Examples of advertisement manga -updated

Submitted by nele on Mon, 2007-01-15 16:29

Since we've mentioned manga commissioned by companies several times last week, we might as well point out a few online samples of this kind of manga. Kuchicomic creates short manga stories containing heavy product placement, which they call 'advertisement stories' (hōkoku monogatari, 報告物語). Scroll down to the bottom of the page for three example manga that are fully viewable online. On the company's English-language site, one of these can be found -rather awkwardly- translated.

A tidbit on webcomics

Submitted by nele on Wed, 2007-01-10 13:27

While we happily busy ourselves handling paperback tankobon, webcomics are exploring new grounds. Webcomics, in most cases, are basically manga pages or illustrations that one can flip through on the screen. However, there are some examples that play with the medium in quite interesting ways. Check out this series of online manga shorts explaining the concept of middleware, which appear to be a kind of cross-over between manga and animation. A lot of fun to look at, easy to understand... What more to ask from an information-conveying medium? (Of course what we said before about the problem of subjectivity that often surfaces in joho manga applies here to a much lesser degree. It's much harder to get subjective during a technical explanation about something like middleware than during a discussion of historical events. One can assume, though, that this kind manga commissioned by a company (in this case CRI Middelware co.) can carry a bias toward that company's products. It's meant to be a type of publicity, after all; this is fortunately quite obvious most of the time.)

Revisionist manga follow-up

Submitted by nele on Tue, 2007-01-09 11:42

Shortly before the winter break we mentioned revisionist manga such as Ken Kan Ryu, a series designed to convince readers through pseudo-historical 'research' that anti-Korean sentiment is logical and acceptable. The two Koreas are not the only countries falling victim to this mudslinging-by-manga: the People's Republic of China is also a target. A manga published last year entitled "The 100 crimes of China explained in manga form" (マンガでわかる中国100の悪行) promotes itself on the cover with a blurb saying "This is the true face of the evil country China!" (これが最凶国家中国の正体だ!). Another anti-Chinese manga titles is called "Danger! China (in manga)" (漫画 アブナイ!中国). Japan's own mass media is decried as anti-Japanese in "The reality of the anti-Japanese mass media" (「反日マスコミ」の真実), which has on its cover the blurb (among others) "Do they want to turn Japan into a slave of China and Korea?!" (日本を中国、韓国の奴隷にするのか?!). This last title is not a manga but a mook (ムック), which is a kind of very heavily illustrated book that may have manga influences in it, such as cartoon characters explaining the text.

Moe books -another kind of information manga

Submitted by nele on Thu, 2006-12-21 12:35

Moe (萌え, pronounced mo-e) is a concept signifying attraction to or love for cute characters. These characters needn't be from a manga or anime: one can also feel moe for, or 'moeru', a charming young attendant in one of Akihabara's famous maid cafés, an illustration of a cute character like there are so many to be found on all kinds of objects in Japan, a figurine, and so forth.

It shouldn't be a surprise that 'moe' characters are now used to draw the attention of their admirers to other subjects, just as famous manga characters sometimes pop up in information manga to instruct readers in subjects they might not otherwise be interested in.

Information manga in the US? -updated again

Submitted by nele on Thu, 2006-12-14 11:29

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation seems a lone example of 'joho manga' from the US: a government report is presented in graphic novel format. Not an official publication, apparently, but very interesting nonetheless. Except for McCloud's Understanding comics, no other example of this comes to mind immediately.

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