Hey guys, for my graphic novel class i need to write an argument essay about manga or graphic novel.. Can anybody give me suggession.. I don't know what to write about.

This is the prompt.

Your essay must have a thesis in which you clearly state what it is that you are arguing about the graphic novel. Your thesis should be arguable ? i.e., something that someone could disagree with and that you will proceed to prove using evidence from the work.

Someone just give me some suggestion in what to argue about!! I NEED ITT. Name any manga or whatever. Dont worry about me not reading it before, i read alot so most of the manga that you guys name... i prob read it already.

Can comics represent social issues in meaningful way?
Examples would be Barefoot Gen / Maus or biographies as Persepolis. Even superhero comics, as the X-men, can have a whole mini series set in Auschwitz, as Magneto Testament. Akira was also about overcoming WW2, you just need to look properly.
Or how about historic WW2 comics (this published before the US entered the war):



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Can you give me some examples in "manga" terms?

He did suggest the manga Barefoot Gen and Akira, unless I'm mistaking what you mean by "manga" terms. Another manga you can take a look at is Nausicaä, but your prompt is very open so I think you could probably do any manga depending on what you want to argue about. I mean you could definitely just write a literary analysis essay about any manga/graphic novel, you don't have to look at social issues in them or only look at manga that have social issues.

I do suggest giving graphic novels a try just because there are really great short ones like residentgrigo suggested, particularly Maus which is three volumes long.

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Well the thing is that we read maus and persepolis in class already... Because the topic is so broad.. i really don't know what to write about....

What can i argue about literary analysis in a manga?

I mean graphic novels are good.. but i been reading manga my whole life.. just not used to graphic novels.

I think you really need to think up a topic/theme you want to explore first, and then move into a manga/graphic novel you want to write about. The whole "social issues" angle is an easy thing to write on (and you could do it with manga too--Tezuka Osamu, the father of manga, basically used manga as a vehicle to write social commentary, after all), but it's also pretty broad and a bit overdone. You might want to think a bit more on how narrow you want to make your topic, and what genre you want to write on.

P.S. I actually wrote an essay in my college Graphic Memoir class on Persepolis! It is a very easy graphic novel to write on. (I also wrote one on American Born Chinese, which is another easy one.)

Short form comics / GNs are first of all identical to short form (Seinen) manga, and that your class already featured a book doesn´t mean you can go deeper but fine. There are 1000s of comics biographies out there. Especially of the EU market but here are manga:

A Drifting Life It´s award winning and about the inventor of the Gekiga movement. You could easily do a master theses on this one man alone.
Honey & Honey is about being gay in Japan. Another vast topic, this medium overall refuses to address. We even have an adaptation of Das Kapital and all lead to tags / authors you can find more comparable work.

That you can´t seem to find a topic after having classes on comics, or that it can only be manga, should tell you that this isn´t a filed you should deeply pursue further next semester. How will you find scientific sources to support your theses if you need to ask strangers how to even start? You need to have a serious conversation with your lecturer.
PS: Tezuka also wrote a one-off about his family and many big mangaka made (short) stories about their life.

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Try reading "Onani Master Kurasawa", and writing on alienation in manga (which is an especially interesting subject because Japan appears to be an extremely group-oriented society, yet there are a few manga about alienated people living in such a place, and what happens to them. This is the most striking one I can think of. If you've read a lot of manga, after reading Onani you will probably be able to think of others. "Welcome to the NHK" probably is one.

Oyasumi Punpun is another.

If you happen to need an American graphic novel that depicts alienation, AND R. Crumb's work is not hopelessly out of date, read almost any "Mr. Natural" story by him.


http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=56050

How about something like: the representation of "super heroes" differ between various graphic novels. And examples can be how mangas have "magical girls", where as American comics have super, strong males. And the counter argument could be something like, the focus on the gender of the hero may be different but both depict heroes as humans with secret identities that have powers beyond the scope of reality or something. *shrug*

Certainly a topic but Goku or Kenshiro are as ripped as Superman and 1942´s Mary Marvel is older than any Japanese magical girl. 1975´s The Secrets of Isis may be the first magical woman show ever, interesting...

So you could try to hunt down genres to the source and contrast the with now.
1938´s Superman was a no nonsense serial killer but the Rebirth one is a family man.
Or how does OG Astro Boy compare to the gritty Pluto and the reasonably serious Atom - The Beginning of today. It´s not only the US and EU that have legacy characters.

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You're not arguing about literary analysis, you're analyzing the manga. Since you had to read Maus and Persepolis already, I'm sure you've analyzed them in class or even written essays about them, use that as a guide.

And since you've been reading manga your whole life, I'd suggest picking a manga you've read and looking at issues it raises or just outright analyzing it with an eye towards symbolism and themes and etc. Or if you've read a couple that have similar ideas, look and see if you can make an argument about how they go about it or something.

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