"Girls Who Don't Stop: The Future of 'Shoujo Manga' Imagination"

2021/11/24

From the perspective of a scholar of American literature, this book attempts to trace how "America" has been represented in Japanese girls' culture, using the translation of American literature since the Meiji era and post-WWII democratization policies as a guide.

The inspiration for this book was the "Candy Candy Lawsuit" that began in 1997. This was a legal battle over the rights to the work between Keiko Nagita, the original author of the shoujo manga "Candy Candy"—which became a massive hit in the 1970s—and the manga artist Yumiko Igarashi. Having spent my childhood with this work, I followed the progress of the trial with considerable interest. While reading the views of both Nagita and Igarashi on their respective websites regarding the creation of the work, I noticed something.

"Candy Candy" is set in early 20th-century America and tells the story of an orphan named Candy who overcomes hardships with her natural cheerfulness and grows up to be a nurse. In creating this work, it became clear that both Nagita and Igarashi used foreign children's literature, such as "Anne of Green Gables," as models. Indeed, upon reflection, the work is peppered with motifs reminiscent of "Anne of Green Gables," "The Secret Garden," and "Daddy-Long-Legs."

At that moment, a thought occurred to me. Perhaps my introduction to the United States and the reason I began reading such literary works lay in shoujo manga. In other words, the origins of my current research in American literature might actually be found in shoujo manga set in foreign countries.

Since the Meiji era, works such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Little Women," and "Little Lord Fauntleroy" were introduced to Japan one after another. These representations of "foreign lands" were accepted by girls through girls' magazines like "Shojo no Tomo," and this legacy was carried over into post-war shoujo manga magazines.

How has the genre of shoujo manga expressed "America"? Shoujo manga, which is often culturally marginalized, was precisely the gateway to "somewhere else" for many readers. This was supported by the history of cultural reception and translation in Japan.

"Girls Who Don't Stop: The Future of 'Shoujo Manga' Imagination"

Hisayo Ogushi

Shohakusha

268 pages, 2,750 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.