Focusing on the art and literary form of manga, this volume examines the intercultural exchanges that have shaped manga during the twentieth century and how manga's culturalization is related to its globalization. Through contributions from leading scholars in the fields of comics and Japanese culture, it describes "e;manga culture"e; in two ways: as a fundamentally hybrid culture comprised of both subcultures and transcultures, and as an aesthetic culture which has eluded modernist notions of art, originality, and authorship. The latter is demonstrated in a special focus on the best-selling manga franchise, NARUTO.

Introduction Jaqueline Berndt and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer Part 1: Crosscultural Perspectives on Manga Studies 1. Localizations of Manga in the U.S. Frederik L. Schodt 2. "Manga" as a form of "Western" resistance against traditional Japanese expression: Kitazawa Rakuten and the early discourse on "manga" Ronald Stewart 3. The mischief gag comic, a constitutive and enduring international phenomenon: Yohokama Ryuichi's "Fuku-chan" and its friends in Europe and the Americas Pascal Lefèvre 4. Tentacles, Superheroes, Pencil Strokes: The parodic body in European and Japanese erotic comics and manga Elisabeth Klar 5. Translating the visual languages of Japanese fan comics and North American and European fan art Nele Noppe 6. Mainstream manga as a challenge to transcultural Comics Studies Jaqueline Berndt 7. Manga/comic hybrid forms in picturebooks: Emergence of a transcultural art form Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer Part 2: NARUTO as cultural crossroad 8. NARUTO as a typical weekly-magazine manga Tomoyuki Omote 9. The traditional Naruto (maelstrom) motif in Japanese culture Franziska Ehmcke 10. (NARUTO as a manhwa: On the reception of Japanese popular culture in the Republic of Korea Chie Yamanaka 11. Women in NARUTO, women reading NARUTO Yukari Fujimoto 12. Fanboys and NARUTO epics: Exploring new ground in fanfiction studies Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto and Nora Renka 13. auteur and Anime as Seen in the NARUTO TV Series: An Intercultural Dialogue between Film Studies and Anime Research Sheuo Hui Gan 14. Playing NARUTO: Between meta-narrative characters, unit operations and objects Martin Roth