8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 1/10

Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative - ISSN 1780-678X

Home Home archive

Issue 1. Cognitive Narratology

Manga story-telling/showingAuthor: Aarnoud Rommens Published: August 2000

Abstract (E): In this article, I will focus on some formal characteristics thatdistinguish manga from non-Japanese comics production. These two media alsoexert influence on one another, and after decades of stressing westerninfluence on manga artists, I would like to explore the reverse line; mangadoes have an impact on European and Western comics practices. In order tosubstantiate this, I will touch upon the crossover products 'Euromanga' (Boilet)and 'Amerimanga' (Pope).

Abstract (F): Le propos de cet article est d'analyser certaines descaractéristiques formelles qui distinguent les mangas des bandes dessinées non-japonaises. Comme il y a aussi bien des influences réciproques, on examineraégalement, non pas l'aspect bien connu de l'influence de la production non-japonaise sur les mangas, mais celui moins connu de l'impact des mangas surla production occidentale. A cet effet, on étudiera deux exemples de produits"mixtes": une BD "Euromanga" (Boilet) et une BD "Amerimanga" (Pope).

Keywords: manga, Boilet, Pope

1. Manga as a MediumWestern discourse often 'annexes' manga in the overall European/Americancomics production by representing it as a mere genre within comics' constellation,thereby denying the fact that manga is a medium in its own right. Manga istreated as an exotic feature within the Euro-American comics' field. It is solelyseen as the 'Japanese variant of the comic strip', implying that western comicsmay lay claim on the title of 'true' comic. The western gaze turns manga into ananomaly to be colonized by an underlying - or in some cases overt - genredefinition which limits it to the prototypical 'comic with an excess of sex andviolence' (Rommens 2000). This postulative statement homes in on the perceivedotherness when contents is concerned. Not only western (especially American)media in general have a skewed perception, comics publications as well seem tolimit themselves to thematic approaches when manga, and indeed when comics atlarge are concerned. Publications that deviate from the axiom of thematics(contents) are the most interesting as they raise the issue of specificity: whatmakes a comic a comic? As contents and story line can hardly be said to accountfor the specific nature of the medium, one has to stress formal criteria to getsome idea of its inherent characteristics. The same holds true with manga, whichmay profit from a more formally oriented approach. This is not to say thematicpeculiarities are irrelevant to the study of manga, but these factors pertain moreto the Umwelt (social, political, etc. circumstances) then to the actual system ofmanga itself. Besides, thematic issues of have already been discussed atconsiderable length (see for instance Schodt 1986). Therefore, instead of focusingon issues of contents, this article takes a more formal stance. When trying toformulate some of the distinctive features, a comparative analysis betweenmanga and its western counterpart is called for. Most of the references to formalcharacteristics is limited to mere aspect of aesthetics ('those giant manga/animeeyes') or the occasional cliched reference to the use of speedlines. In addition,some of these features stem from the inherently visual nature of the Japanese

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 2/10

writing system and not so much the 'manga language' itself. Therefore, factorssuch as reading direction and to a lesser extent onomatopoeia are not medium(viz. manga) inherent. I will limit myself to those distinctive features which I deemtypical for the medium itself, viz. two procedures that make up the core (centerposition) of manga techniques. L'Univers des Mangas (Groensteen 1991) providedme with an interesting point of departure.

2. Analytical Montage: A CinematographicalNarrative TechniqueSupposed Eastern 'iconophilia' surfaces in the reception of western comics. TheJapanese public and manga artists often describe European and American comicsas too 'wordy' or 'literary'. Sometimes, Western comic strip authors themselvescriticize some of these 'iconoclastic tendencies'. French artist Baudoin for instance,who incidentally made some work for the Japanese publishing house Kodanshastates that he has "never worked with a Japanese scriptwriter, because in Japan,they do use a lot of images without text. European scriptwriters act as if a page isvaluable, as if it has to contain as much as possible. Publishers too think it'sabnormal when you draw three pages of clouds alone, while that may actually benecessary sometimes" (Meesters 1997, my translation).

Indeed, the amount of wordless passages in any volume of manga may bestriking to the Western eye. To 'read' manga is to read images - the rhythm isdetermined by the sequence of images. Of course, western comics also have agenre known as 'sourds' - wordless comics. As opposed to Japanese perception,such works are regarded in the West as 'experimental', 'avant-garde' - in otherwords exotic, or as a new (peripheral) phenomenon. However, even in the'sourds', the sequence of images is not so much based on analytical montage incomparison to manga production. Manga Speed-reading is made possible throughthe elimination of textual information. By using cinematographical techniques(purely metaphorically speaking), this effect is enhanced. In most cases, thismeans that the image alone (in isolation and the sequence) conveys narrativeinformation, its narrative potential being used to the full.

As opposed to Euro-American comics, you will rarely find descriptive captions inmanga. The use of these is kept to a strict minimum, which cannot be said of theprototypical European/American comic. In Three Silver Watches for instance(Vance, Van Hamme 1995: 28) captions are extensively used. On plates three,four and five the text reads: "and so, that evening . Unfortunately, a heavy stormbroke out that very moment . transforming the Rio Grande in a swirling mass"(my translation). In manga, such textual information would disturb the visualcontinuum in the sequence of images. In the quoted passage word and textconvey roughly the same information - that is to say, the text directs the readingand interpretation of the image. This 'doubling' of narrative information throughtextual description is not to be found in any manga. There, captions rather serve a'situating' function, as in "Neo-Tokyo, 2019" (Otomo 1992). In manga,interpretation is achieved through the succession of visual cues, with thesignificant exception of dialogue (cf. infra). In Akira for instance, Neo-Tokio isdepicted as being hit by a tidal wave. Unlike Three Silver Watches, thisinterpretation is based on visual information alone (Otomo 1992: 46 - 47). Thenotion 'description' presupposes a descriptive entity, a narrator in other words.Manga differs markedly from Euro-American comics in its absence of 'textualnarrators'. Neither authorial nor personal textual narrative voices feature inmanga volumes. Instead of filtering visual information through supra-diegeticnarrative voices, manga shows what is happening in a less mediated manner. Thecamera-eye acts as the main source of narration, and it is as it were the directorwho puts the 'stills' in a flowing sequence.

European and American comics usually superimpose on this basic narrative layeran additional textual frame, thus resulting in a double enunciation. There are in

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 3/10

fact two different subjects of enunciation. There is the visual subject ofenunciation - the camera-eye - selecting and presenting material to the viewer.Captions supplement the visual narration with a textual perspective, resulting in atextual subject of enunciation. Furthermore, one can distinguish two levels ofnarration, the intra and the extra-diegetic layers. Intradiegetically speaking, thebasic source of visual information is the isolated image. 'Every image tells astory', so to speak. Following Gaudreault (1984), one might term this the 'micro-story', based on analogy. With abstract images, our compulsion to seek analogyand hence some sort of interpretation (due to a so-called 'horror vacui') is equallyoperative.

Dialogue, as textual information, is part of the intradiegetic story layer, as it isdirectly integrated in the visual make-up: the balloon points to thecharacters/speakers as story entities. This is the intra-diegetic use of the verbalcode. The intradiegetic macro-story consists of the linear configuration of theplates due to sequencing (montage). This is the second component of the iconiccode. Still within the visual narrative layer, one can distinguish 'translinearsequences' (Lefèvre & Baetens 1993). In this case, meaning is composed throughcombining recurrent visual elements in some sort of pattern, a visual motif as itwere. Entering the extradiegetic realm, the occurrence of captions results in asecond use of the verbal code. The textual narrative voice here assumes aposition 'above' the story actions themselves, either through omniscience(authorial narrator) or some sort of temporal, spatial or other form of distance (asis the case with I-narrators). Manga as well uses the verbal and the iconic code,but reduces extradiegetic voices to a minimum. The verbal code is reserved fordialogue - or other 'sounds' - and as being intradiegetic does not interfere with thestory flow. However, it has to be noted that non-translated Japaneseonomatopoeia are very visual, next to being auditive, which further testifies to thevisual integration of the verbal.

The double enunciation of the western comic can be made overt when the twocodes, and hence the two subjects of enunciation are in contradiction. Aninteresting case in point is Chris Ware's Thrilling Adventure Stories (1991). On theone hand, an overlaying personal narrator recounts childhood memories.However, the verbal code is not backed up by the iconic code as the visualnarrative shows a traditional superhero comic. What you see is not what you get,and what you read is not what you see. Such a clash between modes of narrationis unimaginable in manga, as the extra-diegetic layer is (nearly) non-existent. Theprinciple technique of storytelling is 'analytical montage' (Groensteen 1991) inwhich the sequencing of plates is very resourceful in comparison with a ratherconstrained Euro-American montage and page layout. In manga, there is notextual interference. Analytical montage entails the 'scattering' of a story eventover different frames. A scene that would 'normally' (at least, from a westernpoint of view) be captured in a single pane - with the necessary (or if you willredundant) descriptive information - is now cut up over different frames. Theisolated frames, with alternating 'camera-angles', are put together in a visualcontinuum. Especially fighting scenes provide excellent illustrative material to thistechnique. For instance, the narrative in Crying Freeman (Koike & Ikegami 1994)proceeds through a rapid succession of images in the visual chain. Manga artistsare real masters in creating such sweeping visual arrangements. Story tensionand atmosphere are effected through variation of the number of plates per page -while applying cinematographical techniques such as fade-out, fade-in andsuperimposition - ultimately resulting in flexible page layouts. The 'mise-en-page'shows endless variation and is baroque compared to prototypical Euro-Americanpage layouts. This is why a typology of comic book layout formats, as proposedby Beno�t Peeters (1991) does not apply to manga layouts. Peeters identifiesfour basic types of page layouts, the conventional, rhetorical, decorative andproductive. In a conventional page make-up, the distribution of plates on a page

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 4/10

is given and follows a strict pattern. The 'story' is dominant and determines the'painting', viz. the way in which the plates taken together form one picture. In thedecorative layout, not the story, but the painting is dominant. In both types storyand painting are independent, which is not the case with rhetorical and productivelayouts. In a rhetorical layout, the story has the upper hand, while the paintingdominates in a productive plate setup. For more information on the subject seePeeters (1991) and also Lefèvre & Baetens (1993).

It has to be said that institutional factors have contributed to this free use of pagelayout that is so common in manga. Due to competition on the manga market, theprice of a volume the size of a telephone book does not exceed five dollars(Gaouette, 1999). A manga artist usually has thirty pages at his disposal, perweek that is, so he is not as constrained as his European or American colleagues,who cannot boast such a luxury. So in a way, as opposed to what Baudoinasserted, Euro-American comics' pages are 'valuable'.

3. Patchwork Aesthetics

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 5/10

ill. 1 Crying Freedom (Koihe and Ikegami 1994)

In this paragraph, I will limit myself to a characteristic trait of the isolated plates,which pertain to the micro-story level. Transformation and instability are not onlykeywords when page layout is concerned. The graphic style of each individualmanga plate is also marked by a high degree of variation. Manga plates can bequite heterogeneous in their stylistic make-up, due to the mixture of differentdrawing styles. Elements of decor follow a different visual 'logic' than thecharacters (Groensteen 1991: 47). While story actors might be depicted in arealistic or as more or less caricatures, the story setting is represented in whatone may characterize as a 'photographic' style. Story characters seem not to bepart of the story universe when judging the seeming incomparability of styles. Thedepiction of strong sentiments with manga actors also follows a certain logic oftransformation. It is perfectly possible for a certain 'realistically' portrayedcharacter to turn 'cartoony' when affected by strong emotions (see ill. 2).Moreover, it seems that story characters lack definite ethnic characteristics. In

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 6/10

some cases, it is impossible (and irrelevant) to decide if a manga character iseither eastern or western. Despite his Japanese sounding name, Yo Hinomura(alias Crying Freeman) does not strike the reader as 'visually' very Japanese (seeill. 1). His visual identity is rather ambiguous. Crying Freeman could be Asian oreven Spanish for that matter, doubtlessly adding to the mystery surrounding theprotagonist. Incidentally, Christophe Gans, director of the film version of CryingFreeman, interpreted the protagonist as someone resembling 'une espèce detorero, qu'il ait une gr�ce d'hidalgo espagnol dont les femmes tomberaientinstantanément amoureuses'. At other occasions he spoke of 'a mixture of BruceLee and Alain Delon'. He eventually chose Mark Dacascos for the leading role.(Martinez 1996: 40-42)

ill. 2 A 'cartoony' explosion of emotion of the protagonist of "Dominion"(Shirow 1996)

Sometimes only subtle details such as hair color or clothing mark the differencebetween characters, making it necessary for the reader to be acquainted with themanga reading code in order to keep up with the story. 'Realistic' artists such asOtomo or Shirato are exceptional and their approach fits more closely within the

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 7/10

western paradigm of individual style. Shirow, for instance, works withoutassistants thus moving closer towards the western ideal of 'authenticity'. In hiswork, there is no discrepancy between a photographic background and morestylized figures, although caricature does feature in his manga (see ill. 2). Thecode of representation in manga is highly unstable, this in sharp contrast withEuro-American comics. In Western rhetoric, the 'attachment' to a notion such as'personal style' condemns such mixture of visual language, as the true ('high')artist is supposed to testify to an individual sensibility through an individual styleof imagery.

4. A Case of Cross-over: Pope and BoiletManga is a subsystem within the 'ninth art's' polysystem, thereby competing withthe subsystems of American and European comics. The dynamics between theseresults in conversions, which can be catalogued as exchanges of narrativetechniques. In this paragraph I will focus on some transformations within the workof Euro-American artists, viz. Frédéric Boilet and Paul Pope. Within the westerncomics' subsystem, manga represents a peripheral phenomenon exertingpressure on the 'canonical' techniques of European and American art. In theworks of Boilet and Pope, some of these 'peripheral' manga elements haveinfluenced their own approach to comics' creation.

In 1997, The One Trick Rip Off was published and in his foreword Pope states that'two Japanese manga artists . Junichi Nojo and King Gonta . helped me open upmy page lay-outs and reconsider how to approach different aspects of image-making within the panels. Gone are the tight, four-tiered 'European' page lay-outs'(1997: 5).

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 8/10

ill. 3Visualisation of sound and cut-foff plates in Paul Pope's "The OneTrick Ripp Off" (1997)

Indeed, the latest works of Paul Pope testify to an intensification of the visualnarrative layer. The page layouts are more dynamic and the techniques ofanalytical montage feature prominently. Striking is that at certain times the top ofthe frames is cut off - a place conventionally reserved for captioned texts. Is thisa case of symbolic violence to the extradiegetic voice? In any case, due to thediscarding of extradiegetic narration, an uninterrupted diegesis is achieved. Alltextual information is provided in the form of dialogue. Furthermore, the use ofEnglish onomatopoeia strikes one as highly visualized. As in manga, these signsare not only verbal in nature, but do also function iconically as they are anintegral part of the visual configuration of the micro-story (see ill. 3).

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 9/10

ill. 4 Boilet's "Tokyo est mon jardin": Japanese and French textscombined with a 'European' page lay-out (1997)

It is precisely in his use of original Japanese onomatopoeia that gives the work ofBoilet a decidedly Japanese look. Not only does he use Japanese sound icons, healso uses Japanese in his text balloons as in Love Hôtel and Tôkyô est mon jardin.More significant is that Boilet also refrains from inserting any extradiegetic voice,thus avoiding the prototypical double enunciation. However, Boilet does usecaptions, but these serve an intradiegetic function - viz. as dialogue texts withoutthe speaker being depicted in the frame. They really function as balloons.However, Boilet does not make extensive use of analytical montage. His pagelayouts follow a certain regular pattern and can therefore be termed 'European'(see ill. 4).

ConclusionThe impact of manga on European and American comics' production is on the rise.This increase of influence can be linked to the growing success of manga in Franceand America especially, where there is a certain tradition with regards totranslation, distribution and marketing of this particular art form. The influence onAmerican and European artists manifests itself on the fringe of the comics' systemand manifests itself in a more visual and textually less mediated manner of

8/26/2015 Manga story-telling/showing by Aarnoud Rommens

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/narratology/aarnoudrommens.htm 10/10

narration.

BibliographyBAETENS, Jan and Pascal LEFEVRE. (1993) Pour une lecture moderne de la bandedessinée. Bruxelles:BCB

BOILET, Frédéric, Beno�t PEETERS and Jirô TANIGUCHI (1997). Tôkyô est monJardin. Tournai: Casterman

GAUDREAULT, André (1984). Film, récit, narration: le cinema des frères Lumière,in Iris 2/1

GAOUETTE, N. (1999). "Get Your Manga here". The Christian Science Monitor.February 8, 1999.

GROENSTEEN, Thierry (1991). L'Univers des Mangas. Tournai: Casterman

KOIKE, Kazuo and Ryoichi Ikegami. (1994). Crying Freeman. "Part two: Journeyto Freedom". San Francisco: Viz Communications

MARTINEZ, D. (1996) Crying Freeman: du Manga au Film. Grenoble: Glénat

MEESTERS, Gert (1997). "Baudoin: geen leven als pingu�n". De Morgen. July 27.

OTOMO, K. (1992). Akira. Part 6: "Chaos". Grenoble: Glénat

PEETERS, Benoit (1991). Case, Planche, Récit : Comment Lire une BandeDessinée. Tournai: Casterman

POPE, P. (1997). The One Trick Rip Off. Milwaukie: Dark Horse Comics

ROMMENS, Aarnoud (2000). "Manga en Anime: Japan en de DiscursieveIdentiteitsconstructie". Unpublished paper.

SCHODT, F. (1986). Manga! Manga!. Chicago: Brimstone Press

WARE, Chris (1991). "Thrilling Adventure Stories" RAW vol. 2 n�3. New York:Penguin

This site is optimized for Netscape 6 and higher

site design: Sara Roegiers @ Maerlantcentrum