Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society

This text examines the rise and fall of Japan's mammoth comic industry since the 1960s. In her history of the manga industry, Sharon Kinsella documents the structure and history of manga, probes into its related subculture and the anti-nerd "otaku" panic, and examines the difficult and fascinating relationship between the artists and editors who create manga. In the process, she argues that Japanese comics have shifted from being a lower-class medium for marginal citizens to becoming a novel form of official communication, recently embraced by big business and national institutions. This ascent of manga through various layers of post-war society reflects the wider transformation of politics and social organization in Japan during the last years of the 20th century.