the topic revolves around manga , a Japanese origin form of comics and how they provide different content for different age groups . it has emerged as of late into a subculture and spread across the globe and people enjoy its diversity .

1. Manga comics
and its
depictions on
sexuality
By Siddhant kar , ba applied
psychology , semester 2
AMITY UNIVERSITY DUBAI
Guide : Dr aradhana balodi
Bhardwaj
Date : 13 June 2018

2. Introduction to the topic
 “ the hardest part of being a mangaka is that it’s a weekly thing – (tite kubo 2008
)
 “Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding. (Tite kubo chapter170
2005(jap) , 2007( eng))
 “I know as a child, I was really interested in becoming a manga artist, to create
my own stories and illustrate them and present something that people would be
interested in reading and looking at as well.” – (SHIGERU MIYAMOTO. 2010)
 Manga (漫画 Manga) are comics created in Japan or by creators in the Japanese
language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century. They
have a long and complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art
 There are different kinds of manga catered o different groups of readers , as a
wide variety of population read and enjoy this medium , shoujo( manga for young
girls) , shounen (for boys) , sci fi , Kodomo Manga: Comics for little kids ,Seinen
Manga: Comics for young adult males ,Seijin Manga: Adult comics for males
,Redisu (Lady’s) Manga: Comics for young adult females ,Dōjinshi Manga: Comic
publication that’s written by and for amateurs.

3.  it is a very popular means of entertainment ,
that is deeper and darker than the counterparts
much and marvel , dc , top shelf productions
 Shueisha ,Kodansha ,Shogakukan ,Gangan Comics
etc are publishers for manga in japan , viz media
,crunchyroll, funimation are the American
distributors of said work Publications Weekly
Shōnen Jump ,Weekly Shōnen Magazine CoroCoro
Comic Monthly Shōnen Magazine Weekly Young
Magazine Weekly Young Jump , Ciao .
 Sexual depictions as some people call it is
prevalent but not in manga , those type of
comics are known as doujinshi /doujins , most
you will see “sexual depiction in manga will be a
shower scene of a female/male character taking
a bath . Or them stumbling onto the other
gender changing.
 The community of manga readers also has its
hold in countries like America , india , indonasia,
Germany , Poland, Russia etc

4. historical perspective
 Manga in its earliest form in scrolls can be
dated back to the 12th century
 it is believed they represent the basis for
the right-to-left reading style. During the
Edo period (1603-1867), Toba Ehon crowned
the concept of manga. The word itself first
came into common usage in 1798.
 Between 1950 and 1969, an increasingly
large readership for manga emerged in
Japan with the solidification of its two
main marketing genres, shōnen manga
aimed at boys and shōjo manga aimed at
girls.
 Manga became popular around 1987 with
the release of akira and ghost in the shell .

5.  Manga for both male and female reaaders
had a specific age limit . Anddifferent
categories
 It kind of had to face criticism due to
sexual depictions
 High sexual depiction may be seen in
series such as eechi , doujin, doujinshi
genre.
 With the relaxation of censorship in
Japan in the 1990s, a wide variety of
explicit sexual themes appeared in
manga intended for male readers, and
correspondingly occur in English
translations. However, in 2010 the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government passed a bill to
restrict such content.
 Bishounen, shounen-ai and yaoi represent
the male ambiguous gender identity
made popular, eroticized and highly
desired during the Tokugawa period

6. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
 Manga is a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at
adults as well as children
 The Kyoto International Manga Museum was opened in November of 2006 as the
first comprehensive cultural center for manga culture in Japan. It holds one of the
worlds largest collections of manga related materials consisting of approximately
300,000 items (in 2016) centering around modern Japanese manga, and
incorporating manga-related historical materials from the Meiji period (1868-1912)
 Sexuality and gender among redikomi (adult women’s) manga still struggle within
the ideal of the young girls’ shoujo concept –now they are an absence of shoujo
 Anime and manga are such examples of Japanese media gender and sexuality
differences and are now widely enjoyed by (largely adolescent) U.S. audiences on
a wide scale Though manga/anime have become infused into American culture,
this media provides a unique way of engaging adolescents and young people in the
US about gender and sexual constructions which are uncommon in their cultural
milieu
 The very first research done on this topic was in 2009( this is the oldest research I
could find) by EM HURFORD on the topic gender and sexuality in shoujo manga.
 The very recent research was By Mona Lilja & Cathrin Wasshede on Subject
Positions and Desires Emerging From Engagement with the Manga Boys’ Love and
Yaoi ( 2017)

7. Literature review
 1) Takeuchi, K. (2010). The Genealogy of Japanese "Shōjo Manga" (Girls' Comics)
Studies. U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, she stated that in the post war period of
japan shoujo manga( for young girls) was booming over other 300+ manga , along
with shounen , because of this a lot of researches have been conducted on shojo .
There have been number of articles and critisisms on shojo and has discussed the
topic in her article in the book U.S.-Japan Women's Journal No. 38 published in
2010
 2) Tamaki, S. (2007). Talks about the people engaged in this community , and how
critics have analysed this topic , over the years , they have given a term for such
kinds of people who love manga ‘ otaku’ and consider them s a part of a
subculture in the community .
 3) McKnight, A. (2011). States that people also indulge in merchandise of manga
and anime from pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and
animation to cuisine, even merchandise such as character figurines , body pillows
,t-shirts , costumes , katanas etc . these “Cool” things are a debate topic among
people in discussions of soft power in international relations circles and in both
Asian and Asian American contexts.

8.  4) McLELLAND, M. (2015). Talks about a
topic that only the fujoshi and fudanshi
community may admire , THE FUTURE
OF BOYS LOVE MANGA ( YAOI) .THIS IS
POSTED IN THE BOOK Boys Love Manga
and Beyond: History, Culture, and
Community in Japan BY THE University
Press of Mississippi , that talks about
various books depicting romantic and
sexual relations between beautiful,
stylish male characters.
 5) In the same book HESTER, J. (2015)
talks about the fujoshi community who
indulge in the yaoi manga and books the
term fujoshi is derived from the yaoi
community itself . it refers both to
producers and consumers of amateur
manga (dōjinshi) in which the characters
are predominantly males poached from
mainstream genres of commercial boys’
manga

9.  6) According to NAGAIKE, K. (2015). BL media
that is kind of popular namely, media focused on
male to male romance narratives have recently
received a significant increase in public
attention. This widespread for bl love
popularization in the mainstream media of the
idea that there actually are in Japanese society
fujoshi/adolescent girls and adult women—who
indulge in these female-oriented fantasies(
highly indulged fantasies which are preferred
now days) concerning male–male romantic and
erotic relationships
 7) GALBRAITH, P. (2015). States that there is a
wide speculation among the community in
general about people who read the yaoi genre
about their identity , about the identifications
and orientations of BL readers he states they are
straight women, lesbians, men in women’s

10. 8)Hillary Chute. (2018). Feminist Graphic Art. Feminist Studies states or reviews
recent feminist scholarly work on comics alongside several new feminist comics
titles themselves, suggesting through a focus on theory and practice that the
medium of comics is an expanding realm of possibility for feminist expression,
particularly around issues of subjectivity, embodiment, and collectivity.
 9) MORIKAWA, K. (2012) in his article in the. Otaku and the City:
The Rebirth of Akihabara. In ITO M., OKABE D., & TSUJI I. etal
,fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World talks about
how he used to take foreign students to akihabara on a tour , but
in recent times the students don’t go to akihabara to buy
electronics , but for anime and manga related goods in the 1990s
akihabara dramatically changed to a hub for these types of goods ,
to cosplay , manga , anime, karaoke etc.
 10) In the book psychology of cosplay Geczy, A. (2016) talks about
cosplay and its relation to psychology in Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop
Culture this book talks about the rise of cosplay culture as
respective of other culture around the 16th century , further
stating that there is a noticeable difference between the costume
and the person but in cosplay its different the noticible
differences become paper thin.
 11) ENG, L. (2012). In Anime and Manga Fandom as Networked
Culture stattes that Otaku are drawn to anime, manga, science
fiction, and computers because they are subjects that are dense
and information rich, enabling otaku to immerse themselves in a
rich knowledge economy. These people get knowledge about
certain series and anime through net and social interaction. you
can see theres a wide interesting fanbase for this community

11.  10) In the book psychology of cosplay Geczy, A.
(2016) talks about cosplay and its relation to
psychology in Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture
this book talks about the rise of cosplay culture as
respective of other culture around the 16th
century , further stating that there is a noticeable
difference between the costume and the person
but in cosplay its different the noticible
differences become paper thin.
 11) ENG, L. (2012). In Anime and Manga Fandom as
Networked Culture stattes that Otaku are drawn
to anime, manga, science fiction, and computers
because they are subjects that are dense and
information rich, enabling otaku to immerse
themselves in a rich knowledge economy. These
people get knowledge about certain series and
anime through net and social interaction.you can
see theres a wide interesting fanbase for this
community

12. Conclusion :
 Although manga and its counterparts
have good story , wide genres to
choose from , depending on your
preference you can read , we have to
be aware that there may be negatives
attached to it , in this case sometimes
sexual depiction and fanservice
 This includes the normal novel industry
as well , sexual depictions or text
suggesting themes that may cater to
arousal eg fifty shades of grey ,
twilight, smash into you by shelly
crane ,forbidden by tabitha suzuma
etc.
 What makes a genre or a medium
great is the pros and cons coming

13. Key learnings
 Different forms of manga is published for different viewer preference
 Manga with sexually suggestive themes are put under a different category
eechi/doujinshi/doujin.
 Debate on whether sexuality in comics is good or bad
 It’s the views interpretation of the scene that makes the difference
 Different community emerge from a single community
 Sexuality to an extent is good , but overuse of it is just weird.
 Anime and manga are such examples of Japanese media gender and sexuality differences
and are now widely enjoyed by largely adolescent) audiences on a wide scale worldwide .

14. citations
 McLELLAND, M. (2015). REGULATION OF MANGA CONTENT IN JAPAN: What Is the Future for
BL? In McLelland M., Nagaike K., Suganuma K., & Welker J. (Eds.), Boys Love Manga and
Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan. University Press of Mississippi.
 HESTER, J. (2015). FUJOSHI EMERGENT: Shifting Popular Representations of Yaoi/BL
Fandom in Japan. In McLelland M., Nagaike K., Suganuma K., & Welker J. (Eds.), Boys Love
Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (pp. 169-188). University
Press of Mississippi.
 Takeuchi, K. (2010). The Genealogy of Japanese "Shōjo Manga" (Girls' Comics) Studies.
U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, (38), 81-112
 NAGAIKE, K. (2015). DO HETEROSEXUAL MEN DREAM OF HOMOSEXUAL MEN?: BL Fudanshi and
Discourse on Male Feminization. In McLelland M., Nagaike K., Suganuma K., & Welker J. (Eds.),
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (pp. 189-209).
University Press of Mississippi
 GALBRAITH, P. (2015). MOE TALK: Affective Communication among Female Fans of Yaoi in Japan.
In McLelland M., Nagaike K., Suganuma K., & Welker J. (Eds.), Boys Love Manga and Beyond:
History, Culture, and Community in Japan (pp. 153-168). University Press of Mississippi.

15.  Geczy, A. (2016). The Psychology of Cosplay. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture,
1(1), 18-36.
 Hillary Chute. (2018). Feminist Graphic Art. Feminist Studies
 MORIKAWA, K. (2012). Otaku and the City: The Rebirth of Akihabara. In ITO M.,
OKABE D., & TSUJI I. (Eds.), Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected
World (pp. 133-157). Yale University Press
 ENG, L. (2012). Anime and Manga Fandom as Networked Culture. In ITO M.,
OKABE D., & TSUJI I. (Eds.), Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected
World (pp. 158-178). Yale University Press.
 McKnight, A. (2011). Subculture and the South. In Nakagami, Japan: Buraku and
the Writing of Ethnicity (pp. 203-232). Minneapolis; London: University of
Minnesota Press.