Soccer Player" is their idol for life. The power of comics to influence a certain movement in a country because of a comic work cannot be underestimated.

Compared with the passionate spirit of the times in "Football Player" and "Saint Seiya", works that focus on the love and daily life of teenagers have also begun to mature in the past 80 years. Like shoujo comics, many shonen comics at that time began to gradually break away from the traditional way of bloody fights or frolicking and funny, and gradually became delicate and plain, focusing on the portrayal of the characters' hearts.

In the spirit of the 80s, enjoying life is also a melody that cannot be ignored, and the yearning for youth and the longing for love make even male readers begin to pay attention to such works, among which the success of Adamitsu and Rumiko Takahashi has transplanted some of the unique slender customs in shoujo manga to the shonen manga that should be thick lines, and the shaping of characters, especially female characters, has also begun to jump out of the traditional thin vase image and become three-dimensional and vivid.

It is perhaps no coincidence that Orange Road ("Orange Road") and Ram ("Lucky Star Kid") and Beludindy ("My Goddess") of the so-called "Three Goddesses of Japanese Anime" were all born in this era. This advancement in the portrayal of female characters also laid the groundwork for the popularity of the "moe" element in later generations, and thousands of male readers were finally able to unload their social baggage and feast on "shonen" manga with female characters as the main selling point without any scruples, which may be regarded as the biggest benefit given at the end of the Showa period before the bubble economy (laughs).

In addition to the relatively young age of the readers, youth comics also developed greatly in the 80s. In fact, with the expansion of the subject matter, women's comics of high age have begun to emerge at this time, and the development of shoujo comics is parallel. Youth manga, which is mainly aimed at men in their twenties and thirties, has been further expanded with the launch of Weekly YoungMagazine and Weekly YoungJump in the 80s.

Due to the high level of young readers, youth comics are much less constrained than juvenile comics, and some excessive, too realistic, or boring content for juvenile readers can be well expressed in youth comics, and the selection of genres is very restrictive, which is in line with the spirit of the times in the eighties, making the work reach a new height in terms of freedom and form. A large number of classic works that imply the spirit of the times were born, influencing a group of readers whose world view has become more mature, and this group of readers has subtly integrated this spirit into their own values and living conditions, thus forming a new spirit of the times...... For example, the "A Moment of Reunion", which is as warm and warm as the early winter sun, has healed many young people and made them believe that the goddess will come to them one day, and "Tokyo Love Story", which makes people so entangled that they want to live and die, and the sadistic process is no less than some current works, this is a kind of last romance that belongs to Showa Sunset, and it is also a different achievement of diversification and commercialization.

The nineties, the end of the century and the unfolding

Time finally came to the 90s, with the vigorous development of technology and communication technology, with the hustle and bustle of MediMix, Japanese manga can be said to have entered a "rotten" period, this era of manga both painting techniques and story structure, with the accumulation of previous generations and developed to an insurmountable height.

Although the adaptation of comics into animation is not a new thing in Japan, but the real large-scale commercial adaptation has only achieved scale since the nineties, thinking back to the period when the policy on Japanese animation was not strict, the Japanese animation that domestic audiences can watch on TV was produced in this era, and as the original work of animation, the comic works of the nineties have not yet entered the dilemma of excessive commercialization and the strange circle of excessive carving, under the exquisite packaging, We can still see a large number of works that contain the author's own style.

"Dragon Ball", "Yuyu Hakusho", "Sailor Moon", "Kanedaichi Juvenile Incident Book", these are basically the introductory textbooks for the post-80s and post-90s otaku in China, and in Japan, young and middle-aged people in their thirties have also grown up with these works. Unlike their predecessors, while reading comics in black and white, readers of the 90s were able to experience the author's charm through more dynamic graphics and dubbing. For teenagers, the stimuli of sound and video are often more profound than those of images, and because of this, the memory of this batch of classic works in the 90s will be clearer and more concrete.

The maturity of commercialization will certainly make comic works more refined, but at the same time, it will also limit the vitality of zuò products. The juvenile manga of the 90s, the classification basically continued the pattern of the previous era, among which the combat category was the most, "Dragon Ball" influenced several generations, and became an extremely powerful anime top IP, but in the end it still fell into the quagmire of commercial war, and had to start a marathon serial competition with "Ranma", and finally ended hastily. Although the procrastination in the later period is somewhat a stain, there is no doubt that Dragon Ball, as a milestone in the combat shonen manga, has established the prominent position of manga in contemporary entertainment culture.

Unlike the shonen comics, which have entered a slight stalemate in form, the youth comics of the nineties still have the flavor of a hundred flowers. With the continuation of the economic impact of the bubble, a new round of reflection has also been launched in Japanese society, and the questioning and confusion of the current society have led to different voices one after another, and a large number of unique types of works have been born. Taking Yasuhiko Yoshikazu as an example, his "The Lord of the Great Powers" and "Shenmu" are a kind of reinterpretation of the ancient history of Japan (chronicle age), and the re-examination of prehistoric civilization at the time of entering the 21st century can be seen as Yasuhiko's rethinking of the origin of his own cultural circulation, and on the other hand, it can be regarded as his strong impeachment of the "imperial historical view" that was revived at that time.

After that, he also wrote his own "Christ and Antichrist Trilogy" - "Nero", "Joan of Arc" and "Jesus". On the one hand, he shows his own understanding of Christianity in his works, but on the other hand, in that special era, An Yanlianghe created these works on the theme of national history and religion, obviously hoping to make young readers think a little bit in a certain way, with a bit of inspirational and edifying meaning. Although for most readers, this slightly obscure subject matter is probably not as impressive as the delicate body language and physical beauty of the characters in Yasuhiko's works.

There is no doubt that compared to the previous generations, which were still in the development and perfection period, after entering the 90s, the momentum of the development of Japanese manga is difficult to summarize in a few words. The works listed above are just the tip of the iceberg, in this era of unprecedented openness and activity, comics have long jumped out of the traditional existing categories, and the genre spans all aspects of human civilization. In the 90s, for example, a large number of masterpieces such as the Soul of Chess (Go) and the Rogue (Kendo & Zen) were also well known to Japanese people. As the first decade of the Heisei era and the last decade of the twentieth century, the manga world of the 90s completed the transition from the past to the future in this intricate composition and change.

XXI century, Andgoon

In the 21st century, the creation of comics has become more and more commercial and mature, the ultra-regular industry model has long been finalized, and with the development of the Internet, the number of works that readers can read is also unmatched before (although this is not necessarily a good thing for copyright owners). However, in this article, I do not intend to elaborate on this era. Although the first decade of the 21st century has passed, for the majority of readers, it is still an ignorant experiencer of this new era.

Since this time, the various animation subcultures that have swept in, the strength of its momentum is incomparable to that of the past, sweeping away the relatively low-key and core direction of the animation culture in the past, and extending its tentacles to all aspects of society like radiation. It can be said that the form of "anime aspiration theory" in this era will be more three-dimensional, and it will be more difficult to summarize it with simple words. Whether this rapid change is good or bad is hard to say. In fact, it's too early to come to a conclusion, and I believe that every reader has a clear name in their hearts, so let's enjoy and experience the heavyweight influence of New Century comics that is different from the past.

epilogue

"Manga aspiration theory" or "the impact of manga on life" is actually not a new topic, especially for Japan as a big country of anime, the vast majority of people born after the war will experience the influence of manga in their early lives, from the outlook on life, values, to the opinion of a small thing, it can be said that from the time they were able to read and write, manga left an indelible imprint on their minds. Although Chinese readers were exposed to Japanese comics on a relatively late scale, the impact of the blowout "introduction" of comics was equally huge and more concentrated. The purpose of DiscoveryJapan's "The Power of Manga" feature is nothing more than an attempt to return to the original point in this new era, and to re-examine the power of manga that has been growing up with generations of Japanese people for decades. After many recommendations and explanations from people from all walks of life, and after combing through the characteristics of comics and times that have passed away, it would be a great blessing if you could make the officials have something "new".