Manga and the Retelling of Myths

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Godzilla, a new movie that is coming out this May, is a new adaption of an older story. The Twilight series puts a new spin on creatures like vampires having them sparkle when in sunlight. Even Little Red Riding Hood was re-made into a book and a movie where the Big Bad Wolf is not just a wolf but a werewolf. These are all examples of people’s creative re-telling of mythological creatures that originated from older sources.

Books and movies, however, are not the only place that these creatures can find a new life but also in manga. Manga artists are also re-inventing these mythical creatures like the kitsune which is a creature of Japanese folklore. These creatures are no longer bound strictly to their original story. In this essay I will be discussing how the kitsune is being re-invented in manga and the cultural ambiguity present in all of them. In Zilia Papp’s work called Traditional Imagery in Manga, Anime, and Japanese Cinema, Papp mentions that there are “ways the supernatural and otherworldly have been rendered visually during different historical periods.”1 The re-inventing of old stories, is important because it allows us to compare the past representations of these creatures to the modern and explore what these changes reflect. In this essay the focus will be on the original and modern depiction of the kitsune. Today people are less confined to writing stories that match every aspect of the original story or creature leading to many new adaptations.

Manga

First, we must briefly discuss what manga is. This is extremely hard to do, due to the fact that manga isn’t black or white but a nice shade of gray. Manga is a type of media that is dependent on the relationship of verbal and visual aspects. The words and t...

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...ity, Historicity." Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Print.

3. "Kitsune - Mythical Creatures Guide." Kitsune - Mythical Creatures Guide. Web. 16 May 2014.

4. Wong, Wendy Siuyi. "Globalizing Manga: From Japan to Hong Kong and Beyond." Mechademia 1.1 (2006): 23-45. Web. 16 May 2014.

5. Levi, Antonia. "The Americanization of Anime and Manga: Negotiating Popular Culture." Cinema Anime. 43-63. Print.

6. Kishimoto, Masashi, and Jo Duffy. Naruto. San Francisco, CA: Viz, 1999. Print.

7. Takahashi, Rumiko, Gerard Jones, and Mari Morimoto. Inuyasha. San Francisco, CA: Viz Communications, 2004. Print.

8. Suzuki, Julietta, and Tomo Kimura. Kamisama Kiss. San Francisco, CA: Viz Media, 2010. Print.

*All pictures were taken from their corresponding manga or from the Mythical Creatures Guide website.

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