Thursday, October 4, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER
You might say that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Haruhi Suzumiya are heroines in parallel worlds. Both are chosen souls whose destinies may determine the outcome of the universe. Both are (or begin as) high school students with a lot on their minds, other than saving the world. And neither is shy.[Haruhi Suzumiya, courtesy of entertainmentearth.com]
But Haruhi, a cosmic anomaly, might be able to alter the space-time continuum by accident. She has eyes that take up a third of her face and a Sailor Moonesque outfit, complete with knee socks. She's a superstar, with her own illustrated books, graphic novels and animated show in Japan.
She's also one of the hottest manga characters in America.
Manga means "comic" in Japanese but has come to stand for Japanese-style comics outside of Japan. U.S. audiences were first introduced to the graphic style through animated cartoons called "anime," which usually take character designs and narratives from manga sources.
But now manga is quickly seeping into the American mainstream, filling shelves at major bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. As the pace of translation into English quickens, closing ground on the Japanese release dates, manga is now a $175 million to $200 million industry in the United States, according to Publisher's Weekly.
And this weekend, fans will gather in strength. The second annual MangaNEXT, the only convention dedicated to manga, will take place in Secaucus at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Although anime conventions -- which can draw tens of thousands of attendees -- have been around for several years, this is the first celebration in America of the book form, said chairwoman Michelle Berghold of Tinton Falls.
Aspiring mangaka
"American readership for manga right now is heavily female," said Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl, editor at major manga publishing house Tokyopop, based in California. "A lot of what you see is female authors writing for girls."
Indeed, the base for most of Tokyopop's titles is girls ages 13 and 14, said Diaz-Pryzbyl. In other words, the current core audience for manga in the United States probably doesn't read a word of Japanese -- instead, they are a new generation of readers growing up on a more visual way of reading.
But femininity and teeny-bopper characters are not the defining characteristics of manga in Japan, which can also carry extremely sophisticated, violent or adult material. And like anime before it, manga is maturing as a genre in the United States as a broader range is imported to fans.
"The generation of people who were kids when 'Sailor Moon' and 'Pokemon' were on TV are grown up now," said Diaz-Pryzbyl, referring to two wildly popular anime series launched in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Fans -- who may have watched the shows as Saturday morning cartoons -- are now twentysomethings.
But while these relatively innocent series made waves in America, a darker revolution was beginning. Young adult fans began to discover other, more sophisticated animes like the space bounty-hunting show "Cowboy Bebop" and cyberpunk drama "Armitage III" on Cartoon Network's late-night "Adult Swim" programming.
That was when Keith Cassidy of West Milford started his path toward manga fanhood. "The first time I had what I recognized as anime was on the Sci-Fi channel my junior year of high school," said Cassidy, a student at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. "It was 'Armitage III,' with voice actors Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley."
Times have changed
Curious to see something that wasn't a live-action drama and not exactly a cartoon, at least not like any he had ever seen, Cassidy looked for more shows like "Armitage III," and in short time stumbled upon mangas. Fast-forward five years: He is now the president of an anime club at his school and the director of operations for MangaNEXT.
Fandom has come a long way since the '90s, said Domenick Santoriello, who, at age 41, is one of the older staff members at MangaNEXT.
"A lot of times, we would get anime tapes from people who took trips to Japan and lived in America, and we would watch it in Japanese," he said. "Or we would take trips to Yaohan [now Mitsuwa Marketplace] in Edgewater, which had a Japanese bookstore, and we would get manga and try our best to translate them."
That's far from the case today. In fact, there are enough aspiring American talents for Tokyopop to run an annual Rising Stars of Manga competition, said Diaz-Pryzbyl. Winners of the contest get their 20-page short manga stories published in an anthology and may get a book deal to develop an OEL -- original English-language -- series.
Right now, as MangaNEXT launches its second annual convention, Tokyopop is entering "round two" of original manga development. Many "Rising Stars" in America are nearing the end of their first book contracts with Tokyopop.
"A lot of the projects I started are now finishing up third volumes, finishing with story arcs," said Diaz-Pryzbyl, who has been with Tokyopop for more than three years. "Now what? We're trying to figure that out."
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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What you need to know
• Manga: The Japanese word for comics. Mangas are generally serial stories published by chapter in monthly magazines in Japan. They are usually black and white and printed on low-quality paper. When there are enough chapters, the stories are republished in pocket-sized book format. Unlike U.S. comic books, mangas usually have a defined ending.
The manga industry in Japan took off in the 1970s and is a major genre in publishing there. Osamu Tezuka, the artist generally considered the father of manga, is often quoted as saying he drew inspiration for his style from Walt Disney animation of the 1930s.
For more information, see the new book "Manga: The Complete Guide" by MangaNEXT guest Jason Thompson, out Oct. 9.
• Anime: The Japanese word for animated television shows and movies. The word is a shortening of the English word "animation" but is now generally used to refer to Japanese animation in English.
Often drawing from manga or best-selling novels, anime is a huge platform for entertainment in Japan.
In America, the earliest touchstones were the robot or "mecha" animes such as "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" and "Gundam." In 1988, the manga-inspired movie "Akira" became a cult hit and sparked renewed interest in anime. Since then, anime has become widespread as children's entertainment. "Sailor Moon" (1995) and "Pokemon" (1998) are among the most well-known of the early English-dubbed cartoons.
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WHAT: MangaNEXT convention.
EVENTS: Panels on manga with guests Kensuke Okabayashi, Jason Thompson, Hiroki Otsuka and Mari Morimoto; Artist Alley and Dealers Room for manga art; dance and video programming; manga library and reading room; and cosplay (manga and anime costume) competitions.
WHEN: 2 p.m. Friday to 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2 Harmon Plaza, Secaucus. See manganext.org for more information.
HOW MUCH: $30 at the event.
Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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