Manga as an Evolving Art Form: History, Storytelling, and Global Recognition
- Yassie
- Sep 1, 2025
- 4 min read
Understanding manga purely as “Japanese comics” means overlooking its centuries-old roots in visual storytelling and its distinct grammar of panels, pacing, and emotion.
Manga’s lineage can be traced back to emaki, illustrated handscrolls of the 12th century, where sequential images told stories without words. By the Edo period, kibyōshi—illustrated satirical books for adults—circulated widely, combining text and image in forms strikingly similar to modern graphic novels. When Katsushika Hokusai published Hokusai Manga in 1814, the term manga gained cultural traction, signaling playful sketches and dynamic movement.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, imported Western cartoons and satirical magazines blended with these domestic traditions. Figures such as Rakuten Kitazawa helped shape manga into serialized strips, establishing a visual shorthand recognizable today.
Crucially, manga’s reach extended into government domains:
Wartime propaganda: During the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, the government and the military leveraged manga for patriotic messaging. A notable example is Norakuro by Suihō Tagawa, which began as humorous army-themed adventures but evolved into propaganda tales of military heroism, subtly promoting wartime narratives. In parallel, the state adopted kamishibai (paper theater), a visual, easily accessible storytelling medium, to mobilize support for the war and spread ideological messaging.
Postwar public education and regulation: In more recent decades, manga has been officially embraced in educational contexts. The Japanese government has recognized its potential as a learning aid, incorporating manga formats into classrooms and even into textbooks to clarify complex subjects. Furthermore, there has been government regulation of manga content since the early 1990s: labeling systems and regional educational boards emerged to flag adult material and protect minors.
Cultural preservation and soft power: Currently, authorities regard manga as a powerful cultural asset. In 2024, Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs announced a plan to establish a national archive specifically for anime and manga original artworks, genga and animation cels, to preserve this heritage and promote global understanding.
Postwar Expansion and the Tezuka Model
The transformative figure in manga’s postwar history is Osamu Tezuka, often dubbed the “god of manga.” Influenced by cinematic techniques and American comics, Tezuka introduced dramatic framing, decompressed pacing, and wide-eyed characters. His Astro Boy did more than entertain; it laid the foundation for story manga where complex plots and long arcs became the norm.
The rise of genre-specific demographics—shōnen for boys, shōjo for girls, seinen and josei for adults—allowed manga to diversify both thematically and aesthetically. At the same time, experimental creators pioneered gekiga, or “dramatic pictures,” pushing manga into darker, more socially critical territory. Together, these developments positioned manga not as pulp entertainment but as an adaptable medium of narrative art.
Manga as Narrative System
Unlike Western comics, manga is often praised for its visual grammar. Scholars highlight its reliance on aspect-to-aspect transitions where a series of panels can linger on mood or environment rather than propel the plot. This decompression allows time to slow; silence can be as dramatic as conflict.
Craft texts echo this emphasis on immersion. Manga’s visual language achieves the same effect by drawing readers into characters’ inner rhythms through framing, onomatopoeia integrated into the artwork, and expressive close-ups.
Mangas excel at staging these conflicts visually: a shōjo heroine’s pause before confessing love, or a shōnen hero’s silent determination before a climactic battle, both convey tension through layout as much as dialogue.
Editing, Economy, and Flow
To appreciate manga’s artistry, one must also consider the editing ethos that shapes it. Manga’s editors—henshūsha—play precisely this role: guiding pacing, length, and serialization while safeguarding the mangaka’s distinct vision. The balance between commercial viability and craft echoes Western publishing’s struggles, yet the manga industry has consistently maintained a pipeline from experimentation (dōjinshi) to mainstream serialization.
Language itself reinforces this dynamic in a lot of schools of thought. When it comes to creative writing, there is an emphasis in clarity, rhythm, and precision—qualities like those are mirrored in manga’s clean paneling and visual economy. What is omitted can be as important as what is shown.
Global Influence and Institutional Recognition
Today, manga is not only a domestic industry but a global cultural export. Franchises such as Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Attack on Titan thrive across anime, film, and gaming platforms, showing how manga operates as a transmedia nucleus. Cultural institutions have taken note: the British Museum’s 2019 exhibition “Manga” treated the medium not as popular ephemera but as an artistic tradition worthy of curatorial attention. This recognition underscores that manga is not merely an aesthetic borrowed by the West but a storytelling system with its own logic, rhythm, and capacity for emotional resonance.
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