The History of Manga
The History of manga can be traced as far back as the 12th century in Japan, however the modern manga, that we are familiar with today, took form mostly only around the mid 20th century.
Contemporary manga originates in the Occupation (1945-1952) and post-Occupation years (1952-early 1960s), when a previously militaristic and ultranationalist Japan was rebuilding its political and economic infrastructure. Although U.S. Occupation censorship policies specifically prohibited art and writing that glorified war and Japanese militarism, those policies did not prevent the publication of other kinds of material, including manga. Furthermore, the 1947 Japanese Constitution prohibited all forms of censorship. One result was an explosion of artistic creativity in this period. The U.S. Occupation had also brought along cultural influences, such as comics brought to Japan by the US troops and images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoons. For instance, the distinctive "large eyes" style of Japanese animation was invented by Osamu Tezuka, considered by many as the father of manga, who based it on cartoons of the time such as Max Fleischer's Betty Boop and Walt Disney's Bambi and Mickey Mouse.
In the forefront of this period are two manga series and characters that influenced much of the future history of manga; Osamu Tezuka's Mighty Atom, also known as Astro Boy, and Machiko Hasegawa's Sazae-san.
Astro Boy was both a superpowered robot and a naive little boy. Tezuka never explained why Astro Boy had such a highly developed social conscience nor what kind of robot programming could make him so deeply affiliative. Both seem innate to Astro Boy, and represent a Japanese sociality and community-oriented masculinity differing very much from the Emperor-worship and militaristic obedience enforced during the previous period of Japanese imperialism. Astro Boy quickly became, and still remains, immensely popular in Japan and elsewhere as an icon and hero of a new world of peace and the renunciation of war Similar themes occur in Tezuka's New World and Metropolis.
By contrast, Sazae-san was drawn starting in 1946 by Machiko Hasegawa, a young woman artist who made her heroine a stand-in for millions of Japanese men and especially women rendered homeless by the war. Sazae-san does not face an easy or simple life, but, like Astro Boy, she too is highly affiliative and is deeply involved with her immediate and extended family. She is also a very strong character, in striking contrast to the officially sanctioned Neo-Confucianist principles of feminine meekness and obedience to the "good wife, wise mother" ideal taught by the previous military regime. Sazae-san faces the world with cheerful resilience. Sazae-san sold more than 62 million copies over the next half century.
Tezuka and Hasegawa were also both stylistic innovators. In Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique, the panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots. This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists. Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later shojo manga.
Between 1950 and 1969, increasingly large audiences for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, shonen manga aimed at boys and shojo manga aimed at girls.