Manga and Graphic Novels

Containing sections addressing the manga industry on an international scale, the different genres, formats and artists, as well the fans themselves, Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives is an important collection of essays by an international cast of scholars, experts, and fans, and provides a one-stop resource for all those who want to learn more about manga, as well as for anybody teaching a course on the subject.

From Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the worlds of Japanese anime and manga teem with prepubescent girls toting deadly weapons. Sometimes overtly sexual, always intensely cute, the beautiful fighting girl has been both hailed as a feminist icon and condemned as a symptom of the objectification of young women in Japanese society. In Beautiful Fighting Girl, Tamaki Saitō offers a far more sophisticated and convincing interpretation of this alluring and capable figure. For Saitō, the beautiful fighting girl is a complex sexual fantasy that paradoxically lends reality to the fictional spaces she inhabits.

Known as the Walt Disney of Japan it is no surprise that Tezuka Osamu is still the best-known manga creator to Western fans. Current scholarship has uncovered the profound complexity and ambiguity not only of his work but of the man, the artist, and his life dismantling his position as the god of manga. Contributors to this volume of "Mechademia," a series devoted to creative and critical work on anime, manga, and the fan arts analyze Tezuka and his complicated approaches toward life and nonlife on earth, as well as his effect on the lives of other manga artists.