Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga

<p>This edited volume explores political motives discourses and agendas in Japanese manga and graphic art with the objective of highlighting the agency of Japanese and wider Asian story-telling traditions within the context of global political traditions. Highly illustrated chapters presented here investigate the multifaceted relationship between Japan’s political storytelling practices media and bureaucratic discourse as played out between both the visual arts and modern pop-cultural authors. From pioneering cartoonist Tezuka Osamu contemporary manga artists such as Kotobuki Shiriagari and Fumiyo Kōno to videogames and everyday merchandise a wealth of source material is analysed using cross-genre techniques. Furthermore the book resists claims that manga unlike the <i>bandes dessinées</i> and American superhero comic traditions is apolitical. On the contrary contributors demonstrate that manga and the mediality of graphic arts have begun to actively incorporate political discourses undermining hegemonic cultural constructs that support either the status quo or emerging brands of neonationalism in Japanese society. <i>The Representation of Politics in Manga</i> will be a dynamic resource for students and scholars of Japanese studies media and popular cultural studies as well as practitioners in the graphic arts.</p>