rec.arts.manga Glossary
Iain Sinclair
here, since some of it is relevant to r.a.a readers... Hope this doesn't
shatter too many myths. All feedback (mail, I don't read r.a.a) is welcome.
rec.arts.manga Glossary
v1.0 (March 15, 1995)
This glossary lists important terms relating to manga and the
manga industry. It was compiled as a bare-minimum reference for the
Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.manga, intended to resolve a large number of
questions and repetitive discussions. Readers might like to keep a
copy and refer to it freely.
Entries are listed in alphabetical (ascii) order, and JIS code is
given for most Sino-Japanese words. The glossary can be read
sequentially, or browsed randomly; if you can't find a specific
term, try the index, listed at the end. Many entries provide
background information and pointers to other sources.
---
4-koma
A four-panel manga, aka "gag strip". 4-koma manga are carried in
newspapers and most manga magazines. Panels are arranged vertically,
finishing at the bottom of the page. Themes of 4-coma manga are typically
light-hearted and heavily stylised but, like their Western counterparts,
can have serious intent. Much of the visual vocabulary of 4-koma mangas
has found its way into full-length mangas.
amecomi アメコミ
Contraction of "American comics". The term variously describes
any comic originating in the West; the short 20-40 page booklet or
"comic book" format of Western comics; and the styles and graphic
devices associated with them, particularly those in the Marvel/DC/superhero
milieu. The word "manga" is not used to describe any of these.
Some amecomi are known to the Japanese public, mainly classic
titles such as Superman and Peanuts - the Japanese editions
of the latter exceed 100 volumes. Some lesser-known amecomi, such
as Marshal Law, also enjoy a very small cult following. But on the
whole, with regards to their influence on manga, amecomi are not
really in the picture. Japanese readers regard amecomi as ugly,
cliched and difficult to follow (with manga, the reader is not
supposed to take more than about 15-20 seconds per page). There
are only a couple of instances where amecomi have had any significant
impact on Japanese manga-kas.
anime アニメ
Animation. The word "anime", not of "manga", is now used
to describe any type of cel-based animation. All the same, manga
(and novels, to a lesser extent) have traditionally been the source material
for nearly all of the Japanese animation industry's output since the early
'70s. Most animes take considerable liberties with characters and storylines,
and often assume some knowledge of the original manga.
Contrary to the belief of some Western fans, most anime is intended
for children or teenagers, where the marketing dollar lies. The anime
industry has always been more or less a merchandising subsidiary of the
manga industry. A few animes have been been targeted at college-age
fans, but by and large, manga's large adult readership is unconcerned with
anime. Anime seems to have reached the height of its economic viability
in the late 80s; the popularity of manga and anime are now losing ground
to video games.
assistant アジスタント
Generally, manga-kas have a team of one or more assistants to help with
the production of their manga. Assistants are usually responsible for
drafting, inking, screentone, sound effects, cutting and pasting,
typesetting dialogue, taking photographs, and doing research.
In the manga industry, potential assistants are frequently asked
to submit their own manga first. Once selected, skills are passed onto
the assistant over a number of years, not unlike the master-apprentice
relationship to traditional Japanese art. After learning the ropes
from a pro, many assistants go on to create their own manga.
However, some assistants are already at a highly proficient level,
and present themselves as a "studio", which denotes "consultants"
more than "assistants" or "apprentices".
blood type 血液型 (ketsuekigata)
In Japanese pop culture, blood type is thought to be related to
personality. Profiles of manga artists or characters from manga
will often include blood type along with other statistics like
age and place of birth. A very rough guide to blood types:
A - nervous, introverted, honest, loyal.
B - outgoing, optimistic, adventurous.
AB- proud, diplomatic, discriminating.
O - workaholic, insecure, emotional.
CG
Acronym for "Computer Graphics". In the manga context, it refers to
computer-assisted illustration or animation of any kind. In recent
years, computer-generated halftone patterns and computer painting
software have become almost standard tools for manga-kas. The former
technique was popularised by manga-kas such as Tetsuya Saruwatari and
Inoue Noriyoshi, while pioneers of the latter include Kia Asamiya,
Terasawa Buichi and Tsudzuki Kazuhiko 都築和彦.
circle サークル
A group of doujinshi artists or writers. Many circles have been
established for years, and have a large number of loyal readers.
Circles do much of their business by mail order, and will send their
catalog on request. For those enquiring from outside Japan, the following
should be enclosed to maximise the chances of a reply:
- at least two International Reply Coupons, or the equivalent in
current Japanese stamps;
- self-addressed envelope or adhesive label;
- a letter written in Japanese.
comiket コミケット
Short for "comic market". Comiket is Japan's largest market for manga
doujinshi, established since the late 70s, and held twice per year over
two days. It is a gathering of epic proportions, now featuring nearly
20,000 doujinshi sellers at each event. The bulk of doujinshis are devoted
to whatever manga and anime is popular at the time, but a vast range
of tastes are catered for, with doujinshis devoted to video games,
pop music, animals, novels, movies, RPGs, and much more.
Japan has many other comic markets, which are generally tolerated
by publishers because they are thought to increase sales of manga
and anime, not decrease them. But this tolerance is not without
limits -- in one major incident, Japan's second biggest comic market,
Comic City, was cancelled in August 1994 after official warnings that
Chiba police would check doujinshis for breaches of censorship laws.
doujinshi 同人誌
Literally "same person publication", the term was first in use
among literary groups that wrote in the style of a particular author
or classic work. A group of doujinshi artists is called a "circle".
In the manga world, "doujinshi" today refers to any amateur,
self-published manga, especially those based on existing manga or anime.
There is a large fan culture associated with the contemporary
doujinshi scene. Manga doujinshis are advertised and reviewed in some
magazines, and sold en masse at "comic markets". Most manga doujinshis are
at the level of Western fanzines, though a significant proportion are of
remarkably high quality. These sell thousands of copies, and some
people can make a living drawing doujinshi alone. Popular doujinshi
artists often go on to become professional manga-kas (Sonoda Kenichi,
Ozaki Minami). On the other hand, some professional manga-kas have been
known to publish doujinshis, often under assumed names, parodying their
own work (Hagiwara Kazushi, Ueshiba Reach).
gensaku-sha 戯作者
Story writer; someone who writes a story or synopsis to be drawn
by a manga-ka. By far the most prolific gensaku-sha is Koike Kazuo,
who has penned stories for hundreds of mangas.
gekiga 劇画
"Drama pictures". Most mangas of the 60s and 70s were
in the gekiga style, which is characterised by straightforward,
literal narrative, pictorial realism, and uncomplicated character
drawing. Gekiga mangas are on the decline, and hardly ever
appear in today's shonen magazines, although they still predominate
in magazines aimed at over-30s.
H-manga
H, ecchi, hentai エッチ，変態
"Hentai" means "abnormal/perverted" and lately, just "pervert" or
"perverted sex". "H" or "ecchi" is a slang abbreviation for "hentai",
and refers to sexual activity of any kind. Mangas featuring explicit
sex or other erotic content are called "ero-manga", or "H-manga".
The degree of sexual perversion in any manga is sometimes described as
its "H-factor".
Pornographic mangas account for a staggering 25% of the manga industry's
output. They are as available to the consumer as any other type of
manga, though they are technically age-restricted and are often
wrapped in plastic. H-manga boasts a large fandom; there are several
sub-genres of H-manga, and the degree of artistry varies widely.
Exceptional H-manga artists sometimes, but not always, move to
mainstream publishers. Many minor publishers specialise in H-manga and
are closely associated with pornographic game software and the doujinshi
scene. Article #175 of the Japanese constitution, which prohibits
explicit depiction of genitals and pubic hair, has been increasingly
ignored in recent years.
-hoka 他
"et al", "and others". Used to denote that the author is a
contributor to an anthology.
image album
A CD of "mood music" for a particular manga (or novel,
video game, etc). Hundreds of image albums are released every year.
Image albums based on mangas are also known as "manga CDs" or
"drama CDs".
kara-settei キャラ設定
Character design, the construction of personalities for manga,
anime, movies, games or anything else. This usually includes
costume design, and significant physical and psychological traits.
Character sketches are "dessin" デッサン, after the French
for "sketch".
lady's comic/josei 女性
Manga aimed at the over-20s female market, particularly housewives
and OLs (office ladies). They fulfil a similar role to Western
pulp romance novels. A proportion of lady's comics are fairly
racy.
lolicom/rorikon ロリコン
Contraction of "Lolita complex". A Lolita complex (named after
the character in Nabokov's novel) is an unhealthy desire for very
young girls; the Japanese word is more slang and less clinical,
but means more or less the same thing. The sub-genre of H manga
featuring young-looking girls is known as "loli-manga". In the
world of H-manga, the words "Lolita" and "bishoujo" (pretty girl)
are often used interchangeably.
mah-jong 麻雀 (maajan)
A whole sub-genre of manga centres around the Chinese tile game of
mah-jong, which became popular in Japan about a century ago.
Mah-jong mangas appeared in the late '70s, and their growth was
propelled mainly by the work of artist Kitano Eimei 北野英明.
The readers of mah-jong mangas are mostly in the 18-25 age group,
and the market currently sustains about four magazines. One of the
most popular mah-jong mangas of recent times is Naki no Ryuu 哭きの竜
(by Nojou Jun'ichi 能條純一, serialized on Kindai Mahjong 1986-91,
9 volumes/Y530).
manga 漫画
"Manga" is loosely translatable as "cartoon" or "caricature", or
literally, "involuntary pictures". The term "manga" was coined
in 1814 by the famous artist Katsushika Hokusai, and conveys a sense
of free-flowing composition and quirky style. In Chinese and Korean,
it is pronounced "manhwa", but is written with the same characters.
The "man" character 漫 in "manga" is composed of the radicals for
"water" and "expansive" 曼. It previously meant "flooding", and
later, "inexorably" or "indiscriminately". By association, it came to mean
"involuntary", "aimless", "diffused" and "random". Publicity material
from the absurdly-named Manga Video, Inc. (who distribute translated
anime, not manga) states that "manga" means "irresponsible pictures";
this is complete nonsense.
A 12th-century drawing, the choujuu giga 鳥獣戯画
("birds & beasts frolicking pictures"), is conventionally regarded as
the first work in the Japanese manga tradition. It was drawn by
the Buddhist monk Toba, and light-heartedly depicts animals behaving
like humans. Nowadays, it is regarded as a cliche and has been
frequently satirised.
In the centuries that followed, cartoons were called "giga" or
"kyouga" 狂画 ("crazy pictures"). These influenced
"zenga" 禅画, caricatures used to illustrate Zen koans, which
used exaggeration and incongruity as aids to enlightenment. In 1702,
Shumboku Ouka created "Toba-e"; there were "Ootsu-e" 大津絵,
popular comical drawings, named after Ootsu, the place of their origin;
and explicit, erotic woodblock prints, called "shunga" 春画
(spring pictures). (The latter are well known to the West, but
due to censorship laws, cannot be fully reprinted in the country
of their origin.)
The 19th century saw the re-emergence of ukiyo-e and the appearance of
satirical drawings such as "namazu-e" 鯰絵 ("catfish pictures");
the catfish, which in Japanese myth was said to cause earthquakes, was
now associated with social upheaval in general. Western comics were
introduced early in the Meiji restoration. The magazine "Punch" was
particularly influential, with a Japanese version appearing in 1862.
In the same style, but more local and innovative, was the "Marumaru
Chinbun" 團團珍聞, released in 1877. It used speech
balloons and some Western drawing techniques. The first 4-panel
strip, featuring typeset speech, was published in 1902. The American
comics explosion of the 1920s influenced many Japanese cartoonists
and had some impact at the popular level, although most titles had
to be re-drawn for Japanese audiences.
Manga did not enjoy widespread popularity until after WWII, when Tezuka
Osamu began his experiments in the early 50s. It is well-known that
Tezuka borrowed from Disney, and studied animation at Disney studios.
But rather than slavishly copying Disney's aesthetic, Tezuka strived
to understand the relationship between character drawing and economical,
effective storytelling. His success led to a new, distinctly
Japanese form of graphic narrative, and paved the way for the rapid growth
of the manga industry. Many prominent artists in the 60s and 70s were
former assistants of Tezuka.
manga-ka 漫画家
Anyone who creates manga; a manga artist.
Manga-kas are typically responsible for layout, pencilling, character
design, and supply assistants with "art direction" information.
about inking, screentone, sound effects and other details. In addition,
the great majority of manga-kas write their own stories and dialogue.
(Those who write stories for manga are called "gensaku-sha".) This
arrangement gives manga-kas the power and freedom to produce a coherent,
personal vision, and to do so on a regular basis. The professionalism of
a manga-ka is often measured by the number of mangas they have running
concurrently.
In Japan, many manga-kas have celebrity status comparable to popular
novelists or film directors in the West. They are often household names,
and can command handsome salaries, especially if their work is animated or
otherwise merchandised. Publishers stand to gain millions of yen if one
of their artists' manga becomes a hit -- for example, Takeuchi Naoko's
'Sailor Moon' more than doubled the circulation of 'Nakayoshi' magazine
within a few months of its debut. But until recently, even the most
successful manga-kas usually had fairly informal, trust-based
relationships with their publishers.
mecha メカ
Contraction of "mechanical(s)". A blanket term for any machinery,
robots or equipment.
otaku お宅
"Fanatic". Slang word for hard-core fans of anything, roughly equating
to "geek", "nerd", "fanboy", "freak" or "nut". Thus, a manga otaku is
someone whose life revolves around manga to an extreme degree. (In
Japan, this would probably entail reading or buying well in excess of
2000 pages/week; outside Japan, probably about half that.) The word usually
has neutral connotations within fan culture, but in other contexts, it can
carry very negative connotations.
Literally, "o-taku" is formal speech for "your house", which is also
a polite, second-person way of saying "you". The word came to be applied
to those fans or hobbyists who rarely got out and mingled with the rest
of society. Supposedly, people with similar interests began conversations
with "otaku de wa..." or "at your house, [do you have]..."
(It is interesting to note that the English "fanatic" derives from the
Latin "fanum", or temple/house -- "fanaticus" being a devoted worshipper.)
It has been speculated that the slang usage of "otaku" was coined by
Shinda Mane 新田真子, a manga artist active in the early '80s.
OVA/OAV
Original Video Animation, or anime created specifically for sale
to the home market, without TV broadcast or theatrical release.
Most OVAs sell for around 3000 yen (VHS format) or 6000 yen (laserdisc
format).
phone card テレフォンカード
A cheap, disposable credit card that can be used to make calls from
public telephones, usually about 55mm x 80mm in size. They exist in Japan
and elsewhere, though phone cards of different countries are not normally
compatible. Manga magazines of all kinds often advertise or give away
phonecards decorated with images from their most popular mangas. These
often become collectors' items, like stamps or bubblegum cards.
phonebook
Western manga fans' word for thick, cheap manga magazines, which
resemble phonebooks in their size and paper quality.
renga
"Sequential art/pictures". Another type of printed, graphic storytelling,
differentiated from manga by its liberal use of page space and sparing
use of dialogue.
screentone スクリーントーン
Transparent, adhesive plastic film printed with a pattern, usually
mechanical halftone dots or lines. Illustrators and draughtspeople use
screentone to add quick, accurate shading to their work. There are
many hundreds of patterns and colours available. Some brands of
screentone (usually only available in Japan) can have their printed
surface scraped off to create highlights.
Most recent how-to-draw-manga books cover the basics of screentone use.
Since the late 80s, many shoujo and shonen mangas are increasingly dependent
on screentone as an artistic device. Pioneers in the field of screentone
technique include Asamiya Kia, Hagiwara Kazushi, Katsura Masakazu, Kitagawa
Shou and many others. However, an even newer trend is the use of
computer-generated tone, which can be customized for individual panels.
Screentone is sometimes mistakenly called "letratone", "ziptone",
"zip-a-tone", etc., which are names of individual brands of screentone.
super-deformed
A style of caricature which stunts the subject's height and simplifies
their facial features, making them seem child-like. Also "deforme".
seinen-manga (1) 成年
"Adult", ie., a synonym for H-manga. Warning labels bearing the
words "seinen komikku" were added to H-manga around 1993, after
the much-publicized furore caused by a housewife who found
erotic material being sold within easy reach of 14-year-olds.
seinen-manga (2) 青年
"Youth" or "young man". (Manga magazines with "Young" or "Big" in
their title are all seinen-manga magazines.) Nearly all seinen-manga
is aimed primarily at 18-25-year-old males, though many readers continue
to follow seinen-manga into their 30s and 40s.
Compared to shounen-manga, which is aimed at a younger, broader audience,
seinen-manga features even more graphic sex and violence, but tends to be
less comic or outlandish in its depiction. Shounen-manga stories of exams,
sport, and school life give way to stories about the world of salarymen,
university students and drop-outs. Dramas and stories with political
or corporate themes are especially popular, though there are a few
well-known SF/occult/fantasy seinen-mangas.
Most seinen-manga magazines have "Young" or "Big Comic" in their
title, although "Morning" and "Action" are two important exceptions.
Accomplished seinen-manga artists of recent times include Kawaguchi
Kaiji, Hirokane Kenshi, Egawa Tatsuya and Urasawa Naoki, many of whom
were disciples of the previous generation of seinen-manga artists.
In 1992, the biggest-selling seinen mangas were:
Rank Title of Work Volumes Number of copies sold
1 Golgo 13 1 - 86 59,000,000
2 Oishinbo 1 - 38 57,000,000
3 YAWARA! 1 - 26 32,000,000
3 Be Bop High School 1 - 21 32,000,000
5 The Silent Service 1 - 17 15,000,000
6 Kachou Shima Kousaku 1 - 17 13,000,000
6 3 x 3 Eyes 1 - 13 13,000,000
8 Crayon Shinchan 1 - 5 9,000,000
8 Shonen Ashibe 1 - 6 5.000,000
10 AKIRA 1 - 6 3,900,000
sensei 先生
Honorific title roughly equivalent to "Master", "Dr.", "Teacher",
bestowed upon senior, respected professionals of any kind. These days,
most manga artists are addressed as "sensei".
shoujo-manga 少女
"Girls' manga". Shoujo-manga is the genre targeted at young female
manga readers. The classification is not based on storytelling style,
artistic style, or even content -- if a publisher designates a manga
as intended for a young female audience, then it is shoujo-manga.
A pioneering shoujo-manga was Tezuka's Ribon no Kishi リボンの騎士.
Published in a girls' magazine in the mid '50s, it inspired other artists
to bring the manga phenomenon to female readers. Many of these were women
who thought they knew their audience better than male manga-kas, and fostered
the rapid growth of the shoujo-manga market. Some of the most famous
names from this era are Ikeda Ryouko 池田理代子,
Hagio Moto 萩尾望都, and Ohshima Yumiko 大島弓子.
Today, there are many successful female manga-kas, and most shoujo-manga
artists are women. Of course, there are also male shoujo-manga artists
(eg. Wada Shinji), just as there are female shounen-manga artists (eg.
Rumiko Takahashi).
Shoujo-manga is at least as diverse as any other type of manga,
encompassing a huge variety of styles and genres. In fact, shoujo-manga
accounts for about 35% of all manga published in Japan today. Because
of this diversity, it is difficult to talk about general defining
characteristics of shoujo-manga. There are always many exceptions
to the rule. But as a very rough guideline, it might be said that
the typical shoujo manga:
- emphasises emotions, atmosphere and mood, rather than action.
- uses less literal ("A then B then C") storytelling, and more
impressionism and montage.
- rarely depicts "ugliness", unless heavily stylized.
- shows considerable attention to details of costume and dress.
- has greater interdependence of words and pictures. (For example,
characters might be differentiated by their personality more
than their physical appearance.)
- is rarely made into anime. (This is mainly due to marketing
reasons; shoujo-manga have less fanatical followings. Those
few which have been animated are mostly targeted at under-10s.
There are some exceptions, but in most of these cases, males
were part of the anime's target audience.)
A common misconception about shoujo-manga is that the genre is
limited to romance stories only, or that some subject matter is
off-limits. This is wrong -- it is true that drama
and romance stories are prevalent, but they are only
a part of the shoujo-manga tradition that also includes fantasy,
SF, "mystery" (thriller), and horror. (Some shoujo mangas contain
no romantic or sentimental elements whatsoever.) For example, shoujo
horror mangas can be at least as explicit or shocking as anything
aimed at a male audience, and shoujo-manga actually dominates the
horror manga market.
An increasing number of men are turning to shoujo-manga, often
after burning out on years of formulaic shonen-manga, or via the
influence of female friends and relatives. ("It was just lying around
the house...") While this may have been slightly stigmatic in the
past, it turns no heads these days. There is also the rise of
"unisex" manga magazines such as Wings, and South, and artists such as
CLAMP and Kouga Yun, whose audience is less and less gender-specific.
Some important shoujo-manga magazines are: Nakayoshi and Ribbon (for
under-6th graders), Lala and Hana to Yume (for teenagers), Susperia
(horror), Patsy ("unisex"), Cain (fantasy), and Noel (SF/fantasy).
There are many shoujo-manga fans on the net; perhaps more than the
traffic on rec.arts.manga would seem to indicate. There is a mailing
list devoted to shoujo manga and anime:
send subscription requests to non...@usagi.jrd.dec.com
send postings to sho...@usagi.jrd.dec.com
NB: The word "shoujo" should be written and spoken with the long "ou",
to avoid confusion with the word "shojo" (処女, meaning "virgin").
shounen 少年
Boy, or youth. The first mangas to achieve mass circulation, and
to be printed in "phonebook" format, were aimed at the shounen audience.
Today, shounen-manga still have the largest market share, and most
shounen magazines are weekly "phonebooks". However, many adults and
girls are loyal shounen-manga readers.
The most popular manga magazine in Japan is Shounen Jump, a weekly
of about 450 pages' length, read by around 7 million people each week.
Recent Japanese issues of Shounen Jump can be even be found in
Chinatowns all over the world. Shounen Jump's success is due to a
winning formula of combining action, drama, and sensationalism in
addictive, drawn-out sagas. While competitors have tried to emulate
the formula (with limited success), it also has its down side.
Shonen Jump mangas are infamous for dragging on well past their use-by date,
and draining the hardiest manga-kas of their creativity and artistic freedom.
However, Shounen Jump has retained its leading position for years, and will
probably stay at the top for years to come.
tachiyomi 立ち読み
"Browse", literally "Read while standing". Many bookstores frown on
those who tachiyomi, and take precautions to stop customers stealing
free reads. There will often be signs forbidding tachiyomi -- if
ignored, bookstores often respond by raising prices and/or sealing
their stock in plastic bags.
tankoubon
"Collected volume" or book. Mangas are sold in tankoubon format after
being serialized in magazines. Most manga tankoubons are softcover,
of about 200 black & white pages in length, and sell for around 390 yen.
However, there are a large number of semi-standard formats, generally
conforming to metric page sizes.
The suffixes "-ban" (version) and "-shuu" (collection) are used
to describe some types of tankoubon. "Wide-ban" tankoubons have at least
4-500 pages, "aizoku-ban" tankoubons usually have hard covers, and "anime-ban"
are all-colour adaptations of anime. There are "illust-shuu" (illustration
collections), "tampenshuu" (short story collection), etc.
Tankoubon sales account for a large proportion
of a publisher's profits, while magazines barely recover their costs,
especially those with high circulations. However, magazines may
occasionally include short stories or colour pages which rarely,
if ever, find their way into tankoubons.
The English word "comics" ("komikkusu") is used interchangeably with
"tankoubon", although "komikkusu" is not usually used to describe
Western comics.
ukiyo-e 浮世絵
"Floating world pictures", depicting life in Edo-period Japan.
The "floating world" was originally a Buddhist term referring to the
transient nature of life, but later came to mean a hedonistic obsession with
living for the present. Thus, ukiyo-e were pictures of life's ephemeral
pleasures.
Hishikawa Moronobu created the first ukiyo-e in the 1670s after
discovering how to make monochrome woodblock prints. They became
especially popular in the mid-18th century with improvements in
publishing technology. Suzuki Harunobu created full-colour nishiki-e,
and Kitagawa Utamaro created ookubi-e with detailed backgrounds,
often adorned with mica. The standard declined as the market became
saturated, but in the 19th century, Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige
reinvented ukiyo-e with their vibrant, dynamic approach. In the Meiji
period, ukiyo-e sometimes appeared in packing material for goods sent to
Europe, and caught the attention of impressionists such as Degas, Manet,
and Van Gogh.
Today, ukiyo-e seems to be more appreciated in the West than in Japan.
However, some manga artists, such as Maruo Suehiro, feature a strong
ukiyo-e sensibility in their work. Characteristics of ukiyo-e can
also be found in many mainstream mangas, though this is due more to
cultural diffusion than direct influence.
UFO catcher
A type of game machine found in Japanese game arcades (and elsewhere,
where it is known by other names). The machine is filled with dolls,
often of manga/anime characters, which can be grabbed by a mechanical
hook under the player's control.
wuxia 武侠
A Chinese word roughly translatable as "chivalrous knight" or
"martial wanderer", describing a genre of adventurous martial arts
fiction. The wuxia genre is relatively unknown in Japan, except
indirectly, through some Chinese classics. But in Taiwan and Hongkong,
the growth of local manga and comics industries has been stimulated
by wuxia literature, especially the work of popular novelists like
Jin Yong 金庸 and Gu Long. At least twenty or so wuxia-inspired
manga titles are published weekly, in 40-page "comic books" with
spectacular color covers. While the quality remains generally low,
the scene is fiercely competitive, and most titles have been running for
years. At one stage, Jademan Comics were regularly translating their
bestsellers into English.
Japanese readers have had some limited exposure to the wuxia manga style
via the work of Taiwanese artist Chen Wen, who now draws specifically
for Japanese publishers. At one time, there was also a possibility that the
work of famous Hongkong artist Mah Wing Shing would be translated
into Japanese. But generally speaking, Chinese martial arts mangas are
usually a totally different world to their Japanese counterparts,
despite the influence and popularity of Japanese manga-kas such as Hara
Tetsuo, Ikegami Ryouichi and Houjou Tsukasa.
yaoi やおい
The characteristic feature of yaoi manga is male homosexual love,
usually between characters from well-known manga or anime. It is also
known as "boys' love manga" or "shotacom". The word "yaoi", usually
written in hiragana, is an abbreviation of "Yama-nashi Ochi-nashi Imi-nashi",
which can be roughly translated as "no climax, no resolution, no meaning".
The genre more or less began in the early 80s, with the publication
of the magazine "June". Today, there are several yaoi manga magazines,
but by far the most yaoi material is doujinshi. It is believed that
"Captain Tsubasa" doujinshis were largely responsible for the growth of
yaoi in general. Comiket is currently dominated by yaoi, a phenomenon
attributed to the yaoi "Captain Tsubasa" doujinshis. Yaoi doujinshis
are thought to have already reached saturation point, according to a chairman
of Comiket. Mainstream publishers are increasingly turning to yaoi anthologies
to compensate for the declining sales of gekiga-based Lady's Comics.
Abbreviations:
WJ Weekly Jump (Shonen Jump)
SJ Shonen Jump
SS Shonen Sunday
VGA Video Girl Ai
YJ Young Jump
YM Young Magazine
AMG Ah! My Goddess (Aa! Megamisama)
OMG Oh! My Goddess (English comic version of Aa! Megamisama)
AMS Ah! Megamisama
3x3 Sazan Eyes
RPG role-playing game (or "fantasy" genre)
UY Urusei Yatsura
FTP File Transfer Protocol
URL Universal Resource Locator
WWW World Wide Web
GN "Graphic Novel" (>50 page Western comic)
JY Jin Yong
Index:
amecomi maajan -> mah-jong
anime mah-jong
anime-ban -> tankoubon manga
assistant manga CD -> image album
bishoujo -> lolicom manga-ka
blood type mecha
boys' manga nishiki-e -> ukiyo-e
cG oL -> lady's comic
character design -> kara-settei oVA
circle ookubi-e -> ukiyo-e
comic market -> comiket otaku
comiket phone card
computer Graphics phonebook
deforme -> super-deformed renga
dessin -> kara-settei rorikon -> lolicom
doujinshi screentone
drama CD -> image album sd -> super-deformed
ecchi -> H-manga seinen-manga
fanboy -> otaku sensei
gag strip shotacom -> yaoi
gekiga shoujo-manga
gensaku-sha shounen-manga
girls' manga -> shoujo-manga studio -> assistant
h-manga tachiyomi
hentai -> H-manga tampenshuu -> tankoubon
hoka tankoubon
illust-shuu -> tankoubon uFO catcher
image album ukiyo-e
josei western comics -> amecomi
kara-settei wide-ban -> tankoubon
komikkusu -> tankoubon wuxia
komikkusu -> tankoubon yaoi
lady's comic ziptone -> screentone
letratone -> screentone
References:
rec.arts.anime FAQs:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/anime/faq/faq.html
articles posted to rec.arts.manga by:
Gene Fornario (ge...@netcom.com)
Tonghyun Kim (tk...@netcom.com)
Chih-Ping Kuo (k...@seattleu.edu
Cynthia Ma (cyn...@wapiko.apana.org.au)
David Mou (dm...@netcom.com)
Simon L. Soong (SSO...@ren.IR.Miami.EDU)
Ryo "W2/JH1CUV" Shiroma (RSHI...@drew.edu)
Kenichiro Tanaka (kt...@andrew.cmu.edu) [?]
Ishigami Yoshitaka (74110,2...@compuserve.com)
Henshall, Kenneth G. "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters",
Charles E. Tuttle & Co., Japan, 1988.
Kobayashi, Tadashi. "Ukiyo-e: Great Japanese Art", Kodansha, 1983.
Schodt, Frederik. "Manga! Manga! The world of Japanese comics",
Kodansha, 1982.
"The Concise Oxford Dictionary", Oxford University Press, 1985.
"Marco Polo" magazine, May 1993.
"Japan as it is - Nihon tateyoko", Gakken, 1990.
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