Saturday, 22 March 2014
Manga's Generational conflict around (1990 to 1995) Glénat published the first manga issued in France, Akira, in 1990 — supported by the respected newspaper Libération and by the national TV channel Antenne 2. Followers included Dragon Ball (1993), Appleseed (1994), Ranma 1/2 (1994) and five others. In the mid-1990s, manga magazines in B5 size like Kameha (Glénat) and Manga Player (MSE) were available. At the same time a controversy arose among some parents. In particular, the conservative association Familles de Francestarted a media polemic about the undesirable contents, such as violence, portrayed in the Club Dorothée, a kids' TV show. By this time, a generational conflict had arisen between the young fans of "Japanimation" (in use until anime became main stream) and the older Japoniai series (a pejorative pun for Japonaiseries, literally "Japanese stuff" and "niaiseries", "simpleton stuff") . Ségolène Royaleven published a book,Le Ras le bol des bébés zappeursin which manga are described as decadent dangerous and violent. She hasn't changed her position on that topic yet. The same adult content controversy was applied to hentai manga, including the notorious, "forbidden", Shin Angelby U-Jin, published by pioneers such as Samourai Editionsor Katsumi Editionsand later to magazines. The firsthentaiseries magazine, "Yoko", featured softcore series like Yuuki's Tropical Eyes. It was first issued in late 1995. The same year, the noir and ultra-violent series, Gunnm (aka Battle Angel Alita), was serialized in a slim, monthly, edition. Around the same period a hardcore version of Yoko magazineOkazwas issued.
The era of Toei (1987 – 1996):- In 1986 and 1987 three new private or privatized television channels appeared on French airwaves. An aggressive struggle for audience, especially on children television shows, started between the two public and the two private channels. After the private channels lost market share, they counter-attacked with a non-Japanese lineup, mostly American productions such as Hanna- Barbera. This ploy failed, and TF1 remained pre-eminent in children's TV shows with its Japanese licenses. In 1991 French theaters showed ananimefeature-film for the first time: Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, a teen-rated, SF movie supported by manga publisher Glénat. TF1 Video edited the video ( VHS) version for the French market, and Akira quickly became an anime reference. However, Japanese animation genre became massively exploited by TV shows from the late 1980s onwards, most notably the cult Club Dorothée show (mostly dedicated to Toei animeand tokusatsu series). In fact, the commercial relationship between the Japanese studio and the French show producers were so good, that the French presenter was even featured in a Metal Hero Seriesepisode as guest star. Just as in a Japanese manga series magazine, the Club Doro thée audience voted by phone or minitelto select and rank their favourite series. Top-ranked series continued the following week, others stopped. The most popular series were Dragon Balland later its sequel, Dragon Ball Z, which became number one, and was nicknamedle chouchou ("the favorite") by the show presenter, Dorothée. As the series kept number one for several months, Dorothée invited Akira Toriyama ( Toei Animation), creator of the series, on the TV show studio to introduce him to the French audience and award him a prize in the name of the TV show. Saint Seiya was another anime series to achieve popularity in France. It too belonged to these inengenre, and thus showed more violence - directed towards an older audience - than the Nippon Animation studio shōnen / shōjoseries of the 1970s and 1980s. Notable Toei and non-Toei animeseries broadcast by that time on French TV included Captain Tsubasa, Robotech, High School! Kimengumi and Kinnikuman. This cult TV show ran from 1987 to 1997.
Nippon Animation era (1978 – 1986):- Producer Jean Chalopin contacted some Japanese studios, such as Toei (who didGrendizer); and Tokyo Movie Shinsha, Studio Pierrot and Studio Junio produced French-Japanese series. Even though made completely in Japan by character-designers such as Shingo Araki, the first Chalopin production of this type, Ulysses 31 took thematic inspiration from the Greek Odyssey and graphic influence from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ulysses 31 went on sale in 1981, other shows produced by DiC Entertainment followed in 1982, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Mysterious Cities of Gold, later M.A.S.K., etc. Such series were enough popular to allow the introduction of licensed products such as tee shirts, toys, stickers, mustard glass, mugs or keshi. Also followed a wave of anime adaptations of European tales by Studio Pierrot and mostly by the Nippon Animation studio,e.g. Johanna Spyri's (1974), Waldemar Bonsels's (1975), Hector Malot's (1977), Cécile Aubry's (1980), or Jules Verne's Around the World with Willy Fog (1983), notable adaptation of American works were Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980) and Alexander Key's Future Boy Conan. Interesting cases are Alexandre Dumas, père's The Three Musketeers adapted to Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (1981) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes become Sherlock Hound (1984), both turned human characters into anthro pomorph animals. Such anthropomophism in tales comes from old and common story telling traditions in both Japanese and French cultures, including the Chōjū giga emaki (the true origins ofmanga) of Toba Sōjō (1053–1140), and the animal fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695). Changing humans to anthropomorphized dogs reflects a known form of Cynicism: etymologically speaking, the bite of the Cyniccomes from the fact he is a dog (cynomeans "dog" in Greek). The adaptations of these popular tales made easier the acceptance and assimilation of semi-Japanese cultural products in countries such as France, Italy or Spain. The localization including credits removal by Sabanor DiC, was such that even today, twenty or thirty years later, most of French adults who have watched series like Calimero (1974) adapted from an Italian novel, Wanpaku Omukashi Kum Kum (1975), Barbapapa (1977) adapted from a French novel, or Monchichi (1980) as kids don't even know they were not local animation but "Japan animation" created in Japan, South Korea, Chinaor North Korea.
Manga Outside Japan-Manga in France-"French exception" (Europe):- France has a particularly strong and diverse manga market. Many works published in France belong to genres not well represented outside Japan, such as to adult-oriented drama, or to experimental andavant-gardeworks. Early editors like Tonkamhave published Hong-Kong authors ( Andy Seto, Yu & Lau) or Korean authors (Kim Jae-hwan, Soo & Il, Wan & Weol andHyun Se Lee) in their manga collection during 1995/1996 which is quite uncommon. Also, some Japanese authors, such as Jiro Taniguchi, are relatively unknown in other western countries but received much acclaim in France. Since its introduction in the 1990s, manga publishing and anime broadcasting have become intertwined in France, where the most popular and exploited shōnen, shōjoand seinen TV series were imported in their paper version. Therefore, Japanese books ("manga") were naturally and readily accepted by a large juvenile public who was already familiar with the series and received the manga as part of their own culture. A strong parallel backup was the emergence of Japanese video games, Nintendo/ Sega, which were mostly based on manga and animeseries.
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