Category: Manga
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Akira Toriyama, the Other God of Manga
On March 1, 2024, Akira Toriyama set off to explore new horizons far from this world. Known primarily for Dragon Ball Z in France, the artist revolutionized manga and video games in Japan in the 1980s. For Generation X, he will remain the magician who re-enchanted everyday life. Osamu Tezuka is generally presented as the father of… Lire la suite
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The Shadow of Carl Jung in Japanese Pop Culture
What unites Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, and Persona 5? What is the connection to SEGA’s old video game Nights into Dreams? The answers are linked to the concepts of the collective unconscious and the shadow self. Less well known to the general public than Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalysis, Carl Gustav Jung and his analytical psychology have deeply influenced Japanese… Lire la suite
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Incipit, or How to Hook Your Reader
At a time when entertainment saturates our screens and media compete for our attention, the first pages of a manga take on decisive value. They form the incipit: that threshold which must simultaneously plunge us into a fictional universe and hold us long enough to make us want to keep reading. The term comes from… Lire la suite
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Visual Influences: manga, comics, Ukiyo-e, Art Nouveau
The terms manga or anime generally suggest the same stereotype: a character with huge eyes and stylized features. This visual aspect has precise origins. Let’s travel back in time to understand the visual influences between manga, comics, and Japanese woodblock prints. There are two surprising threads of influence. The first concerns Japanese Woodblock prints, Art… Lire la suite
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Ghost in the Shell and the Tachikoma – Biomimicry and Mecha design
What is the link between Ghost in the Shell, spiders, and modern robots? Biomimicry, i.e., technological design inspired by nature. Here’s how a manga creator got ahead of robot production companies. Most western science fiction series are lazy as they opt for photo-realism. For the mechanic’s design, most SF series only adds a slight modification to… Lire la suite
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Masamune Shirow: Portrait of the Manga Artist Behind Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed
Ghost in the Shell is 25 years old, and this manga has not aged a day. Dense, rhythmic, intelligent, and gripping, it remains a window onto our near future. Unfortunately, the general public knows little about this major work of Japanese science fiction. Many have only seen the films or series adapted from it (out… Lire la suite
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Interview Ilya Kushinov – The Russian Artist That Conquered Japanese Animation
Born in Russia in 1990, Ilya Kuvshinov is an illustrator and character designer now based in Tokyo. Trained in architecture in Moscow, he first worked in the video game industry before devoting himself fully to animation after moving to Japan around 2015. He rose to international prominence as character designer for Ghost in the Shell:… Lire la suite
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The Opening of Demon Slayer: An In Medias Res Beginning
To Hook the Reader from the First Chapter of Demon Slayer, the Manga Author Uses an Old Formula That Still Works Wonderfully: In Medias Res. Here’s What This Narrative Technique Consists Of. The final chapter of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 18, 2020, bringing to an end… Lire la suite