Manga in/as Essay vol. 2, 2012 - First Contact

the MANGA in/as ESSAY series

Vol. 2, 2013 Manga in/as Essay vol 2, 2013

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the MANGA in/as ESSAY series

Vol. 2, 2013

‘the Manga in/as Essay series’ is supported by:

‘Manga in/as Essay’ is an occasional online magazine presenting manga dealing with topics mainly, but not exclusively related to politics and philosophy.

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the MANGA in/as ESSAY series In 2010 Asiascape.org kicked of with the first of a series of manga competitions.

For the first competition of Manga in/as Essay, Asiascape solicited for contributions from manga artists, cartoonists and scholars (including students) for an anthology (to be published by an academic press), and also for an exhibition (in real and virtual space).

Contributions took the form of graphic essays; they were variations on or interpretations of the classic ox-herding sequence, traditionally used in Zen Buddhism to illustrate the journey towards Enlightenment.

Asiascape.org started in 2007 as an NWO funded project in a two particular fields of the political arts: cyberculture and animanga (anime and manga) and especially as they relate to (or originate from) East Asia. It is now an international network, hosted by Leiden University in the Netherlands, for research and knowledge in these fields.

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The contents of this 2nd volume, entitled ‘First Contact’ is the result of the 2012 manga competition hosted by Leiden University’s Asiascape.org and the Polititcal and Philosophical Arts Initiative (PAI). Contributors to the competition were asked to send in a graphic essay that interrogates the theme of ‘First Contact,’ be this between humans and aliens, self and other, man and god, lovers, material and spirit.

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PRIZEWINNER

Nadj Yannick Wernink Najd Yannick Wernink was born in the Hague, the Netherlands and lived there untill he was seven. He then moved to Spain and France and travelled with his family through Africa and Europe.

From a very young age he was attracted to the manga style of drawing and as a consequence, his admiration for Japan, its culture, history and technology grew and grew.

Animation and manga were Nadj’s first introduction to the country and discovering Japan felt to him like discovering a whole new world.

He grew up watching Pokémon and similar series, and was later introduced to the animiation films made by Studio Ghibli.

Seeing creations like Spirited Away he was mesmerized by the beauty of the flowing movements of their drawings and decided to start collecting all Studio Ghibli’s work.

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the Robot and the Butterflies -1-in an area far in the future, there was a girl living with her grandmother in a little cottage in nature. grandma is worrying about the girl, being lonely and miserable in her isolation. was she suffering a mysterious dis-ease?

-2-what was going on with her? around her bed there were even diagnostic tools placed to find out and to follow the developments. grandmother worries.....

-3-she decides finally to change the situation and leaves the house to go to the nearest city to find a solution -4-granddaughter looking through the window, seeing her grandmother leaving, wonders what is going on -5-grandmother arrives in the city and drives around till she suddenly sees a very special shop, called Robo -Tech -6-the shop specialized in Robot-technology contains many robots for all kinds of purposes -7-grandmother decides to buy a Robotcompanion for her granddaughter -8-the girl wakes up hearing her grandmother coming back home. Grandma puts the present as a surprise in her room -9-just woken up she finds the present and sees a kit with the robot-pieces -10-with enthousiasm she starts to re-assemble the robot and when the sun came up the work is finished, -11-but she did not realise, that-while programming the robot-she made some mistakes. by accident she made the first emotional robot ever existed. The robot is ready, the chips are placed, she starts to load the batteries. the first signs of life are there and enthousiastically she embraces her new friend -12-having decided to show him the magic of nature and the world she takes him by the hand. Greeting grandmother in the garden, both are leaving home -13-having entered the great forest, she shows him all the miracles 8 Manga in/as Essay vol 2, 2013

-14-leaving the forest they enter the valley of the butterflies. seeing those freeflying butterflies, slowly the robot starts to realize his limits. somewhere he knows he is just a human creation -15-after a very intensive day they came home. granddaughter content but exhausted fell asleep. the robot reviewing the impressions of the day becomes more and more restless. realising his own imperfection and not understanding his own emotions, his system starts to overload -16-hallucinating more and more, he starts to disconnect with reality. the enlightening butterflies became obsessive. feeling this disturbance the girl wakes up and is just aware of a shadow leaving her room -17-hallucinating he leaves the house, it becomes too much now for him. trying to liberate himself from his imperfections he became like a raging bull -18-afraid to be abandoned by her new friend she runs after him in shock, but for him the only escape from his threatening self-reflections is to jump into the abyss....

-19-seeing him disappearing into the void her heart breaks and realising her friend is gone forever, she cries....

But a new sun is rising and a new part of her life begins In a way the experience with the emotional robot had strengthened her and had changed her life.............

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HONORABLE MENTION

Izumi Kijima “I’m Izumi Kijima, an Aquarius born January 27th in Chiba Prefecture and raised in Hyogo Prefecture.

I started drawing manga-style pictures after I first encountered a magazine called “Chao” as a second grader in elementary school.

This is my first full-fledged manga, and I learned again that drawing manga is difficult.

My work this time is the true story of the spring break of my third year of middle school, which I turned into a manga. The theme is “The happiness of the first moment my English came in handy.”

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Top right: Everyone!! It’s spring break!!

Top left: I’ve come to have fun in Tokyo!!

Bottom-right box: (This story’s main character) Nakata Haruka (15), a high school first-year, starting in April Bottom left: Wow—amazing!!

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Top right: This looks delicious—! (Mom, will you buy it for me?)

Top left (Mom): We’ll pass it on our way home, too... (So calm down…)

[Boxes: Tokyo Banana; Harajuku Baked Chocolate] [SFX: Sparkle] Middle box: Then…

[Bottom right SFX: Beep] Bottom left (Haruka): How long does it take to get to Tokyo Station?

Bottom left (Mom): Around 20 minutes, maybe.

Bottom left (English): Hey! You!!

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English: Hi!! Excuse me. Could you tell me the way to UENO station?

Do you know how to go?

Background: Whaaaat?!

Top left: (There’s no way I can give you directions!!)

Middle left: (What do I do…?)

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Top right: Yes!!

[Top left SFX: Grin] Bottom right background: OH NO!!

Bottom right: (Even though I can’t speak English at all, I just said yes!!

Bottom left 1, Haruka’s English: You ride this train, Bottom left 1, Stranger’s English: Yeah.

Bottom left 1, background Japanese: I’ll give it a shot, but…

Bottom left 2, Haruka’s English: and you change the train, “Yamanotesen…”

Bottom left 2, Stranger’s English: Ok. Bottom left 3, Stranger’s English: Thank you. I ask other person.

Bye. Bottom left 3, background Japanese: Unfortunate.

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Top right background: A moment later, on track 1…

Top right, Haruka: Giving directions is difficult…

Top left: But it’s good that you could try out some English conversation!

Middle: It’s the first time English conversation’s been useful.

Middle-left background: Ah…!

Bottom right, Mom: The train’s coming soon.

Bottom right, Haruka: Okay.

Bottom left (big background, Haruka thinking): Today is the first day I’ve ever used English in my daily life.

Bottom left (small background, next to the platform sign): The train is leaving; please be careful of the doors.

[Bottom left, SFX of the doors closing: “patan!”]

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Brainne del Rosario Title: The Dead Planet.

Artist: Brianne del Rosario (UK) DOB: December 8 1997 Occupation: Student About ‘The Dead Planet’ This was my first time using ink - I’ve entered a couple other competitions before but I’ve always lacked in some materials so I think this is the one that looks most professional?

The story was going to be completely different and be about a love story which I was more comfortable in doing but after deep considerations I thought it wasn’t meeting the themes enough so I changed it in the last minute and I thought drawing aliens was ridiculously fun.

The story is about our dying planet which is saved by aliens ‘passing by’ by taking two newborns (to repopulate?). Then the alien ironically turns against the humans and kills the pregnant wife to stop the re-population of the human race to prevent past events from occurring once again-

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Anonymous

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Denise Telalagic Denise Telalagic is a high school student from Bosnia who currently lives in Prague. She is a hobby artist with a particular interest in Manga-style art, which she has been drawing for ten years. Denise is especially interested in Japanese culture.

She has spent time studying the Japanese language and is hoping to visit Japan one day.

Denise is interested in being involved in more art projects and can be contacted at denisetelalagic@gmail.com.

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Tornike Mzarelua I am a 22 year old student at Leiden University College The Hague. I am currently studying world politics and political arts.

I have travelled all my life. I have lived in Georgia, Belgium, and America therefore my life has been influenced by various different cultures and traditions. Art is my favourite hobby. I have never read manga, nor have i ever watched animus but this manga project introduced me the concept that is rather interesting.

I also make artistic videos. My partner and I made a video for PAI, Political Arts Initiative.Â

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Rob van Haaften & Tornike Mzarelua Rob Van Haaften and Tornike Mzarelua (Toko), are students at Leiden University College The Hague. We are currently in first year and this Manga competition is our second project we worked on together.

First project we did was for Political Art Initiative and it was about surveillance cameras.Since we are currently studying about issues of drone operations around the world, we got inspired by this theme and decided to make a manga about it.

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the MANGA in/as ESSAY series

design Chris Goto-Jones, Esther Truijen coverimages excerpts of Nadj Yannick Werninck’s ‘the Robot and the Butterflies’

© 2013 Asiascape.org | All Rights Reserved No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the individual artists and Asiacape.org www.asiascape.org info@asiascape.org

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