The importance and scope of East Asian animanga is beyond question. To take the most famous example only (Japanese animation and character goods): global sales amount to nine trillion yen (about $80 billion). This figure represents a ten-fold growth since the mid-1990s. At the turn of the millennium, the Japanese government officially endorsed anime as one of modern Japan’s principal contributions to world culture. Anime (and its sister art-forms, manga and narrative video games (both online and stand-alone)) are now major cultural forces, not only in East Asia, but also in Asia, Europe and the USA. Not only are these various media increasingly recognised as ‘art,’ but they are also seen as representative vehicles for East Asian cultures more widely, as well as being important media for political, historical, sociological and philosophical expression in parts of East Asia. And yet, serious and properly academic research into these phenomena, and their associated fan-communities, is only just beginning in the humanities and social sciences.

Asiscape will run a series of manga competitions over the next five years. The first begins in 2010 with Manga in/as Essay, an exploration of the expressive potentials of manga in religious or philosophical terms. The competition will result in various publications in several media. The details are in PDFs linked to the images below.

(poster & further info)