Manga Authorship Crisis

Manga authorship is the aesthetically and conceptually unique identity a mangaka develops, through a collaborative effort with their editor(s) and publisher(s), which exercises their right to free expression without violating any copyright law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW MANGA PUBLISHING WORKS

To learn more about the authorship conflicts mangaka have with publishers and editors alike a quick review of what the structure of manga publishing looks like is necessary. The following quotes were gathered from Sharon Kinsella’s book, Adult Manga: Culture & Power in Contemporary Japanese Society.

 

Manga Gyōkai: Manga Industry World

•  “The majority of the physical processes of producing manga are sub-contracted out from publishers to other companies.”

• “The industry, dedicated only to manufacturing manga for profits, is synchronized by editors and publishers based in offices around central Tokyo.”

            ~Kinsella p 8

 

“Commercial manga continued to expand and diversify throughout the 1970s and 1980s, during which period its contents also matured to meet the changing tastes of its original readership based in the baby-boom generation and the more ‘everyday interests’ of its newer readers.”

            ~Kinsella p 4

 

Dual System of Publishing (1960s – Present)

1. Manga was published in either weekly or monthly magazines with “10 to 20 separate series, all of which can be read in around an hour [and] are usually thrown away, like newspapers”.

2. The “individual series are later re-published in smaller single-author volumes, which are collected like CDs or books by readers.”

 

Results: “Manga magazines alone do not create large returns, but manga magazines and books published on tandem, have big profits.”

            ~Kinsella p 3

 

 

START OF THE AUTHORSHIP TYRANNY – WEEKLY PUBLISHING

When the dual publishing system started to take root, not many mangaka could endure the stress of weekly updates. Mangaka Urasawa Naoki (2015), said in the first episode of his documentary, Urasawa Naoki no Manben, that the way he could maintain multiple serializations of manga at once was by trying “not to miss [his weekly] issue[s]”.

 

Other mangaka who could continue working under the condition of the early deadline, developed what became known as a production seido, or production system split between the mangaka themselves, and the assistants they hired.

            ~Kinsella p 51

 

Production Seido:

• “Artists became self-employed: businessmen employing anything up to 20 assistants to work with them in their studio”

• “Whereas a single manga artist could rarely produce up to 100 pages a month . . . best-selling artists increased their output by four or five times” with the help of their assistants.

            ~Kinsella p 51

 

• Standard mangaka “hired a few assistants on a casual basis, and they frequently requested friends, who [were] also low-ranking manga[ka] – to help them meet their occasional deadlines.”

            ~Kinsella p 52

 

The amount of trust a mangaka has in their assistant(s) depends on their personality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mangaka Higashimura Akiko was the subject of the first episode of Urasawa’s (2015) documentary. In a commentary the two artists made on the footage of her and her staff completing a manuscript of her manga, Yukibana no Tora (2015), they discussed the assistants’ input on one of the pages. Higashimura anticipates the fresh ideas from her young staff of 10 assistants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the shot above Higashimura added a moon to the background of her character, something she was not planning on doing until one of her young assistants suggested it. In less than a minute the new element to the page took on a deep theme to represent the female character in the center since the moon is known as a symbol for the waning personalities of women. When Higashimura and Urasawa laugh at how sudden the decision was, Urasawa says “But, well, that’s what manga production is like,” referring to the spontaneity that is part of the manga production process.

 

When weekly publishing is set up, only the strong survive, but publishers still had a negative opinion about how mangaka rose to the new challenge of getting their works created on time. They “described [the production seido] as mechanical, ‘formulaic’, and ‘lacking in artistic value’.” This was not the same in Higashimura’s case, however, she is a contemporary mangaka who is popular today. These criticisms of the production seido were more negative when the system first originated as a collective effort on the mangaka’s end of work. However, thanks to this system, mangaka also get “to increase their power and independence from publishing companies.”

~Kinsella p 52

 

There is a history of power struggles over manga content between editors and mangaka before the inclusion of assistants used to help complete manuscripts became a norm in the industry. The Mangaka Issues page discusses more about the varieties of creative control mangaka have had over their content since the times these struggles escalated.

 

 

CONTRACTS

To outline the rules of their relationship, publishing companies did not always require written contracts. Mangaka and publishers based their trust on iihan keiyaku, or spoken agreements. Mangaka were the ones who were “discouraged from breaking [this oral contract in the case that they might] become known as an unreliable artist and damage their reputation within the industry.” Even without official, written documentation, publishing companies have endeavored to keep hold of their power over a mangaka’s content and productivity. In fact, some publishers, like Shuiesha, had senzoku keiyaku, or exclusive contracts, which banned mangaka from working with other companies. It was not until the 1990s that publishers, like Manga Japan, started to require written contracts to protect a mangaka’s authorship. Along with the written format, “stipulating fees, royalties and copyright arrangements [became] more common.”

            ~Kinsella p 54-55

 

 

EDITOR TACTICS

Part of the reason why mangaka comply with the stories or changes that their editors ask them to make is because they are pressured by them to do so. Editors may even require mangaka to redo entire first drafts of their manuscripts before moving onto the second stage of completion.

            ~Kinsella p 58-59

 

Editors use their own arsenal of rhetorical strategies to convince mangaka to complete the kind of work that complies with the corporate interests of their publishing company.

 

Anecdote of an Interview with a Manga Editor (1994)

“Editors get famous for their displays of enthusiasm. Talking is their trade, they are like car salesmen . . . Every time I ask [a mangaka] to draw something, they refuse. I listen to all their complaints, and then I ask them again later. If you repeat your request and listen to everything they complain about, eventually, with time, they will actually consider drafting a few pages of manga. They begin to worry that perhaps you’ll stop offering them work, or that they ought to do a few pages just to keep up the relationship [they form with their editors]. I use that method with older shrewder manga artists. In the case of young, inexperienced artists I encourage and flatter them a lot – and that usually starts a good relationship.”

~qtd. in Kinsella p 8

 

Kinsella also reports that editors have used the same tricks since 1959. There are many contemporary mangaka who boldly show how aware they are of their editors’ tactics to manipulate their work production and content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Volume 1: Ch 1 p 2

 

A popular manga, about creating manga, called Bakuman (2008), by Obata Takeshi and Ohba Tsugumi, goes into more depth about some of the typical struggles mangakas have with their publisher's corporate interests. The story centers around two characters aspiring to become mangaka themselves. To accomplish their dreams, they experience some of the obstacles actual mangaka go through like economic hardships, rejected manga and competition with other artists in the industry.

 

 

EDITOR-ARTIST TENSION

There are three main contributors to what Kinsella calls “Editor-artist tension” (9).

 

1. Mangaka tend to resist enforced deadlines and quality standards set by editors.

2. Mangaka tend to think of their work as a cultural freedom, while editors tend to prioritize making a profit.

3. Mangaka tend to be of the working class (“Since the 1920s”) while editors, who are at center of the social circle in the manga gyōkai (meaning manga industry world), are considered to be considered middle-class citizens (“Since the 1960s”).

            ~Kinsella p 9

 

Part of mangaka Nakamura Shungiku’s fame stems from her portrayal of characters involved in manga editing or publishing. The following pages are from one of their works, Junjou Romantica (2002). Main character, Akihiko Usami is in exaggerated situation when his editor, who is more concerned about meeting deadlines, cruelly shakes him while he has completely passed out from exhaustion from trying to finish his manuscript (which, ironically, is still incomplete).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Volume 1: Ch 6 p 53-54

Remember to read right to left!

 

Akihiko is infamous for always exercising his own personal freedom. If his life of comfort is ever in danger, he proceeds to ignore his deadlines and works at his own pace whenever inspiration comes to him. Mangaka are artists. As the stereotype of creative personalities details, artists can be emotionally sensitive, free-spirted, rebellious, antisocial and so on. Mangaka may not get physically harassed by their editors, but they can definitely experience similar, less serious, situations which result from clashes between their own creative ideals, and their editors’ economic goals

 

 

EDITOR & ARTIST CONFERENCES

There is a set of systems in place in when editors and mangaka communicate. There is even a sense of hierarchy. New or amateur mangaka are sometimes required to meet editors in their office as a manner of respect to their seniors in the business. For other more established, mangaka, editors may meet them in “café[s] and bars” outside the publishing company, or in their own home or studio. These brief conferences occur “several times a week” in order to meet weekly publishing deadlines. Another type of conference, which can build plenty of tension between mangaka and editor, are “Extended supervision sessions”. These sessions can last days at a time when editors isolate mangaka from any and all possible distractions. Editors may stay with a mangaka in their studio or hotel until their work is complete.

            ~Kinsella p 56

 

 

FORESHADOWING A BIGGER PROBLEM?

Kinsella, says that “In adult and boys’ manga it is increasingly editors who presume ownership of the [intellectual and creative work] of the manga medium, and the right to determine precisely what will be drawn in manga series”. The Mangaka Issues page, shows examples of manga popular today to see if this assumption is still accurate.