MERIDIAN CRITIC No 1 (Volume 42) 2023

Anime as a Universal Language: The Zenith of Manga

Valentina-Andrada MINEA
University of Bucharest, Romania
[email protected]
____________________________________________________________

Abstract: Literature’s qualities can be highlighted by combining it with other forms of

art. Manga, which is a Japanese traditional literary genre that involves visual art, has
gained worldwide popularity in the last few decades. Subsequently, it was adapted into
anime. This study explores the legitimacy of manga in literature, its global influence
among notable figures such as prime ministers or presidents, and the zenith it attained
in anime, which is a universal language. Are manga and anime universal solely due to
their graphics and stories? Or is it rather because of their ability to connect people to the
sacred? Is image universal? If so, what kind of image? Static one? Moving one? Which,
manga or anime, can rather be considered universal? What does the future hold for
literature and its various adaptations?
Keywords: Naruto’s universality, 700 responses survey, graphics, literature, light novel.

Introduction
Long before the novels emerged in the 18th century Europe (Watt 2000),
Japan had already invented this literary genre. The first novel in the world,
Genji Monogatari (Barrow 2012), has been written in the 11th century by a
Japanese woman, Murasaki Shikibu, and consists of over a thousand pages and
four hundred characters. It has received several live-action movie adaptations,
and two notable animated adaptations, a film, and a series.
Japan invented several original or innovative literary genres besides the
novel, such as Haiku or Takarazuka Revue, which is unique and completely
opposite to the British drama in which in the beginning only men used to play.
In Takarazuka, only single women can perform, so the writing is slightly
different. Japan has a unique way to communicate things. In 1999, the Japanese
Shigetaka Kurita invented Emoji (Grosz et al. 2023), this global language, that
will likely replace stage directions in drama in the near future. The existence of
so many image-based means of communication and of plays exemplifies
mankind’s desire to adapt text into images, or into something more visually.
Manga (Japanese comics) is another special literary genre that has a
very long tradition in Japan.

Japanese comics do not exist in a vacuum; they are closely connected to Japanese
history and culture, including such areas as politics, economy, family, religion, and gender.
Therefore, they reflect both the reality of Japanese society and the myths, beliefs, and
fantasies that Japanese have about themselves, their culture, and the world. (Ito 2015)
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Anime as a Universal Language: The Zenith of Manga

It is believed that Buddhist monks introduced a precursor of manga to

Japan in the eighth century. The late Edo period (c. 1780) is considered to be
the founding period of a more modern form of manga (Buljan and Cusack
2015: 14). Of course, after the Second World War, modern manga developed
and became one of the widely read literary gernes in Japan and in the entire
world. In a scientific bookchapter, a great comics fan and researcher states out
that the first comics in the world was published by a Swiss in 1827 (Manolescu
2021: 297). Considering only the modern comics as we know them today, he is
right. The modern manga arose around 1891 (Exner 2022: 185). Japanese
manga is a little different from the western comics (Ingulsrud, Allen 2009: 27),
and probably this is why Manolescu never mentions Asian manga in that study.

The contemporary impact of manga and anime

Nevertheless, manga has such a long tradition in Japan that everyone
reads it, regardless of their age or social status. “Manga (漫画), or Japanese
comics, are today a globally recognised art form” (Neofitou, Sell 2016). Calling
manga and anime a subculture is a proof of ignorance and a real insult to the
Japanese culture and to all otakus around the world. Even the former Prime
Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, publicly declared himself a manga fan and
supported manga production and reading (Beck 2007). The current Prime
Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, which was ordering Weekly Shōnen
Jumpmanga from Japan to America when he was studying there, declared that he
read all the volumes of Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer, so he is a manga fan
(even now, as an adult, since Demon Slayer is a new manga, that premiered in
2016. The anime series is still ongoing and a new Kimetsu no Yaiba movie has
just premiered in Romanian cinemas on March 24th, 2023.). The Prime Minister
added that manga will play a great role in Japan’s growth, because most people
interested in learning Japanese language are inspired by manga and anime and
learning a person’s language facilitates intercultural understanding (Madillo
2022). Indeed, Japanese is one of the most studied languages in the world
(Blanco 2022), It is also learned by Japanese culture fans from Romania in
various ways (anime, manga, martial arts, tea ceremony etc), including formally,
in Universities, Japanese Language being one of the most sought-after
departments for the 2019 enrolment at the Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-
Napoca (UBB 2019). Kishida also stated that he will bring up the subject of
manga in his upcoming meetings with the French president, Emmanuel Macron,
who is also a manga fan (Baseel 2021). France offered the €300 ‘Culture Pass’ to
young citizens aged 18 years old in 2021 and this resulted in a substantial
increase in Japanese manga purchases among the cultural pass’s recipients
(Animehunch 2021).
There are all kinds of manga, from practical ones like Manga Introduction
to Philosophy, or adaptation of Kant’s Pure Reason’s Critic, to slice-of-life manga
and to complex fantasy, horror, psychological, medical, economical, religious,
spiritual, isekai manga for all ages and on all topics. Even so, the best sold
mangas among the beneficiaries of the ‘French Cultural Pass’ were Jujutsu
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Kaisen, Attack on Titan, One Piece and Demon Slayer (Animehunch 2021).
Between 23 May – 26 August 2019, the British Museum held a Manga exhibition
(Wagner 2019), which was very popular, because people of all ages and
nationalities read Japanese comics; even in North America, Japanese manga is a
top pick (Pawuk, Serchay 2017).
Not just manga, but anime is also an already old global phenomenon,
with the most widely accepted date of origin in 1917 (Patten 2004: 369). All that
is related to the “J-Cult (Japanese culture) has become so appealing to
international audiences that some will consume any- and everything Japanese.
Their brand loyalty is peerless.” (Atkins 2017: 208). From manga and anime to
kawaii culture (of cuteness), tea ceremony, calligraphy, or the romanticized
samurai and martial arts, Japanophiles have something to love. And this is what
makes Japan a global soft power, a soft global empire.
In 2019, Romanian researchers such as Alice Teodorescu and Crînguța-Irina
Pelea published their doctoral theses (Pelea 2019; Teodorescu 2019) about anime,
manga and the influence of Japan’s popular culture on the Romanian space. In
2021, Alice Books Publisher started to massively translate famous Japanese
writers like Osamu Dazai. In 2022, Nemira Publisher started to translate
Japanese mangas in Romanian language. Manga is very expensive for
Romanians’ income, so they might not buy it as much as people in other
countries, a true otaku (manga/anime nerd) always finds a way to read it
online. Sites like Comic Walker provide legal, free access to manga, but written
in Japanese or English. Crunchyroll has a free-trial period for watching anime,
after which the price is affordable. But Crunchyroll is an option only available
for English speakers. Netflix started to broadcast animes with Romanian
subtitle, at an affordable price, and more and more people use it. Even so, most
teenagers with no income still resort to piracy. Happily, anime feature films
have been screened in Romanian cinemas more often and we developed a
tradition with Izanagi, the anime festival that is at its 3rd edition in Bucharest,
now, in March 2023. Even Japan’s Embassy supported the event, which was
attended by professors, researchers, and, of course, ma(i)n(l)y anime
aficionados.
In addition, some anime streaming sites have created Discord servers
with bot-operated chat rooms where anime fans can demonstrate their
knowledge of the phenomenon by answering questions about manga and anime
in general and about the most popular animes in particular. This ensures that
the fandom has a thorough understanding of what it venerates.

Philology, manga and anime

Since J-Cult is venerated (even with pilgrimages), it seems almost sacred.
Also, literature and mythology are believed to share a common origin because
both reflect the tragedies, hopes, values, expectations, and sense of humanity.
The fantastic literature can be considered a new mythology (and sometimes it
really is if we think of Kishimoto’s Naruto or Colin’s Legendele țării lui Vam). It
has cognizable and existential value, revealing the world’s foundations and modes
of being (Dancă 2022: 416-418). Furthermore, good literature has the alchemical
power to transform natures through the use of figurative language. Sometimes,
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figures of speech such as metaphor recreate realities transforming them into

myths, and other times, they simply say something new about reality (Șerban
2011: 38-41), offering a new perspective on it. Therefore, from a theological
standpoint, any text that can do these is a valuable literary work. Including
manga. And manga does it wonderfully, approaching such a high level of
syncretic mythological and spiritual content that this is what most Westerners
associate it with. The same holds true for anime.
In addition to the opportunity of acquiring Japanese language skills
(Chan et al. 2017) and of English (most animes receive English subtitles on the
day of release in Japan, and, later, some of them receive dubbed version),
animes provide a vast amount of access to literature. Pollyanna, the book that is
nowadays sold in many bookstores in Romania, has anime adaptation since
1986! Studio Ghibli has animated outstanding novels such as Diana Wynne
Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle. Many classic novels, including Les Misérables,
The Count of Monte Cristo, Romeo and Juliet (and other Shakespeare plays),
have been adapted into animes (and mangas). Even more, some of these great
works have been originally blended before adapted into animes. Here I mention
Requiem of the Rose King (based on the Shakespearean plays Henry VI, Part 3
and Richard III) or Blast of the Tempest (based on Hamlet and The Tempest)
(Teodorescu 2015) while others are only proving elements of intertextuality and
transtextuality. The particularities of discourse in manga and anime provide
specialists with excellent material for analysis.
But these are not the only benefits anime can provide to philology. Many
animes are based on mangas or light novels written especially for animes or
based on them. Naruto, which was initially based on a manga has later received
light novel spin-offs.
Moreover, Chihayafuru or Choyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi are based
on the anthology One Hundred Poets of Mount Ogura (Hyakunin Isshu), on
which Karuta, the Japanese card game, is also based. World Masterpiece
Theatre is a series that animates various great works of world literature. Bungō
Stray Dogs and Bungou to Alchemist have characters inspired by several
brilliant authors (Osamu Dazai, Natsume Sōseki, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky) including western ones such as Howard Phillips Lovecraft,
one of the greatest horror and fantasy writers of all times.

The universality of graphics

Music, mathematics, love, and a few others are accepted as universal
languages, but what about the image? Is image universal? If so, what kind of
image? Hockney and Gayford (2017: 22), sharing a phenomenological and
constructivist view, state out that the image is a description of the perspective
someone sees something from, thus reality does not exist apart from us; it exists
within our minds. Images contribute to our understanding. Therefore, the
image is universal, as everyone uses and benefits from it.
A good question to ask about Japanese manga would be whether it
integrates text to images or images to text, because they are so well-integrated
and complement each other that it is impossible to tell which is presenting the
main story. Ion Manolescu talks about the universal aesthetics of the comics’
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narrativity, pleading for comics as a legitim literary gerne more than any other
art form (Manolescu 2021: 298). Other scientists prove that the silent scenes in
manga represent a universal language (Ahmad 2015). They might both be right,
but the main problem is that people nowadays read less and less. “People like
pictures. They have powerful effects on the way we see things around us. Most
people have always preferred to look at pictures instead of reading, and
probably always will.” (Hockney and Gayford 2017: 19)
Indeed, adding text to some images can clarify them, and adding images to
a text makes it easier to read and less ‘boring’ because it requires you to constantly
shift your focus from text comprehension to image comprehension. It compels the
reader to think in two distinct ways and understand two distinct languages. Manga
is always read from the back to the front, regardless of the language it is translated
into, leading western readers to think from an entirely new angle.
In brief, reading comics, and especially reading manga is a very
beneficial mental exercise with many advantages. However, we cannot consider
it universal, because it requires reading knowledge, and the exercise of
understanding a story with sequential images read from back to front (which
might be difficult in the beginning for westerners). Besides, to properly
understand a manga, one must know the sound language (onomatopoeias
transliteration which in Japanese are very specific and different than in western
languages) and other particularities like these. Thereby, even if the
multimodality of manga (Schwartz, Rubinstein-Ávila 2006) can be useful in
various ways such as teaching and learning, manga is still something more for the
initiated ones.
What can be simpler to understand than images? Moving images! “65% of
the population is visual learners. Visual learners learn by visual reinforcements,
such as video contents.” (Jawed et al. 2019). Scientists emphasize the power of
video content more than the one of simple images. In our era, video content (and
soon, probably holographic reality) is the most appealing to younger generation.
What makes a sign intriguing is its motion, the alchemy of art, and the artist’s
capacity to transform one thing into another (Hockney and Gayford 2017: 36).
Thereby, I consider that anime is more universal than manga.
Firstly, it is easier to understand videos. Even if complex philosophical,
metaphorical, and mythological matters are accessible only to cultured people,
everyone can understand the basic action in an anime without much effort, and
even without knowing the language, which makes anime more of a universal
language than manga is.
Secondly, it is more beautiful (Japanese manga is black and white, while
anime is colourful). Even if a part of the story form manga is sometimes skipped
in an anime adaptation, and some character designs are slightly modified, anime
is still more appealing to most young people today. There are indeed mangas like
the ones of Junji Ito that are terribly hard to adapt well as animes. Those are
legendary mangas, that has incommensurable value exactly because they cannot
be adapted well enough. But those are isolated cases. Besides these, in Japanese
traditional visual art, shadows and lights are rendered differently than in
European art. European art contains many shadows, whereas old Japanese art
does not. But in manga, everything is black and white and sometimes shadows
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are incorporated, whilst in anime, an intriguing combination of shadows and

colourful exposure is utilised, one that makes anime so mesmerizing.
Thirdly, anime can more easily evoke a sense of the sacred. An image
from a manga always appears to have occurred in the past because it is static
and does not move. Even if the depicted action suggests motion, the image is
still static. This evokes a sense of the past. To experience the sacred, one must
be fully present in the present (‘here and now’) in order to access the
coincidentia oppositorum of time, which occurs when the future and the past
are united in the present. This is something that a video can rather establish, as
opposed to a black-and-white static image. The sacred is universal. Everyone
desires to access it in various ways. Literature and art (and anime) have an
especially significant part to play in this sense.
Fourthly, in a survey based on Naruto, the anime that I conducted, most
people said they can well find themselves in the Narutoanime. I did not do
similar research on manga because I could not find other 700 Naruto manga
readers to answer it. But it was quite easy to find, among anime fans, 700
Naruto anime afficionados to respond to my survey.

Is anime perceived as universal? A case study of Naruto

Naruto is an anime (and manga) with an abundance of religious themes.
It has a great spiritual and religious vibe (Minea 2021), incorporating aspects
from various real religions to create a syncretic blend of elements for the
Narutian Mythological Universe. Other scholars have also identified the
universality of Narutian mythology (Costa and Bastos 2020, 2022) and not only
of mythology, but also of teachings to which people of all religions can relate, as
we will see in the questionnaire below. And, even more, because anime has
indeed universal characteristics, it can be used in religious mission, and might
even become a religion one day (Minea 2022b), a universal one.
To determine the impact of one of the most popular anime series of all
time on people from various cultures, I created a questionnaire, the results of
which I will interpret below. The questionnaire has 700 answers provided by
fans from all over the world. It received answers through Google Forms between
28.12.2018 – 06.05.2019. It has been promoted through Facebook in many fan
groups, but also on field forums, YouTube, and streaming sites. The screenshots
below are the graphic representations of the original results (raw data) that
were automatically generated by Google Forms.
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Interpretation of the survey’s results

As evidenced by the charts attached to this article, Naruto has fans from
a diverse range of ages and religions. Considering the total number of adherents
to each religion, we can say that the fans represent a balanced and diverse
religious spectrum. The aspect of this situation that fascinates me the most is
that even adherents of so-called conservative religions can relate to the series,
and some of them have even written articles about how rich in (Islamic) values
Naruto is (Istiqomah, Sholeh 2019). A Christian can find many Christian values
in Naruto (and there are several scientific papers and videos on this topic, from
love, to sacrifice, to the universal tree of life), a Daoist can find their own
symbols and values (Yin and Yang references, for instance), and so on.

The age group that received the most responses was ‘18-25 years old’,
most likely because Naruto was created in 1999 and received an animated
adaptation in 2002 (Clements, McCarthy 2015: 1600), when those in this age
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group were young, so they regard it as one of the most endearing childhood
anime, whose characters have grown alongside them.
Broadly speaking, watching a shōnen (anime for young boys), and
especially such a long one, you improve yourself alongside with the characters
from several points of view: you gain wisdom and life experience, because the
situations characters go through are possible in real life and they present useful
solutions, tips, and thoughts. You also grow intellectually through the
acquisition of new concepts, words, and cultural elements. Anime
simultaneously satisfies and positively engages people’s need for metaphysics
by presenting the various spiritualities in which they find themselves.

The respondents to the questionnaire came from all continents, with a

large share of the states: Romania (153), United States of America (122), India
(85), Philippines (40), Indonesia (26), Malaysia (20), Japan and the rest of the
countries offering answers from less than 20 representants each.
Their professions are very diversified. Even though the majority of
respondents were students, I have also received answers from the ologians,
journalists, professors, medical staff, engineers, programmers, philosophers,
psychologists, artists, bakers, soldiers, sellers, accountants, managers and so on.
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Interestingly, the majority (over 90%) of them said that they find
themselves in this anime very much, or enough, and only 2.3% said that they do
not relate at all.
Most of them were helped by this anime to feel better, especially in
depressive cases. Interacting on the forums I found that many anime fans had
existential crises (family, health, social, personal issues etc.) that they solved by
watching the anime. In another research that I conducted (still unpublished),
animes proved useful for those with Dyslexia and ADHD. Recent studies prove
that the expressivity of manga (Rozema 2015) is actually useful for people with
Autism (Guénoun et al. 2021), which makes this J-Cult phenomenon to be even
more universal.

The most appreciated thing in an anime is the feeling it gives, and in

Naruto’s case we talk about a very warm (almost maternal) feeling. At times,
those who are afflicted require a parallel virtual existence to escape a reality that
is too difficult to bear. Unlike other addictions that rob people of consciousness,
animes are less harmful and even beneficial, aiding in the healing process by
depicting the action and life philosophy of the models, who are also
experiencing adversity in the script. Obviously, they experience profound
moments, the effect of suspense and events such as “first kiss” or the death of a
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loved one being well-known as alleviating factors. It lasts much less time than in
real life, but the emotions are just as intense, with the audience empathising
with the characters and releasing their pent-up sadness.

One of the most appreciated things in Naruto is the moral content, even
more appreciated than in other animes. The main character is a moral example of
true love, which manages to stop the cycle of revenge and hatred between people.
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According to the results, Naruto is an anime mainly about ‘never giving up’,
‘friendship’, ‘personal development’, but other elements are appreciated as well.
Fighting is a very popular and appreciated theme in anime, whether it
involves fighting for personal development or social good, fighting in war, or
ninja fighting. This is true regardless of the circumstances surrounding the
fight. Due to the fact that anime creators tend to be extremely well-documented
and depict very realistic methods of combat, the subject of war is one of the
most discussed and sought-after topics. The strategy is extremely realistic, even
more than in live-action movies, because it is much easier to draw characters
performing specific actions than it is to find actors capable of performing them
correctly. In Naruto, however, there is an additional reason for the fight’s
popularity: through the touching that occurs during combat, everyone involved
is able to transmit and absorb each other’s states and memories, thereby
creating unique bonds between the combatants. This is one of the reasons why
the fight is so revered in Naruto. Despite their appearance, the conflicts are
nearly always amicable.
The competition is also friendly and aims to aid in the development of the
characters so that each can become his best and see how far he has come in
comparison to his previous self and to the others. However, the purpose of the
competition is not to be superior to the other participants in order to inspire
envy. Instead, the competition is designed to help the characters grow. Envy does
not appear frequently in anime, and when it does, it is typically seen as pitiful.
Many people enjoy Naruto because it contains a great deal of humour,
which can be either overt or subtle depending on the age of the viewer. This is
another reason why people report feeling better after watching it. When
discussing this topic, it is essential to consider Kishimoto’s gender-typed
storytelling. Surprisingly, he combines humorous elements with profound
philosophical issues while simultaneously developing and explicating a
magnificent mythology. This contributes significantly to Naruto’s status as the
most admired anime in the entire world. In her research on the art of
storytelling, Kiliánová demonstrates that men are more likely to tell humorous
tales, whereas women are more likely to tell serious life experiences and
mythological stories (Kiliánová 1999: 4, 6). Naruto uses mainly the feminine
type of discourse (Minea 2022a), which we might consider rare for ashōnen
(with a lot of fighting and funny content), but it adds great value and
universality to Naruto, making it the target of a wide audience that includes
girls too. Even more, visual storytelling, or, more exactly, the silent sequences in
manga (and anime), are considered by scientists to be a universal language
(Ahmad 2015). I consent to this opinion since images, and sequential images,
are easy understand for everyone, regardless their language or ability to read. It
is an ancient way of graphic (written) communication whose potential is
explored in manga and fully unveiled in anime.
Although at the time I was collecting answers, among the Naruto fans,
on blogs, Boruto was considerably degraded, not being considered anything
special compared to the previous series that had a very well thought progressive
growth, the result of my statistics shows that Boruto has not dropped the
franchise too much, being watched by most of Naruto fans. Nearly half of those
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who answered the questionnaire said they are watching Boruto as fans, and
28% of the respondents said they do not watch at the same heartbeat that they
watched at Naruto, but they are still watching it. The remaining 25% said they
were not watching, or not yet.
Through ethnographic research, I discovered that many of them watch
Boruto specifically to feel connected to the characters from Naruto, with whom
they grew up. Along with the action that respects the manga, the moral content
of Boruto also begins to take shape. Now that the series is about to take a break
from broadcasting for the next few months, it is appreciated to such extent that
some fans have even declared the 79th chapter of Boruto to be superior to the
entirety of One Piece manga (Senpai 2023)

As we can see, most of the respondents declared that they can well-find
themselves in Naruto even if they have different religious and cultural
backgrounds. What they enjoyed most about this anime was how it made them
feel, as well as Naruto’s desire for friendship. The way something makes you
feel and the desire for friendship (recalling that for Naruto, friendship was so
important that he lost an arm to save a friend and willed to die for saving him)
emphasizes the concept of communion.
Therefore, we can conclude that Naruto is perceived as a universal
anime because it brings people together and makes them realize that they share
numerous common values. Naruto used to converse frequently and on a wide
range of topics to avoid unnecessary fights. This is also considered specific to a
feminine type of discourse that proved to be successful in the series, especially
during the Great Ninja War (with The Infinite Tsukuyomi threat) when
Naruto’s speeches and actions contributed to the world’s salvation by bringing
people from all regions and religions together, exhorting intercultural and
interreligious harmony and cooperation.

Epilogue: the possible future of graphic novels

Regardless of the fact that their histories are not necessarily related, the
journey from simple novel to manga was intriguing. Then, aided by technology,
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specialists transformed them into anime: the current zenith of manga. What
now? Will this art form evolve into holograms and virtual realities or revert to
plain text? A new trend, the Light Novel (LN) was created shortly before the
turn of the new millennium. A light novel contains few manga-style illustrations
or no illustrations at all. What makes it light is the simple language, very
conversational, dialogical, with very few complex descriptions. They are
primarily based on characters who inhabit a fantasy world, which is sometimes
distinct from the real world. “Light novels are a new genre of postmodern
literature based on not reality but on fictional elements embedded in Japanese
subcultures.” (Sugimoto 2019: 144) It is the ideal lecture for night-time, when
you are tired, and the most suitable genre for adolescents who become bored
and quit reading if a book is too difficult. Numerous of them are subsequently
adapted into videogames or animes. Some of them are spin-offs of an anime.
But the idea here is that even if some of them are very intelligent (e.g.
Classroom of the elite), the popularity of this new literary genre reflects a lack of
ability or desire of contemporary people to comprehend complex manga or
novel language. Or people may simply have a strong affinity for plain text and
felt to return to it. In any case, manga’s popularity did not decline after the rise
of light novels, and will stay an important literary genre, but anime has
increased even more. Therefore, it is possible that we do not know where
literature is headed, but we can say that it is diversifying, and many new
branches and adaptations of it will emerge.

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