Sport (genre)
Sports are a major genre of Japanese comics and animated films, manga, and anime that are devoted to depicting sports . Series of the genre appear in most manga magazines and successful manga are often adapted as an anime film or television series. There are also some magazines devoted exclusively to sports manga, especially golf - such as the Golf Comic and Golf Comic Athlete . Both in these and in general magazines, interviews and editorial articles on sports topics appear in the context of the stories. In Japan's best-selling magazine, Shōnen Jump , around 10% of the series can be assigned to the sports genre. In the second best- selling Shōnen Magazine , it is even every third series. Many of the works led to an increasing interest and participation in the respective sport in Japan and, conversely, some of the artists were previously active in sports. The impact of Captain Tsubasa on the popularity of previously insignificant football in Japan was particularly great .
Some authors see close links between the sports genre and other works devoted to games or professions. These are - like sports - often represented in the Shōnen genus, which is aimed at boys . Similar to sport, the focus here is on competition and the further development of the protagonist's skills.
Content
The core element of the works is, according to the name of the genre, the representation of a certain sport. Usually the development of an athlete is followed from the beginning to the professional career. The classic pattern, called spo-kon (composed of "sports" and "konjō", ie "determination, willpower, persistence") is the young hero from a poor family, who against numerous opposition - socially and athletically - and through hard work Training eventually finds success. The coach or father, sometimes also in the same person, is tough and relentless towards the hero, but ultimately has his best in mind. The trainer plays a central role in this. There are also arguments in the relationship between athlete and coach. According to Miriam Brunner, the conflicts are similar to the adolescence conflict. Ultimately, they end in the athlete's emancipation from his trainer. Motivation of the hero can be a childhood dream, the father's wish or his unfulfilled dream that the son wants to fulfill. In achieving his goals, the protagonist often develops his own, unusual techniques or training methods that ultimately help him to achieve his goal. At the end of the story or a section there is usually a victory, or a defeat with decency for the hero. The tension is therefore not created by the unexpected outcome, but by the representation of the path and the overcoming of the challenges. The interaction of the developing characters also adds to the appeal of the stories and the interest of readers.
The spo-kon scheme uses the respective sport as a metaphor for human endeavors and proof against the challenges of life. The scheme of action can also be interpreted as Japan's self-view as a country that holds its own against its neighbors through ingenuity and perseverance despite fewer resources. This is cited as the reason for the popularity of the genre, especially in the post-war period, which was marked by reconstruction. In addition, the spo-kon scheme takes up the tradition of the Bushidō , the code of the samurai. This was revived for propaganda purposes during the war and adapted to the new pacifist state after the war in the form of sports stories, in which the sporting competition replaced the military one. The virtues shaped by Bushidō such as tenacity, masculinity, perseverance and courage remained. In addition, friendship and teamwork are also important topics in the series that do not come from the values of the samurai.
In addition, there are also works that deviate significantly from the spo-kon scheme, including series in which sport is more of a stage for romantic, comic or dramatic stories about social relationships than the actual topic. The sports most strongly represented in the genre are baseball , golf , basketball and, since the 1980s, soccer . The variety of themed sports is much greater, however, ranging from popular sports to fishing, traditional Japanese sports such as kendo , karate and kyūdō to series that are devoted to fictional games and sports, especially in a science fiction scenario.
Stylistic devices
In the genre, stylistic devices are often used that are particularly suitable for depicting action and building tension. Dramatic scenes or fast movements are illustrated in the manga by tight image sequences, that is, a sequence of images with only slight differences that show every detail of a movement and stretch the narrative time . Other stylistic devices used are speedlines, onomatopoeia , strong perspective foreshortening and varied page layouts. The sequences of images are staged in a cinematic manner, typically for the narrative flow of story mangas , and use changing perspectives, changing distances to the action and montages of events taking place at the same time.
One means of depicting dynamics in both the manga and the anime is the distorted, squashed representation of balls in ball sports during their flight, after a throw or kick. This is supposed to convey the speed and power of the flight. Other objects of sporting activity or the figures themselves are also subject to such exaggerated representation. Particularly when a work follows the classic spo-kon scheme, individual games or battles between the protagonists often last many chapters or several episodes. Many details are shown, but often only highlights of the action and not the game as a whole, despite the detail of the presentation.
The stylistic devices of exaggeration used not only stem from the build-up of tension, which is particularly desirable when it comes to sports, but also from traditional Japanese kabuki theater. This also uses exaggerated, stylized poses. In addition, exaggeration is also a classic means of narration in the visual medium of comics .
history
Sport was an early topic in Japanese animated films. When the number of short films produced increased in the 1920s, Dōbutsu Olympic Taikai was the first sport-related animated film to emerge in 1928 . The Anime Encyclopedia calls it the first sports anime. Sports, especially international competitions, were considered a modern topic that also conveyed traditional values. At the beginning of the 20th century, it also stood for Japan's claim to be present on the international stage. In the course of the war, sport was replaced by military themes that served as war propaganda.
After the Second World War , all Japanese sports and their theming were initially banned under the American occupation. These, mostly martial arts and related sports, were suspected of having contributed to militarism. Instead, American sports were promoted, which had great success. The first post-war anime on sports, Dōbutsu Daiyakyūsen from 1949, was also devoted to baseball. In the wake of this popularity, the first sports series appeared in the Shōnen magazines aimed at young male audiences . These followed the spo-kon scheme. In the post-war period, full of privation, there was a strong identification with the heroes of these stories. The first sports manga series ever was from 1952 Igaguri-kun by Eiichi Fukui . The plot revolves around a judoka, which was only possible due to the censorship that was recently lifted. The lifting of the ban was followed by great interest in the sports and related media. Some samurai series that have not been militaristic since the war, but focused on sword fighting as an art and sport, can also be viewed as sports manga. In the anime of the post-war period, sport was only rarely represented, the animators mainly devoted themselves to genres such as fantasy and science fiction , which could not be covered in the same way by real film .
In the 1960s the genre became more successful, also because of the general enthusiasm for sports for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 . Influenced by the Gekiga movement aimed at more adult readers , the stories became more serious. The focus shifted even more to the struggle for success, sometimes with a socially critical view of the lower class. The most important representative of the genre of this time is Ashita no Joe from Ikki Kajiwara . The story about a boxer appeared from 1967 to 1973 and gained unprecedented popularity. After the protagonist's opponent died after a boxing match in 1970, hundreds gathered in the premises of the Kōdansha publishing house for a memorial ceremony. Ashita no Joe brought with it a wave of new sports manga. The sporting test of strength in the series was also to be understood as symbolic of the economic recovery of Japan. At the same time, stories like Joe's as a symbol of proletarian resistance were popular in the student protest movements of their time. As a result of the enthusiasm for sports, the topic became more interesting again for anime productions and the first films were made for television. The implementation of Kyojin no Hoshi by Ikki Kajiwara and Noboru Kawasaki , a series on baseball , is considered the first sports anime on television. Even in Harris no Kaze , a school drama from 1966, sport played an important role, but was not yet decisive, so that the production is not assigned to the sport genre by many authors. The Manga Kyojin no Hoshi tried out a special dramatization of the action scenes through detailed representations and close image sequences and was the most popular of its time. At the plant, the conflicted relationship between father, who also acts as a trainer, and son was taken to extremes. The father eventually becomes the coach of an opposing team in order to give his son new challenges and inspire him to new achievements.
From the 1960s onwards, the first sports stories appeared in the Shōjo magazines aimed at girls , which were mostly more cheerful and humorous. One of the first sports series, the volleyball story Attack No. 1 by Chikako Urano , was published from 1968 to 1972. The story, which became known internationally as the anime series Mila Superstar , was even darker and more strongly influenced by the spo-kon scheme than other works intended for the target group. She shaped the Shōjo sports series for the next decade. One of the most successful subsequent series was the tennis manga Ace o Nerae! by Sumika Yamamoto , published from 1972. Also yonkoma -Manga, four-part comic strips to sports themes were more common than in the decades before. From 1977 onwards, romantic stories emerged in the sports genre, a development from the Shōjo manga. In these in particular, the spo-kon scheme was abandoned and it was increasingly dismantled. In the series Touch from 1981, the hero doesn't have to strive for his sporting success; he cares no less about his love affairs than he does about his baseball training. The sporting competition thus became the background scenario for a romantic comedy. Since the 1990s there have been a number of sports series in the Shōnen magazines that do not reject the classic scheme, but which also contain love stories and whose protagonists as bishons , attractive boys and young men, also find a large number of female readers. A successful example of this development is the series The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi , which appeared in 1999 .
The compulsion that had existed in anime since the 1960s to orientate oneself towards commercial usability and links to merchandising products increased in the 1980s. The production of sports animes declined in a row and was limited to easily marketable titles such as the soccer series The Great Soccer Stars ( Captain Tsubasa ) , which was sure to attract a large international audience. At the same time, animes for smaller target groups, also on sports topics, appeared on the emerging video market. In addition, there were productions about sports mascots such as Eagle Sam in 1983. From the 1990s, the importance of the genre in anime grew again. In addition to the classic sports series, there were series about fictional sports that emerged from fantasy and science fiction, which at times became more popular in this medium than those about real sports. The transition to stories about games and especially video games became fluid. Also in the 1990s, the basketball manga Slam Dunk, a series that developed new visual and narrative techniques, focused the narrative flow on the action-packed and exciting moments of the games, but at the same time stretched the representation of a game. In addition, the series popularized basketball in Japan and more stories about the sport followed.
The success of manga and anime outside of Japan led to many international imitations of Japanese narrative and drawing styles from 2000 onwards. The subject of sport, previously of little importance in comics outside of Japan, also became the subject of stories. For example, the OEL Manga Boys of Summer by Chuck Austen and Hiroki Otsuka was created in 2006 . The soccer series Gothic Sports by Anike Hage is the most successful publication in the German scene .
Selected Works
In the following, works of the genre are listed that have been internationally successful or have been received in specialist literature because of their special importance.
literature
- Paul Gravett: Manga - Sixty Years of Japanese Comics . Egmont Manga and Anime, Cologne, 2006, ISBN 3-7704-6549-0 , pp. 52-55. (English)
- Frederik L. Schodt: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics . Kodansha America, 1983, ISBN 0-87011-752-1 , pp. 79-87. (English)
- Miriam Brunner: Manga . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2010. ISBN 978-3-7705-4832-3 , pp. 38-43.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jason Thompson: Manga. The Complete Guide . Del Rey, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-345-48590-8 , pp. 346-349 .
- ↑ Omote Tomoyuki: "Naruto" as a Typical Weekly Magazine Manga . In: Jaqueline Berndt and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (eds.): Manga's Cultural Crossroads . Routledge, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-50450-8 , pp. 166 f .
- ↑ a b c d e Miriam Brunner: Manga . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-7705-4832-3 , p. 38-43 .
- ↑ a b c d Paul Gravett: Manga - Sixty Years of Japanese Comics . Egmont Manga and Anime, 2004. pp. 52-54.
- ↑ a b c d Mio Bryce and Jason Davis: An Overview of Manga Genres . In: Toni Johnson-Woods (Ed.): Manga - An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives . Continuum Publishing, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8264-2938-4 , pp. 49 (Reference to Thompson, 2007 and Timothy R. Lehmann: Manga: Masters of the Art . Collins Design, New York, 2004, pp. 84-87.).
- ↑ a b Angela Drummond-Mathews: What Boys Will Be: A Study of Shonen Manga. In: Toni Johnson-Woods (Ed.): Manga - An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives . Continuum Publishing, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8264-2938-4 , pp. 64f.
- ↑ a b c d Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2002, ISBN 1-880656-72-8 , pp. 112-115 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Schodt, 1983, pp. 79-87.
- ↑ a b Helen McCarthy: A Brief History of Manga . ilex, Lewes 2014, ISBN 978-1-78157-098-2 , pp. 34 .
- ↑ Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2002, ISBN 1-880656-72-8 , pp. 20 .
- ↑ a b c d e Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 , pp. 607 f .
- ↑ Jonathan Clements : Anime - A History . Palgrave Macmillan 2013. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-84457-390-5 .
- ↑ Schodt, 1983, p. 69.
- ↑ Clements, 2013, pp. 137-139.
