Flipping for Yotsuba&!

Sharp-eyed manga fans no doubt recognized that yesterday's page from Yotsuba&!, volume 4, was flopped, or laterally reversed. As laid out by writer-artist Kiyohiko Azuma in Japan, the panels and the balloons proceed from right to left, top to bottom (though the English translations of the words read from left to right). The original scan looked like this.

Which brings up the question of why some English translations of Japanese comics, or manga, are laid out to be read from right to left, and others have their images manipulated before publication so they can be read left to right like other English books.

Digital imaging now makes that sort of conversion easy and inexpensive; it took me about eight minutes to manipulate the page above. Even before that technology, however, a book production department could flop the film that stored book pages before inserting the English translation. And I'd think that attracting lots of English-language readers would be easier with books that didn't demand retraining in how to read.

I looked on the web for answers to this publishing question. The 2007 Maryland Library Association Conference included a session called "Why Are These Books Printed Backwards? An Introduction to Anime and Manga for Library Staff." In a manner more typical of the Modern Language Association, the presentation doesn't seem to have ever answered the question its title raises.

Manga4Kids patiently explains to parents:

If you pick up a manga and glance through it, you will notice a few stylistic peculiarities. First of all, the book may appear to be printed backwards, with the front cover on what appears to be the back of the book. This is how Japanese books are printed, and many manga publishers prefer to keep the original format, rather than making mirror images of the pages for the English-speaking market. The panels in a manga page should be read right to left and top to bottom.

But that doesn't answer the question, either. It just confirms the phenomenon.

The Salt Lake City Library's manga FAQ (which I suspect Anna at TangognaT had something to do with) states:

This practice is known as "flipping" and is often criticized by the readers and artists citing that it goes against the original intentions of the creator.

So would translating the Japanese words into English, though.

Some websites mention exactly what manga artists might object to about flipping:

• Reversing images can make significant Japanese cultural details, such as how a kimono is tied, look wrong. (On the other hand, it would make automobiles look like those driven in America.)
  
• Sound effects drawn into the art could not be read, or would appear backwards to anyone who could read them. (Of course, many folks who can read them wouldn't need an English translation of the speech balloons.)
• Flopping any image can make flaws appear. Indeed, artists are often advised to look at their sketches in a mirror to catch such problems early.

But how often does an artist's perfectionism stop a publisher who sees a way to make more money? The fact that many manga publishers do flip indicates how little weight these arguments can hold. I think there must be a market-based explanation for this phenomenon.

My theory is that the first readers of manga in English translation were Americans with ties to Japan, already familiar with the characters and genres. Those readers would have been more bothered by mistaken cultural details and illegible sound effects than by the need to page from right to left.

Later, English readers began to enjoy those same manga because they told stories rarely found in left-to-right comics, and were thus worth the extra effort. For those secondary readers, learning to read from right to left then became a point of distinction and pride. Not being "flipped" became a sign of a book's authenticity, and thus an asset to the publishers. But that's just a guess.

Yotsuba Says the Darnedest Things

Several of this year's Cybils graphic novel nominees, especially in the younger age category, showed some influences of Japanese comics, or manga. One actually came from Japan: the fourth volume of the Yotsuba&! series, written and drawn by Kiyohiko Azuma.

That title is pronounced "yot-SOO-ba and...," because this comic is primarily about a little girl named Yotsuba and whatever wonderful new experience she has today. Each episode is titled something like "Yotsuba & Fishing" or "Yotsuba & the Newspaper." The exclamation point symbolizes the exuberance which Yotsuba brings to each new activity, whether it's going to the neighborhood market for eggs or trying to cheer up a neighbor about her love life.

It's not apparent in Azuma's line art, but the covers show Yotsuba's hair as green, with her four pigtails making her resemble a four-leafed clover.

Yotsuba's backstory is also not apparent in volume 4, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, which explains:

At the start of the series, Yotsuba and her adoptive father, Koiwai, relocate to a new city with the help of Koiwai's best friend, an impressively tall man nicknamed Jumbo. Yotsuba makes a strong impression on the three daughters of the neighboring Ayase family, Asagi, Fuka, and Ena, and many of her misadventures come from her interactions with them.

It's a mystery why Koiwai adopted Yotsuba and which social-services agency thought he'd make a good parent. He's a single slacker, and he seems to regard his daughter as a puzzle to play with. In the story that opens this volume, they're playing a version of "rock, paper, scissors" which involves batting her over the head with a rolled-up newspaper.

Not that I didn't want to do that too, sometimes. For me, Yotsuba's level of energy and cheer was best enjoyed in short, periodic doses. The name of "Tonstant Weader" occurred to me more than once as I read this volume. That said, in moderation I found the Yotsuba&! comics pleasantly entertaining. Here's one moment when Jumbo has brought Yotsuba and Koiwai ice cream treats in three flavors, and she can't figure out which one is best.

As this episode shows, in Yotsuba&!, unlike most stories written for children (at least in America), the joke's often on little Yotsuba. We laugh at what she says and does rather than with her. Cybils judge Snow Wildsmith informed us that cartoonist Azuma creates Yotsuba&! for Dengeki Daioh, "a manga magazine aimed at 20-something men." In other words, the original audience is Koiwai and Jumbo, not little girls like Yotsuba.

I can still see kids enjoying this comic, just as they enjoy the daily strip Fox Trot or other family sagas. In its quirky and good-hearted characters, its low-level everyday drama, and its unchanging core situation, Yotsuba&! reminded me of the family sitcoms that networks used to produce before everyone got his or her own TV set--in particular, The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz. And that's not bad.