Curated List

      For my chosen topic, I will be exploring the question of what are the blurred lines between genres? So basically, just because something is geared towards a specific audience does it have to follow certain parameters? Or even include characteristics of other genres.

     The main work I will be covering is Banana Fish. Despite being published in a Shoujo (Girl's) manga, its dense plot, heavy dialogue, and extensive action sequences led it to attract a sizeable male and adult female fanbase. It also has a very strong allusion to a possible romantic relationship between the two main male protagonists, which is common in a lot of Josei works.

• Here is a link to the manga (which was published in 1985.)
• Here is a link to the anime (which came out in 2018.) The adaptation is beautiful and true to the original work, highly recommended. 

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Other works that also blur the lines between the genre expectations are:

- Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (Link)



Summary: Chiyo Sakura is a cheerful high school girl who has fallen head over heels for the oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. Much to Chiyo's confusion, when she confesses to her beloved Nozaki, he hands her an unfamiliar autograph. As it turns out, the stoic teenage boy is actually a respected shoujo mangaka, publishing under the pen name Sakiko Yumeno! A series of misunderstandings leads to Chiyo becoming one of Nozaki's manga assistants.

Genre: Nozaki-kun’s refusal to conform to its own genre sets the stage for its cast, most of whom defy gender norms in one way or another.  It runs in the web magazine Gangan Online, which is technically marketed towards the Shounen (boys) demographic. If you're looking for an anime with romance and relationships, this isn't what you're looking for. If you're looking for an anime with endless hilarity and gags that runs off love and romance, this is what you're looking for.

- Yuri!!! on Ice (Link)

Summary: Reeling from his crushing defeat at the Grand Prix Finale, Yuuri Katsuki, once Japan's most promising figure skater, returns to his family home to assess his options for the future. At age 23, Yuuri's window for success in skating is closing rapidly, and his love of pork cutlets and aptitude for gaining weight are not helping either. However, Yuuri finds himself in the spotlight when a video of him performing a routine previously executed by five-time world champion, Victor Nikiforov, suddenly goes viral. In fact, Victor himself abruptly appears at Yuuri's house and offers to be his mentor. As one of his biggest fans, Yuuri eagerly accepts, kicking off his journey to make it back onto the world stage. But the competition is fierce, as the rising star from Russia, Yuri Plisetsky, is relentlessly determined to defeat Yuuri and win back Victor's tutelage.

Genre: Listed solely in the Comedy and Sports genres. Based on it's premise alone you'd have no idea how strongly it leans towards the Shounen-ai (Or boy's love) category; and this was done on purpose. It was a groundbreaking anime that presented a gay couple in a way that was non-fetishizing. It could even be argued that the relationship between the main characters is the central story, rather than the sport itself.

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-There are also many Shonen manga that their main plots revolve around romance, something that is typically reserved for Shoujo audiences, such as Domestic na Kanojo or Kimi no Iru Machi. These could also be categorized for older audiences, given their mature themes.

-Princess Jellyfish, despite being published on a Josei manga magazine, lacks any mature characters or themes to really categorize it as one. It even won a manga award in Shoujo rather than the Otona (mature/adult) category.)

-Himegoto: Juukyuusai no Seifuku is a Seinen that could fall more in the Josei category given how centered it is around the two main female characters and it's focus on trying to define what "femininity" means to them. Its a refreshing and realistic story that follows a group of 3 college-age people who struggle with themes of identity, manipulation, sexuality, and possibly transgenderism aren’t often seen in anime or manga.

-Finally, if you are just interested in a manga that has a similar feel to Banana Fish, here's a list of 6 recommendations. Most are older works since they came out around the same time.

Hope you enjoy the works on this list! I'm looking forward to giving my presentation ☺️

Horimiya

Hori-san to Miyamura-kun is a very sweet romantic comedy manga that has a unique charm to it that makes it different from the rest. The story manages to steer clear from the regular clichés that plague most romance manga. It is a great read that thoroughly entertained me with it’s perfect mix of humor and genuinely sweet moments. The story itself is light on the drama (unlike other works of this genre), but that only adds to the appeal of it. It is a grounded and very interesting story. The characters go through a lot of growth as they struggle with their own sense of self-worth, overcoming bullies and social exclusion to become people you truly want to root for.

Out of these struggles, the romance grows in a very organic and natural way. After all, a lot of the focus is on them simply being teens learning how to be teens. They’re just trying to express who they truly are, after a period where their self-expression was pretty much overshadowed by societal pressures. A huge part of their growth is simply learning to overcome these things and tell people how they truly feel. Hori and Miyamura have different struggles, but they are fundamentally similar. I enjoyed the way their personal relationship came about and developed almost in a domestic scenario. Sometimes they act more like a married couple than a pair of high-schoolers. To Hori and Miyamura, an enclosed world is built where they work to preserve their non-public-persona moments together, reserving a side of themselves only for each other. In the end, it becomes a story of loving without judgement.

"I saw it"

When we read Keiji Nakazawa's work in class I was blown away by how powerful it was. On a few occasions while reading it, I found myself almost tearing up, which is something that I rarely experience. I think it is very important that more people read this work, especially in today’s day and age, where the threat of another nuclear war is looming over us. Our current generation doesn’t quite understand how much impact an event like this can have on people. Heck, we haven’t ever really had to deal with anything to this scale first-hand before.

I also enjoyed Hillary Chute’s essay on the work. She brought up points that I would have never thought of, such as the bomb leaving a “photographic” imprint in of itself, and the author’s need to make marks and document parts of the event by drawing. I found the overall work to be very interesting as well. It is a heavy story told and experienced by a child; his formative years were defined by chaos and tragedy. A first-person account like this really shows just how much of an impact this event had on people, more than any work of fiction or general facts could ever try to convey. The work is honest and straightforward; nothing was sugar-coated, which is something that I believe is important to get the author’s message across. Humanity must be able to look back on these events, acknowledge, address, and analyze them, so as to not repeat the same mistakes.

Possible question for Dr. Suzuki

~ Why do you think manga/anime in Japan have been able to reach a more wide variety of audiences (specifically adults), something that cartoons have struggled to do in the west for the longest time?