Can North American Artists Make Real Manga?

Aesthetic assimilation from artists abroad

By: Dan Casey

Picture perfect: The Kyoto International Manga Museum will be home to "Manga Style -- North America," an exhibition of three North American artists who draw manga-style works. From January 5 through February 5, the gallery will feature superhero comics artist Takeshi Miyazawa, young mens' manga author Felipe Smith and shōjo genre artist Svetlana Chmakova.

The exhibit poses the question to the viewer of what manga truly is and seeks to determine what, if anything, is the difference between manga and derivative works in the manga style from outside of Japan. Is manga inherently Japanese and defined by that quality or is it an aesthetic mode that can be appropriated and implemented by artists worldwide? These questions have started to matter now that people outside of Japan can tell the difference between Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and the legions of other characters with spiky, black gravity-defying hair.

Featuring some eighty-plus works from the three artists, the exhibit should have a myriad of manga-inspired masterpieces for even the most voracious of fans. With several color panels and about twenty-four black-and-white pages from each author, this exhibit looks to be hotter than one of the Uchiha clan's patented fireball jutsu. On January 14, Smith and Miyazawa, both current residents of Japan, will have a discussion with Eijiro Shimada, the editor of Morning manga magazine, about manga and manga-influenced works in Japan and North America. When all's said and done though, the one question on our mind is how to get a ticket to Kyoto.

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