The Broad Spectrum of Shotaro Ishinomori’s Manga

Shotaro Ishinomori was a creator of biting comedy manga

“Quality is guaranteed based on quantity.” These words were spoken by Ishinomori during his lifetime to the novelist Bin Konno, his distant relative. Among Ishinomori’s works, some of which exceeded 600 pages produced per month, there are several works of comedy manga. Such works include the dry, savage humor of the slapstick comedy manga Terebi Kozо̄ [TV Apprentice] (Shueisha, 1959) and the contrastingly easygoing "Bon Bon" (Akita Shoten, 1965), as well as Tonari no Tamageta-kun [My Neighbor Tamageta] (Kodansha, 1965) and Okashina Ano Ko [The Strange, Strange Little Girl] (Shueisha, 1964; later called Sarutobi Ecchan), which were both flavored with science fiction elements. These comedies were slightly too difficult for children audiences.

A bible for manga-loving boys and girls

The book Shōnen no Tame no Mangaka Nyūmon [An Introduction to Manga Artistry for Boys] (Akita Shoten, 1965) would later come to serve as the textbook that raised many aspiring manga artists. Part one is semi-autobiographical in nature; in it, Ishinomori describes how self-published works of manga are made and what it was like to work as Osamu Tezuka’s assistant in high school. In part two, he explains how to use various manga techniques, using his own works such as the shōjo (girls’) manga Ryūjin Numa [Dragon God Pond] (Kodansha, 1961) as examples. So many readers from across Japan flocked to visit Ishinomori that the nearest police station had to keep a map of his home. Ishinomori was a charismatic figure to his fans, and this book served as their bible.

A magnificent, experimentative work

Many of the manga-loving boys and girls who became fans of Shotaro Ishinomori through reading Mangaka Nyūmon [An Introduction to Manga Artistry] shouted out in surprise when they saw the inaugural issue of COM magazine, published in December 1966. It contained the first episode of the series titled Jun, which utilized sparse dialogue and an entirely vertical panel layout. From the next issue onward, however, it became entirely horizontal. It was truly avant-garde. Jun is composed of layered images that stimulate readers’ imaginations. There is no “correct” way to experience this work—that is, all ways of experiencing this work are correct.

The widening of sexual expression in seinen manga

The seinen (young male adult) genre of manga, targeting the Japanese baby boomer generation born after WWII, was created in the late 1960s during a time when Japanese manga was largely split between those for adults and those for children. The difference from shōnen (boys’) manga was that it included the element of sexuality. Shotaro Ishinomori, as discovered by teenage readers, was an artist who published many works in which beautiful, sexy women played an active role, even in seinen manga. The majority of these works were breezily drawn for light reading, as his readers were also looking for scenes of beautiful, scantily-clad women more than a complex story.

Ishinomori’s superhero manga preceded the age of SDGs and AI

Similar to Cyborg 009, the protagonists of both Kamen Rider and Android Kikaider (Shogakukan, 1972; a.k.a. Kikaida) have been altered or manufactured by an evil organization. The story of Kamen Rider especially sounds the alarm against the misuse of biotechnology and destruction of the global environment, and it would fit in perfectly alongside what are now called “SDGs manga” (manga that illustrate Sustainable Development Goals). Kikaider, implanted with an incomplete “conscience circuit,” becomes human when he is overcome by evil. Could this also be an indication of where artificial intelligence (AI) is heading? Ishinomori’s superhero manga are surprisingly hard-hitting.

An unprecedented educational manga illustrated in 55 volumes

Manga Nihon no Rekishi [A History of Japan in Manga] (Chuokoron-sha, 1989), an educational manga series in 55 volumes illustrated completely by Ishinomori himself, was an enormous project the likes of which had never been seen before. Before starting this series, Ishinomori wrote “The Manga Declaration,” a declaration of manga’s limitless potential as a form of media that also served to affirm his position in the manga world after Osamu Tezuka’s death and demonstrate his commitment to this series. A veritable milestone in historical manga, Ishinomori drew the series on a specially-made light green paper to prevent the harsh reflection of light on his eyes, as his vision was deteriorating.

Long-running comics about “human emotions” that did away with the avant-garde

Ishinomori constantly developed new forms of expression in manga up until the 1960s, but in doing so, he did not always enjoy the understanding of his readers. His expression became more “rounded out” from around the time he created Sandarabocchi (Shogakukan, 1975). This manga, in which his “edgy presentation” is overshadowed by an orthodox story structure revolving around human emotions and interactions, achieved wide popularity and continued for eight years. Hotel, a human drama Ishinomori started in 1984 that wove together the stories of regular hotel workers and guests, became a long-running series that continued for 14 years until 1998, the year of his death.