Episode 621 – The Manga Revolution, Part 3

March 27, 2026 1 Comment

This week: the manga industry during World War II. Plus some thoughts on the development of shojo manga, and finally a look at Tezuka Osamu and the ways in which his work helped create the manga market that exists today.

Sources

An amazing Tokyo Weekender article on Hasegawa Machiko by Matthew Hernon.

Marks, Andreas. Japan’s Manga Revolution: From Painted Scrolls to Comic Books, 1680-1920

Koyama-Richard, Brigitte, ed. One Thousand Years of Manga.

Rousmaniere, Nicole Coolidge and Matsuba Ryoko, eds. Manga: The Citi Exhibition at the British Museum

Images

A cover from Kasei Tanken/The Exploration of Mars.
A page from one of the many volumes of Sazae-san that has been translated into English, just to give you a sense of the style.
Tanku Tankuro has since been translated into English; the style of the prose makes it look a bit more like a graphic novel than a comic in the modern sense.
Astro Boy was and is one of the most influential manga series ever made.
A page from 1948’s Adventures of Tarzan.

1 thought on “Episode 621 – The Manga Revolution, Part 3”

  1. I’m curious about some of the trans-pacific aspects of manga. How and when did manga become viewed as a viable export? Did MITI (or later METI) get involved in this process? How did western (especially big players like DC and Marvel) influence their Japanese counterparts and presumably vice vaersa?

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