Into the Great Comic Book Era

Abstract

In Chapter 4, I presented a gamut of points-of-view held by comic book lovers and critics, many in their own words. In Chapter 5, I am going to combine theory and practice, discuss the results of my surveys, and proceed with textual analysis and interviews, continuing to employ an ideological perspective on manga in particular and Japanese cultural influence in general. In analyzing the different themes revealed in Chapter 4, I identified the following sub-categories: (1) the ideology and influence of ethnicity; (2) the ideology and influence of gender; (3) the ideology and influence of class; (4) the ideology and influence of violence; (5) Japanese cultural influence and, (6) comic books and critical pedagogy. Guided by Paulo Freire’s critical education theory, I analyze what Japanese comic books have brought to young Taiwanese readers and speculate about their potential role as a valid source of information in the educational field. I believe that Freire’s vision of Education as the Practice of Freedom can function as a means of understanding the ideological subtleties of Japanese comic books.