The Construction of Panels (Koma) in Manga: By Natsume Fusanosuke from Why Is Manga So Interesting?: Its Grammar and Expression (Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono hyōgen to bunpō, 1997)

“We are not alone!” (“Ui aa natto aroon!”) was the shared response of Natsume Fusanosuke and his colleague Takekuma Kentarō when, as if visited by extraterrestrials, they encountered a kindred spirit in Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (first published in Japanese as Mangagaku in 1998; retranslated in 2020).1 Natsume and his fellow critics and scholars had published their own definitive study of how to understand comics in 1995: the now out-of-print co-authored How to Read Manga (Manga no yomikata, Takarajima), for which Natsume made a considerable contribution. Like McCloud, Natsume trailblazed a long-lasting path about how to understand sequential panel flow, character design, and other interesting aspects crucially important to manga, such as hand-drawn onomatopoeia. In 1996, Natsume adapted his ideas for television in a twelve-episode educational series titled Why Is Manga So Interesting?: Its Grammar and Expression (Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono hyōgen to bunpō); the series was broadcast from July 4 through September 23 on NHK, the Japanese equivalent of PBS. For its Human University (Ningen daigaku) shows, NHK publishes print guides so readers can prepare for and later review each episode. Natsume’s printed digest consisted of nearly 150 pages. Natsume later expanded his guide into a version that has had multiple printings since its publishing in 1997. The present translated essay is the ninth chapter of Part One of Why Is Manga So Interesting?: Its Grammar and Expression

“The Power of Onomatopoeia in Manga” an Essay by Natsume Fusanosuke with Translators’ Introduction

Natsume Fusanosuke is one of the founding critics of manga that pioneered a style of formal analysis of manga in the 1990s. Natsume’s first important foray into his “theory of expression” (hyōgenron) was seen in the collaborate work, Manga no yomikata (How to read manga) in 1995. He later streamlined those ideas in a twelve-episode series Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono bunpō to hyōgen (Why is manga so interesting?: Its grammar and expression) for NHK television in 1996. The accompanying expanded book (1997) consists of well-ordered, individual essays on elements of manga such as line, character creation, and panels. In the present translated essay, the eighth chapter of part one, Natsume explores how hand-drawn onomatopoeia—or comic-book interjections—are quite nuanced, conveying additional information about time and space as a part of the larger narrative flow, which Natsume asserts is uniquely characteristic of Japanese comic books. This early essay, representing the beginning of Natsume’s scholarly arc, is important for its examination of how hand-drawn onomatopoeia are vital tools for the manga storyteller. Natsume argues that these graphic giongo, gitaigo, and other mimetic expressions also reveal how Japanese audiences are predisposed to reading and processing verbal information in both as words and as pictures. The translation and introduction make available in English for the first time a part of a key text in the history of manga studies in Japan

Pig Gourd: the meaning of Tezuka’s playing around with form

Taking an arguably minor character from Tezuka Osamu’s oeuvre, Natsume Fusanosuke argues how the Pig Gourd’s cameos even in the artist’s most serious works demonstrate a bifurcated sense of play and high-brow artistry in his manga. Natsume employs an early version of his ‘manga-expression theory’ (manga hyōgen-ron) manga-analysis approach, which he began to develop in this, his first manga-studies monograph and seminal study of the ‘god of manga’ Tezuka Osamu. This translation of a chapter essay from Where Is Tezuka Osamu? (Citation1992) demonstrates Natsume’s versatility in isolating thematic patterns or formal experimentations in an artist’s style, including character design and page layouts. Natsume’s ‘manga-expression theory’ approach, which focuses on three basic elements of manga (words, pictures, and frames), can be seen in this essay on Tezuka’s trademark Pig Gourd character, who will pop up or even decimate panel borders to show not only Tezuka’s embarrassment at being unable to resist a sight gag but also his bold desire to play with panel possibilities. The larger picture that Natsume describes here is how this ubiquitous cameo character became a litmus test of readers’ tastes as the manga master’s target demographic became older and wise to his stylistic idiosyncrasies

Remembering Two Titans of Manga: Shirato Sanpei and Saitō Takao

What follows is a pair of recent tributes Natsume Fusanosuke wrote for Japanese newspapers, concerning the pioneering cartoonists Saitō Takao and Shirato Sanpei, who died, respectively, on September 24, 2021, and October 8, 2021. The two articles are here presented in English for the first time. Translated by Jon Holt & Teppei Fukud

Takahashi Rumiko and the Turning Point in the History of Manga and Anime

Takahashi Rumiko’s entry onto the manga scene represented the turning point in the history of manga and anime. This turning point signifies the emergence of the genre of romantic comedy (rabukome = “love comedy”)—a romantic relationship-centered genre certainly common to shōjo (girls’) comics category at the time—now beginning to appear in shōnen (boys’) comics, too. Translated by Jon Holt & Teppei Fukud

Correlation between Leptonic CP Violation and mu-tau Symmetry Breaking

Considering the $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetry, we discuss a direct linkage between phases of flavor neutrino masses and leptonic CP violation by determining three eigenvectors associated with ${\rm\bf M}=M^\dagger_\nu M_\nu$ for a complex flavor neutrino mass matrix $M_\nu$ in the flavor basis. Since the Dirac CP violation is absent in the $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetric limit, leptonic CP violation is sensitive to the $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetry breaking, whose effect can be evaluated by perturbation. It is found that the Dirac phase ($\delta$) arises from the $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetry breaking part of ${\rm\bf M}_{e\mu,e\tau}$ and an additional phase ($\rho$) is associated with the $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetric part of ${\rm\bf M}_{e\mu,e\tau}$, where ${\rm\bf M}_{ij}$ stands for an $ij$ matrix element ($i,j$=$e,\mu,\tau$). The phase $\rho$ is redundant and can be removed but leaves its effect in the Dirac CP violation characterized by $\sin (\delta + \rho)$. The perturbative results suggest the exact formula of mixing parameters including that of $\delta$ and $\rho$, which turns out to be free from the effects of the redundant phases. As a result, it is generally shown that the maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing necessarily accompanies either $\sin\theta_{13}=0$ or $\cos(\delta+\rho)=0$, the latter of which indicates maximal CP violation, where $\theta_{13}$ is the $\nu_e$-$\nu_\tau$ mixing angle.Comment: 16 pages, ReVTeX, references updated, typos corredcted, published version in Physical Reviews

Monkeys mutant for PKD1 recapitulate human autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) caused by PKD1 mutations is one of the most common hereditary disorders. However, the key pathological processes underlying cyst development and exacerbation in pre-symptomatic stages remain unknown, because rodent models do not recapitulate critical disease phenotypes, including disease onset in heterozygotes. Here, using CRISPR/Cas9, we generate ADPKD models with PKD1 mutations in cynomolgus monkeys. As in humans and mice, near-complete PKD1 depletion induces severe cyst formation mainly in collecting ducts. Importantly, unlike in mice, PKD1 heterozygote monkeys exhibit cyst formation perinatally in distal tubules, possibly reflecting the initial pathology in humans. Many monkeys in these models survive after cyst formation, and cysts progress with age. Furthermore, we succeed in generating selective heterozygous mutations using allele-specific targeting. We propose that our models elucidate the onset and progression of ADPKD, which will serve as a critical basis for establishing new therapeutic strategies, including drug treatments

The Functions of Panels (koma) in Manga: An essay by Natsume Fusanosuke

Natsume Fusanosuke presents in this essay the core ideas of his formal ‘theory of expression’ (manga hyōgen-ron) that focuses on three basic elements of manga: words, pictures, and frames. In the 1990s, Natsume emerged as a seminal scholar of Manga Studies, whose influential works include Manga no yomikata (coauthored, 1995) and Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono hyōgen to bunpō (1997), where the present essay is found. Here, Natsume describes the central aspects of panel constructions in manga: creating a sense of order for the reader by segmenting time; shaping the reader’s mental perceptions by panel compression (asshuku) and release (kaihō); and, making a symbolic space within the frame. For Natsume, manga artists in the 1960s, most notably Ishinomori Shōtarō, pioneered these techniques during this seminal and creative period of manga, effectively establishing the techniques that all manga artists have used since then. In this culminating chapter from his groundbreaking 1997 work, Natsume describes how these artists made manga more ‘interesting’ (omoshiroi) by transforming and leveraging the formal aspects of the manga page and the layout of panels in order to both generate new psychological effects and greater reader involvement with the story’s characters and its mood

The Characteristics of Japanese Manga

In the field of manga studies, Natsume Fusanosuke is widely known as an important critic and scholar. Not only does he maintain a brutally prolific publication record, but one must keep in mind he was of a new wave of manga commentators, critics, and scholars that made their impact on Japanese culture by bringing public acceptance to manga in the 1990s. Many scholars in comics studies are aware of Manga no yomikata (How to Read Manga [Takarajima, 1995]), a co-authored book that consists of a considerable contribution by Natsume, and of its importance in establishing certain types of approaches to manga study and analysis. This translated essay is from Natsume\u27s follow-up study, Why Is Manga So Interesting: Its Grammar and Expression (Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: sono bunpo and hyogen, 1997), the book form of his televised show and episode notes from NHK\u27s Human University (Ningen Daigaku). This essay is the culminating chapter (Chapter 12) in the series and the first part of the later published book (NHK Library, 1997). In it, Natsume concludes his observations about why manga and its possible premodern precursors are so compelling for Japanese people and why manga should be considered an important part of Japan\u27s culture and artistic heritage