The Non-Plot, Part One
February 14th 2007 -
For my faithful readers (Yes, I know, both of you), it’s about time for an update.
Today, I’m not going to preach to you how great J-pop is, or how awesome Japan is, or anything like that.
Let’s sit down and talk about something that I love dearly, yet doesn’t exist in great amounts:
The non-plot manga.
There seems to be three kinds of mangas. One of them, of course, is your conventional story-telling. Charater, conflict, plot. Okay.
Second type, of course, is the short story. A story told in one or two chapters, with one-shot characters. The complete opposite of the first.
My favorite type is the one that blurs both of them. Non-plot, I like to call it.
Why do I like it? Well, the lack of a plot leads to better character development, really. A good non-plot manga features a colorful, robust cast, almost no minor characters, and usually revolve around a single person or a small group of people. The artwork also seems a lot better…
This installment of posts (not garenteed to be consecutive) will introduce you to what I believe are some of the greatest non-plot classics in Japanese history.
Let’s get started with Part One, then!
The first manga we’re going to talk about is what I believe to be one of the most influential, if not most influential, manga to be put out in Japan. Unfortunately for our English-speaking readers, no one has ever translated it into English, and it’s doubtful that anyone ever will. It created one of the longest running series of all time, more than 1,000 episodes of anime based off the stories printed, billions of dollars sold in merchandising. With the original manga collected in 45 volumes, it captures the childish four year old in all of us. No, I’m not talking about Pokemon. What I’m talking about, of course, is:
Doraemon.
Simply one of the best mangas ever to be put out by Japan. The premise is insanely simple, the stories fun to read, and the cast of characters colorful and lively.
The premise: Nobita Nobi is a failure at life. A fourth grader, he fails at just about everything he does, gets beaten up by his classmates, and gets yelled at by his mom and his teacher. At the beginning of the series, it’s New Year’s, and while he’s sitting in his room, lazing around as usual, a kid that looks exactly like him pops out of his drawer, and identifies himself as his grandson from the 22nd century. He says, “You know, my grandfather was bad at everything. Bad at athletics, bad at academics, he even never won a game of rock-paper-scissors in his life…” It turns out that his bumbling exploits in life put his decendants in considerable debt and set the Nobi family back centuries. Thus, a robototic cat, Doraemon, is sent to protect Nobita from wasting his life and help him make something out of his life.
Doraemon has the power to pull out all kinds of tools from a fourth-dimensional pocket. Among those things include a door to anywhere, flashlights to make people big or small, and all sorts of other gadgets. Most stories revolve around Nobita trying to use these gadgets to solve a problem he has, fails miserably, and eventually learns a lesson from the mistakes he’s made.
There is absolutely no continuity in these stories, and in fact, characters don’t seem to age. The time is never specified, and there’s nothing to suggest that any time has passed from
one story to the other. It doesn’t really matter; what Doraemon is is a collection of short-stories designed for small children.
Yet, somehow, it has universal appeal. We see the characters in Doraemon everyday in our own lives. Nobita, the bumbling, kind-hearted kid; Gian, the mean-spirited bully; Suneo, the community rich-kid, and Shizuka, the pretty and compassionate girl. Perhaps it’s because we see these people everyday that we connect to the characters so well.
Then there’s Doraemon. A blue cat-robot that’s afraid of mice, able to do just about anything. He’s no God, however, which might be the reason why he’s also popular. A coward, klutz, and glutton, Doraemon is no more intellegent or brilliant than any member of the cast. The tools he uses to help color the world he lives in, however, is a totally different story.
When I first read Doraemon at the age of 9, I thought to myself, “Wow, I wish I had one of those…” And it’s this notion that keeps bringing generations and generations of kids to keep on reading this manga. Adults love it too; it reminds them of a time when everything was good, there were no worries, and the frustrations of the world were completely oblivious to them.
And what time, you ask?
Childhood.
~Akira
February 14th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
「ギブ・ミー・アリシアさん！」 がいない．．．？ （驚）
次のポストで現れるかも？
追伸： 本当にＡＯＬにいません． すみませんでした．
February 21st, 2007 at 4:12 am
I’ve read some of it (because there is simply too many to see them all) and I agree, I would have to say it’s one of the most memorable mangas I’ve ever read. Maybe because I was a child at that time, but the way doraemon and his friends explore the possibilities of ‘what ifs’ was unforgetable ride. First our hero would be faced with a problem one would face in rea life. Then Doraemon would suggest a magical solution that is way too cool for words. After we laugh at the boy truimph with his new magical means however, the manga is mature enough to show us that, there will be problems followed by that. Kind of dystopian novel, heh. If there’s a scantalations out there, I might jump on it just to reminisce about good old times.