Warning: this is going to be a rather mean write-up. I suspect this is largely because I am not Gravett's intended audience; that is to say, I have more than a passing familiarity with manga, manga history, and manga scholarship.
As you know, Bob-people, I ended up writing my thesis not just on anime and manga, but specifically on anime and manga scholarship. I would have just done it on manga scholarship, but it wasn't as though I had a ton of sources to pick and choose from. I would also like to say that I'm not an expert on anime, manga and/or Japanese pop culture or Japanese culture by any means, but I suspect I know a bit more about it than Gravett's intended readers do.
And for full disclosure, the general argument of my thesis was that too much of anime and manga scholarship tends to focus on anime and manga as a purely Japanese product (insert my standard disclaimer on nationality and ethnicity and identification and the fuzziness thereof) and that that reading, while necessary for scholarship, overlooks the growing international audience for anime and manga, tends to tie in to the rather problematic reading of Japan as some sort of exotic and special nation that can only be understood through its pop culture (or corporate structure, or whatnot, depending on the book), and flattens and simplifies the range of readers and attitudes. So note, I come from an extremely, extremely biased point of view!
The book starts off with the fairly standard introduction of manga for people who believe that a) comics and cartoons are for children, and really, doesn't Disney do a lot of that stuff? or b) it's all porn and violence. Given that the book was published in 2004, I'd hope that the perception of manga has changed a bit, but who knows? While Gravett does the standard attempt to say that manga encompasses an extremely broad range of topics and genres, he continues to use the comparisons and language of the very people that he's attempting to contradict (likening Japan to a "boy of twelve," somewhat facetious comments on salarymen reading manga in the subway). I really wish he wouldn't... it feels like he's undermining the very argument that he's attempting to make because he isn't refuting any of the claims, really. He's just saying that he is.
Also, he annoyed me right off the bat by going with Frederik Schodt's reading of the character "man" as "irresponsible." I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't mean that, but I wonder if most people think that when they see "manga" written out. I was also irritated that the first mention of Japan as a country starts off with the stereotypical notion of inwardness and isolation, and then the continual reference to stereotypes of Japan, from the isolation to the frightening foreign powerhouse that overtakes American things like cars or comics. Wargh.
I mean, it's not that it's inaccurate, because Japan was isolated from most of Europe and America during the Edo/Tokugawa period, but it's not like they were locked away from the world. There was trade going on with China and Asia and the Dutch. And I won't go into the whole "Japan is taking over the world" thing of the 1980s.
Then Gravett goes on to the standard argument that Japan as a nation is specially poised to be manga consumers, given the long history of pictorial stories in the form of picture scrolls, shunga or ukiyo-e (the erotic woodprints largely popularized during the Edo/Tokugawa period) and the first coining of the phrase "manga" in 1814. I thought that he was going to give these facts and then argue against them, but he sticks with it and contrasts the Japanese culture with that of Britain, which also had a satiric comic tradition that was apparently stomped out.
My main annoyance with this is the same monolithic culture thing, along with the bit that if you looked through anything, you could probably find explanations of reception to comics via the alphabet or illustrated manuscripts or what have you. It's very anecdotal and highly speculative, but it keeps being repeated! Argh. Also, scrolls and shunga and the manga of the Meiji era are extremely different media than what's currently considered manga, and I would say that really, the manga tradition goes back to Tezuka Osamu and possibly back to the Meiji era with the advent of satirical comics with European and American influences.
Er, yes. Also, Gravett's structure is basically a combination of Schodt's Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan, from the beginning introduction to manga to an extremely vague and rather stereotyped portrayal of Japanese culture and history in light of manga, to a chapter on Tezuka, to more chapters on shounen and shoujo (with the requisite paragraphs on "why in the world would Japanese girls want to read about boys in love?"). The chapters on Garo and the indie manga largely reminded me of Dreamland Japan. Of course, this is probably a nitpicky complaint, given that there probably aren't a gazillion ways to organize introductions to manga.
Most of the content is the same as Schodt's two books, and sadly, Gravett doesn't add that much extra despite his book being published twenty years later. There is a bit at the end on the popularity of anime and manga in the States and in other countries, but it's rather minimal. The one thing Gravett does have going are the multitude of pictures and illustrations, which add a lot to the text.
I'm being really crochety about this book, which isn't really all that fair. There isn't any other introduction to manga book that I'd rec to other people; I generally rec Schodt, even though I have the exact same compunctions about his books as well. But... damnit, twenty years! And still the same thing! I wanted something with a more critical approach and a much, much wider understanding of Japanese culture and history. Actually, I don't care about the understanding of Japanese culture and history, I'm perfectly fine with books on manga that don't reference those things. I'm just sick of the same old generalizations being toted out again and again without any passing attempt to cite anything or research anything beyond "What he wrote in his book!" It's sloppy.
So... recced as a general resource, but with lots and lots of caveats. And with a strong wish for more books on the manga industry and the current state of manga, or specifically on manga in the States, or just focusing on shoujo or something.
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