Movement

 Next, I will talk about perspective, depth and composition. Manga progresses along a certain flow of time. Some mangas may be read backwards, for instance, but in general if we read a manga from its end page, we would not understand anything. In the case of video pictures, we can somehow understand them even if we watch in reverse a scene where someone is running. In fact, it might be rather fun. But in the case of manga, the meaning would break down and we would not get the sense of it at all.

 Moreover, it might seem that we can read manga upside down because it is in pictures, unlike words that cannot be read upside down. But if we actually see manga upside down we will not be able to read it. This is because manga has a very fixed top-bottom axis. If we try to read it upside down, it would seem very unstable and fall apart as if it were hanging from a ceiling.

 This top-bottom axis is in fact about gravity. But there are some mangas that go beyond this axis. The scene in Akira of space travel is an example. This scene makes no difference even if it was turned upside down because it is a world without gravity. Manga is actually drawn within such limitations posed by gravity.

 Related to this is the fact that manga has triangular composition in many cases, as we can see here in Shiriagari Kotobuki's work. In this picture, there is a triangle consisting of the sumo wrestler standing in the middle constituting the top. The roof of the car is slanted, and on the other side there is a line from the referee's head to the left shoulder. In fact the triangle is the most fundamental composition in painting. Picasso's Guernica appears to be a very chaotic and messy painting, but the whole is structured by a triangular pyramid.

 Manga is also drawn in a very dynamic manner, but the triangle is employed as a kind of fixed stable base. We can call this the 'pyramid principle'. There is a scene where Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) flies over Mount Fuji. This also has a triangular structure. The triangular Mount Fuji is very stable, but what is interesting in this case is that it does not seem so strange even when the picture of the mountain is turned upside down. This is because Atomu is flying in the air, so even if it is impossible for Mount Fuji to be hanging in mid air, it gives the impression that Atomu is free from the sphere of earth's gravity. I think the top bottom axis due to gravity is related to representation of transcendence of the real world.

 Next I want to talk about the fact that perspective is fundamental for composition, though I don't know whether this is related to what I have just been talking about. Da Vinci's The Last Supper is drawn in such a manner that the whole scene converges on Christ's forehead by the method of perspective. This line can also be said to be pyramidal in a sense. This is a composition in painting.

 This kind of perspective drawing is of course used in manga. For example, in Kirin (Giraffe) (by Harumoto Shohei), there is a scene where a motorbike is running on a highway and only a sound ('goooh') remains. Although perspective is used here to represent spatial depth, there is sense of something more awe-inspiring. I would argue that that perspective has been developed not only to bring about spatial depth in the flatness of painting. It has also been created to perceive God.

 It is not enough for a scene to have depth. The Renaissance period, in particular, inherited the religious and cosmological world of the medieval times and The Last Supper too depicted the world of God. In a book written by Panofsky called Perspective as Symbolic Form, it says that perspective is used to symbolize something. Perspective was not utilized just to depict space but to represent something. That something, needless to say, in Europe was God. Perspective was used to portray God.

 The portrayed world was arranged according to a certain order of perspective and very systematically ordered, as in the case of Da Vinci's The Last Supper. If someone has actually ordered this world, the person seeing this perspective would naturally perceive God.

 Perspective is also often used in manga. This might also have something divine about it. In the case mentioned above, the sound of the motorbike 'gooh' remains after the motorbike has passed away and its tracks are left as lines in a radial pattern on the road. This not only recounts a simple fact that the motorbike has left unseen, but a certain extraordinary feeling or a sense of divine awe. I think perspective has that kind of effect. In other words, depicting space and form is not just about simply drawing space and form. It is also related to the universe, or God, that lies beyond in the other world. I think that is what perspective is in essence, and manga brings this aspect to life which the readers sense.

　

Light

 Finally, I want to end my presentation by talking about light. We see color and light with our eyes. In a black and white world where there are no colors, only light and shadows are drawn. In the first step of sketching in painting, we make plaster sketches, or sketch cups or mugs. We draw light and shadow to represent space not only to give depth to a shape, but to create something that touches the heart.

 Let me present the painting of Caravaggio, a contemporary of Rembrandt, the artist of light, as an example. This painting depicts a scene of light shining on some people sitting at a table. The effect of light here is related to spotlight on stage and has a certain dramatic effect.

 Tezuka Osamu's manga Ludwig B illustrates the representation of light and shadow in the style of Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Here in the silhouette of the person running after stealing an egg expresses the darkness in the person's mind. There is a shadow of a person standing near the door when the thief tries to escape. If this shadow was not there, the effect of sound expressing fear and surprise ('gyo') would decrease enormously. This is an instance of a very effective use of the meaning of shadows.

 When we think of representation of light in manga, we immediately think of the 'betaflash' (a flash of lines surrounded by daub, expressing surprise). There is a very similar effect when a person says 'waah' spreading his/her hands out when he/she is surprised or troubled. Total of ten fingers and two hands spread out, expressing a state of mind of great shock or dilemma like the betaflash. However, betaflashes are used very often and casually these days. Unfortunately, they seem to have become of very minor significance and are used just so that the readers will not get bored. Some are even made by cutting corners like sticking on screen tones. They are treated very lightly. I think this is bad for manga.

 Once many children became ill by watching the flashing light emitted from a Pokemon program on television. I fear that something very like that will happen in manga due to overuse of betaflash. I think it creates a certain kind of numbness of the senses that closes the minds of children. In this sense, the overuse of betaflash is very dangerous and also leads to the decrease in vocabulary in manga.

 Betaflash in itself was not a negative form of representation. In Ikeda Riyoko's Shotokutaishi (Prince Shotoku), a person who sees a Buddhist statue says, 'eh?' and a betaflash is used to represent the person's state of mind. On one side, the words 'eh?' appear from just next to the head, while the betaflash appears on the other side near the heart. These are used effectively for expressing a person's state of mind. If we relate it to the fact that a Buddhist statue is depicted here-the crown of the Bodhisattva, the light on the head of the Buddhist statue-I imagine that the idea of betaflash already existed in Buddhist art. In Christianity, angels have a circular halo, but Buddhist statues, for some reason, have lines spreading radially like betaflash. I think there is some kind of connection here. The effect of light is thus used to represent something beyond the ordinary in one sense.

 Let me continue with the discussion on light by taking up the manga version of Kaze no tani no naushika (Naushika of the Valley of Winds). The outlines are drawn and the insides colored in the animated version. The animated version has a shape of difference in silhouettes whereas the manga version draws a zig-zagged skirt blowing in the wind by light and shadow. To put it simply, it does not have distinction in terms of silhouettes. The mountains and grass in the background have no silhouettes. Almost the entire world of light and shadow is represented by technique of combining lines of light and shadow.

 Let us compare this with Monet's painting of a lady holding a parasol. A woman is standing in a field. Her skirt is blowing in the wind and clouds are blowing in the background. Thus they have similar designs and both have no silhouettes. There is a very significant parallel in the fact that they both draw light and shadow vaguely. It is easier technically to draw silhouettes in manga, but making a form appear by purposely drawing in a lot of lines is an extremely difficult task. I think this is done precisely to depict shadows.

 Let me talk about darkness as the opposite of light. The manga version of Kaze no tani no naushika is extremely particular about portraying darkness. Darkness comes as some kind of a terrible living being that eats up the world. When one comes in contact with this darkness, one becomes very afraid and the heart beats very fast. If we can talk about media in terms of light and darkness, I think manga belongs to media of darkness. That is to say, animation is the very light that is projected on to a screen in a cinema hall or on television. I think animation creates light as something very beautiful and prominent, as it projects physical light on to the screen. In contrast, manga does not exude light by itself. It is a stain formed by ink on paper. It is a world of darkness. So I feel manga is fit for depicting darkness and animation for representing light.