by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Masami Toku, an art education professor from California is interested in the way Japanese and American children deal with space in their drawings.
While American children are good with color, she said, Japanese children are highly skilled in technical detail. In her research she discovered manga, a popular Japanese comic style, had an influence in the way children in Japan learn to draw.
For the first time in America, the traveling exhibit called "Shojo Manga! Girl Power!" will bring 200 pieces of original comics to UNM. It features 23 of the most prominent manga artists in Japan back 60 years.
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UNM art teacher Nancy Pauly said she met Toku at a professional conference.
"Manga came out in World War II in Japan when the Japanese were devastated by the war," Pauly said. "They were influenced by American comics and Disney."
The books gave life lessons to girls in a male-dominated society, she said.
She said there is manga geared separately to boys and girls that deal with gender roles.
"It reveals to young readers life choices," she said. "It encourages their young readers to think about being a young girl and a woman and the possibilities within Japanese society."
So Toku took her research to Japan.
"I started to go back to Japan to meet the manga artists," she said. "Then I started to develop my relationship with them. They are so talented, such great people. I thought it may be nice to bring this artwork to America."
At the reception Toku will give a talk at Masely Gallery. A panel discussion is scheduled to follow directly after.
Toku said she created artist profiles to go with the artwork because she wants to feature the artists as well as the art.
Pauly said she was the one who wanted Toku to bring the show to New Mexico.
"I was interested in having New Mexicans see it," Pauly said. "Japanese manga is very popular in the U.S. in the form of comics that kids read, and also anime - that is the animated version of manga."
The show is divided into three time periods.
One is Life After WWII - Dawn of Modern Shojo Manga.
The second is from 1960 to 1980, called Development of Modern Shojo Manga.
Period three is 1980 to present time - New Generation of Modern Shojo Manga.
She said manga is more like literature than entertainment, and all age groups in Japan read it.
"The quality of story-based comic - people learn so many things through Japanese manga," she said. "It's more a complicated story, like in literature."
Toku said manga makes up 40 percent of all publications in Japan.
