“Japan in American Comics: A Study of Japanese Influences in American
Mainstream Comic Books and their Superheroes”
Buchenberger, Stefan (Nara Women’s University)
A cursory glance at today’s Japanese popular culture may give the impression
that most of it comes from the USA, like Disney with its hugely successful
Disneyland franchise in Tokyo, and other American theme parks like Universal
Studios in Osaka; likewise, enormously popular movie and music stars like Tom
Cruise or Mariah Carey, who seem to be more popular in Japan than in their
home country, or baseball, which is the most popular sport in Japan.
But as in baseball, where we’re starting to see a reverse trend with Japanese
stars and cultural icons like Ichiro Suzuki1 and Hideki Matsui, there is a growing
interest in the USA for maybe the most Japanese item of popular culture, the
Japanese comic books, or mangas, and their animated version, the so-called
anime.2 The impact of mangas on the equally vibrant American comic scene
comes in many different ways, and warrants a closer look for how a typical
phenomenon from Japanese popular culture influences a similarly typical
phenomenon from American popular culture. It is also of great interest to see
how the American comic scene handles the Japanese influence, and what kind
of an image of Japan is thereby created.3
1. Translations of Japanese Mangas
First of all, there are numerous translations of Japanese mangas, the hugely
popular Japanese comic books that are becoming increasingly available on the
US market.4 Especially, publisher Dark Horse Comics has helped the popularity
of mangas with numerous publications, like a complete edition of the canonical
Astroboy series (original title Tetsuwan Atom) written by Osamu Tezuka, an
1
All Japanese names are transcribed in Western mode with first name and then family name.
Not only are Japanese animes themselves getting ever more popular, as the Oscar for Sen to Chihiro no
Kamikakushi in 2002 proves, anime sequences are also becoming a feature in major films like Quentin
Tarantino’s Kill Bill Part 1.
3
The following can only show a part of how Japan and Japanese manga are manifested in American
comics. These findings are also subject to change from a point of character continuity, as often new or
expanded origins are created that may change the use of Japanese elements for a particular character.
4
For all citations of translations of Japanese manga see Overstreet.
2
ongoing event that was even advertised on the cover of Previews, the main
comic book catalogue.5
Another groundbreaking manga that has been reedited in the original Japanese
format of six black and white massive volumes is Akira,6 created by Katsuhiro
Otomo.
Other titles published by Dark Horse Comics include Blade of the Immortal by
Hiroaki Samura, Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike, and Goseki Kojima, to
name but a few of an ever-increasing list.
Other than Dark Horse Comics, which also publishes non-manga titles, there are
also publishers in the USA specializing solely in mangas.
To name but a few, Tokyopop publishes, amongst other offers, Cowboy Bebop
by Yukata Nanten or Kodocha by Miho Obana, Viz communications publishes
Dragonballz by Akira Toriyama and Mobile Suit Gundam by Kazuhisa Kondo,
and Comicsone publishes Lupin III by Monkey Punch, all of them also hugely
successful animated films.
For the American fan of Japanese mangas, most of them are accessible via
translations. Most of the mangas that get translated into English belong to action,
adventure, science fiction, or a mixture of all of these, but it seems that other
genres, like mangas for girls, romantic, and even pornographic mangas, are part
of this boom too.
As Japanese books and magazines are read from right to left and their Western
mirror-image translations accordingly from left to right, there are quite a number
of left-handed protagonists, and sometimes even fascist villains who salute with
their left hands. The popularity of mangas is so great, however, that now
translations are even printed in the correct Japanese format.
Nevertheless, manga itself is a kind of cultural stereotype about Japan, and so
5
See the cover of Previews, December 2001.
Originally a colored version was published in thirty-eight smaller volumes by Marvel Comics from
1988 to 1995 before Dark Horse Comics went back to the original black and white six-volume format in
2000.
6
even the great variety of titles published does not necessarily mean a greater
variety of images of Japan. The stereotypical use of images about Japan will be
even clearer when we come to the use of Japan and Japanese characters in US
comics later.
Apart from the share in the American comic market, there is also another way in
with mangas influence the American comic scene, that is, with its unique style of
drawing that many artists today like to copy or develop further.
2. Manga-style drawing
The drawing style of mangas7 is very distinctive, with its wide-eyed, nose-less
characters that seem to lack individual traits. Many mangas are also full of action
and speed, like a fast-paced action movie, given form by blurred backgrounds
that are accentuated by flashy lines that generate a feeling of rapid motion.
Many projects already use the manga style of drawing in mainstream comics,
like in the Marvel Mangaverse, a comic book that shows the heroes of the
Marvel universe, like Spider-Man, the Hulk, or the X-Men, in manga style.
Another example is the mini-series Taskmaster about a superhuman soldier of
fortune, likewise drawn in manga style by a studio called Udon, which is the
name for a special kind of Japanese noodle.
Vampi by Kevin Lau shows a manga variation of the so-called ’bad girl’ comic, a
category of comics with violent, scantily-clad heroines with supermodel bodies.
In this case, the archetypical bad girl, the classical horror character Vampirella,
gets a manga makeover.
Recently, it is no longer just American artists who draw like manga artists, but
also Japanese artists who are drawing American comic books, like Asamiya Kia
with a run on Uncanny X-Men.
But the influence of mangas goes even further than translations and drawing
style. Japan and Japanese characters play an important role in American comics,
7
See Gravett.
a fact at which we are now going to take a closer look.
3. Japan and Japanese characters in US Comics
Shi8
Another variation of the aforementioned bad girl comic in connection with Japan
is Shi by Bill Tucci. Ana Ishikawa, alias Shi, which means ‘death’ in Japanese
and uses the same Chinese character for her name, is a young woman, well
versed in martial arts, who goes about dispatching her enemies with the
trademark violence of this kind of comic book. Death being identified with a
beautiful woman receives an added touch in the phonetical similarity between
‘Shi’, meaning ‘death’, and ‘she’ as a female pronoun in English. Portraying
Death as a woman is also a theme in many other comic books, for example Lady
Death from Image Comics, so a female bringer of death is not always Japanese,
but Shi’s mixture of violence and eroticism with a Far Eastern touch has made
her into one of the most popular independent comics in recent years.
Shi also gives us a closer look at lots of the Japanese cultural stereotypes, like
ninjas (assassins), samurais (warriors), and ronins (masterless samurais), that
are commonly used in American comic books in an attempt to give their stories
an exotic touch.
Especially, ninjas are commonly used as helpers of various villains, and appear
in fight scenes where the hero confronts a seemingly overwhelming force of
those assassins only to beat them at their own game. All non-superpowered
heroes, like Batman or Daredevil, are themselves masters of numerous martial
arts, and, in a show of Western superiority, use these techniques to beat those
with whom these fighting arts originated.
Daredevil
Daredevil especially, the blind lawyer whose costumed alter-ego fights evil with
his other heightened senses, always seems to be involved with members of
Japanese secret organizations. One of his archenemies is the so-called “Hand,”
8
For characters used in this chapter, see the List of Works Cited.
an ancient organization of ninjas that serve a demon, die willingly for their cause,
and are able to bring the dead back to life. The Hand symbolizes all the Western
stereotypes about ninjas. Fierce fighters who are willing to lay down their lives,
and who also seem to have a pact with dark forces, the Hand reminds one of the
kamikaze pilots of the Second World War, not caring for their own lives and
believing in a higher power on their side, a faceless mad enemy who must be
destroyed at all cost. Most of the Japanese villains in American comic books are
portrayed in this way.
However, in this fight Daredevil is helped by good ninjas who wear white clothes,
and the master of this organization is a blind, somewhat seedy American called
Stick, an ironic variation of a classical Asian master, who also taught Daredevil
martial arts. Daredevil’s former girlfriend Elektra, who meanwhile appears in her
own monthly book, is likewise a martial arts master, another variation of a bad
girl with Japanese traits.
The creator of all these Japanese elements in Daredevil’s adventures is the
American author and artist Frank Miller, who always had a taste for using Japan
in his comics, but also in some of the science fiction movies he scripted, like the
Japan-bashing Robocop 3. Amongst his comics are other interesting projects
like Wolverine and The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, at which we are now
going to take a closer look.
Wolverine
The first Wolverine mini-series, published in 1982, is another project involving
Japan by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont. For the first time, a major
mainstream comic book character is defined via his relationship with Japan.
Wolverine, a mutant with an animal side, who speaks Japanese and has, of
course, trained under a Japanese master, goes back to Tokyo to win the heart of
the woman he loves, Mariko Yoshida, a plan opposed by her crime lord father.
After numerous trials, Wolverine regains his honor and wins his bride while
defeating the villain.
The motif of honor lost and regained is not Japanese in itself, but Miller and
Claremont try to give Wolverine more complexity and a more grueling trial by
taking it to the level of the moral rigidity of the samurai’s warrior code, the
bushido. Claremont claims that Wolverine’s essence is that of a failed samurai.
His animal side is in constant conflict with the ideals of the samurai, like self
control, honor, and a total sense of duty. Only when he overcomes this inner
conflict can he reach an inner harmony (in Japan called satori), best his enemies,
and win the day. This is basically an old story, used hundreds of times in comic
books, but the Japanese point of view gives it a new perspective.
Meanwhile, Japan and Japanese characters have become a main part of
Wolverine’s world. Amongst others is the killer cyborg Lady Deathstrike, who
turned herself into a machine in order to avenge her father’s honor. This is
another typical element of Japanese characters and, especially, villains, as all of
them will fight until death if they perceive their honor as tarnished, however
ludicrous this may seem to the Western characters and readers. This behavior,
and its Western counter-reaction of incredulity and disgust, once again reminds
one of the American reactions towards the kamikaze pilots in the Second World
War. For the Americans, they were fighting an enemy with no regard for their
own life or others’ because of a seemingly incomprehensible and outdated code
of honor, and most of the Japanese characters are still portrayed in this way.
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Quite another story is told by Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow in The Big Guy and
Rusty the Boy Robot from 1995, a parody on Japanese monster and giant robot
movies. A giant monster which looks a lot like Godzilla, the ancestor of all
Japanese monsters, is created, and the Japanese government sends Rusty the
Boy Robot, who in turn looks very much like the above-mentioned Testuwan
Atom, into battle. He fails, and so the American hero the Big Guy, a
retro-futuristic fighting machine with grotesquely overblown American heroic
traits, is called in, who finally defeats the monster.
In parody-like fashion, Miller uses elements of Japanese and American comics
and science fiction, with Japan and its monsters and robots as the arena for the
never-ending fight of good and evil. Japan is portrayed as it is seen in its own
monster movies, but this time Miller widens the use of cultural stereotypes to
include his own culture, as the Big Guy gallantly refuses to take credit for his
heroic deed and flies off into the sunset in John Wayne fashion.
Tokyo Storm Warning
Tokyo Storm Warning is a kind of meta-comic by British author Warren Ellis
about the Japanese Science Fiction scene with its constant battles of monsters
and giant robots that destroy Tokyo on a regular basis. Using elements of
Japanese Science Fiction and monster movies, and their constant battles that
level Tokyo, Ellis not only offers an explanation for these terrifying events, but
also a solution. Caught in a time loop after a nuclear bomb hits Tokyo, it is a little
Japanese boy’s imagination that creates both monsters and heroes. This
endless series of battles is solved when an American pilot comes to Tokyo to
command one of the giant robotic suits, discovers the secret, and frees the boy
from his prison. The US appears as both the cause of and the solution to, a
fictional Japan’s greatest problem, with Ellis not just using Japanese elements
but making the whole story into an American story with the Japanese elements
as stage props. The Western pocketing of Japanese pop culture is especially
clear in this instance, as not only stereotypical elements of it get used, but also,
on a meta-level, these elements are put into an American context, as the West
both causes Japan’s monster culture and also makes it go away.
Usagi Yojimbo
Another variation of the ronin motif is Stan Sakai’s critically acclaimed and Eisner
award winning Usagi Yojimbo, about the adventures of a masterless rabbit
samurai in feudal Japan of the 16th century. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s
samurai epic Yojimbo, and other of his period pieces, are a powerful intertext in
this series that manages to capture the spirit of Kurosawa’s work while using
animal characters and somewhat stereotypical themes like the warrior code,
bushido, and all the problems of honor and obligation that come with it.
Kurosawa’s movies still more or less dominate the Western image of Japan
during the 15th and 16th centuries, and were themselves hugely influential on the
making of several classical westerns.
For a comic book that is seemingly well-researched, it is, however, surprising
that Sakai uses the incorrect Western classification for temples, as the word ‘ji’,
meaning temple in Japanese, is used together with the English word, as in
Kitanoji temple.
Vertigo Pop Tokyo!
This limited series by Jonathan Vankin and Seth Fisher tries to make sense of
modern Japanese pop culture in Tokyo through the eyes of a foreigner who is
constantly baffled by the seeming absurdities of Japanese society and its youth
culture. Mixing manga and US comic elements, Vankin, who lived in Tokyo for
three years himself, tries to make sense of the often contradictory character of
Japanese society with its mixture of tradition and modernity, its underworld, and
glittery high-tech world. Tokyo Pop!, however, doesn’t offer any answer; it
illustrates the problems of many foreigners, and repeats many stereotypes about
Japanese modern society. At the end, the American protagonist leaves for the
US, conveying a message that life in Japan is in the end impossible for a
Westerner.
Kabuki
A more serious take on Japanese pop culture is shown in Kabuki, an ongoing
series by David Mack. Even the title page looks very Japanese, with Japanese
ink paintings and the correct use of the Chinese characters for Kabuki, a form of
Japanese theatre mixing song, dance, and scenes from classical literature that
originated in the 17th century.
The story itself, however, has nothing to do with Japanese theatre, but takes
place in present day Japan with all its main characters being Japanese, which in
itself is unusual for the work of an American author. The title heroine, Kabuki,
and her female companions form the secret government organization Masks of
the Noh in a fictional Japan that is a mixture of the futuristic glamour world of
places like Shinjuku in Tokyo and old traditions and locations. His characters are
also a mixture of reality and fantasy, between tradition and modernity in both
their fight against evil and as pop icons of Mack’s Japan, blurring the line
between reality and fiction just like today’s real-life Japanese pop icons, who
also seem sometimes to travel between these two worlds.
Mack thus succeeds in creating a vision of Japan that is much more believable in
that it is, in a fascinating way, both exotic and real for the Western reader. The
Western pocketing of Japan works totally differently in Kabuki, with Mack using
Japanese pop culture itself to create the kind of exotic picture of Japan that both
astonishes Western readers but, in its strangeness, is also expected by them.
The Yellow Jar
A totally different look at Japan in American comics is offered by The Yellow Jar.
First in a series of adaptations of Asian tales, this book by Patrick Atangnan is
drawn in the ukiyo-e style of classical Japanese wood block printing. It tells two
fairy tales from ancient Japan that, together with the drawing style, serve as an
introduction for Western readers to classical Japanese storytelling. The title story
is a fairy tale about a princess, a simple man, and the obstacles they have to
surmount finally to be together, using Japanese characters, names, and settings.
The second story, “Two Chrysanthemum Maidens,” is about a monk and his
beautiful garden and the two maidens, both flowers and human telling a story of
pride, neglect, and human relations in another Japanese setting. It is also
interesting that Atangnan uses the chrysanthemum, the flower of the crest of the
Japanese imperial family, which in this story derives from one of the maiden
characters.
The Yellow Jar is not so much about Westernizing Japanese culture as about
telling fairytales for a Western audience in a way that is seemingly authentic and
well-researched, even for a Western reader with more than a passing knowledge
of Japan. Wood block printing, however, was not used for storytelling, and so
Atangnan uses an old technique in a new way with his comic book to give the
impression of authenticity. A kind of classic Japanese comic book does exist,
however, in the form of picture scrolls, the so-called emaki.
4. Conclusion
Most of the titles mentioned above create an image of Japan that is made up, in
various degrees, of Western stereotypes and prejudices.
The Western interpretation of Japan is always according to how Japan
supposedly is. The West is always superior, as its heroes constantly triumph
over their Japanese adversaries, using their own techniques to do so. Warren
Ellis is even trying to explain an element of Japanese pop culture to the
Japanese on a meta-level.
As mentioned above, Japanese everyday life plays hardly any role, as the
Western image of Japan is used only as an exotic background for super-heroic
feats, the strangeness and incomprehensibility, by Western standards, of which,
heighten their dangers, giving the hero even more dangerous adversaries in, or
from, a hostile environment.
Japanese heroes are almost nonexistent, and if they are part of a Western
environment, like Sunfire of Marvel Comics or Dr. Light of DC Comics, they are
always hard to get along with because of their Japaneseness, and are unable to
be a part of the Western team as they do not understand the Western concept of
team spirit. Also, these Japanese heroes’ powers are often related to the sun as
the symbol of Japan, making them even more Japanese.
Comic books, and other variations of trivial literature and texts, play an important
role in how Japan and Japanese Culture, and even Asian Culture, are perceived
in the West, as they are reflecting common perceptions of these cultures. They
are also part of how the West shapes its image of Asia, a part of, to paraphrase
Edward Said, the Orientalism of the East. Japan and Japanese characters are
unanimously perceived in the way mentioned above, using, but also helping to
create, the stereotypical image of Japan that is commonly used in the West. This,
of course, is not on a scale with Arab countries, India, or other Asian countries
during the period of colonialism, but nevertheless the images of Japan as an
exotic, essentially impossible to understand country are in part shaped via comic
books.
There is, however, a kind of reverse Orientalism of the West in Japanese
mangas that uses nondescript Western characters or even American
super-heroes like Spider-Man or Batman in a Japanese context, portraying them
from a Japanese point of view, while using their own stereotypes about the West.
A prime example of this is the above-mentioned Kia Asamiya, who not only drew
a story arc for Uncanny X-Men, but who also created a Japanese version of
Batman with his Batman: Child of Dreams, which has since appeared also in an
English translation.
However, the analysis of how Japanese comic books portray the West is a
subject worth researching another time.
5. List of works cited:
Benton, Mike. The Comic Book in America: An Illustrated History. Dallas: Taylor,
1989.
Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New York: Harper
Design, 2004.
Klock, Geoff. How to Read Superhero Comics and Why. New York: Continuum,
2002.
Overstreet, Robert M., ed. The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. 34th
ed. New York: House of Collectibles, 2004.
Previews: The Comic Shop’s Catalogue 12 (2001).
Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London:
Penguin, 1995.
5.1. Comics cited:
Limited Series:
Ellis, Warren, and James Raiz. Tokyo Storm Warning. La Jolla: Wildstorm/DC
Comics, 2003.
Miller, Frank, and Geoff Darrow. The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
Milwaukee: Dark Horse Comics, 1995.
Vankin, Jonathan, and Seth Fisher. Vertigo Pop Tokyo! New York: Vertigo/DC
Comics, 2002.
Ongoing Series:
Daredevil. 2 vols. to date. New York: Marvel Comics, 1964- .
Projects of special interest: Bendis, Brian Michael. Daredevil: Ninja.
New York: Marvel Comics, 2000-2001.
Mack, David. Kabuki. Various (New York: Icon/Marvel Comics). 1994 (2004)- .
Sakai, Stan. Usagi Yojimbo. Various (Milwaukee: Dark Horse Comics). 1987
(1996)- .
Shi. Various (Avator), 1997 (2001)- .
First appearance: Razor Annual #1. London Night Studios, 1993.
Wolverine. 2 vols. to date. New York: Marvel Comics, 1988- .
First appearance: The Incredible Hulk #180. New York: Marvel Comics,
1974. Projects of special interest: Claremont, Chris, and Frank Miller.
Wolverine. New York: Marvel Comics, 1982 and Pratt, George.
Wolverine: Netsuke. New York: Marvel Comics, 2002.
Others:
Asamiya, Kia. Batman: Child of Dreams. Adapt. Max Allen Collins. New York: DC
Comics, 2003.
Atagnan, Patrick. The Yellow Jar: Two Tales from Japanese Tradition. New York:
NBM, 2002.