Introduction
Initially regarded as ‘pseudo-manga’, Original English Language (OEL) manga has been accused by some of simply mimicking Japanese manga without contributing to the form creatively (Jüngst, 2006, p. 251). Artists who started out writing and drawing OEL during the manga boom in the West (2002–2008) imitated what they perceived to be manga aesthetics – using monochrome shading, arranging panels in the Japanese reading direction or utilising Japanese scripts for onomatopoeia and sound effects – regardless of whether they or their readers possessed a working knowledge of the Japanese language. This was done with the intention of creating original works to be consumed in the same manner as imported Japanese manga, but this approach led to it being viewed by the public as an inferior and unoriginal imitation, and ultimately it became stigmatised in the American comics industry and anime/
manga communities.
In 2006, Tokyopop, the best-known translated manga and OEL manga publisher in the United States, announced that they would be ‘relabeling’ their original manga, calling it ‘global’ manga instead of OEL or ‘world’ manga, the other often-used label for the genre (Anime News Network, 2006). The intention was to move away from the reputation of OEL and expand beyond the stereotypes born from those early examples of grassroots professional
manga. For a genre to be regarded as pseudo anything is not very helpful in understanding the ways in which it is creative. However, changing its name did not deter some from continuing to define OEL manga (or world manga, global manga etc.) by inabilities, problems and mistakes. Such an attempt may also lead to an oversimplification of the medium and obscuration of its potential.
While this chapter retains the term ‘OEL’ for practical reasons, it will outline several pitfalls that come from adhering to certain beliefs about the medium and discuss how they can be overcome. The chapter suggests a shift in perspective, from focusing on defects to focusing on strengths, and delineates several strong, creative characteristics of OEL using Dramacon as an example of an OEL manga that shows potential for creative content and style using an evolving medium.
‘Japaneseness’ as OEL Manga’s Identity
As Internet use became more widespread in the late 1990s, online exposure allowed greater numbers of fans to encounter the original sources of the manga and anime they had been consuming in translated and adapted editions. It also enabled them to connect with each other on a massive scale in online forums, anime circles and art communities (such as DeviantArt), in which critical discussion of the work was quite usual and spawned an interest in Japanese culture, the source culture of manga and anime. Fans’ sensibilities shifted towards a preference for works that were closer to their source material and had fewer modifications. Up until the early 2000s, American publishers and distributors of anime and manga (such as Viz and Mixx Entertainment, Tokyopop’s previous incarnation) had ‘utilized the “culturally odorless”’ principle in their manga and animation-related products (Iwabuchi, 2002, pp. 94–95), toning down their ‘Japaneseness’ (Wong, 2006, p. 36). This was a move that, according to Wong, had been previously applied to Asian markets with relative success. Regarding manga specifically, this toning down of ‘Japaneseness’
basically consisted of adapting the work to fit local tastes: colouring manga pages that are normally monochrome, flipping artwork and panels so they will read left to right, translating and rewriting large amounts of text and dialogue, if necessary, to fit the language and cultural expectations of the target audience (Brienza, 2009, pp.103, 113; Matsui, 2009, pp. 4, 10; Wong, 2006). However,
to satisfy the new preferences of their fans, publishers and distributors began to market anime and manga with minimal alterations (e.g. subtitles, rather than dubbing, were now favoured).
Part of this shift in marketing strategy was the ‘100% authentic manga’
campaign that American publisher and distributor Tokyopop launched in 2002. This campaign focused on supplying ‘authentic’ Japanese manga, i.e.
manga that is uncoloured, unflipped and still uses Japanese script to depict onomatopoeia and sound effects. Tokyopop published this ‘100% authentic manga’ in the same format as Japanese tankōbon (small book-sized volumes in which manga is published after magazine serialisation) and it is sold at an affordable price (no more than $10 a book). Besides satisfying readers’ demands, it also proved cost-effective, as publishing with minimal alterations meant a lot of saved time and money (Thorn, 2011).
Tokyopop also encouraged local artists by means of a talent-seeking contest,
‘Rising Stars of Manga’, which started in 2002 as part of the ‘100% authentic manga’ campaign. The winners were granted a book deal – the possible start to a career as a professional mangaka (the Japanese word means ‘comic artist,’ but is used here to specify ‘manga’ making in contrast to making ‘comics’). Fans eager to pursue manga creation as a profession submitted their stories, created on the basis of their understanding of manga as readers. This unfortunately led to the criticism that such works are merely ‘simulating’ manga (Jüngst, 2006, 2008). There appears to be a loss of awareness that happens when fans shift from readers to creators. Since their knowledge of manga is sourced from their experience reading translations, they may sometimes unknowingly re-create them stylistically. The same desire for ‘Japaneseness’ that fans feel towards
‘100% authentic’ manga plays itself out when these fans turn to creating OEL manga, resulting in frustration and, consequently, rejection by readers who do not consider the manga sufficiently ‘Japanese’.
As it is obvious that translated manga has to be somewhat adapted and modified for consumption by local readers (in this case, American readers), the manga resulting from the ‘100% authentic manga’ campaign, despite efforts to create less modified comics, could not be considered, in truth,
‘100% authentic’. The text was translated linguistically and puns, slang and wordplay were localised. The visuals were also altered: the artwork follows the Japanese reading direction (right to left), since the pages stay unflipped, but
the text naturally follows the Western reading direction (left to right). In order to remind readers (and educate new ones) that manga should be read in the Japanese reading direction, publishers placed small arrows on page corners or markedly labelled the back and front of the book. Such attempts to mitigate the inherent impossibility of translations being ‘100% authentic’ may have led to certain beliefs about what rules OEL manga must adhere to.