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Lin, Ziyi. "From Postwar to Media Mix: Interpreting Mimio as a Liminal Character Toy in Tezuka Osamu’s Abanchūru 21 (1970)." Mechademia 15. (2022): 167–89. Added by: joachim (11/26/23, 9:00 AM) Last edited by: joachim (11/26/23, 9:04 AM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed BibTeX citation key: Lin2022 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Abanchūru 21", Character, Intermediality, Japan, Manga, Metaisierung, Tezuka. Osamu Creators: Lin Collection: Mechademia |
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| Attachments | URLs https://muse.jhu.edu/article/873027 |
| Abstract |
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This article consists of three parts. I begin with introducing Abanchūru 21 and examining its visual aspects in depth, in order to explain my interpretation that the manga serves as a self-reflexive work on the fictional worlds of manga. This discussion lays the groundwork to discuss the protagonist Mimio as alternatively existing in the fictional and the real worlds, whose identity as a liminal monster represents a manga character. Moving into the second section, I argue that Mimio stands for a character toy through both expressions within the manga and its intertextual connection to Tezuka's other characters, including the widely beloved animated protagonist Atomu. In the final section, I delineate the mobility and physicality of the character in the emergent Japanese media mix culture in the 1960s. Achieving unusual mobility as a liminal creature, manga characters like Mimio gain corporality and mobility as merchandise goods in real life, transcending beyond their death in the original work. Overall, the manga reveals Tezuka's conflicted stance toward the dawn of postmodern cultural consumption and fan activities in the 1960s Japan, of which he acted both as an initiator and participant. The self-reflexive work of Abanchūru 21 sheds light on the formative period of the postmodern cultural consumption in Japan, an era where the dedication and obsession with manga characters engendered a new mode of existence for these beings of fictions.
Added by: joachim |