Mythology moe-ified: classical witches, warriors, and monsters in Japanese manga


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Akgün B.

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, cilt.11, sa.3, ss.271-284, 2020 (Scopus) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 11 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/21504857.2019.1566155
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Art Abstracts, Art Source, MLA - Modern Language Association Database
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.271-284
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: classical reception, feminist theory, Manga, moe, mythology, witches
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Through a gendered close reading, using classical reception studies as a springboard, this article discusses the reception and moe-ification of the female witch, warrior, and monster figures from classical mythology in Japanese seinen and shōnen manga at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on Flora and Schierke in Berserk (1990–); the Gorgon sisters in One Piece (1997–) and in Soul Eater (2004–2013); and Medusa in Witchcraft Works (2010–), all of whom are named and/or fashioned after Circe, the Amazons, the Gorgons, and Arachne. It points out to the intertextuality between these worldwide popular turn-of-the-century Japanese manga and classical mythology narratives. It discusses the moe-ification of these classical subversive monstrous female figures, formerly demonised and marginalised by the patriarchal discourse. It analyses how their reception in manga contributes to canonising the monstrous female. It illustrates how that offers the female readers of seinen and shōnen manga new ways of expressing and interpreting gender that liberate and restructure the female’s relationship to power.