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100 Panel 3A Mindscape Like No Other? 1Bits and Pieces on the Globalization of Manga Subculture and Visual IdentityHikmat DarmawanIntroductionThe subculture of manga (Japanese comics) hasbecome a part of global youth culture, especially sincethe late 1990s. Why? Is it because of some internalquality of manga, such as the superiority of this uniquevisual culture? Or is it because of something moreexternal, like the economic aspect of this culturalphenomenon? To find answers, the writer visitedJapan and Thailand, where, in journalistic mode, heobserved manga subculture on the street level. InTokyo, he set out to observe the perpetual movementof people, ideas, and things. He found a dynamicbetween “inside” and “outside” that has created aparticular mindscape that makes Japanese visualculture unique. To understand that mindscape isimportant in understanding what Donald Richiecalled “The Image Factory”, a unique aspect of Japan’sindustrialization process. Within this context, we canunderstand more about the globalization of mangasubculture. In some countries, this can be experiencedas a domination of local cultures.I went to Japan to try to understand the roots ofmanga or Japanese comics subculture. I then went onto Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand, where I sawthe globalization of manga and its impact on the localcomics scene in Thailand.In Chiang Mai and Bangkok, manga is a given. Just goto any bookstore, large or small, in either city. Betteryet, go to any of the rental comics shops that are soprevalent in Chiang Mai. You will find that “comics”are “manga” there. “It’s a cultural invasion, there’s noother words for it”, said Penwadee (“Pooh”), a youngfemale curator working in the Jim Thompson galleryin Bangkok.I am very familiar with this phenomenon: the samething happened within Indonesia’s comic scene in the1990s. That is why I became so curious about whatmakes manga so popular around the world. Whatespecially made me curious was the fact that for manymanga enthusiasts in Indonesia, manga culture hadbecome so embedded in their identity that they couldnot help but become “Japanese” to a certain extentwhen they expressed themselves.One of the most talented Indonesian comic artists,Oyas Sujiwo, said to me that in the 1990s, at the heightof his infatuation with manga subculture, he preferredto spread the Japanese flag in his home during thecelebration of Indonesian Independence Day onAugust 17. Now he says he “knows better”, but he stilldoesn’t know why he did it.I was intrigued as to how this quintessentially Japanese(pop) culture could be so influential on current youthculture in far-flung places. I had read Daniel Choo’sbook, Otacool, which is basically a photo album aboutOtaku 2 (manga fans) around the world. There wassomething surreal for me, reading about an adultCaucasian so in love with Sailor Moon characters andfeeling really “cool”.I wanted to understand this subculture, the lure, theseduction, the machination. I wanted to see it frominside.Non-methodical researchIn Wrong About Japan, Australian novelist PeterCarey seamlessly chronicled his many initial notionsand assertions about Japan and how they all dissolvedafter he got there. Like me, he was driven by curiosityabout what made Japanese popular culture tick, and hewent there on a trip with his son to find out.At the end of the trip, and of the book, Carey said hefelt that almost all outsiders would find their from-adistanceimage of Japan quite wrong then theyencounter the reality of being there. But at the end ofthe experience, they will have found their own Japan.This was somewhat damning for my own research. Iwanted to do journalistic research, like Carey’s. Hisbook made me think that I will be wrong about Japanand I will find my own Japan anyway. I thought Imight as well experience the unknown fully, then.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows