gekiga tag

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I think the introduction of a gekiga tag would be beneficial. gekiga is a genre started in the 60s and regaining popularity.
 
is a Reindeer
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@T3Deliciouz Literally have never heard of the term in my life. Do you have any modern examples of gekiga? Although I think the bigger issue here will be the lack of knowledge throughout the community for the term
 

QSS

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gekiga @Plykiya

Tbh I'm not sure it would be an appropriate tag, calling manga gekiga is akin to calling a comic a graphic novel.
Certainly a few authors are known for that style, but that's very much a movement centered around the authors rather than a gekiga movement in of itself.
 
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@QSS that comparison is completely incorrect.

@Plykiya

The wikipedia ignores the context behind it. It started out as adult manga because back then the only manga to have existed were children's manga. So it was considered it's own separate thing for a while before people just acknowledged it was manga. The comic vs graphic novel debate is a still a stupid thing in the West, but it's been settled in Japan ages ago. Gekiga as a genre is adult oriented focusing on socioeconomic issues which is very broad. as it allows creators to tie it to other things. Tatsumi wrote science fiction gekiga once, Tadao Tsuge noir gekiga, Yoshiharu Tsuge wrote poetic gekiga, Terry Yumura wrote Heta-uma gekiga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heta-uma

Basically, it covers a way to tackle racial issues, economic issues, mental issues, national issues, under one banner in a theatrical way. It was a big thing decades ago and being revitalized by manga historian Ryan Holmberg whose translating and publishing various gekiga works through several publishers as Breakdown Press, Retrofit Comics, Drawn & Quarterly, Top Shelf, PictureBox and others.

While gekigakas aren't as prominent, they still exist. One of the younger ones I could find https://www.mangaupdates.com/authors.html?id=4331&fbclid=IwAR26L_c5LDaBh3rY8xSXcyMpIs-bSli5xDW8JN5GqEAYuGO5ydOxPLEgf6E
 
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To go into further detail on gekiga. As i said, back then manga was only for children. So yes when Tatsumi and co wanted to write adult comics, they felt the need to differentiate it as did Will Eisner when he created the term "graphic novel". But Tatsumi and co had more legitimate reasons. Plenty of serious comics existed before Will attempted to a stupid differentiation.

Tezuka was Tatsumi's hero as a kid, and Tezuka completely rejected gekiga as a work thinking it should only be for kids. Tatsumi was heart broken but continued anyways. Eventually gekiga proved marketable and Tezuka switch sides (as he always does), attempting to start his own gekiga magazine and write gekiga himself. Gekiga was quickly acknowledged as manga itself, but for adults. Like how Seinen is for adults. But Seinen is a broad demographic, gekiga is a specific genre with tropes and themes.

It's not like in America where the uneducated call comics immature and graphic novels serious without ever actually realizing immature graphic novels exist.
 
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Here's a video on the topic by Ryan Holmberg himself. He has other videos on youtube you can find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrEtvbe4hc
 
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I keep coming back here cuz @QSS comment really got me going.

What Will Eisner did was start a meme. Attempting to paint comics as for children despite adult comics having existed since the early 1900s when Will was just a baby. Will wanted to make himself and his work seem more mature. It was a bad meme that still persists to this day in America.

Japan did not have adult comics in the early 1900s. At most they had satirical political strips. Manga in Japan for the longest time was for children. Gekiga was legitimately the first breakthrough of manga not for children. That's why people were hotly debating it back then. It set off a generational rift between the cartoonists of old and the new generation. Post-war Japan needed a way to vent its frustrations and coming to terms with the many issues plaguing the country and its people. And manga allowed that.

And as I said, gekiga as it's own thing didn't last long. People accepted gekiga as part of manga very soon despite Tatsumi's original intentions. And Tatsumi showed no quarrel with it after the fact. Gekiga has a deep and rich history. Garo, the magazine most popular for publishing gekiga ran from the late 60s to 2000 before dying. Gekiga continued long after the post-war struggle.

Gekiga as a term existed before seinen was used as a demographic. Seinen is a demographic for adults. Gekiga falls under seinen. Gekiga is a genre that's specifically seinen and comes with its own themes and tropes.

Gekiga is not as popular as it once was. Most of the original gekigakas are retired and few modern mangakas dabble in it. Nonetheless its still a legitimate genre with a powerful history. I wish MAL had better resources cuz they're manga database is lacking tons of gekiga works. Gekiga is a major piece of manga history and should not be forgotten and deserves a god damn tag.
 
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I agree, it is hard to find the lesser known authors of this kind as of now. A tag would be much appreciated.
 

QSS

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So uh. It seems more like a phenomenon rather than a genre or category. What exactly are the gekiga specific themes that would differntiate from non gekiga manga? @T3Deliciouz

Right now it seems like it's just early seinen and josei.
 
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@QSS

"early seinen/josei", seinen/josei are a demographic and can fit into anything. Gekiga was specifically created in response to the post-war struggle. As such the gekiga stories in some way related to the economic boom in the cities, the disappearance of rural Japan, the horrors of the war, or in some cases targeted the history of Japan as it created its culture that allowed the current problems to exist. That is the universal shared theme of gekiga. The universal struggle the people were suffering under.

The stories were about being unable to afford rent, how the young couples would begin to room together in what was once taboo.A lot of these were direct criticisms of capitalism. You had people like Shirato Sanpei who was the forerunner of Garo creating gekiga manga about the old feudal system in which samurai and the lords oppressed the peasants. These stories made to connect to modern time as Japan's economy was growing very quickly. Yoshihiro Tatsumi in turn made stories about how the rapid growth made for inhuman treatment of people, the alienation caused by capitalism in which workers feel into dissociation, or worse, what lengths they would go to survive. Seiichi Hayashi made depressing stories of love as people get stuck in relationships because they couldn't afford rent alone. Yoshiharu Tsugeand his brother Tadao Tsuge made stories more centered on the country, how the poor in those areas were left with nothing after the war. Or how many are working dead end jobs because it's the only that exists. Which is why many people had to leave for the city. There are hundreds of different gekigakas with hundreds of different stories, and all of them in some what related back to this.

And, given this entire category existed before the official demographics of seinen or josei were invented, they should be recognized under both.
 
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Imo, the three questions that need to be answer when implementing a new tag would be:

1. Does it make navigating mangas to newcomers easier?
2. Does it have enough mangas to warrant the tag?
3. Does the people want the tag?

So far it seems yes, maybe, maybe.

We probably need as many mangas as there are that are tagged "gyaru" (considering that that one is pretty much the nichest tag on MD) or even more to answer question 2. (Oot)
I actually wanted to suggest "yandere" as a tag and made a whole argument about why it's different than other -dere personality types and its tagging would be beneficial... and then I realized that there's only a small collection of yandere-focused mangas which makes my whole argument irrelevant.
Probably best to start a thread and ask for help searching mangas that could use this tag like I did a while back for the yandere tag only for it to go necro in a day.

Idk about 3 but so far only two people voiced their support in this thread so comparing that to the daily thousands of visitors... I don't think it counts.

P.s. I'm also in the camp of never heard of this before.
 
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@DANDAN_THE_DANDAN

as i said, hundreds, possibly thousands exist. Its just a matter that most are very old, so finding scans of them will be hard, but not impossible.

Of the manga I've uploaded here all the gekiga

https://mangadex.org/title/17158/nejishiki
https://mangadex.org/title/42866/red-flowers
https://mangadex.org/title/41757/oba-s-electroplate-factory
https://mangadex.org/title/43798/red-eyes
https://mangadex.org/title/43800/sakura-illustrated

and I plan to upload more. There are others on the site scattered around.

https://mangadex.org/title/5769/secret-comics-japan
https://mangadex.org/title/24586/comics-underground-japan
https://mangadex.org/title/24071/toukyou-ubasuteyama
https://mangadex.org/title/41823/yoshibo-s-crime
https://mangadex.org/title/16705/tonari-no-onna
https://mangadex.org/title/4160/munou-no-hito
https://mangadex.org/title/8362/hissatsu-surume-katame
https://mangadex.org/title/13748/sekishoku-elegy
https://mangadex.org/title/31028/gold-pollen

And this https://mangadex.org/title/27634/mw this is the gekiga manga Tezuka created for his failed gekiga magazine after he realized it was profitable and damned his own argument that manga should be for kids.

https://mangadex.org/title/15933/kamui-den this one of the most well known gekiga manga that most people didn't realize was gekiga.

Like we have dozens of titles already published in English and French, and hundreds more left unscanlated or unpublished in Japanese.
 
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I wanna apologize in advance to anyone if I appear to come coming off as aggressive. But I fucking love gekiga and im impassioned by the history of it. I follow Ryan Holmberg religiously since he's one of the few people working very hard to bring awareness back to this old genre. I firmly believe one of the best ways for gekiga to regain an ounce of popularity back, a tag that people could follow will help tremendously.
 

QSS

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@T3Deliciouz no offense taken.

Then my next question would be as to why a theme with only 10 or so odd manga should be granted a tag. Why not just tag everything properly on mangaupdates.com instead? Mangadex doesn't seem like a site that's trying to be thorough about absolutely everything and seems most concerned with already translated series, so gekiga seems too niche.

Plus it seems to be too historical context heavy to stand on its own as a theme. None of the other tags are like that, they all carry easily into modern day.
 
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@QSS

Addressed that in my last statement. These series have a deep historical connection. The tag itself tying them all together would allow users on this site to properly look through them all. I understand the niche argument, and Im gonna admit to be being biased. But I think this category that paved the way for our modern seinen and josei series deserves to be recognized. Im a big proponent of weebs learning the history of that which they enjoy.

And its only "10 or so" for now. These are the titles I pulled up just searching for mangaka I knew of. Im sure there's more gekiga I didnt link and there will be more uploaded in the future since gekiga is regaining popularity among alternative comics readers in the West. We have around 10 different publishers who are publishing gekiga manga now.
 
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If there's pointless tags like "gyaru" I don't see what the issue is with making a useful tag like "gekiga".
 

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