A brief essay about the manga and the anime in cuba

A brief essay about the Manga and the Anime in Cuba

By Geober Guibert Pardo

In this rehearsal I will comment about the development that has had the Anime and the Manga in our country from the 80´s in when we had our first contact with these two fabulous goods of the Japanese art; the age group dilemma of those years, as well as the promotion of the art among the youths; thedevelopment of this art in Cuba; the influence of Miyazaki and what the young writers and designers say about Miyazaki´s brilliant vocation. I will give a brief explanation of the spaces created by the youths that are devoted to protect and spread the fantasy, the science fiction and inside this the anime and the manga.

Just as it has happened with many persons, the first time we enjoyed the anime wewere taken completely by surprise. Our childish minds were fascinated by the peculiar touch of those characters of big eyes. We were too small to ask about this respect. "History of an old locomotive", “The island of the treasure", “The sword of the sun (The legend of Horus)", “Jack and the witch", the saga of “The cat in boots” and “The little mermaid", they are some of the earliest titles thatI keep in my memory.

Unquestionably the boom of the anime was brought by 5 space ships, in spite of not being the first one seen in Cuba. Originally a television series, Voltus V, was published and transformed into the film that we saw in the cinemas. The acceptance of children and not so children was an entire event, I dare to say, irrepetible until today. It is certain that it is thegigantic robot's classic history that defends the Earth of the extraterrestrial attacks. The topic has been exploited until the satiety by the Japanese along countless lively productions. Experts consider it a lance tip in the expansion of the manganime toward occident, besides recognizing that all the series that have contributed a qualitative change to the trajectory of the anime belong to this gender.With the later premiere of other anime in cinema - Cyborg 009", The fire bird (Hi non tori / Space fire bird)", " Mazinger ", Technopolicía in action"… - and television - " Mazinger ", Forces 5 (SF Saiyuki/Starzingers)", space Ship" (Yamato)… - the phenomenon continued alive in many of us. It was manifested one of the habitual problems with those that the manganime has tripped in itsexpansion toward occident. The Westerners conceive the lively drawing as children's thing"; the Japanese have gone further on and created productions to satisfy the likes of each group of ages, in fact they don't make distinctions among the anime and the movies of real image". Adding up to this the cultural differences between east and occident; it is not estrange that many of these lively anime werebrutally published (it will be very long to mention how many anime we consider movies and they are, in fact, series of infinity chapters) with the purpose of making the most affordable history to the childish public"; even if they were not conceived for the childish public. The results in cases like New Adventures of Lupin III and Yaltus were disastrous; what we receive was a history plaintivelymutilated.

Compared with the anime, the manga has had much worse luck. It is a fact that the Cuban editorials have never published manga. All that we have read it is sent by foreign friends, introduced in the country by some occasional tourist, or sold in the International Book Fair by overseas publishers.

What we can say about the manga in Cuba?

Some, adolescents in that time, were notsatisfied with being mere spectators and, charmed by the dynamism and originality of the partial materials seen, they try to create their own works. I will refer to the specific case of the group Mangakubano.

They begin filling countless drawing notebooks with their first inventions. Later, the common liking for the drawing took them to integrate the Young Workshop of Comics of the Cuba...