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Forum - View topicManga Answerman - Can Non-Japanese Comic Creators Call Themselves 'Mangaka'?
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Rednimue
Posts: 107 |
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IMHO, your first language is Japanese and you're going to aim your products mainly at a Japanese audience, then yes it makes sense to refer to your self as a mangaka otherwise NO... you're just a comic's artist.
That's it. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2032 |
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Well that's just it, from a Japanese perspective, amateurs should never refer to themselves as mangaka, because that's a distinction reserved only for the recognized pros. So it might not go over well. And as the article observed, even the pros, in humility, avoid calling themselves that. That said, we're more laid back in the west, so we'd just see someone using the term as a nickname to be cute. It would be understood by the sensible to only be a nod towards your love or appreciation or stylistic choices being based in the Japanese aesthetics. So you could get away with it here in the more casual sense if it's just a message board/online artist nickname. But keep in mind that a Japanese audience will take that term more seriously. So, if you ever had aspirations towards making it big and introducing yourself in Japan, it would not be wise to casually use the term towards yourself. If the Japanese refer to you with that term all on their own, which they could even if you're not Japanese, then consider it an honour. |
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Commander Cluck
 Posts: 123 |
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Imagine you're in a restaurant and you order a soup. The waiter brings you a cup of hot cocoa. You protest. He tells you soup is simply a dish of ingredients served in a liquid. The waiter knows what you meant when you said soup, but he wants you to try his cocoa instead. He's purposely twisting the usage of a word and playing word games to suit his whole agenda. His agenda is getting you to try this really, really cool cocoa. He swears it's just as good as any soup. In fact, he goes so far as to say it's better than most soups out there.
That's what I always think of when I see these "Is X anime/manga?" debates. Let's just call it what it is. People want to use Japanese labels because they think it's a badge of honor and elevates a work above it's peers. Just like those comic artists who swear up and down their work is a 'graphic novel', not a 'comic book'. It's insecurity being obfuscated behind an argument of semantics. |
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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Let me correct you on one thing: Do not confuse style with quality. In this oddly specific scenario, you can still think your waiter is a pretentious moron for not respecting the soup that you traveled to this specific restaurant world-renowned for this specific soup to eat. If the waiter walks up to the table and offers his 'cool cocoa', you have a right to say no thank-you, and if they are too persistent, raise your eyebrows and become annoyed. And if you are a waiter, that doesn't automatically make you an expert on said restaurant soup or alternatives either, or what is best for its guests. In short, be humble and respectful of professionals and customs you have not earned respect neither in nor with, and focus on your quality to get to a point when you can offer the cocoa in a soup restaurant. |
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Chris Handsome
 Posts: 294 |
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If foreigners that practices karate calls themselves a karateka, then a foreigner that draws comics/manga calling themselves a mangaka isn't really that strange, nor is it wrong. It's not exactly new either, people been doing it for decades. Remember that Tokyopop Rising Stars Of Manga scam?
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OtakuBullfrog
Posts: 1 |
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I would say that you are a mangaka if you are published by a manga publisher. This is an easy way to determine both what is manga as well as the genre. For example, if you are published in Shounen Jump, you are a mangaka and you are probably writing shounen manga.
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 368 Location: Finland |
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What certfied manga schools do the so called mangaka go to and who are their certified instructors? There are some manga schools/courses in Japan and I guess editors, who work for the Japanese publishers could be considered "teachers" in the same way as certified karate instructors. |
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1730 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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I mean, Maybe?
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Sir Daniel Fortesque
Posts: 236 |
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It's 2019, people can call themselves whatever they want regardless of logic.
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Banken
Posts: 1280 |
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You can call yourself a mangaka....in Japan....if your work is sold in Japan.
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JB_Gra
 Posts: 25 |
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Basically this. I don't understand why the necessity of using foreign titles that have an equivalent in your own language. The karate example doesn't even work because there's no equivalent of that specific practice in most language if not all. "Martial artist" could be used instead of "karateka", but that term is so broad. Let's use comic artist instead of "mangaka", please. |
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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Animation and comics have a very low reputation in the west, where as anime and manga are held in high regard. Especially among people who consider them genres rather than mediums. It's why even Netflix is doing it like advertising Castlevania and their upcoming Magic the Gathering shows as "anime" despite neither of them having any Japanese creatives attached to them. Advertising them as anime is better marketing than advertising them as western cartoons. |
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Uraraka
 Posts: 10 |
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In Japan, managaka simply means artists who draw manga. You don't necessarily need to be a pro. The distinction lies between pro-mangaka who work for commercial magazines and armature-mangaka who do independently. In that sense, as long as you produce manga, you can at least call yourself mangaka.
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 368 Location: Finland |
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Watchmen, Maus and Sandman are more highly regarded than a lot of manga and I'm pretty sure Disney and Pixar don't suffer from the same negative stereotypes as anime. |
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ChoGGi
 Posts: 12 Location: Alberta |
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Pretty sure he's referring to the stereotype that comics are for children?
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