The Taiwanese comic industry has shown some signs of revival, but needs to make improvements to originality and narrative content, according to Taiwanese and Japanese insiders.
Taiwan Animation and Comic Promoting Association director Su Wei-hsi (蘇微希) said that when publishing its first comic book 46 years ago, the Taiwanese comic industry was enjoying a period of prosperity because newspapers were printing strips in a serial format. In the 1990s, the industry entered a 10-year golden age, during which many talented Taiwanese artists prospered, Su said.
However, by the early 2000s, the industry began to feel the negative effects of the Internet’s rise, and with the decline of comics, a generational gap materialized, Su said, adding that her organization was created to provide education for artists and to promote industry shows and exhibitions, an effort that has started to pay off.
Photo: supplied by Wu Chen-Kang
Naoki Kawashima from Shonen Jump Plus, a manga magazine published by Shueisha Inc, said many Taiwanese and Chinese artists are using smartphone apps to publish their work on the Japanese market.
Kawashima said that a large number of Taiwanese works are in the “moe” genre — romance comics drawn in a style that emphasizes cuteness — and while they are technically sound, he cautioned that those works should “avoid imitation” and develop a “personal style.”
Taiwanese artist Wu Chen-kang (吳塵罡), who was trained at Kyoto Seika University’s School of Manga, said that compared with Japan, Taiwan’s manga and anime industry is disadvantaged by the limited size of the national market.
“Taiwan has many gifted artists, but they confront an unfavorable business environment that lacks commercial platforms to help them mature, as well as inadequate protection for intellectual property,” he said.
Wu said that he is addressing those issues by publishing a monthly comic that emphasizes Taiwanese popular culture in its stories, while introducing Taiwanese artists to Japan.
Taiwanese comics need to develop signature local characters to stand out in the Japanese market, he said, citing Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man as an example.
Osamu Tezuka Productions chairman Takayuki Matsutani said the Taiwanese comic industry “lacks international vision.”
An industry veteran and personal associate of the legendary Osamu Tezuka, Takayuki criticized Taiwan’s comic industry for having too many works derivative of Japan, and urged new artists to avoid the trap of “only drawing things they are interested in,” but to instead focus on the content of the story.
“The narrative is the really all-important element,” he said.
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