Understanding Manga and Exploring Unorthodox Nature of Japan through Buddha.

          Manga is comic originated in Japan, which is quite different from any other western comic. This paper aims to explore the origin of the term ‘Manga’; some of its essential components. Lastly we’ll study what gives Japanese literature to show such explicit imageries and to explain all the above points I will be using Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha series (1972-83).

          Let’s start by understanding the meaning of Manga. Although it is difficult to identify the exact date when manga was first created, many credit the beginning of sequential art in Japan with the creation of scrolls of illustrations by Buddhist monks in the twelfth century. The most famous example of this art is the Choju Giga, or “animal scrolls” created by a monk known as Bishop Toba.
         

          Artist Hokusai Katsuhika (1760–1849) coined the term “manga”, who was also responsible for one of the most famous images of Japanese art, the brilliant and precise woodblock print known as The Great Wave off Konnagaw which featured elegantly curled waves threatening Japanese fishermen, with Mt. Fuji visible in the distance.

         By the 1970s, manga and anime both were experiencing country wide popularity.  The hundred pages manga magazines that became popular among young-adults and adults led to the variety of titles and genres represented in separate magazine titles for boys, for girls, and for young women and young men. It was in this decade that Tezuka Osamu started his epic biography of Buddha. Miyazaki Hayao launched his landmark manga and anime Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, starting with the manga, then stopping to create the anime feature film, and going back to complete his twelve-year mission of completing the complex and carefully constructed four-volume manga series.
          
          The standard manga form at aids collectors in both labelling and shelving. Most manga series have a consistent style of cover per series, allowing for easy recognition of different series by spine colour and lay out. Manga are generally printed in a standard size of 4.5 × 7.5 inches, and the size makes it very easy to shelve them together as well as fit them in most shelving designed for paper backs.
         
Like any other literature even Manga has sub-genre, which broadly consist of six main themes, namely Dōjinshi—Fan Comics, Josei Manga—Women’s Comics, Shojo Manga— Girls’ Comics, Seinen Manga—Men’s Comics, Shonen Manga—Boy’s Comics, and Kodomo Manga—Kid’s Manga. Here is a list of vocabulary I would like my readers to understand before moving forward with the discussion: 
Anime: Anime refers to the animated films produced in Japan for a Japanese audience. The word itself comes from the word animeshon, a translation of the English word “animation.” This term encompasses all animated titles including feature films, television shows, and original video animation (OVA) released to the home entertainment market. 

Chibi, or super-deformed (SD): The exaggerated and simplified form characters take on in a heightened emotional state. From the noun chibi, which is a slang term referring to a short person or child (similar to the English runt). 

Manga: Print comics in Japan. The word simply translates as comics, and covers all printed matter from three-hundred-page magazines printed weekly and monthly to the tankobon, or bound volumes, available at newsstands, manga stores, and bookstores. 

Shōjo: Literally, girl(s). This term distinguishes the audience for girls’, or shōjo, manga. Shōjo manga is usually defined by a concentrate ion on emotion and relationships. As with the counterpoint shōnen manga, shōjo manga has its own set of character types, convent ions, and typical genres, ranging from romance to science fiction. 
Shōnen: Literally, boy(s). This term distinguishes the audience for boys’, or shōnen, manga. Shōnen manga is oft en distinguished by storylines that concentrate on action, humour, honour, and social obligation. 
                  
           Here considering the title of the paper we are more focuse on Shonen and Shojo Manga. Shōnen manga is manga aimed at a young teen male target-demographic. The age group varies with individual readers and different magazines, but it is primarily intended for boys between the ages of 12 to 18. The kanji characters literally mean "boy" (or "youth"), and is comical. Thus, the complete phrase means "young person's comic", or simply "boys' comic". Shōnen manga is the most popular and best-selling form of manga. Whereas Shōjo manga is manga aimed at a teenage female target-demographic readership. The name romanizes the Japanese (shōjo), literally 'young woman'. Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative styles, from historical drama to science fiction, often with a focus on romantic relationships or emotions. Strictly speaking, however, shōjo manga does not comprise a style or genre, but rather indicates a target demographic. Sexually charged pratfalls and panty jokes appear more often in shōnen manga than in shōjo manga, but shōjo manga have sexual jokes of their own. Most often, a clumsy heroine ends up stretched intimately on top of her love interest, blushing furiously. These kinds of manga or magazines are possibly popular as sexuality and nudity is not a taboo in Japanese society. In Japan, nudity is a part of life and does not have much stigma attached to it. If you’re getting dressed or taking a bath, then you’re going to be naked, and there will be no convenient towels or palm fronds to hide that truth.
          
           Japan has rich past which provides a ground for manga creators. Manga creators often use stories from past, may it be religions chronicles, historical events or folktales. Many creators do extensive research when setting their tale in the past and copious end and side notes often detail their adventures in research, but they are always aiming for fiction, not fact. 
         
           Similar is the case with Tezuka Osamu’s Buddha. Osamu (1928 - 1989) who is one of the most famous Japanese comic books drawers from all the time, and is worldly referred as God of Manga. The graphic novel The Vanished Path (2015) by comic artist and filmmaker Bharath Murthy, which is “a graphic travelogue”, was inspired by Buddha.

          Buddha series is consider as Tezuka’s most ambitious and ultimately breathe taking work, it’s the biographical work on life of Buddha, which pulls all of his trademark mastery of the manga format into one epic work. Tezuka’s style seems especially cartoony to today’s manga fans, with comical caricatures in side characters and wide-eyed heroes, but once readers get past their initial reaction, they’ll disc over the eloquence of Tezuka’s work. The Vertical editions are expertly produced and give this work its due. Given the setting and people of the work, there is incidental nudity.

        Buddha is characterised by social realism, depicts the hierarchical structure of the Hindu caste system in early Indian civilisation, and the consequent historical operations of elitism and discrimination.  Buddha depicts caste discrimination between uppermost priestly caste of the Brahmins and the Shudra, following rise of Buddhism and how Buddha’s teaching contradicted the mainstream idea but with this he also pioneers the task of sexualising female characters.

        First lets understand the term Sexualisation, "Sexualisation" is a term that has been used in Social Sciences for indicate the ways in which sex has become more visible particularly in media. These include the promotion of sexual values, practices and identities, specifically between groups that traditionally are not related to sex, for example, the children. 

         Secondly it is necessary to understand that the Japanese law, before the sanction of the Act on Punishment of Activities Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Protection of Children (1999), didn't ban the sexual depiction of children in any way. That means that anybody in Japan could produce sexual representations of children, explicit or not, involving real children or not, for commercial or private use, without any penalty from the authorities. Although the Japanese Penal Code prohibits, on its Article 175, the exposition and the public distribution of "obscenity material", the enforcement of these laws historically has been to ban the depiction of public hair and adult genitalia that means that children's genitals may be shown, a clause that, before the year of 1999, made the child pornography "legal" in Japan.

           Lastly the reason for such uncensored contain is Japanese sexual comic books targeted to adults published through the decade of 1970. Also is necessary to realize that most of the depictions of girls and child-girls in Japanese visual media are associated with the shoujo figure which appeared in the Japanese visual tradition at the end of the XIX century. The word shoujo literally means “girl”. That implies that the girls that are sexually depicted in Japanese visual media could or could not be minors, and some of them could have the majority of age in Japan.   
        
          To conclude I would like to say, being grown up by reading western comics and other comics following western style, initially one will find manga to be different firstly because they are read from write side. Secondly they have completely unique style of narrating, which is equally amusing and lastly it does not shy away from showing some scenes, which by the people from other cultures may find obscene. The reason this is Japanese society more liberal, and lets its citizen decide for themselves.