the new world of 2011

[davemerrill]

hipsterdad's father passed away this morning. It had been a long struggle with a lot of battles but he got to raise some heck (and some kids, and some grandkids) along the way. Still kind of processing the news. We got to see him when we were in Atlanta and I'm glad I got to speak to him one last time. He was one of a kind, and the world is poorer without him.

We rang in the new year at a party at Sandra & Brett's that we got an invite to courtesy theengineer. Crowded house full of books and people and drinks and food, Shain saw some friends she hadn't seen in a while, we talked with Donald and David, and Janet had just returned from Costa Rica with side trips to Panama and Nicarauga, so that was interesting, and we had a good time and didn't stay out too late.

YOUR TOKYO BILL 156 UPDATE
Spent a good deal of time yesterday digging through boxes of old Animanga APAs trying to find a thing tohoscope posted way back, oh, 20 years ago. Dan Kanemitsu is the point man for the current reports of Bill 156, but this isn't the first time he's pushed the panic button about the coming doujin apocalypse. What I eventually found was his 16 page essay dealing with the nightmare of Feb. 24 1991, when the Tokyo Metropolitian Police raided several bookstores that were selling obscene doujinshi. The word "doujinshi" wasn't in American fan parlance at the time so the abbreviation "JAC" (for 'Japanese amateur comic') was used. It's an interesting if rambling article that frequently describes the situation as "a nightmare" and is helpfully if sensationally titled "Black February". Rumors of artists being investigated by the police, that the police have been investigating Comiket in plainclothes and will be back to start making arrests at the next Comiket - and as the article says, "it is a well known fact that if any one who is a participants (sp) of the COMIC MARKET is arrested by the police there would be no more COMIC MARKETs in the future." Naturally the printing houses that produce JACs are frightened and have already cancelled many orders. Erotic comics were being classified as "hazardous material", creators were being asked to tone down their more explicit works, and most frightening, a bill was being introduced in the Diet that would differentiate between works intended for adults only and works intended for a general audience.

The article lays out two scenarios; one, that bookstores refuse to carry adults-only doujinshi and the doujinshi market changes drastically. Two, that the official recognition of adults-only doujinshi allows creators to work in the field without fear that their material will be read by anyone but adults. (I think we know which of these two scenarios came to pass. There's an entire floor of doujinshi in Mandarake that I can't un-see which proves it.)

In short, this current Bill 156 isn't the first time that adult comics have come under legal scrutiny in Japan. What's happening now isn't nearly as drastic as what happened in 1991 - for instance, police raids in Shibuya and Kanda haven't taken place, and I don't believe the cops are busting people at the current Comiket. At least nobody's twittering about it. As we all know, after the "nightmare" of "Black February" 1991, the Comic Market kept going for the next 20 years. Doujinshi continued to be printed and sold. Doujinshi artists have continued to use the medium to create works of world-stunning depravity. I can't help but compare his '91 work to what Kanemitsu is writing now - the narrative is more coherent but there's an alarmist sky-is-fallling tone that we didn't quite swallow in 1991, and we find it equally hard to swallow now.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You would hope that one false alarm might preclude another, but with a twenty-year gap it's possible to forget things, I guess.

Anyway, we appear to have two parties enabling each other here; one to sound an alarm and another to spread panic. Neither would function without the other and both seem entirely willing to embrace worst-case scenarios. Almost as if they've been waiting for excuses to do so.

I suggest filing this incident away for a year and trotting it out again on 1/1/12 for general consumption. I predict it will have been forgotten by then.

-Tim E.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

First up, my deepest sympathies to Hipsterdad for his loss, it's probably meaningless for a more or less stranger from the internet to say so, but the feeling is there anyway.

As to Kanemitsu's writing, well, everything old is new again, innit? The only difference is in this new age the flash point is much lower due to communication speed. Twitter can ignite from just a spark, because how much actual thought can one convey in 128 characters?

Like I said previously (and may have been missed), the key test isn't the passing of the bill, but the first arrest based on the bill. It's really not possible to get hard data on what 'chilling' effect is created.

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

Hey guys, remember that Manga Manga book by Fred Schodt, that chapter about adult manga and the PTA going after Go Nagai and stuff? When did that book get published? Eighty-something? Haven't we been here before?

I'm getting deja-vu burns.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I actually had to haul that out and look stuff up, and the various PTAs, prefectural governments, parental groups, and you name its have been agitating against obscene comics and cartoons for years. Bill 156 is nothing new.

Hell, Japan didn't have its first screen kiss until 1946. Most of what's being published in the adult doujinshi these days would get you stiff sentences in the 60s and 70s. There's a lack of historical knowledge that is kinda appalling.

MANGA MANGA was first published in 1983. I purchased my copy about ten seconds after I first saw it on the rack.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Hu hu hu hu

You said 'stiff'.

*ahem*

Yeah, I recall all that PTA stuff, not only Go Nagai and Shameless School (and why hasn't THAT manga been brought to the U.S.?) but Lupin III was in the crosshairs for a time.

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

Why hasn't anybody brought over more Leiji Matsumoto manga, for that matter?

[(Anonymous)]

Even the man himself doesn't have a clear answer for that one. My guess? The few that were available in English didn't catch fire for whatever reason. I'd say it was due to the super-stylized artwork, but there are plenty of weird-looking manga out these days. Maybe the endless story structure? We've got a few of those, too. Lack of recognition? Could be, he's still an acquired taste for most people. Even I had a hard time getting used to raw Matsumoto at first. Or it could simply be that the license fees are prohibitive.

If I had to pin it down to just one thing, I'd say it's the glut. There's simply no room right now for something that requires long-term attention.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, that was me. Bender. (Tim E.)

[tohoscope.livejournal.com]

Outside of Galaxy Express 999 I can't think of any other Matsumoto that's been brought over. I wonder if it's a licensing thing?

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Matsumoto's manga artwork is idiosyncratic and moody, not slick and action-packed like most of the product that gets released over here. His characters are either rail-thin blondes or blobby potato-heads, and he has recurring motifs that puzzle most Western audiences. His war comics are gloomy, his Yamato manga isn't much like the TV show most Western readers would have seen, and his Harlock manga is all over the map. Certainly they don't resemble the clean assembly-line corporate logo type characters we're used to seeing in manga and anime.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with all of that, but similar statements can be made about other manga we're already getting. There's some wacky stuff around the fringes, like Trigun and Samurai Champloo, both of which I find unreadable. If not for their anime tie-ins, I'm not sure they would have gotten any attention.

I'm sure there's some magic combo move that would allow Matsumoto manga to squeeze through the portal of acceptibility, we just haven't seen it yet.

-Tim E.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

that's just it, there aren't any real anime tie-ins to Matsumoto's manga. Starblazers doesn't cut it, Harlock has never broken big here, 999 ditto; whereas something like Trigun or Naruto, you watched the show on TV or on video and now you can get the manga, which is close enough to the anime that you feel at home. Judging from the giant red trenchcoats at anime cons, Trigun was pretty popular there for a while.

I believe Matsumoto's comics would work best in America with a Vertical style presentation, a big fat brick of his war comics or his SF presented as their own thing, not "you watched the TV show, now read the comics!" His work is unique enough, "Japanese" enough in a funky back-street noodle shop sort of way that it would attract a more literate comics audience. Certainly his work is going to get a different audience than teens buying the latest Naruto.

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed. If Vertical can go all-out for Tezuka they could certainly extend some lovin' to the LM. Personally, I'm not a huge Tezuka fan (a little goes a long way with me) but I really like the eclectic packaging Vertical gives him; helps to set his works apart from all the others. LM's manga would benefit tremendously from that.

-Tim E.