Year 24 Group

Year 24 Group (24年組, Nijūyo-nen Gumi) is a label applied by critics and fans to a nebulous group of female manga artists considered to have revolutionized shōjo manga (girls' comics) in the 1970s.[1] Their works often examine "radical and philosophical issues," including sexuality and gender issues,[2] and many of their works are now considered "classics" of shōjo manga.[3] The name Fabulous Year 24 Group (花の24年組, Hana no Nijūyo-nen Gumi), comes from the fact that manga artists said to belong to this group were generally born around Shōwa 24 (1949).[4] The origin of the term is unknown.[5] In English, they have also been called the "Magnificent Forty-Niners."[6] The exact membership is not precisely defined, but the three artists most often mentioned by critics or scholars as possible members are Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ōshima, and Keiko Takemiya.[6] Other artists who have been included in a list include Toshie Kihara, Ryoko Yamagishi, Minori Kimura, Riyoko Ikeda, Nanae Sasaya, and Mineko Yamada.[4][7][8][9]

Toku argues that the Year 24 Group significantly contributed to the development in shōjo manga of such sub-genres as "Sci-Fi, Love, History, Adventure",[10] while Matsui notes the prevalence of Bildungsroman genre conventions in their works.[11] Stylistically, the Year 24 Group created new conventions in panel layout by departing from rows of rectangles that were the standard of the time and using panel shape and configuration to convey emotion, and softening or removing panel borders.[12]

Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya lived in the same apartment in Ōizumi in Nerima, Tokyo from 1970 to 1973, in a situation similar to Osamu Tezuka's Tokiwa-sō. Takemiya's friend Norie Masuyama lived nearby and was described by Moto Hagio as Takemiya's "brain staff." Masuyama was not a manga artist herself, but she introduced Takemiya to male homosexuality for women via Barazoku, which inspired Takemiya and Hagio to create shōnen-ai works.[13]

Comiket, the world's largest comic convention, was started by the dōjinshi circle Meikyu (迷宮),[14][15] which began as a group for studying the works of various manga artists, including Moto Hagio.[15]

In her exhaustive overview of the use of the term "Year 24 Group", Tomoko Yamada notes potential problems in its usage:

  1. It lumps women together based on their age.
  2. There is a danger of its use perpetuating bias against other manga artists, and particularly against earlier shōjo manga artists.
  3. It can be used as a blanket defense of all Baby Boomer women manga artists.
  4. There is a strong possibility that the artists may not like being labelled as being members of this group.[5]

Hagio's They Were Eleven was included in the first anthology of shōjo manga translated into English, Four Shōjo Stories, published in North America by Viz Communications in 1996.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Thorn, Matt (February 1996). "Introduction". Four Shôjo Stories. Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-055-6. These women revolutionized the genre.
  2. ↑ Kan, Satoko (10 March 2007). ""Kawaii" ― The Keyword of Japanese Girls' Culture". ｢対話と深化｣の次世代女性リーダーの育成 : ｢魅力ある大学院教育｣イニシアティブ (in Japanese). お茶の水女子大学｢魅力ある大学院教育｣イニシアティブ人社系事務局. 平成18年度活動報告書 : 海外研修事業編: 200–202. NCID BA79052646.
  3. ↑ Suzuki, Kazuko. 1999. "Pornography or Therapy? Japanese Girls Creating the Yaoi Phenomenon". In Sherrie Inness, ed., Millennium Girls: Today's Girls Around the World. London: Rowman & Littlefield, p.247 ISBN 0-8476-9136-5, ISBN 0-8476-9137-3.
  4. 1 2 Thorn, Matt (2001). "Shôjo Manga—Something for the Girls". The Japan Quarterly. 48 (3). Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  5. 1 2 Yamada, Tomoko (August 1998). "マンガ用語〈24年組〉は誰を指すのか？" [Who Does the Manga Term the “24Nen-Gumi(Group of ‘49)”Refer To?]. 月刊コミックボックス. 108: 58–63.
  6. 1 2 Thorn, Matt (2005). "The Magnificent Forty-Niners". The Comics Journal. 1 (269). Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  7. ↑ Thorn, Matt (2005). "A History of Manga". Animerica: Anime & Manga Monthly. 4 (2, 4, & 6). Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  8. ↑ Takeuchi, Osamu (1995). 戦後マンガ50年史 [Fifty Years of Postwar Manga History] (in Japanese). Chikuma Library. p. 139. ISBN 978-4480052018.
  9. ↑ Nakajima, Azusa (October 1991). "未曾有の時代". In Yonezawa, Yoshihiro. 子どもの昭和史 少女マンガの世界II 昭和28年ー64年. Heibonsha. ISBN 4582942407.
  10. ↑ "The Power of Girls' Comics". Csuchico.edu. 2000-05-17. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  11. ↑ Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
  12. ↑ Gravett, Paul (2004) Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Harper Design, ISBN 1-85669-391-0) page 79
  13. ↑ conducted by Matt Thorn. "Hagio Moto: The Comics Journal Interview". Matt-thorn.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  14. ↑ "Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture: The Man and His Work". Meiji University. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  15. 1 2 Noppe, Nele (September 3, 2014). "The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods". p. 100. (Registration required (help)).
  16. ↑ Nishi, Keiko; Moto Hagio (February 1996). Four Shōjo Stories. Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-055-6.
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