rajio manga cont.

Jonathan M. Hall jmhall at uci.edu
Sun Aug 26 05:28:28 EDT 2007


Dear Akiko and Roland,

Thank you for two very helpful answers.  They do a lot to give the  
cultural context from the Saiyuki stories broadcasts.  Akiko and  
Roland both suggest the 1970s as an important period for the  
development of this term, but perhaps I should have better  
contextualized my question.  The text that I'm reading from is  
actually a transcription, published in the Fall of 1951, of the radio  
broadcast--rajio manga-- of Saiyuki begun in 1950.  The first  
(postwar, at least) broadcast was recorded on the night of 8 Juky  
1950 and broadcast the following evening at the unpopular hour  
(especially considering Japanese summer time, then) of 5:30 pm.  The  
broadcasts were weekly and, at 15 minutes per episode it took the  
space of a year for the story to be half-completed.

  So the term really does seem to have a longer history and certainly  
one that preceeds Tezuka's rendition, which was not until Showa 27  
(1952).  Indeed, it was probably the increasing popularity of this  
radio series that inspired Tezuka's version, "Boku no Songoku". From  
1950 to 1951 the show moved from NHK2 to NHK1 and to better and  
better time slots.  The producer of the radio series describes the  
Hammond Organ, the high quality voice actors, and the "effects boys"  
as the reasons for the show's popularity.  In this case, then, we see  
a movement from radio to film, not the other direction that Roland so  
very thoroughly outlined below.

So, I am still curious about the origins (prewar, I suspect) for  
rajio-manga ... and whether there is anything more than a figurative  
meaning for the visual in this usage of manga.  Thank you again to  
Akiko and Roland!

Jonathan




-----
Jonathan M. Hall
Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature
Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies

320 Humanities Instructional Building
UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA
office: 1-949-824-9778
fax: 1-949-824-1992

Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies



On Aug 21, 2007, at 7:45 PM, Roland Domenig wrote:

> Hi Jonathan,
>
> the term "rajio manga" seems to have developed in 1970 when TBS  
> Radio started a series of radio dramas aired on sunday nights  
> called SHINYABAN RAJIO MANGA. The first "rajio manga" in this  
> series was NINPO SONGOKU based on the SAIYUKI story. I don't know  
> whether this drama was based on Tezuka Osamu's manga or the Toei  
> animation film, but at the time the story was quite popular,  
> because there were other adaptations made around that time among  
> them also a puppet animation series. The TBS radio manga series  
> gained popularity not least because of voice actress Mizumori Ako.  
> The term "radio manga" seems to have been a kind of TBS brand name.
>
> Another term frequently used was "rajio gekiga". These were radio  
> drama versions of popular gekiga (dramatic comics) such as BLACK JACK.
>
> We should not forget, that before the war it was common practice in  
> Japanese radio to have radio drama versions of films. These were  
> called "eiga monogatari" or "hoso eigageki". A lot of famous  
> directors worked for radio and directed radio dramas, among them  
> Yamamoto Kajiro, Uchida Tomu, Chiba Taiki, Mizoguchi Kenji and even  
> Ozu Yasujiro. The relation between film and radio in Japan still  
> needs to be explored.
>
> Roland
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu im Auftrag von  
> Jonathan M. Hall
> Gesendet: Di 21.08.2007 10:47
> An: KineJapan
> Betreff: rajio manga
>
> Dear KineJapanners,
>
> In some recent reading, I came across the term "rajio manga." Is
> anyone familiar with what precisely this refers to?  The context of
> my reading was the weekly radio serial Saiyuuki (Journey to the
> West) ... better known in English as Monkey or Monkey Magic?
>
> My question is when, how, and why this term "rajio manga" developed?
>
> Yours,
> Jonathan
>
>
> -----
> Jonathan M. Hall
> Japanese Film, Media, and Modern Literature
> Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature / Film & Media Studies
>
> 320 Humanities Instructional Building
> UC Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-2651 USA
> office: 1-949-824-9778
> fax: 1-949-824-1992
>
> Co-Chair, Queer Caucus, Society for Cinema and Media Studies
>
>
>
>
> <winmail.dat>

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