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Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga
This landmark book, first published at the height of the manga boom, is offered in a hardcover collector's edition with a new foreword and afterword. Frederik L. Schodt looks at the classic publications and artists who created modern manga, including the magazines Big Comics and Morning , and artists like Suehiro Maruo and Shigeru Mizuki; an entire chapter is devoted to Osamu Tezuka. The new afterword shows how manga have evolved in the past decade to transform global visual culture. Frederik L. Schodt , based in San Francisco, is fluent in Japanese and author of many works about Japan.
360 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1996
16 people are currently reading
590 people want to read
About the author
Frederik L. Schodt
45 books37 followersFrederik Lowell Schodt is an American translator, interpreter and writer.
Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt returned to Japan, and studied Japanese intensively at International Christian University (I.C.U.) for a year and half. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972, and after a brief bohemian stint at a variety of jobs and traveling became a tour guide in Los Angeles for Japanese tourists, also escorting them to Canada and Mexico. After trying to interpret for a group once at Sunkist, he realized that he could become an interpreter, but needed further training. In 1975, he was awarded a scholarship from Japan's Ministry of Education, to return to I.C.U. and study translation and interpreting. After finishing his studies at I.C.U. in 1977, he began working in the translation department of Simul International, in Tokyo. In mid-1978 he returned to the United States, and since then has worked in San Francisco as a free-lance writer, translator, and interpreter.
While working in Tokyo in 1977, he joined with several university friends in contacting Tezuka Productions. They sought permission to translate the Phoenix comic into English. Schodt is notable in manga and anime fandom for his translations of works such as Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, Tezuka’s Astro Boy, Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles, Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, and others.
His best known book is Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, published in 1983 and reprinted several times, with an introduction by Tezuka. Manga! Manga! won a prize at the Manga Oscar Awards in 1983. Furthermore, in 2000 Schodt was awarded the Asahi Shimbun’s Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize "Special Prize" for his outstanding contribution to the appreciation of manga worldwide.
Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt returned to Japan, and studied Japanese intensively at International Christian University (I.C.U.) for a year and half. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972, and after a brief bohemian stint at a variety of jobs and traveling became a tour guide in Los Angeles for Japanese tourists, also escorting them to Canada and Mexico. After trying to interpret for a group once at Sunkist, he realized that he could become an interpreter, but needed further training. In 1975, he was awarded a scholarship from Japan's Ministry of Education, to return to I.C.U. and study translation and interpreting. After finishing his studies at I.C.U. in 1977, he began working in the translation department of Simul International, in Tokyo. In mid-1978 he returned to the United States, and since then has worked in San Francisco as a free-lance writer, translator, and interpreter.
While working in Tokyo in 1977, he joined with several university friends in contacting Tezuka Productions. They sought permission to translate the Phoenix comic into English. Schodt is notable in manga and anime fandom for his translations of works such as Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, Tezuka’s Astro Boy, Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles, Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, and others.
His best known book is Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, published in 1983 and reprinted several times, with an introduction by Tezuka. Manga! Manga! won a prize at the Manga Oscar Awards in 1983. Furthermore, in 2000 Schodt was awarded the Asahi Shimbun’s Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize "Special Prize" for his outstanding contribution to the appreciation of manga worldwide.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 8, 2015
Very interesting excursus on mangas and many of its most famous authors. There is also a sort of Psychologica/Sociological/Anthropological explanation about the popularity of comics in modern Japan.
Un excursus molto interessante sui manga e sui suoi autori piú famosi; inoltre c'é ache una teoria di tipo psicologico/sociologico/antropologica che tenta di spiegare il perché dell'immensa popolaritá di questi fumetti nel Giappone contemporaneo.
Un excursus molto interessante sui manga e sui suoi autori piú famosi; inoltre c'é ache una teoria di tipo psicologico/sociologico/antropologica che tenta di spiegare il perché dell'immensa popolaritá di questi fumetti nel Giappone contemporaneo.
March 1, 2022
Oh my god? So apparently nonfiction can be pretty cool? This was so cool and interesting. I have to read Manga! Manga! now.
I’m not really sure how to review nonfiction, so I expect this to be rather short. I mean, I can’t assess plot, or character, or world-building… and maybe more notably, I haven’t read enough nonfiction to construct an acceptable measuring-stick for what is and isn’t good, where the standard is, or even what’s something normal most books do that I just didn’t know was normal. But regardless, here goes.
Dreamland Japan is about the manga scene today, mostly in Japan, though it does touch upon the international market. It talks about the market itself: the different demographics different magazines target, the ways they get circulation, the number of pages in those magazines (wild) and how cheap they usually are (WILD) and survive off of tiny profit margins. It talks about trends and how they developed: girls’ manga, boys’ manga, dark and gory artists with cult-followings, the ridiculous shenannigans in popular series for children, sports manga, mahjong manga, even “Lolita complex” manga. Possibly my favorite bit covered different well-known or unique artists, the conventions and the people who break them. It was legitimately fascinating to read about.
I really liked the organization of the information. Other nonfiction books I’ve read have had very long blocks of text, broken up into chapters or something, all the information connected by anecdotes from the author’s life, etc. In this one, there were long sections for broader subjects, but under the umbrella of that larger subject, there were smaller pieces of information very deliberately broken up into subsections that are pretty much bite-sized. Large bites. I found that information much easier to consume and much easier to retain, because I each bit was very distinct in my mind. (Part of why I enjoyed the part exploring individuals in manga: this format was so perfect for that)
The writing: the writing was engaging and smooth. It was informative without dragging or getting flat. It was the middle ground between so full of information it’s extremely hard to process and no fun to read (*cough* The Undiscovered Self *cough*) and empty, full of fluff. (That Enneagram book I once read) It struck exactly the right balance, and it read so smoothly. It digested so well. I don’t know how to express it better; the information was just so well conveyed, the reading experience was so solid, hearty, wholesome.
I’m terrible at this. Never let me review another book again. It’s over for me.
I’m not really sure how to review nonfiction, so I expect this to be rather short. I mean, I can’t assess plot, or character, or world-building… and maybe more notably, I haven’t read enough nonfiction to construct an acceptable measuring-stick for what is and isn’t good, where the standard is, or even what’s something normal most books do that I just didn’t know was normal. But regardless, here goes.
Dreamland Japan is about the manga scene today, mostly in Japan, though it does touch upon the international market. It talks about the market itself: the different demographics different magazines target, the ways they get circulation, the number of pages in those magazines (wild) and how cheap they usually are (WILD) and survive off of tiny profit margins. It talks about trends and how they developed: girls’ manga, boys’ manga, dark and gory artists with cult-followings, the ridiculous shenannigans in popular series for children, sports manga, mahjong manga, even “Lolita complex” manga. Possibly my favorite bit covered different well-known or unique artists, the conventions and the people who break them. It was legitimately fascinating to read about.
I really liked the organization of the information. Other nonfiction books I’ve read have had very long blocks of text, broken up into chapters or something, all the information connected by anecdotes from the author’s life, etc. In this one, there were long sections for broader subjects, but under the umbrella of that larger subject, there were smaller pieces of information very deliberately broken up into subsections that are pretty much bite-sized. Large bites. I found that information much easier to consume and much easier to retain, because I each bit was very distinct in my mind. (Part of why I enjoyed the part exploring individuals in manga: this format was so perfect for that)
The writing: the writing was engaging and smooth. It was informative without dragging or getting flat. It was the middle ground between so full of information it’s extremely hard to process and no fun to read (*cough* The Undiscovered Self *cough*) and empty, full of fluff. (That Enneagram book I once read) It struck exactly the right balance, and it read so smoothly. It digested so well. I don’t know how to express it better; the information was just so well conveyed, the reading experience was so solid, hearty, wholesome.
I’m terrible at this. Never let me review another book again. It’s over for me.
couldn-t-finish
July 29, 2019There's a ton of information in this book, but I was too bogged down by the author's verbose/excessively-academic writing to finish. I'm pretty sure I'm not in the intended audience, though, so I'll recommend Dreamland Japan to others who would enjoy it.
October 1, 2024
very funny bit in the section on conventions where schodt sez something to the effect of:
"even when beloved superstars like leiji matsumoto have to cancel their appearances fans are happy to meet relative nobodies like character designer hideaki anno"
"even when beloved superstars like leiji matsumoto have to cancel their appearances fans are happy to meet relative nobodies like character designer hideaki anno"
February 11, 2017
Very informative, much like Manga! Manga!, but with a different format which works for and against the writing. Much of the book is taken from articles that Schodt had previously written and the rest is written in the same style. This helps to remember things if you're not familiar with anime and manga but for anyone with passing familiarity it ends up getting a little repetitive. Schodt also has a tendency towards predicting future trends in manga, which unfortunately dates the book. This is partly countered by the afterward written in 2011 (the original Dreamland Japan was written in 1996), but even in that he remains skeptical that popular manga and anime titles (specifically ones that were not, as of publication, licensed and translated into English) will be as successful. This I think is a disservice to his fellow countrymen, many of whom are very interested in reading older, more obscure and idiosyncratic manga if they could only get their hands on localized versions. I'd be interested to read more of his work despite my reservations about his writing style as he does a good job explaining trends in manga, particularly the relationships between artists, writers, editors, publishers and readers.
January 18, 2015
Interesting and quite complete, really interesting to get an introductory (and also a further) view of the world of manga. Quite up-to-date, is a good guide to unknowers and also to already introduced-on-the-subject readers. Nevertheless, I didn't like the exhaustive study on some author's art at the end of the book.
March 5, 2009
Schodt is one of the pioneers of the West who first studied manga, and his analysis is measured and insightful. Schodt avoids the sensationalism and ideological blindness of other Western treatments of Japanese pop culture and communicates his love for the medium.
May 24, 2008
how authors' life relative their works.
March 1, 2012
Informative and insightful. Writing is interesting and easy to follow.
May 4, 2012
Perhaps one of the most important texts on manga in Japan.
April 20, 2013
Very informative book on why MANGA is so popular in Japan.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews