http://www.boilet.net/am/nouvellemanga_manifeste_1.html
MANGA
Japanese comics attach particular importance to story (to its scale, to the variety of its topics) and especially to narration (to its fluidity, to the techniques it uses to suggest sensations and feelings). In Japan, a mangaka is someone who wants, above all, to tell stories, as opposed to those authors of bandes dessinées 'BDs' (1) in France who generally become comic book artists through an interest in drawing.
Unlike Franco-Belgian BDs, which until the '90s were quite content to rehash the same Sci-Fi, historical or adventure universes, manga (2) has always emphasised daily life as a theme.
At least half of Japanese comics tell stories of men and women and their everyday lives. This attachment to daily life as a theme is for me the principal reason of manga's success with a broad range of readers broad range of readers. While the universes of Franco-Belgian and American Sci-Fi or action comics almost exclusively target male teenagers, in Japan, manga's daily-life stories touch men as well as women, teenagers as well as adults. This allows the format to attract a readership larger than just otaku ; many Japanese readers are not « otaku » (meaning « fan of manga », as one can be a « stamp collector », a « Formula 1 buff » or a « Smap groupie » (3) ) but simply curious, open-minded people who read comics as they would read novels or go to the cinema...
It's a paradox that daily life, the favorite topic of French cinema in particular and of European cinema in general (most noticeably in contrast to Hollywood cinema), has been absent from BDs for a long time, whereas it has always been a favorite of manga...
TRANSLATED MANGA IN FRANCE
Most of the manga that have been translated in French over the past ten years have been commercial manga aimed at teenagers, to follow on from the animated series which preceded them on French TV screens. Their themes are adventure or Sci-Fi, featuring heroes... As in Japan, this very focused type of manga generates its own otaku phenomenon : specialized press, « cosplay » (costume-play), etc.
A number of daily-life manga are also being translated, but again they are primarily aimed at teenagers, with daily life often being treated in an often over-dramatic and caricatured way : a daily life closer to Hélène et les garçons or to the domestic dramas of Japanese television than to When the Cat's Away or Only Yesterday (4).
Daily-life manga, which I think should be able to reach a larger audience than just otaku in France, is a more adult manga, with daily life portrayed without overemphasis or stereotypes : a manga that has, however, been virtually ignored to date by French-speaking readers, with the exception a few years ago of translated editions of My Father's Calendar or of The Walking Man by Jirô Taniguchi.
BD
Compared to manga, the BD puts more focus on drawing. Its authors are first and foremost illustrators, often more preoccupied with graphics than with scenario. The readers are the first to confirm this « emphasis » given to graphics : an album with skilful or fashionable drawings will always find buyers in France, even if the story is lousy or stupid...
BD TRANSLATED IN JAPAN
Except for the translations of a few Tintin albums, which one sometimes finds in the children's section of large bookstores and which thus apparently only reach certain readers (5), none of the franco-belgian BDs published in Japan over the past ten years have met with great succes (6).
The names of two authors - Mœbius and Bilal - are nonetheless known today by members of the Japanese comics industry and, to a lesser degree, by some members of the general reading public. This recognition is not due to sales of their work (which have remained minimal for both) but solely to the promotion of their names, a campaign orchestrated since the end of the 1980s by the publishers, the press, booksellers and French institutions.
There is, however, very little chance that the BDs of these two authors will reach a large readership in Japan, this broad rande of readers that I spoke of before...
MŒBIUS
As often happens with Sci-Fi, the stories of Mœbius are very peculiar, one needs a certain culture and sense of nostalgia to appreciate them ; that is to say, not only a background in BDs and « Mœbius culture » but also a nostalgia for the BDs of the late '70s... In any case, both of these represent a culture and a nostalgia that the majority of Japanese readers don't share. If Moebius is recognized in Japan, it's above all, and rightly so, for the quality of his drawings : his albums therefore reach some rare BD otaku but mostly remain of interest to professional artists, graphic designers, illustrators, editors, etc. There are about five and six thousand of them in Japan.
ENKI BILAL
In addition to his movies, Bilal is appreciated in Japan for his drawings. The recent translations of le Sommeil du monstre (The Sleep of the Monster) and of The Nikopol Trilogy may have allowed readers to understand his stories, but there was no big change in the Japanese readers' or critics' perception of his work. On the contrary, they had their prejudices confirmed : « The BD is very well drawn, but it's static and tedious ! », « Incomprehensible » were offered in Bilal's case... There were 6,000 copies of the Japanese version of le Sommeil du monstre printed by Kawadeshobô in November 98, and only 4,800 copies had been sold by December 2000 after two years in bookstores and despite strong advertising.
THE NOUVELLE BD
With the emergence of publishers like l'Association or Ego comme X, a movement was born in France at the beginning of the '90s, precisely in reaction to the Sci-Fi / hero / action BDs for teenagers of the '80s. By proposing stories often based on daily life (whether autobiographical or fictional) in the form of albums following the strict format of 46 colour pages and serial framework, these publishers and their authors opened BD up to a new readership, showing that BD wasn't condemned to the only market of « BD fans », followers of adventure, of fantastic and pleasing false images...
The impact of this « Nouvelle BD » quickly travelled beyond the borders of France, and a number of authors discovered by l'Association and Ego comme X are being translated today in the rest of Europe, and their albums distributed in the United States. Meanwhile, the majority of their supposedly more « commercial » colleagues are unable to leave the Franco-Belgian market...
When it deals with daily life, the BD becomes not only more universal (universality is generally found in a kitchen or at the bottom of a garden, only rarely on Mars or Alpha Centauri), it also becomes, through the eyes of foreign readers, more « French ». It's also through encountering the typical « French touch » they appreciate that amateurs of French cinema or literature can become amateurs of French BD.
FRENCH CINEMA IN JAPAN
The second largest market in the world for French cinema is, after France itself, Japan. In 2000, French films attracted 2.6 million viewers in the Archipelago for the forty or so releases that took place there : a success that was not only due to the spectacular productions of Luc Besson, but also to more intimate works by directors like Jacques Doillon, Cédric Klapisch, Leos Carax and many others.
Since the Nouvelle Vague, Japanese film enthusiasts especially appreciate art films : it's among these amateurs of cinema, and very often of novels, that we can find in Japan a considerable number of potential readers for our '90s-born BDs that remind of the celebrated mood of French cinema...
MY BD-MANGA
In France, and more particularly since the release of Tôkyô est mon Jardin (Tôkyô Is My Garden) in 1997, people sometimes consider that my BDs are close to manga. For example, the Flemish critic Aarnoud Rommens, in an attempt to define my work, spoke of « European manga »...
In Japan, readers clearly perceive my stories AS BD, and although they may seem a bit unusual, they appear closer in their eyes to French cinema than to Bilal's albums. While French readers notice the « Japanese » side of my stories, it is their « French » tone that strikes their Japanese counterparts.
The term Nouvelle Manga was thus born in Japan to define my picture stories that are neither completely BD nor completely manga, and that remind of the tone of French cinema.
THE JAPANESE NOUVELLE MANGA
I discovered manga at the beginning of the '90s, in Japan, where I had access to the entire local production rather than simply the limited range of French translations, which was sporadic at the time but a little more extensive today, although still extremely fragmentary and aimed at niche markets.
What immediately struck me was the number of manga dealing with daily life. Manga, its works, its authors, its readers, all proved me that, like literature or cinema, graphic stories could speak about men and women, daily life, and still attract many readers. Better yet, I discovered that it was precisely thanks to this topic that the Japanese manga readership was so varied and so vast : that it wasn't limited only to the « otaku » , as opposed to the readership of BD in France, which is mainly made up of « fans » of the medium.
I realized what I had wanted to do for years in BD had existed from the start in manga, so not only has it become for me an almost inexhaustible source of inspiration but Japan is now also a favourable basis for me to create and publish my stories...
That's why, when a Japanese reader or journalist tells me that I make « Nouvelle Manga », I feel like replying that I am not the only one, since my work is inspired, or has affinities with, other manga by authors like Yoshiharu Tsuge, Naito Yamada, Kiriko Nananan, Yoshitomo Yoshimoto and many others...
But these authors are precisely the ones that French translators ignore ! It seems to me that the term « Nouvelle Manga » could help respond to this need in France through a communication strategy designed to promote adult, daily-life manga.
Having only been used in the French media for a few years, « le manga » is unfortunately already perceived in a very stereotypical way by both the public and the media. Manga in its masculine form is shorthand for a cheap Japanese comic book for children and teenagers, that is simultaneously violent and pornographic (7) : the Japanese equivalent of the sleazy imported Italian comic books of the past...
We're well placed with our own « BDs » and « comics » (8) to know that stereotypes die hard once they've become associated with a word.
That's why I propose to circumvent them ! Using the historical and sociological roots of the feminized version of the word « manga » (9), I think it would be possible to change its public perception.
Beyond « le » manga, essentially Japanese comics for a public mostly composed of teenagers, there is « la » manga, referring to Japanese comics d'auteur that are adult and universal, that speak of men and women and their daily life : a manga closer, for example, to the films of Yasujirô Ozu and Jacques Doillon or to the novels of Yasushi Inoue than to Sailor Moon or Luc Besson.
The term « Nouvelle Manga » will appear in France in September 2001 through a collection on which I am now working with publishers Ego comme X.
It will be inaugurated by one of my own « BD-manga », Yukiko's Spinach, which will then be followed, I hope, by translations of Japanese authors such as Yoshiharu Tsuge or Kiriko Nananan... The Nouvelle Manga will also welcome any French author acquainted with Franco-Japanese trends whose work is inspired by Japanese comics, an inspiration which would not only be graphic, as is too often the case, but above all narrative.
THE FRENCH NOUVELLE MANGA
For ten years now, several publishers and professionals have made the same errors in Japan with French BD that their Western counterparts have always made in France and Europe : to promote and put emphasis on a primarily graphic BD.
This attitude is all the more regrettable as, among the amateurs of daily-life manga on one hand and those of French cinema of the other, the number of Japanese readers who could be touched by something other than the simply « illustrative » or « teenage » BD is undoubtedly significant. The reception accorded my own work by these readers is certainly an indication of this, if not an unshakable proof.
Thanks to publishers like l'Association or Ego comme X, a daily-life BD was born in the '90s as a direction reaction to the illustrative and commercial BDs that paralysed the '80s : this « Nouvelle BD », with a sensibility often very close to that of French cinema and literature, has many albums which should, I think, reach a readership in Japan larger than the usual 5,000 or 6,000 illustration aficionados and professionals.
A consequence of the preponderance of graphic BDs in translation is that the Japanese public has strong prejudices against them today : « A BD is well-drawn Sci-Fi or adventure, but it's very complicated to read or very boring ».
It is to oppose these prejudices - or rather, once again, to circumvent them - that the term « Nouvelle Manga » was coined. With the translations of Tôkyô est mon jardin (Tôkyô wa boku no niwa / Tôkyô Is My Garden), Demi-tour (Hambun Ryokô / U Turn), and with my regular publications in the Japanese press, Japanese readers have discovered a BD that might be « well-drawn » but is also in their eyes « not so badly told » : a BD that is not inevitably complicated to read nor inevitably tedious and that reminds them of the tone and spirit of French cinema... A BD that does not correspond to the image they had of the medium, drawn like a BD but which can be read almost like a manga : a Nouvelle Manga.
The publication in Japan under the label « Nouvelle Manga » of l'Épinard de Yukiko (Yukiko no Hôrensô / Yukiko's Spinach) in August 2001 (Ohta Editions, simultaneously released by the French publisher Ego comme X) and the Nouvelle Manga Event in Tôkyô (10) have been for me occasions to explain to both to the Japanese public and to professional colleagues that BD isn't limited to Bilal and Mœbius and that many authors I consider fantastic and, more importantly, accessible to the Japanese public were born in the '90s. These BDs were written by Fabrice Neaud, David B., Emmanuel Guibert, Matthieu Blanchin, Blutch, Dupuy and Berberian, Frédéric Poincelet and many others. If my BDs are close to the spirit of French cinema or literature, theirs are too : we can therefore also call their work Nouvelle Manga.
AN AUTHOR'S INITIATIVE
I mentioned at the beginning of this text to some of the commonly mentioned differences between BD and manga, and I now declare that these differences are all the more pronounced when one compares commercial BDs with manga.
When aimed at a general or otaku public, BDs and manga tend to build up, on the level of both scenario and of drawings, formulae, stereotypes and nostalgic references to the point that they divide their readership. In France, manga otaku and fans of BD are quick to pit the two styles against each other... But when one looks at « la » manga and BD d'auteur, that is to say more adult manga and BDs, the differences almost completely disappear. While many series targeted at specific audiences can only attract their respective fans (either of BD or manga), who are already familiar with, or nostalgic for, the codes and mannerisms of the genre, smooth and innovative albums by Fabrice Neaud or Kiriko Nananan seem to me perfect for readers of BD and manga, specialists and neophytes, French and Japanese people alike.
The border between commercial BD and manga and auteur BD and manga seems to me to be more obvious and harder to cross than the one that divides the two genres overall...
The Nouvelle Manga aims to be an expression of this complicity, the Franco-Japanese prolongation of French BD d'auteur and « la » manga (the Japanese BD d'auteur) : an author's initiative (as opposed to a publisher's or import library's initiative that would inevitably lead to translations - or imports - of best-sellers) whose goal would be, by creating a bridge between the two genres, to present the readers with the best of the two countries' BDs and manga, and not just what sells most. This in the universal realm of daily life : be it autobiographical, documentary or fictional.
Frédéric Boilet
Tôkyô, August 12, 2001
English translation by Olivier Petitpas (Hong Kong, June 20, 2002)
& Ken Hollings (London, July 12, 2003)
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