Comics & Manga in German
Japanese comics and manga in particular have increasingly elbowed their way into the German teenage world. Manga heroes often resemble young people and many are even women! To immerse themselves in the world of manga, young people often dress up in costumes, make-up, and whimsical clothes. In the case of Ying Zhou Cheng's Shanghai Passion, young men and women often go as far as to dress up as their manga heroes.
While comics in German language were first published in the 1970s, there was little recognition for Japanese anime. Only the first volume of Akira manga was published in 1991, which inspired smaller presses to start importing other Japanese manga series. By the late 1990s, the German manga wave was in full swing, thanks to television broadcasts of Sailor Moon and the publication of the shonen manga Dragon Ball by Egmont.
The rise of Japanese anime was not immediate, but there have been several attempts to introduce Japanese manga into German comics. In 1982, Rowohlt Verlag published a picture story against war entitled Barefoot through Hiroshima. The book was marketed as a picture story, and many sequels failed. In 1989, a German manga publisher, Sachmanga Japan GmbH, attempted to publish manga. However, this series was not well received by the general public.
The popularity of Japanese manga led to new genres and adaptations in the comics industry. Among the most popular were "Asterix," "Ghost in the Shell" and other classic American superheroes. But the Japanese manga style drew a more mature audience and helped the genre become more accessible to international audiences. And thanks to its global reach, Japanese manga and anime are now widely available in the United States.
Unlike the original Japanese manga, German manga are interpreted to be read from the back. As such, German manga are often viewed as simulacra. This means they look like they're a translation of the Japanese manga. However, they don't necessarily have to be. And many German manga and anime are dubbed or subtitled. In fact, many German manga are now available on online sites.
A more varied genre of manga can be found in the German comics scene. Many of the German manga are based on adventure history and fantasy themes. Girls read adventure history comics, while boys prefer fantasy themes. Other genres that make their way into German comics include science fiction and technology. Among the German manga and anime artists, Detta Zimmermann and Anike Hage are the leading examples. And while most German manga and anime are created by women, there are some distinctly male artists in this genre.
Japanese anime and manga have a long history. The Tokugawa period lasted from 1600 to 1868. Woodblock prints and illustrated books attracted a large audience. After World War II, manga and anime gained popularity and drained the talent of artists like Tezuka Osamu. Today, Japanese manga are widely adapted for audiences of all ages and cover a diverse range of topics.
The first Japanese anime to be shown in Germany was The Magician and Bandits, which premiered in cinemas on March 16, 1961. A broader range of anime shows began to be shown on German television in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While the TV stations had no choice but to include certain Japanese series as part of their European/Italian program packages, most were imported from Japan and shown in other European countries prior to showing on German television.
Ying Zhou Cheng's Shanghai Passion
While Ying Zhou Cheng's manga is typically set in an ill-defined "other" land, her translation of Shanghai Passion in German reverses the geographical equation. Rather than a fictional China, Shanghai Passion is set in contemporary Germany, where readers are likely to associate oriental themes with Japan. The protagonist, Vincent Sebastian von Kretsch, is a German citizen who has traveled to China to pursue trading connections and to escape his fiancee. He meets Bai Li, the son of a powerful Chinese mafia family, who has big plans for Vincent and his half-brother Lei.
After graduating from the School of Mines and Railroads in January 1902, Zhou received a scholarship to study in Japan, where he studied Japanese at the Kobun Institute. Zhou was also influenced by the works of Lord Byron and Qu Yuan poetry. He also cultivated a love for Greek mythology and studied the work of Japanese writer Natsume Soseki.
The book also focuses on the importance of aesthetic education, and Zhou emphasized this point in his essay. After the revolution in 1911, he went to the Jiangnan Naval Academy in Nanjing, where he took the name "Zhou Shuren." Later, he transferred to a school run by the Jiangnan lushi xuetang. The Taiping Rebellion had a profound effect on Shaoxing and Zhou's hometown.
While Zhou Shuren hoped his translations would inspire his compatriots, he was disappointed with the results. Volume one and volume two sold less than twenty copies each in Shanghai. However, he observed that Chinese readers were developing a taste for foreign fiction and preferred the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard over his own work, which focused on sensation and suspense.
The storyline of this novel revolves around the characters of two main characters, Sheyue and Jia Lian. Both have similar characteristics, but each have their own unique traits. Sheyue is a beautiful and caring maid, while Qiutong was Jia Lian's other concubine. Sheyue's maid, Sister Sha, is amusing and guileless. Sister Sha also tells Daiyu about Baoyu's secret marriage plans.
In a few pieces, Zhou Xhou Cheng demonstrates his talent for blending art and politics. Despite his alcoholic opium-smoking father, Zhou Boyi chose to adopt the surname Lu. His poetry was influenced by the ethos of Shanghai and the zeitgeist of the mid 1920s. Aside from the philosophical musings, Yecao's poetic compositions also contain an emotional resonance with Nietzschean ideas.
Sarah Burrini's web comic
The creator of "Sarah Burrini's web comic in Germany" is a Cologne-based graphic artist. She won the Sondermann Award in the webcomic category in 2012 and the Max and Moritz Prize for best German-language comic strip in 2018. "Sarah Burrini's web comic in Germany" is her longest-running work. She was born in 1979.
Life Ain't No Pony Farm is a semi-autobiographical web comic by Sarah Burrini that ran from May 2009 to April 2020. The comic is entirely written in German, though many of the strips have been translated into English by Jorg Fassbender. It tells the story of Ngumbe, an African elephant with an artist soul who likes peanuts.
"Sarah Burrini's web comic is available in German." The webcomic has over five years' worth of strips, and was published weekly by her in Germany. The comic is written by Sarah Burrini, but the comic also includes guest strips. While Sarah Burrini is the main illustrator of the comic, her webcomic also features guest strips from other artists.
In addition to fiction, German comics have increasingly featured women as authors. Despite the popularity of autobiographical comics, women are also becoming more prevalent in genres such as science fiction and fantasy. Sarah Burrini's web comic in German is a prime example of this trend. She uses a mix of realistic and fiction to create a comic that is relevant to readers' lives.