Akira Maruyama worked for the long defunct shōjo manga magazine Shōjo Club during the 1950s and 1960s. He worked as editor and was in charge of some of the most prominent authors that worked for the magazine, such as Osamu Tezuka --the god of manga-- and he also discovered and nursed epoch-making mangaka like Shōtarō Ishinomori, Fujio Akatsuka and Hideko Mizuno.
Maruyama is also an expert on manga culture, especially shōjo manga that predates the Year 24 Group, that is to say, manga created between the release of Tezuka’s Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight, 1953-56), the first shōjo story manga hit, and the appearance of Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles, 1972-73).
This 20-year period is a kind of black hole for shōjo manga. There is not many information about the works created in that period, that tend to be criticized as “shallow”, “tear-jerking” and “clichéd”. In this incredibly interesting video, Maruyama tells us why this happened and what the pre-Year 24 Group shōjo manga was really like. Prepare to listen him talk about what “story manga” is, “harmful manga”, bonfires and uninformed critics.
(Also on Vimeo)
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
[...] to hear about why this is all so important, listen to an interview with Akira Maruyama, a Japanese expert on manga culture and was an editor for defunct magazine Shoujo Club. He points out that there is a whole period of [...]
[...] Akira Maruyama, who was an editor at Shojo Club, speaks to Marc Bernabe about post-war girls’ manga. Maruyama also discusses another forgotten chapter in manga history, circa 1950: a left-wing movement to eradicate comics for being harmful to children’s intellectual development. [Masters of Manga] [...]
I met so many friends who have gained intelligent and interest in some issues ,cause of manga or an anime they read when they were children.
[...] Akira Maruyama, who was an editor at Shojo Club, speaks to Marc Bernabe about post-war girls’ manga. Maruyama also discusses another forgotten chapter in manga history, circa 1950: a left-wing movement to eradicate comics for being harmful to children’s intellectual development. [Masters of Manga] [...]
[...] and there is a fascinating video interview at Masters of Manga with early shoujo manga creator Akira Maruyama, who says that the manga of that era is underrated. Still, Tezuka's story seems to have caught the [...]