The evolution of Manga

The 21^st has been marked with a distinctive phenomenon among people of all ages. Be it with the type of clothing that people wear, the music they listen to, the toys they buy and the films they watch, the world is unconsciously revolving around the “Manga mania”.

A gradual change can be seen with the types of comics that people watch. In the early stage of childhood, Warner Brothers, MGM, and Disney cartoons remain the most preferred comics among the children. It is very rare to see a child watching other cartoons like: Donald Duck, Dora L`exploratrice, Batman and others in the same category. Perhaps due to the marketing strategy adopted by these cartoons producers or that parent recommend these types of cartoons to their children as they themselves had watched those in childhood. The child is exposed to this new world in many ways: be it on the clothing they wear, on the bags, stationeries, even in on cosmetics advertising, cereals box, toys and books, there will be at least one picture of a cartoon character. In fact in practically every advertisement targeting children of low age, there will be some cartoons in that. The real trap starts at the age. 

However, as the child grows his liking change. The character that he used to find “interesting” seems to lose all the charms to him. When the child moves to primary school, he makes friends. Due to peer pressure and socialization he must adapt himself to the new environment. He no longer wear the same types of clothing, his way of talking change and finally his liking of cartoons also change. The advertising strategy changes for children at this age. The child knows that he can ask for things in return for being obedient. He has leant to make full use of his bargaining power. He is still very dependent on his parent and cannot satisfy his wants by himself. He wants to complete his sticker and DVDs collection of anime but he does not have money. Then the trading starts. For good results at school, he is permitted to have such and such thing and this goes on for 

Christmas, New Year and every occasion involving a celebration.

In secondary level, the child is in search for identity. His body and mind change. At this stage where the child is going through puberty, he is most vulnerable. Parents no longer recognise their adorable child who used to listen to them. That same child now imposes his belief, make his own decision and can even contradict his parent. As a child when he was holding than hands of his mom when walking was normal, now he feels shy about it. In this same way, he no longer watches programmes that he considered too “childish”. At this stage, his decisions are crucial. He already has the knowledge of how to achieve his wants. What he does will impact greatly on his future.

Having internet facility, he is able to determine new trends for adolescent in this era. No doubt, what his peer is talking about is concerning manga. While he used to watch cartoons coming from USA or Europe, this time a new type of cartoon is emerging. These cartoons coming from Japan are called manga. In these manga, there is discovery of new cultures, language and consequently will have an impact on ones personality. Top manga includes: One piece, Naruto Shippuden, Naruto Budshin, Bleach, and Prince of tennis.

Some spend hours per day to watch those anime while others do it for fun. Yet, it would be unwise not to highlight the fact that, there is a problem concerning addiction to these manga. There are more and more adolescent copying the manga character. If in Naruto Shippuden, the main character motto is to never give up, sensible teens watching this manga might find this encouraging at times of difficulty. On the other side, manga does not only show values courage, passion, love and friendship, there is one thing is  common in practically all manga is “fighting”. Fighting does not include physical combats but it may also refer to competition. So far there has not been any extreme incident relating to manga influence. Yet, people are copying the hair style, the way of talking, the outfits, culture and beliefs if these manga characters. Some of them may turn out deviant like imitating the orange head of Ichigo or Naruto, the main character in Bleach and 

Naruto respectively. 

Many observers think that there will be an increase in the number of school drop outs due the influence of manga. However, what they really fear is the invasion of the Japanese culture over their own. Can this really be called invasion? No one is forcing these people to watch the manga. Mangas are well prepared before they are issued. While some may claim that there isn’t any life lesson, others defend the immense contribution of manga. In the manga, Kenichi the strongest disciple, those two claims can be analysed. In this manga there are a lot of physical fights, in fact, the story is about Kenichi, the hero, defeating high school delinquents. Each and every time there will be a fight as if going to high school involve fighting everyday. On the other hand, Kenichi trained in martial arts. He leant the essential values of life and he applied it in the story. One watching this anime would come to a conclusion that you fight when your loved one is in danger. It even shows how delinquents can become normal citizen through friendship and sportsmanship values. Can this be considered as a bad?

When the teenage reach maturity level and goes to world, he has to manage his time efficiently. He starts downloading the anime in the morning before going to work and when it has been downloaded, at night he watched them. He is able to combine both working life and his hobby. Some manga can be good life educators while others may turn someone as an excluded from society. Secondary level students does not have this maturity to analyse correctly what will be their future based on their current decisions. If in Japan, one may become well known by being a pro in Yu-Gi-Oh trading card games and earn his life respectably, this doesn’t occur in every country. 

Not everyone can make manga become part of the everyday life. Those who have been able to watch manga just for fun, are like every normal citizen except that their common “hobby” is manga. Others who have made manga as an integral part of their life have become addicted to it.

It is without doubt that in the coming year’s manga will continue to be popular in all spheres of life. It is up to us to make the good choice as how we want manga to contribute in our life.

 Long Live Manga :)