MANGA TURNS GREY, BUT SPIRITED, ALONG WITH READERS
Japan’s greying population is changing the character of its beloved manga comics, spawning a new genre in which the elderly aren’t pitiable oldsters but protagonists making discoveries, finding friends — and sometimes even having hot sex.
Demand for stories focused on the elderly has grown alongside their audience: 27.7% of Japanese are older than 65, up from 21.5% just a decade ago.
Readership cuts across society, publishers say, from retirees looking for plots they identify with to younger Japanese watching their nation age, with growing concern about their later years.
“Different social problems and concerns rise up as opposed to when society is centred around young people, and manga that show the reality of an ageing society are in demand from both readers and writers,” said Kaoru Endo, a sociology professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
Manga, both print and digital, pulled in ¥430 billion (US$3.8 billion) in 2017, according to the Research Institute for Publications. Although no public data exists on the market share for senior- focused manga, the genre is clearly growing. Eight of the 11 most popular such works, according to industry insiders, started publication after 2014.
“The over-60 generation — in whose youth manga gained wide acceptance — have loved manga since they were kids,” Endo said.
Yuki Ozawa, the illustrator of Sanju Mariko, about an 80- year-old widow who sneaks out of her crowded family home to live on her own and write, thinks escapism plays a big role too. “When you watch news about ageing, there are so many dark, serious topics. It makes people anxiou s,” she told Reuters. “There are also a lot of people who are single, who probably will never marry and always live al one, and when they’re feeling gloomy they read Mariko and feel as if they’ve seen a ray of light.”
Virtually no topic has escaped manga since the medium took off about 50 years ago. There have even been manga on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, including the Fukushima meltdown.
Elderly characters, though, were mostly peripheral: a loving grandma, somebody needing nursing care, a venerable sage. Manga that did star the elderly, like an early 1990s series about an ageing heavy metal band, didn’t always treat them as normal people.
But recent examples, such as Kaori Tsurutani’s Metamorphoze no Engawa (Veranda Metamorphosis), bring a more human touch.
In that story, a widow in her seventies and a geeky teenage girl bond over homoerotic manga, building a friendship of text messages, cafe trips and manga fan events. Ozawa’s Mariko may be 80, but the loneliness that prompts her to leave home is universal.
Characters are “being illustrated in a way that feels closer to reality”, said Tsurutani, 36, who said memories of her late grandmother inform her work.
Some manga in the genre use pure fantasy to attract readers while still touching on the often grim reality of elderly issues.
One series features a septuagenarian couple becoming parents, while in another an elderly woman and a teenage girl switch bodies.
“There are certainly a lot of social problems involving the elderly, and they’re very serious,” said Ozawa, whose Mariko has no health issues and a steady income — uncommon even in a nation with vigorous seniors. “But to write just about that means readers will only pay attention to the social issues, and it will be a bit depressing.”
Illustrator Kenshi Hirokane, whose Kosaku Shima series about a businessman has run since 1983, shows its hero rise from section chief to chairman of his electronics firm, ageing realistically over the years.
Hirokane in 1995 also launched Like Shooting Stars in the Twilight, one of the earliest senior-centred manga. A drama of older peoples’ lives and loves, it also includes some hot sex scenes.
“I wanted to write about ordinary men and women having an ordinary love,” explained Hirokane, 71. “Readers want topics that are close to them.” His prize-winning series now has 58 volumes.
“As many people age, they lose their dreams and hopes, they think there’s nothing more they can do. No, it’s not like that at all — you can still fall in love, you can still do lots of things,” he said.
Rikiya Kurimata, a bookseller at Tsutaya, one of Japan’s largest bookstore chains, said the genre’s readers span generations and genders.
“Supply still hasn’t met demand,” Kurimata said. “Right now we don’t have a special section for the genre, but if things go on like this, we’ll have to make one.”
A half-million copies of Sanju Mariko, both print and digital, have been sold since its debut in 2016. Tsurutani’s first volume has gone through five additional printings since May.
Atsuko Ito, 66, a farmer from northern Japan, says she enjoyed Hirokane’s series for the way it highlighted the ups and downs of life.
“It feels as if life itself is drawn there, with things that we all have experienced — and some we haven’t — which makes me empathise,” she said. “Then sometimes when a main character makes a decision I think, ‘I can do that too’, and it gives me courage for my daily life.”
As many people age, they lose their dreams and hopes, they think there’s nothing more they can do. No, it’s not like that at all — you can still fall in love, you can still do lots of things KENSHI HIROKANE Manga author