Manga and Japanese Comics

This week I read some Ranma 1/2 since I remember seeing it on TV when I was a kid aired alongside Inuyasha. I thought the story was really cute! The art was fun and the main plot was silly and interesting enough to keep me reading for a while. What I really liked about it was the main twist, how Ranma switches genders when in cold water. I found it an interesting take on gender roles, and how it questioned just how different men and women really are. As opposed to other manga, where there's usually a "gender flip" filler issue, I felt Rumiko handled the story in a way that wasn't awkward or fetishized.

Something I found interesting was the use of nudity. There's always some weird kind of nudity in manga and anime. Like how when any of the sailor scouts in Sailor Moon transform, there are usually shots or frames of them naked, but instead of looking like human bodies they look more like genital-lacking mannequins. In Ranma 1/2, Rumiko actually drew Ranma's nipples in a scene where Ranma was in their girl form. I wasn't like "OOOO Nipples how naughty!" I was more intrigued on why Rumiko chose to do that. Was it just to draw nipples because why not everyone has them? Because I can accept that, that's cool.

On top of Ranma 1/2, I reread my favorite manga which is Oyasumi Punpun. The closest American work I can relate it to is Blankets by Craig Thompson, but darker. The tale follows Punpun, a young boy living in Japan who has a crush on a girl. The art is a mix of hyper realism and cartoonism which separates the reader enough from the world, yet has a familiar quality to it.

The manga chronicles Punpun's unfortunate life from childhood, to puberty, to his early twenties. The story is lighthearted and nostalgic at times, but seriously depressing at others. Punpun is drawn as a tiny bird as a child who then becomes a half-monster half-human being when he grows older. However, all the other characters see Punpun as a regular human boy. Author and illustrator Inio Asano says this is to help the readers see themselves in Punpun, and sympathize with him. It reminded me a lot of the American comic technique that Scott McCloud talked about, where the usage of icons helps readers familiarize themselves with the characters.

Oyasumi Punpun was recently officially translated into English and can be found at Barnes & Noble or you can be sneaky and read it online for free here: http://mangapark.me/manga/oyasumi-punpun/s1/v1/c1/1