Year 24 Group

Year 24 Group (24年組, Nijūyo-nen Gumi), also known as Fabulous Year 24 Group (花の24年組, Hana no Nijūyo-nen Gumi, lit. Year 24 Group of Flowers),[1] is used by academics and critics to refer to a group of female mangaka (manga artists) who heavily influenced shōjo manga (girls' comics) beginning in the 1970s.[2] Their works, many of which are now considered classics of the shōjo genre,[3] are noted for their examination of radical and philosophical issues, including sexuality and gender.[4] Though the origin of the name is unknown,[5] it refers to the fact that the artists belonging to this group were born around Shōwa 24 (1949).[6]

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The mangaka most commonly associated with Year 24 Group are Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ōshima, and Keiko Takemiya.[1] Other manga artists associated with the group include Toshie Kihara, Ryoko Yamagishi, Minori Kimura, Riyoko Ikeda, Nanae Sasaya, and Mineko Yamada.[6][7][8][9]

History

Hagio and Takemiya were roommates in Ōizumigakuenchō, Nerima, Tokyo from 1970 to 1973. Norie Masuyama, a friend of Takemiya's, introduced Hagio and Takemiya to Barazoku, the first commercially-published gay magazine in Japan. The magazine inspired Takemiya and Hagio to create shōnen-ai works.[10] Masuyama, Takemiya, and Hagio were all roommates in an apartment later dubbed the "Ōizumi Salon" and compared to Tokiwa-sō, another apartment that housed many mangaka.[11]

Influence

Year 24 Group contributed significantly to the development in shōjo manga by expanding the genre to incorporate elements of science fiction, historical fiction, adventure fiction, and same-sex romance.[12] The prevalence of Bildungsroman genre conventions in their works have been noted by critics.[13] Stylistically, Year 24 Group created new conventions in panel layout by departing from the rows of rectangles that were the standard at the time, creating borders that were softened or removed entirely, and panel shapes and configurations that conveyed emotion.[14]

Comiket, the world's largest comic convention, was founded by the dōjinshi circle Meikyu [15][16] to study the works of various manga artists, including Hagio and other members of Year 24 Group.[16]

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 Media in 1996.[17]

Academic Tomoko Yamada has criticized the use of the term "Year 24 Group", noting that the designation lumps women together based on their age, that it may perpetuate a bias against earlier shōjo manga artists, that it is overly inclusive of all female baby boomer manga artists, and that some manga artists considered part of Year 24 Group may reject the label.[5]

References
  1. Thorn, Matt (2005). "The Magnificent Forty-Niners". The Comics Journal. 1 (269). Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  2. Thorn, Matt (February 1996). "Introduction". Four Shôjo Stories. Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-055-6. These women revolutionized the genre.
  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. 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.
  5. 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. Thorn, Matt (2001). "Shôjo Manga—Something for the Girls". The Japan Quarterly. 48 (3). Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  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 (ed.). 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. conducted by Matt Thorn. "Hagio Moto: The Comics Journal Interview (via Archive)". Matt-thorn.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  11. "漫画情報満載！マンガナビ". manganavi.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  12. "The Power of Girls' Comics". Csuchico.edu. 2000-05-17. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  13. 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.
  14. Gravett, Paul (2004) Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics (Harper Design, ISBN 1-85669-391-0) page 79
  15. "Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture: The Man and His Work". Meiji University. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  16. 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.
  17. Nishi, Keiko; Moto Hagio (February 1996). Four Shōjo Stories. Viz Communications. ISBN 1-56931-055-6.
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