Week 10: Manga and the Japanese Comic Tradition

For this week, I read Battle Angel Alita "Last Order." This particular series reminds me of another robot/cyborg series Ghost in the Shell. Battle Angel follows a strong female lead named Gally; the interesting thing about this series and its main character is that Gally isn't overly sexualized like most manga female characters, especially lead characters. She doesn't have an insanely busty body, she's more muscular and lean. I think it's good that this series is approaching a different take on the stereotypical female role in a manga.

During action sequences, the style becomes very loose and fast paced with dark line marks representing motion. It's very interesting how manga pursues motion and sequences; not many American comics nowadays show that fast paced line of action during fighting sequences. Back when superhero comics were just starting out in the late 1930's, there was more of that line of action represented during action sequences. American comics are more so close ups of the hero/villain's faces and looks like that they're just standing still facing each other when really they're moving. Manga action sequences are all over the place, that sometimes tend to drag out but otherwise keep you interested because of the ever changing scenes and dynamic line of action. Little to no talk can be seen when they are fighting when compared to American comics, hero/villain tend to "talk about the fight" while fighting. One thing that bothers me about manga, is that when they're in action sequences, they show close ups of their body parts which is sometimes hard to tell what that body part is and what's exactly going on since there's also multiple dark line marks representing the amount of motion that's going on in the fight.


Another thing that I've noticed about manga, is that a lot of their characters, preferably males, tend to look like girls. I remember when I was younger and read Naruto, I noticed that one character looked entirely like a girl but was actually a guy. I find that Japan has this fascination with making guys look like girls and making girls look like guys as a way of saying that society "doesn't need labels." In this issue of Battle Angel, Gally is fighting another cyborg. This cyborg has really long, flowing hair and a slim, muscular body. At first glance, this character looked to be a guy, but until another character asked the main character if they were sisters, it through me for a loop since this new cyborg isn't busty at all.


I'm not one for reading manga or watching anime, but this was definitely a surprise for me. The story was very engaging, lots of twists from the characters and information pertaining to the story as to how they accomplish the cyborg.

Week 8: Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation

For this week I read the first book of March by John Lewis himself. The book is about the Civil Rights movement that took place in the 1960's. It starts out in an office on the day Barack Obama is scheduled to be sworn into office, a historical day for everyone. John Lewis is seen getting ready for the big day when a woman and her two young boys come knocking on his office door to learn about John Lewis's legacy. The entirety of the story takes place in flashbacks starting off when Lewis was a little boy on a farm in the south. He talked about how he loved chickens and how when he grew up he wanted to be a chicken farmer but instead decided to grow up to be a pastor because he was passionate about the word of God.

The issue continues on with flashbacks of his journey to how far him and his fellow African Americans have come to gain the same freedom white Americans have. The story is really well outlined and is explained in great detail of each historic event that took place in the 1960's with the rising Civil Rights Movement.