Reading: Contextualizing Manga The Right Way (and then some)

24Sep09

A good part of this post contains sections lifted, often verbatim, from a post I originally made on my LJ. Some of my readers may have a very odd sense of deja vu because of it.

Late last year, this particular post on Insanejournal attracted an insane amount of attention from the Katekyo Hitman Reborn! fandom, and, in my opinion, for good reason. I participated in the argument, taking what was apparently a very unpopular stance with regard to my take on her series.

My original post, fandom rant and vitriol included, is still up for public viewing on LJ, for the curious. Now that I’ve let that sit for a year, however, let’s go into some of the more valuable points we can lift from all of my extreme (but justified) angy, since I firmly believe that I had a very valid message to deliver, both to casual readers and members of fandom.

The original argument of the blogger that I linked can be summarized in the following points:

1. KHR (that is, Reborn!) is a bad series because it underrates their girl characters. All they do are domestic, boring things that basically affirm chauvinism over feminism and female empowerment.
2. What is with shonen series and their degrading, narrow-minded portrayal of women? It’s so tasteless.
3. Fanon is the only thing that can save the female characters in Reborn.

In my counterargument, I decided to ignore the third point. My basis for doing so is that I feel that there IS no argument to be had, because there is no real basis for making such a claim. I did, however, present two basic arguments: contextualizing Japanese anime and manga within its proper space, and the concept of an original audience and its relations to how one should read a work from another country.

Contextualizing Japanese anime and manga within its proper space.

Remember all of that stuff that your teachers have taught you about the universality of literature and how we can always bring a bit of ourselves into our reading of a work, regardless of where it came from and who it was written for?

Well, throw it out the window. The hard truth of the matter is that we need to understand that all works of literature arise from a particular socio-cultural CONTEXT, written at a particular time for a particular AUDIENCE. The cultural values of a whole country are embodied, to some degree and in some fashion, within the work of an author from that country – see, writers cannot help but bring where they come from into their work, and their writing either affirms or deconstructs these values that they have embodied. Then and ONLY THEN, in the intersection between where the work is coming from and we’re we’re coming from, can we glean some sort of common experience. Similarity in difference, difference in similarity. That sort of thing.

What does this mean to us? This means that all literary works are agents in the transmission of their home culture. They reflect what their country values or does not value in terms of social practices and other things.

What does this mean for us as readers? This means that we must be AWARE of cultural differences BEFORE we have any violent reactions or misinterpretations of what a text is trying to tell us about certain things. Hence, before one attempts to evaluate a literary work, she must be aware that her values may not be their values, and the people from the country in which the work originated from will read what she sees differently.

It is entirely possible, of course, to read a literary work as it is, and not be burdened by the responsibility of cultural awareness – that is, after all, what most casual readers intend to do. I believe, however, that an awareness of context ultimately makes for more intelligent and enjoyable reading. Of course, that is my opinion; if it does nothing but spoil the fun for you, don’t bother.

The only time I’m going to have an issue with you (and I’m sure that I’m not the only one), is when criticism is attempted, and the viewpoint from which it arises from is terribly misiniformed or myopic. That is doing a disservice, I believe, to the actual creative significance of the work in question. It may also be viewed in a very arrogant light, as though some literary works or theoretical frameworks are better than others by sheer merit of their being from a particular country. In most cases, for their being “white”.

In the author’s original argument, she seemed to make a hasty generalization regarding shonen works – she appears to assume that such series display a tendency towards underrating their female characters. Although she may not have said it directly, her tone seems to imply that this treatment is tasteless and anti-feminist.

Let’s go back to my point. Her assumption of it being “anti-feminist” is based on a Western and thus very different model of feminism that may be espoused or applied to Japanese culture, and to Japanese shonen manga, in particular. It is wrong and totally unfair of her to judge a piece using her own cultural standards.

The exact differences between the Western critical practice of feminism and the Japanese critical practice of feminism deserve its own post, hopefully in the future.

The concept of an original audience and its relations to how one should read a work.

I’ve already stressed the point on the un-universality of literature, and how an enriched and, if I may be so bold, “proper’ reading of a text would take a work’s cultural context into mind. This includes considering the fact that more often than not, foreign works are not written for you. They were written for the people that the author expected to have bought their story.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is serialized in Shounen Jump, which is a weekly boys’ comic magazine. It is therefore proper to assume that the comic was directed at pre-pubescent adolescents who probably don’t think very high of girls in general. They are not looking for a stellar, commendable portrayal of the opposite sex. They are looking for exploding things, blood, gore, kick-ass fight scenes and plot twists from the “hey, that really don’t make that much sense but it leaves room for more fighting so who the heck’s complaining right?” school of thought. They probably completely ignore the women portrayed in Reborn! unless they’re wearing school uniforms or skirts, in which case it would allow them to stare at their legs. Or if they’re getting pseudo-raped by illusory tentacles.

Let’s zoom out to Shounen Jump in general. Beyond everything, a weekly comic is a money-making venture, with carefully calculated demands on their mangaka based whatever their target audience happens to be. Basically, if the mangaka in question does not curb his or her ideal storyline to suit what her readers want, he or she will quickly find themselves out of a job.

It is unfair for us, I think, to look for things that shouldn’t even be in a work and judge it based on the absence of these factors. That’s like expecting an action movie to have a real plot or a children’s show to come up with the cure for cancer. You can’t really expect complete, all-encompassing intelligence in a manga meant for little boys (or dirty fangirls in it for the gay, but that’s a whole new matter altogether). If you wanted something like that, then you’re obviously looking in the wrong place for it.

There is also, once again, the issue of cultural differences to consider. I think I’ve effectively explained that point in my previous paragraphs.

Old readers will note that I omitted my third point – a treatise on the difference between reader responses and reader-oriented criticism – from this entry. This is because I feel that it is necessary to elaborate on the issues raised there in another post, and probably in relation to the issue of entitlement in fandom.

I also expressed a rather strong opinion, with regard to the author herself, based on the premise that a myopic vision towards literature makes for myopic writing. This, too, will have its own post in the future.

At the end of the day, critical discourse aside, fandom is an open and neutral space, one which we, as individual fans, contribute to or learn from. Whatever we give or take from fandom differs on an individual level, and that is, I feel, how it really ought to be at the end of the day. Nevertheless, having a more “informed” sense of awareness with regard to what you’re reading and where it’s coming from may ultimately aid one in enjoying the series, or at least understand why certain things are written the way they are.

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Tags: criticism, issues, katekyo hitman reborn!, manga