Nouvelle manga, mon amour. Reflexiones sobre la narración gráfica de historias cotidianas

Abstract

Ever since its first appearance over a century ago, the comic has been gaining ground as a popular genre aimed above all at a juvenile readership. Its obvious success with readers has led some parents, teachers and reading-promotion professionals to ask themselves why it is so popular, and to draw wrong conclusions, like the belief that it has less value as reading matter: aimed basically at entertaining those who read it. Manga, in particular, is the most highly consumed comic genre in the West. It has become a profitable market product that spawns video games, TV series, films, etc. Its great appeal to children and young readers is a source of worry to mediators due to its allegedly violent and sexual overtones and the low literary quality of its works. This paper attempts to dispel certain clichés that derive from misconceptions regarding Japanese cartoons, through the study of a corpus of works by Japanese and European authors who aim to produce comics of high quality in both form and content, thus opening the door to promising new research. Nouvelle Manga is a new Japanese comic genre that brings together the most noteworthy communicative strategies of Japanese graphic novels, the aesthetic value of the French comic and the simplicity and tone of French Nouvelle Vague cinema to create a comic that tells everyday stories of great literary and aesthetic value: highly recommendable for juvenile and adult readers.

Keywords

• Manga Comic
• Nouvelle Manga
• video games
• Japanese comic
• French comic