First Advisor

Jon Holt

Term of Graduation

Summer 2024

Date of Publication

7-31-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Japanese

Department

World Languages and Literatures

Language

English

Subjects

binary, comics/manga studies, icon, line, uchi/soto

Physical Description

1 online resource (iv, 53 pages)

Abstract

In the earlier works of manga artist and author Itagaki Paru, animal characters are used to prompt a discussion of the uchi/soto ("in-group"/"out-group") dynamic present in Japanese society. Throughout her most popular work, Beastars, and its supplemental short story collection Beast Complex, Itagaki tackles binary thinking and in-group versus out-group social politics using a blatantly obvious, yet nuanced and subtle herbivore-versus-carnivore, predator-versus-prey metaphor. The world she depicts in these works is full of misunderstandings caused by hastily made assumptions, sometimes instinctually quick. With her animalized characters, she explores human stigmatization and the poor treatment of those who do not want to and cannot fit neatly into one of the two sides of the established binary, either by choice or by their very nature. Itagaki paints a bleak picture of Japan using cartoony, light animal designs that starkly contrast the seriousness of her true subject matter. However, by carefully manipulating the lines of her beasts, she skillfully reflects how the society in her fictional world (and Japan, by extension) can avoid such a dark future by acknowledging and embracing people's differences instead of forcing them into predefined boxes: herbivore and carnivore are just labels that demand to be understood and transcended. Within what Itagaki calls the "animal manga and human drama" of Beastars and Beast Complex, she refines a mixture of serious and graphic subject matter with a much more iconic art style (i.e, Scott McCloud's comics definition), and manga, of all art forms, is the best medium to convey these subtleties that must be recognized.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42636

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