Category: Global Sonic Cultures

This blog post will be a small reflection on my essay as well as delving into interesting points and topics that came up but were cut from the final version of the essay.

My biggest regret with my essay is that I wish I had a higher word count, I wanted to dive deeper into the mechanics of Japanese onomatopoeia and its relationship with Japanese grammar as well as its usage in colloquial speech. I also wanted to be more specific in how sound in Japanese culture had changed and evolved since the 10th century, talking more about religious or maybe political influences on sound in Japanese culture. The word count restricted me from going into those topics at that level of detail as, in the end, I had written about 1300 words, leaving less than 200 words to talk about topics that I could base a whole essay on.

Another regret was that I couldn’t feasibly find popular manga that had a unique spin on sound design other than manga that has either 0 sound effects and used obvious recognisable actions to make the reader imagine the scene or manga that used music/lyrics as the sound design/score for a scene. Both examples didn’t really make sense to put in my essay as it focuses a lot on onomatopoetic sound design and it’s relevance in culture, so they didn’t fully fit with the narrative I was trying to create, at least the one I could create in 1500 words.

Aspects of the title I wish I could have touched more on were how anime is also affected in the same way as manga in terms of sound design, bringing in examples like “Sunny Boy” or “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” as they use sound and sound design in interesting ways that are also the same in manga despite there not being a need to be similar to manga as you can actually listen to animes.

Another aspect was webtoons(like a manga but is a comic that exists primarily on the internet, which is the most popular format for Korean comics) and a recent phenomenon of “audio webtoons” which actually have a soundtrack playing as you read the webtoon, giving the artist more auditory expression. I thought it would be really interesting to problematise audio webtoons and argue if they actually help promote innovation within comics and manga or if it stifles it as it’s a lazy cop-out or tries fundamentally to change what a manga is despite anime existing.

This didn’t really fit with the topic of my essay, but the reason I choose only Japanese manga is that opening up the essay to Chinese and Korean comics risked the essay losing focus and substance.

I also wonder if I could have picked a topic that had a more definite conclusion as I didn’t feel that my conclusion was the most satisfying finish for myself, but I also understand that at the first-year undergraduate level, it might be premature to have definite conclusions that don’t have references from more acclaimed scholars to back them.

For the essay, I wanted to read some mangas that I could reference and also talk about how sound is used within them.

One I desperately wanted to include was a manga by Tsutomu Nihei called “Blame!”, this manga is one of my favorites because of its world-building and atmosphere. It’s a dystopian horror sci-fi that follows a young man traversing through an enormous steel labyrinth. I thought this would be the perfect manga to show the uniqueness of Japanese onomatopoeia or visual sound design as Nihei is famed for his gritty art style and mood in his mangas.

However, as shown above, I ran into a few problems. First, I could not find a Japanese version on the internet, meaning that a lot of the context behind the onomatopoetic words was literally lost in translation. Second, the use of onomatopoeia in Nihei work is actually quite simple, illustrating the sounds that could be heard within the scenes and not going past that. Third, the style of storytelling did not lend itself to complex onomatopoeia or onomatopoeic language that helps set the tone as Tsutomu Nihei purposely wants to make character motivations mysterious and ambiguous.

Another artist I knew would be perfect to highlight the relationship between sound and manga was Araki Hirohiko, creator of “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”. “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”, is a supernatural action saga about a family called the Joestars that battle against adversaries through the generations using “spiritual powers”. Hirohiko is known for his love of western rock music, electronic music and models/fashion, a lot of that influence leaks into the sound design of the manga he makes.

Hirohiko makes heavy use of repetitive onomatopoeia to set the tone of the scene but also the pace of the scene so that the reader follows the story coherently and in rhythm with the “story beats”.  Something else he does a lot in his “Jojo” series is make his characters strike impossible poses with the sound effects as an important part of the visual aspect of panels, to the point where something like the character ゴ ( semantically meaning scary or menacing in English) is synonymous with the arch enemies within the series.

I’ll probably reference something different for Araki Hirohiko in my essay because I think his work is very important in making an example of how sound art is used as a visual medium just as much as an auditory one in manga.

Another mangaka I wanted to reference is the late and great Kentaro Miura and his magnum opus “Berserk”. “Berserk” is a Japanese dark fantasy set in medieval Europe that focuses on a mercenary called Guts and his journey. This manga practically popularised the genre of dark fantasy single-handedly and is probably the most influential manga that exists right now. This is in no small part to the expert shot composition that populates the manga.

While the sound design isn’t anything new or anything that you can’t necessarily find in a manga for boys (Shonen manga), it’s the genius of when it’s used that makes it interesting. In a shot like the one above. The kanji reads something like doki but is more in reference to a singular heartbeat or the heart skipping a beat. The series of panels contain words/letters; however, the way it is composed, as well as how the visual design of the sound effects change in congruence to the point that the sound blurs the lines between the auditory and the visual. Like Araki Hirohiko, the sound design is used to pace the scene as well as reflect the inner state of the main character, slowly becoming restless as he realises what is going on around him.

This blog will purely be about problematising the various articles and sources I found on sound in manga, comparing those sources to my own experiences and ideas on the topic, and then coming up with a full essay title.

First, we have “Onomatopoeia: A relevance-based eye-tracking study of digital manga”, a study by Rohan, Sasamoto and O’Brien. The study sets the scene by talking about the challenges of translating Japanese onomatopoeia, how it’s used “as part of the aesthetics” and then observes to see if there’s a correlation between the separation of the different types of onomatopoeia and the loss of engagement from readers.

I don’t really want to fully cite a study in my essay as I believe that I could easily get bogged down with statistics and methods of data collection but this article is useful to me in 2 ways. One is how it talks about the problems of translating Japanese into English because English cannot articulate Japanese onomatopoeia in a just-as-concise way. The could allow me to talk about the uniqueness of Japanese manga and its sound effects on the basis that so much information can be derived from onomatopoeia alone.

The other way is that the study finds that there is a correlation between the separation of the showing and meaning elements of onomatopoeia and the loss of engagement with readers. This could allow me to conclude and bring up the point that sound is important in manga and telling its story, and is a reason why manga is special within the Japanese cultural sphere because the sound makes it a lot more popular than its American counterparts. I could also cite official statistics on the most popular comics in America to aid the point that sound plays a big role in the success of manga.

A problem I see with the study itself is how the participants are familiar with manga and Japanese culture meaning that they would have more of an inclination towards sound effects in Japanese which could skew results. If this is the case, even if I want to reference this study in my essay, I feel like I shouldn’t let it hinge on the findings of the study as the reliability, from a cursory glance, is in question.

“Translating Sound into Image: A Comparison between American Comic and Japanese Manga Onomatopoeia” by Priscial Gerolde Gava is the next article I found. This article exclusively compares the onomatopoeia between American comics and Japanese manga.

This article does an excellent job of describing the difference is the use of sound between the two different styles of comics, as well as the differences between the languages, in great detail.

However, the final considerations to me are quite disingenuous as they initially state that there isn’t much of a difference between the way onomatopoeia is used between American comics and Japanese manga, but then goes on to talk about how “This is a massive difference between comics and manga”. It boggles the mind as to why Gava would contradict themselves within their own conclusion after comparing the two with numerous examples and to such great lengths. Another quirk of the article is that it doesn’t really evaluate why things are the way they are and instead just describes the differences between American comics and Japanese manga.

If I was going to reference this article, I would only use its information on the mechanics of onomatopoeia.

The last article I want to talk about is the article by Robert S. Petersen, “The Acoustics of Manga: Narrative Erotics and the Visual Presence of Sound”. This article goes into the origins of sound/sound design and not just in manga but also in Japanese culture, referencing work all the way back in the 10th century. It also has a lot of interesting insights that are not found in quite a few of the other articles I’ve seen, like historical examples of sound in manga and its roots in Japanese culture.

Unfortunately, by the time I have read this article, I already wanted to talk about the relationship between sound and Japanese culture and how they are intertwined. Why that is a problem is because this article focuses heavily on that and I fear that I might rehash the same ideas from this article. Despite this, I have to heavily rely on this article in my essay because there aren’t many articles talking about manga in context with Japanese culture, especially to the extent that this one does.

The way I want to get around this is by trying to find a source that talks about the visual aspect of sound design in how sound is instrumental in telling the story visually instead of just auditorily if that makes sense.

After reading a lot of articles, the essay title I decided to go with is “An evaluation of the relationship between sound and Japanese comics, language and culture.” this covers all the things I wanted to talk about, while also linking them together and keeping the focus on how sound presents itself in manga and Japanese culture.

The task we were asked to do before we broke up for Easter was to interview someone and try to make it relevant to our essay; however, I only decided on my essay title the week we broke up, and while I did have a small interview that touched more on coding with a friend I know who makes GUIs for various programs, I decided to do another one that was more relevant to what I’m doing now.

I can’t post the recording of the interview as the person I interviewed is someone I only know from church and I don’t know too well, and they weren’t comfortable with me posting a voice recording of them.

So here is a transcription of the interview I conducted with an animation student.

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Q: “Hello, today I’ll be interviewing an animation student who studies at UAL, Angelica. Thank you for agreeing to this.

So, to start things off, how important is sound in your own craft? And on top of that, how important do you think sound is in the field of animation?”

A: “As someone who specialises in creating moving images, I find that sound is very important in conveying a story, and builds onto the images that you already see on-screen. I’ve used sound to accompany scenes to emphasise certain emotions, as well as to continue narrative plot points; sounds associated with a certain theme or character can help the audience identify that in scenes where that may be more subtle, allowing layers of meaning to be built.

Sound is also important in setting the tone of a film, as the same film with two different sound designs can produce two very different effects, based on the atmosphere and emotions the sound produces.

I find that engaging both sight and sound within a piece allows the audience to connect to it more, and allows artists to receive more powerful reactions.

Sound goes hand in hand with the visual aspect of animation in general, and in whatever field of animation, sound helps audiences feel more attached to the stories they are seeing.”

Q: “Very interesting to hear, can I can’t help but agree! Following the topic of your own work, recently, I got to go to your end-of-year show, and the sound design in your animation interested me greatly. I wanted to ask could you give us a small synopsis of what it was about, and then also how you used sound to play a role in the story of the piece?”

A: ”My animation was an exploration of past memories and how we can fixate on small moments enough for it to overwhelm our present selves. The main feeling that I wanted to create was this sense of fear and anxiety so building up the sound throughout, and layering different timbres was really helpful in creating that atmosphere. Playing around with dialogue that repeated also helped grasp the sense of fixation on a certain memory.

Overlapping sounds from different scenes also helped create the sense that the different memories were all mixing together, to create this large overwhelming feeling that was the climax. The sound was especially important in my film, as I was portraying a feeling rather than characters.”

Q: “Okay, I want to move onto a different topic now. Angelica, how versed are you in comics, manga and anime? In those mediums, what ways do you feel like they utilise sound with effectiveness”

A: “I definitely enjoy consuming animation in the form of films and tv shows, including anime; I would say I prefer watching anime to reading manga, and I think sound plays a large part in that preference. From the soundtrack to the voice acting to the sound effects, sound design for me is able to create an experience for a viewer and allows them to be more immersed in the story.

For example, anime openings are very well-known amongst fans, and I’ve seen multiple shows where motifs can be repeated within episodes to emphasise a certain climax point for a character, for example, which is one way sound can be used.”

—

I then tried to ask a question about their background and whatnot, but they told me not to include that in my blog.

For this interview, I did attend Angelica’s end-of-year show to help me understand how she uses sound in her work as well as to get some ideas for questions for this interview. Out of many I saw that day, her animation was probably the only one that used sound design in an unconventional way so I did want to pry a bit into what led her to that point.

The last line of the answer about her piece really stood out to me, “Sound was especially important in my film, as I was portraying a feeling rather than characters.”. This articulated why her animation was so different from a lot of the other animations I saw in that show. The sound design made sense within the story being told in the piece, not just the scene being shown. It also put you into the mind of the main character as, in her animation, everything is seen from the perspective of the protagonist, something that made complete sense when watching it but also something I am only consciously realising now I’m reviewing the interview.

It was really useful for my essay to get the perspective of someone who focuses on art in a visual way instead of my own perspective that focuses on the auditory side of things because reading more on Japanese onomatopoeia, I found that there’s a whole array of onomatopoetic words that focus on non-sound forms of onomatopoeia, which usually refers to thoughts or feelings. However, I’m still unsure if the interview will make it into my essay as I do write a lot.

In this blog I’m going to propose different essay questions and topics I may want to delve into for the Global Sonic cultures assignment, and then talk about the draft of the essay question I decided upon in the end.

After looking through what we’re going to learn about in the coming weeks as well as just hearing ideas being thrown around in class, a few avenues I wanted to go down came to mind.

The first was the topic of an essay I never got to do in my last course which was the importance of MIDI in the development of DAWS or electronic music. I love to talk about technology and I love to learn about that, and understanding the intricacies, as well as the limitations of MIDI, has always been something I want to do for an essay. On top of this, before I left my course in music composition, I was studying electronic music, from music concrete to Switched-On Bach and more, and from my understanding MIDI was created much later on in 1981 and had a big role to play in synthesisers (I’m not sure about this). Something I know and am very interested in is the relationship between MIDI and DAWS, and the argument that while MIDI is a great framework to build a musical program around, being limited to 128 digits creates a lot of annoying quirks and problems within digital audio workstations (like a panning potentiometer being restricted to 63 values on the left and 64 on the right).

Another topic that was in a similar vein was the relationship between MIDI keyboards and “amateur” atonal music/sound art. I did think that this would be an interesting topic to delve into as I could talk about how MIDI keyboards have maybe given rise to an abundance of amateur music in the past 20-40 years; however, because of how a MIDI keyboard works, a lot of that music has been in a 12 note scale. I could have talked about how MIDI keyboards may have stifled creativity within the music sphere and then about how maybe the growth of popularity in sound art could be attributed to the fact that music had stopped being innovative in extreme ways it had been during the 19th century. I don’t think there’s going to be too much literature just about this topic, and also I don’t think this topic could be done justice in 1500 words.

Another path I felt as though I could have taken was the sound-in-gaming route. As someone who has a great interest in video games and also understands how important sound effects and music are in creating a satisfying experience for a player, I thought that would be a smart idea to go down this route.

The easiest title type for an essay in this vein would be a case study, so I came up with a few ideas. How Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance uses its boss fight music to show the inner monologue of the main character; the importance of sound in Cuphead in creating authenticity; how sound design is used to teach players core mechanics in From Soft’s Dark Souls Trilogy.

Other ideas for essay titles to do with gaming were the relationship between voice actors and video games, and how sound design in video games spawned a new kind of speed running.

All the topics I had for video games were ones I thought would be great for informative YouTube videos but didn’t really have the staying power or depth in terms of literature that I would need for this essay.

In the end, the topic I decided to base my essay around was animation and/or comics. Personally, I’ve read a lot of manga and webtoons and I’ve watched a decent bit of anime, so I know I would be somewhat versed in any topic in this field.

Initial ideas for an essay title were based mostly around animation or anime, with titles like “the unique sound design of the anime Sunny Boy and how the perspective of characters inside the story are shown through it”, or “How the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure incorporates sound design in its visual storytelling” or, “The importance of anime openings and how they create the identity for serialised anime TV shows”. These topics were fine, but again probably did not have much literature on them, and honestly, like a lot of the titles I thought for all these different topics or fields of art, they weren’t all that interesting or novel.

So, I finally came to my provisional final essay title, “The relationship between sound and manga”. As someone who’s read a lot of manga and foreign comics in general, one thing that’s always interested me is sound design and sound effects within the manga. Usually, if a manga isn’t published by a big publisher when translated to English, the sound effects would still stay in Japanese with only a footnote describing what it means. This highlighted to me the difference in usage of onomatopoeia in English and Japanese as well as how hard is to translate onomatopoeia in Chinese, Japanese and Korean into English while retaining all of the cultural and contextual meaning behind the onomatopoeia. As an avid manga reader and comic enjoyer, it’s always interested me how sound effects are incorporated within the art of manga instead of pushed aside as it is usually in American comics, selling the point that sound in manga is essential in understanding the story being told instead of being supplementary.

Thankfully, there are enough articles in the UAL library to go through with creating titles around this topic, many of them going in-depth into the mechanics of Japanese onomatopoeia and the limitations of translation into other languages.

For a follow-up activity a few weeks ago, we were asked to make a thick description of a sonic experience we have had before, and while this experience was one-of-a-kind for me, it strangely was a sonic experience I took part in making.

“The sonic experience I’m about to describe was a jam session that took place in room M112 after uni.

Myself and someone I would call a best friend arrived at the LCC after normal uni hours to have a small jam session as I had coincidently brought my electric guitar and it was the day of the week we would meet up to have a coffee (she goes to Camberwell).

After settling down and setting up in M112, we started to jam, with myself singing and my friend playing guitar, practicing songs we were going to perform later that week as well as improvising and coming up with new material.

I have never had a jam session as intimate and as impromptu as that one, mostly because I usually jam by myself and I never sing stuff I’ve created with anyone else, so I already felt like I was in a vulnerable position as I was expressing very personal thoughts and feelings through my lyrics.

Despite all this, my sonic experience came from listening to my best friend playing her original compositions. I have always known that she song-writes but I also knew that she was the reserved type and didn’t like to share things like that with people. This friend in question has a beautiful voice and is brilliant at guitar, and that was interwoven with songs that represented who she was, what she loved, and what she felt, which made me nostalgic. They made me remember the number of experiences we had together and who we are now.

She then proceeded to play the song “Don’t Know Why” by Ghostly Kisses, a song we both love and a song she was going to perform that Friday. That song sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions, from sadness to inner peace, from happiness to regret, but most of all, pride. This wasn’t something she would do in the past, and hearing that talent flourish right before me is a state of being I cannot forget, a vast emptiness filled with a low rumble of pride and excitement.

On top of this, that Friday when she performed that song on stage, that low rumble was made loud. I cried for the first 30 seconds of that performance because of the happiness and relief that came over me.

Those types of experiences a far and few between yet the emotions I felt then were so visceral that every time I think about it, it makes me pause because I realise that the feeling never really went away.”

What I originally wrote did not include that last paragraph because I thought it wasn’t relevant at the time, yet now I realise that it was probably the most important part of the whole thick description. Honestly, I felt this exercise was a really interesting one for me due to what happened to me recently and I thought was really thought-provoking to make the experience tangible and real through words instead of staying emotions and intangible thoughts.

I also realised that there are a lot of personal details and “fluff” in my thick description that doesn’t really talk about the sonic experience; however, I do believe that it is important to set the scene/tone in context with myself because I thought it was meant to be a personal experience and not just an experience.