English teachers and those teaching about drama or film often prefer to deal with anime and manga less as cultural artifacts than as works of art and/or literature, to have their students focus on the more universal themes and story-telling devices that emerge in manga and anime. That does not necessarily mean ignoring the Japanese aspects of the media. Certainly teachers should make it clear to their students that this is not an American product, and does not reflect American values, especially since many students are watching or reading it daily without ever considering that. They should probably also point out that manga and anime are not, as many students assume, simply a Japanese adaptation of American comics and cartoons. In fact, although some Western cartooning and comic book traditions contributed to the genre during the 19th and 20th centuries, especially during the American occupation of Japan (1945-52), manga are an indigenous product with their own literary history and traditions. Beginning with the elegantly illustrated scrolls (e-maki ) of the late Heian period (11th century), Japanese literature has often consisted of images as much as words; these are not simply illustrations in the Western sense, they are part of the work. By the Tokugawa era (17th to 19th century), Japan had a well-developed tradition of illustrated popular literature called kibyōshi 黄表紙printed in mass quantities using woodblock techniques. The influx of American comics during the occupation era brought new traditions such as framing, the large eyes, and word balloons, but they did not really change the tradition of telling long, complex stories, usually for an adult audience, through a combination of words and images. This was clearly apparent in the works of Tezuka Osamu, who is usually considered to be the founder of the modern manga genre. （Editors's note: In Japanese style, family namese are listed first in this essay.)  Although Tezuka was strongly influenced by American comics in his style, and sometimes wrote for children, he also produced several serious, multi-volume works that are still well worth reading. These include his Buddha and Phoenix series included in the filmography, which will be added to this site in late April. When manga were animated for the screen, they added to this cultural mix by incorporating not only American cartooning techniques, but elements from Kabuki, Bunraku (puppet theatre), Takarazuka (all-female theatre), and a variety of oral storytelling traditions.

Once that is established, however, it is quite legitimate to talk about many manga and anime as works of literature or film. This is what they are and, since they often target teens and young adults, they tend to emphasize love, friendship, and coming of age stories. Teachers who use the hero’s journey model to discuss story-telling often find manga and anime very rewarding both because the universal elements they often contain, and also because of the smaller but culturally significant differences. The ways in which Japanese heroes fulfill their quests most often involve relationships, friends, family or some other form of grouping, to a far greater degree than their Western counterparts, for example, reflects a cultural difference amid the greater universality of what it means to come of age. This is most clearly the case in They Were Eleven, a science fiction story in which students applying to the prestigious Cosmo Academy must survive for 53 days aboard a derelict spaceship; they must survive as a group, all will pass or all will fail, a reflection the value accorded to group consciousness. It is also apparent in ensemble series such as Rurōni Kenshin, in which a one-time political assassin of the Bakumatsu period (1853-1867, the final years of the Tokugawa bakufu; those advocating a new order sometimes used terrorist tactics) seeks redemption through good works, but finds it more in friendship and bonding.

The fact that at least half of the characters who embark upon such journeys in manga and anime are female also provides some interesting opportunities to discuss gender roles, and how actions can be interpreted differently depending upon whether they are performed by a male or female character.  Kiki’s Delivery Service, for example, provides a classic coming of age story with fewer than usual Japanese elements since it plays in a generically European fantasy setting that includes a fictional tradition that young witches must, at the age of twelve, leave home and survive for a year in a new town using their magical powers. Kiki, who possesses limited powers to start with, finds this a difficult undertaking as she deals with self-doubt, friendship and rejection, first love, and finding her own identity.

For teachers who prefer to focus on genres, the wild mixes of comedy and tragedy, high drama and melodrama in manga and anime can also be an effective way of illustrating the more clearly defined Western genre traditions through contrast. Manga and anime also often avoid providing definitive endings for their stories, preferring to set out situations and dilemmas that invite the reader/viewer to decide how it ends or what decisions the characters should make. This is especially common in girls’ manga (shōjo 少女manga). It is not unknown in manga aimed at men and boys, but it is far less common. This phenomenon can be seen quite clearly in the different endings to the manga and anime versions of They Were Eleven, both of which are available in translation. The manga, aimed only at a female audience, leaves open an intriguing plot point, the question of whether an androgynous alien will choose to become male or female when s/he reaches adulthood. The movie, however, hoping for a wider audience to offset the greater cost of production (manga are cheap to produce and can target niche audiences), not only provides a happy ending to that question, but goes on to provide a pastiche of short, post-movie biographies a la American Graffiti on all the characters, explaining the whole rest of their lives.

Some art teachers also include manga and anime in their curriculum, albeit with some trepidation, hoping to more clearly define the difference between such stylized iconography and more individual approaches to art and creativity. Such efforts are not always successful, however, since students, especially those who draw their own manga-style works, are apt to resent it. One art teacher who takes comic art seriously reports better luck with using manga and anime to discuss differences between them and Western styles and conventions. She pays particular attention to stylistic conventions that are almost a language in their own right such as a large sweat drop to denote nervousness, a double-cross at the temple to denote anger, or a bubble of snot to denote sleeping. Because she teaches middle school, she tries to avoid talking about nose bleeds, which denote male sexual arousal and/or release, but she is not always successful since students often bring it up spontaneously. The result, she says, is often chaos in the classroom and, on one occasion, an extremely unpleasant letter from the local school board.

This can also be the case for creative writing instructors who attempt to use fan fiction (original stories about characters and milieu drawn from popular media, usually TV shows including anime) as an introduction to more serious writing. This can be problematic for a variety of reasons, including the fact that fan fiction is often highly collaborative, unashamedly self-indulgent, and undertaken for very different reasons than other forms of writing. However, it also raises the possibility that students will bring up subjects that teachers and other class members might find disturbing. One such topic teachers should be prepared to deal with is the whole BL (also called boys’ love or yaoi) genre, gay male romances, some sexually explicit, some not, that are written by and for women. That uniquely Japanese genre has its North American counterpart in “slash” fan fiction in which fan writers “slash” together characters from their favorite shows; the first “slashed” couple was Kirk/Spock or Kirk-slash-Spock. Although BL manga and anime and “slash” fan fiction developed separately, they are similar. How teachers deal with this if it comes up in class will vary depending upon the teacher and the community, but they should at least be prepared for it.

Despite such challenges, however, most teachers who use manga and anime are enthusiastic about the results. The opportunity to use primary source material from another culture that engages students is simply too good to pass up.