Adult Manga : Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society

This text examines the rise and fall of Japan's mammoth comic industry since the 1960s. The author demonstrates that Japanese comics have shifted from being a lower-class medium for marginal citizens to becoming a novel form of official communication, embraced by national institutions. First detailed analysis of the phenomenon in English. Describes and analyses the complex new attitudes to manga since the 1980s. Provocative and timely, the book shows how manga's status in Japanese society is intimately linked to changes in the balance of power between artists and editors.