An "Overdosed" History of Manga?! Translating & Examining the Yarisugi Manga Timeline

Without a doubt, one of the most disappointing aspects of English-speaking anime & manga fandom, though mainly the latter for the purposes of this piece, is the lack of proper knowledge of its history amongst the large majority of those very fans. Some of this is admittedly due to a relative lack of interest (not everyone is interested in history of any sort, sadly), but this is also due to a relative lack of context to properly explain it, especially from the people who actually lived it in Japan. Yes, there are various books out there that go over certain aspects of anime & manga history in English, but just about all of them come from English-speaking writers who did their own research, and even then most usually have the perspective of how the mediums came abroad, while the rest are more encyclopedic in nature (which makes any in-depth exploration of titles nigh impossible). When it comes to the Japanese side of things, almost no books have ever been licensed, translated, & released in English, with the handful of exceptions focusing more on the production process itself, which is simultaneously shocking yet not really all that surprising.

Take, for example, the book Yarisugi Manga Retsuden, or Legend of Overdosed Comics (seriously, great title).

Released in 2015 by Kadokawa Shoten, Yarisugi Manga Retsuden was written by "Nobunaga Minami", the pen name author/editor Nobunaga Shinbo uses when he writes books as a "manga kaisetsusha/commentator". Shinbo is also the husband of "shojosei" mangaka Naoko Matsuda & is even a character in Reiko Saibara's self-reflective manga Dekirukana, as he was her editor. Yarisugi Manga Retsuden is the third of currently six books written under the Minami name between 2008 & 2021, which include books about tracing the various assistant-to-professional lineages of mangaka, recipes for meals found in various cooking manga, manga characters who have bronze statues erected of them throughout Japan, an examination of the various "miracles" that happened in 1979 (like the Sony Walkman & the debut of Mobile Suit Gundam), & most recently a history of how various mangaka portray themselves via self-portraits; I'll be using the Minami name from here on out, for consistency. As for Yarisugi Manga Retsuden, it goes over 32 different manga that are known for their penchant for "overdoing" things, whether it's actions, content, storytelling, concept, etc. I feel I shouldn't have to point this out, but from what I can tell Minami includes these titles out of either love or respect, and not to belittle them (at least, not solely), because I'm sure an English perspective of this same concept would be more like "Get a load of these titles, am I right?!". As Minami himself says in the introduction, "Yarisugi = Overflowing Excess Energy" & "A Miraculous Balance Gives Birth to Yarisugi Manga", so while I can't really read this entire book I can absolutely see that this comes from a place of legit intrigue & extrospection.

As for what the 32 manga covered in Yarisugi Manga Retsuden are, you can check this list I made over on Twitter, but we'll get to them over the course of this piece, because...

What I found instantly amazing & cool once I got my hands on this book was this. At the very end of the introduction, spread out across pages 16 & 17, is a giant timeline of manga, stretching from "The 60s" all the way to "The 00s & On", that lists a ton of various manga across the six sections that the book separates the titles it covers into: Sports, School, Action & Sci-Fi, Love & Sex, Social Awareness, & Career. In total, there are 193 different manga in this timeline (split 53, 33, 33, 27, 23, & 24, respectively), and of those only 51 of them have ever received any sort of official English translation/release; even if you include anime adaptations & fan translations, you'd only get roughly half of the total translated into English. This isn't even the first manga timeline that Nobunaga Minami has ever made, but it's by far the biggest & most comprehensive one he's done. After getting "asked" by the legendary Helen McCarthy (one of those very English-speaking writers of anime/manga history I mentioned earlier!), I have translated the Yarisugi Manga timeline into English (or, at least, romanized the titles, should there not be an official English one), but I don't think it'd make much sense to simply toss out a translated timeline to the internet, especially when so many of the manga listed have little to no English familiarity. So, even though this won't be detailed in any major fashion, join me as we go through each of the six sections of this timeline & see which manga Nobunaga Minami felt were worth including, so that maybe we can better appreciate manga history, to some extent; titles that Minami covered specifically in the book will be first mentioned in red, ala the cover.

If you don't care & simply want the fully translated timeline itself, because this is going to be a long one (& likely as "yarisugi" as the book itself, I'm sure), then just skip all the way to the end. For everyone else, let's get started with the first section: Sports!

Starting things off in this section are 1961's Chikai no Makyu/The Promised Magic Ball & 1963's Kuroi Himitsu Heiki/The Black Secret Weapon, two baseball manga that were both written by Kazuya Fukumoto (traditionally a detective novelist) & ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine; the latter started up after the former ended. With artwork by Tetsuya Chiba & Daiji Kazumine, respectively, these two works by Fukumoto introduced the idea of the "makyu/magic ball" to manga, a term first introduced in Japan back during the Meiji Era to describe curveballs, before eventually becoming shorthand for essentially any sort of special pitch; Kuroi Himitsu no Heiki even used the term "hikyu/secret ball". Though neither manga ran for long (6-7 volumes, each), they were both directly influential to one writer: Asaki Takamori, a.k.a. Asao Takamori, better known his pen name Ikki Kajiwara. Wanting to make a manga that surpassed Chikai no Makyu, Kajiwara teamed with artist Noboru Kawaski to create 1966's Star of the Giants (baseball), which is a manga that needs no explanation, as it is one of the most influential sports manga of all time, & its TV anime adaptation would become the first ever sports anime; Minami illustrates this on the timeline by having a bold arrow go from Fukumoto's manga pair to Star of the Giants. It's here where we get the first of Minami's collective groups in the timeline, which he encircles with a semi-dotted line, & in this case it's The Ikki Kajiwara Empire. Simply put, Kajiwara's success with Star of the Giants would result in him creating all manner of popular & influential sports manga, with this collective also including 1967's Judo Icchokusen/Beeline to Judo (judo; w/ artists Shinji Nagashima & later Yuzuru Saitou), 1968's Tiger Mask (pro wrestling; w/ Naoki Tsuji), 1968's Ashita no Joe/Tomorrow's Joe (boxing; w/ Tetsuya Chiba), 1971's Samurai Giants (baseball; w/ Ko Inoue), 1971's Karate Baka Ichidai/Karate Master (karate; w/ Jiro Tsunoda & Jouya Kagemaru), & 1972's Judo Sanka/Ode to Judo (judo; w/ Hiroshi Kaizuka). Finally, to end off the 60s, Minami also brings up the 1964 Tokyo Olympics via a grey box, as that real-world event would feature The Oriental Witches, the nickname of Japan's women's volleyball team, whose Gold Medal performance at the Olympics would result in a surge of volleyball manga aimed at girls, most notably 1968's Attack No. 1 by Chikako Urano & Sign wa V!/The V Sign! by Shiro Jinbo (story) & Akira Mochizuki (art), both of which would be inspirational in their own rights; fittingly, these two manga are put into a collective named after the volleyball team itself.

As you can see, The Ikki Kajiwara Empire extended into the 70s, which is partially defined by Minami with a third collective group, Shinji Mizushima Paradise. The manga here are all baseball series done by Shinji Mizushima (obviously) & are comprised of 1970's Otoko Doaho Koshien/Men's Stupid Koshien, 1972's Dokaben (which would total 205 volumes across five series until 2018!), 1973's Yakyu-kyo no Uta/Poem of a Baseball Fanatic, 1974's Abu-san (which would run until 2014 for 107 volumes!!), & 1976's Ikkyu-san; as you can see, Mizushima truly loved baseball. Beyond that we have Star of the Giants arrowing directly over to 1972's Astro Kyudan/Team Astro by Shiro Tozaki (story) & Norihiro Nakajima (art), which took the concept of "makyu" & took it to its absolute extreme by having its main cast be literal "supermen" who could perform feats that no normal person could ever hope to achieve on the baseball field. In doing so, it also laid the early blueprint for modern action manga, but Minami keeps each series to one section. Meanwhile, Ashita no Joe is shown arrowing directly over to a pair of boxing manga that Minami does encircle but gives no label to, which is comprised of 1976's Ganbare Genki/Go For It, Genki by Yuu Koyama & 1977's Ring ni Kakero/Put It All in the Ring by Masami Kurumada, as both of those would show divergent influence by going in two different directions, despite starting off similarly. Namely, Genki would focus on the drama of going pro even more so than Joe did, while RnK would continue Team Astro's penchant for over-the-top spectacle, bringing the idea of "makyu" over to the world of boxing; the latter would eventually be called the "Hot-Blooded Fighting Manga Bible", essentially writing the book on modern action manga. Finally, the 70s is rounded out with four individual (but iconic) series, namely 1972's Aim for the Ace! by Sumika Yamamoto (tennis), 1974's Pro Golfer Saru by Fujio A. Fujiko (golf), 1976's Circuit no Okami/The Circuit Wolf by Satoshi Ikezawa (supercar racing), & 1977's Akai Pegasus/Red Pegasus by Motoka Murakami (F1 racing).

Going from the 70s into the 80s, we see Minami focus more on individual series. There's 1976's Dokusare Kyudan/Team Rotten by Ryoji Ryuzaki, 1981's Touch by Mitsuru Adachi, & 1982's Bats & Terry by Yasuichi Ishima, which all take a more dramatic view of people playing baseball, whether it's by imitating sports reporting, interpersonal relationships & love, or just some good old delinquency. Then there are 1978's 1·2 no Sanshiro by Makoto Kobayashi (martial arts), 1979's Kinnikuman by Yudetamago (pro wrestling), & 1986's Yawara! by Naoki Urasawa (judo), which all added in a stronger element of comedy to their respective sports storytelling. 1981's Captain Tsubasa by Yoichi Takahashi (soccer) & 1987's Shura no Mon/The Gate of Carnage by Masatoshi Kawahara (martial arts) focused on showing the growth & continual increases of skill of their respective leads in their arts of forte as they grew older. Finally, 1985's Midoriyama Koukou/Midoriyama High by Atsuo Kuwasawa (baseball) & 1991's Ah Harimanada by Kei Sadayasu (sumo) showed that the genre was also good & strong in magazines for older audiences, like the "seinen/young adult" age range. Meanwhile, there's also 1989's Hajime no Ippo by George Morikawa (boxing), which is still running to this very day & is currently at 136 volumes, & we also see Team Astro arrowing directly all the way over to 1989's Gyakkyo Nine/Nine in Adversity by Kazuhiko Shimamoto (baseball), which took Astro's over-the-top nature & had fun with it, becoming a melodramatic semi-parody of itself.

As for the 90s & 00s-on, Minami mostly comprises that within collective groups, so let's go over those. There's The Pleasure of Speed, which is home to Shuichi Shigeno's two iconic manga, 1983's Baribari Densetsu/Revving Legend (motorcycle racing) & 1995's Initial D (mountain drift racing). Then there's Mixed Martial Arts Boom, a self-explanatory collective containing 1991's Grappler Baki by Keisuke Itagaki, 1993's Koukou Tekken-den/High School Exciting Story: Tough by Tetsuya Saruwatari (not to be confused with its 2003 sequel, which is simply titled Tough), 1996's Air Master by Yokusaru Shibata, & 2000's Holyland by Kouji Mori. The Magic of Perspective highlights three manga known for their usage of art to help give a new view of their respective sports, namely 1996's Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto (table tennis) & the pair of 1992's Decathlon (track & field) & 2002's Giant (baseball), both by Yoshihiro Yamada. Popular with Girls features a trio of titles that found themselves notable female audiences, specifically 1999's The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi (tennis), 2008's Kuroko's Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki (basketball) & 2008's Yowamushi Pedal by Wataru Watanabe (road bicycle racing). Then there's the amusingly titled Darkside High School Baseball, which is comprised of just 2006's Jitsuroku! Kanto Showa-gun/The True Story of the Kanto Showa Army! by Makoto Tanaka & 2010's Suna no Eikan/Laurel of Sand by Norifusa Mita. From what I can tell, the "Darkside" refers to how both series look at the darker aspects of high school baseball (which is as big, if not bigger, than college football is in the US), like the former satirizing the entire thing as if it were like fighting in a war or the latter dealing with how money influences things. Finally, there are the last few individual series, namely 1995's parody series Sabaku no Yakyu-bu/Desert Baseball Club by Kouji/Cozy Joukura (a.k.a. Yuji Moritaka), 1998's Rookies by Masanori Morita (high school baseball), 1998's One Outs by Shinobu Kaitani (major league baseball), & 2000's Subaru by Masahito Soda (ballet).

Yes... that was certainly a lot to get through, and that was only the first section. Luckily, none of the other five sections are anywhere near as packed as this one was, so let's move on to School.

When it comes to this section, Minami collects numerous titles across seven different groups, but there are two that dominate the majority of the decades, and he indicates that one leads directly into the other. The first would be The Age of the Bancho, which stretches from the 60s to the early 80s & collects manga about people who act as the titular head of a group of delinquents. This starts with 1967's Yuuyake Bancho/Sunset Boss by Ikki Kajiwara (story) & Toshio Shouji (art), which stars a middle school delinquent whose only weakness is him losing the will to fight at sunset, due to it sparking trauma regarding the death of his parents. After that is 1968's Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho/The Shining Example of a Boy's Gang Leader (a "Gaki Daisho" is the kids' equivalent to a "Bancho"), the debut serialization for Hiroshi Motomiya that would go on to be Weekly Shonen Jump's first big hit & inspire the likes of Masami Kurumada & Tetsuo Hara to become mangaka. Following those are 1971's Waru by Hisao Maki (story; Ikki Kajiwara's younger brother) & Jouya Kagemaru (art), 1974's Otoko-gumi/The Man Gang by Tetsu Kariya (story) & Ryoichi Ikegami (art), & 1976's Kouha Ginjiro/Ginjiro, The Tough Guy by Hiroshi Motomiya, which all continued the popularity of "bancho manga" in their own ways.

Finally, the collective ends with 1979's Shinritsu Kiwamemichi Koukou/Extreme Path Private High by Akira Miyashita, which was about a private school all about training people to become yakuza, with the title itself being a pun, as the kanji for Kiwamemichi, 極道, can also be read as "Gokudo", which is the term for a low-ranking member of a yakuza group. Minami also uses Miyashita's manga to act as the direct transition from the first group to the second, The Age of the Delinquent, which would correspond with the rise in popularity of "yankii manga", specifically those about high school delinquents. After finishing Kiwamemichi, Miyashita would later debut 1985's Sakigake!! Otoko Juku/Charge!! Men's School, which acted as a loving self-parody of "manly" manga, while alongside it would be 1983's Be-Bop-Highschool by Kazuhiro Kiuchi (another mix of the comical & dramatic) & 1985's Hana no Asuka-gumi!/The Glorious Asuka Gang! by Satosumi Takaguchi (which focused on female delinquents, a.k.a. sukeban). This second collective would then be rounded out with two manga by Hiroshi Takahashi, 1990's Crows & 2002's Worst, which deal with two generations of delinquents who attend the notorious Suzuran High School; today "Crows×Worst" is generally considered the epitome of yankii manga.

Now that we've gotten those out of the way, let's head back to the 60s & cover the rest of this section.

While The Age of the Bancho was going on, there was also another trend going on with school-based manga, which Minami calls The Dirty Joke, as they deal with dirty & naughty humor. For this group Minami only lists two titles: 1968's Harenchi Gakuen/Shameless School by Go Nagai (his debut serialization) & 1970's Toilet Hakase/Prof. Toilet by Kazuyoshi Torii, with the former often being considered the first "ecchi manga" due to it breaking taboo & showing bare breasts (& being, well, shameless), while the latter was literally based around scatological humor. Alongside them as an isolated entry, though much more pure-hearted, was 1970's The Gutsy Frog by Yasumi Yoshizawa, a comical series about a boy & the frog that lives on his only good t-shirt. Moving on, we have another collective, in this case the two-part School Exam Wars, comprised of 1976's Todai Icchokusen/Beeline to Tokyo U by Yoshinori Kobayashi & 1977's Elite Kyousoukyoku/The Crazy Running Song of the Elite by Hikaru Yuzuki, which are both understandably about the dream to be academically superior & make it to the best places of higher education. The latter is also used to lead into a larger collective, The Romantic Comedy Age, a self-explanatory group including 1978's Tonda Couple/The Flying Couple by Kimio Yanagisawa, 1978's Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi, 1979's Iga no Kabamaru by Yu Azuki, 1980's Miyuki by Mitsuru Adachi (a rare non-sports story from him), 1981's Yukan Club/Leisure Club by Yukari Ichijo, & 1981's Stop!! Hibari-kun! by Hisashi Eguchi (an ahead-of-its-time LGBT romcom). Meanwhile, there are also a pair of isolated gag manga around this time, namely 1977's Macaroni Hourensou by Tsubami Kamogawa & 1982's High School! Kimengumi by Motoi Shinzawa, as well as a pair of manga collected in a group called Hot-Blooded Parody, specifically 1983's Blazing Transfer Student by Kazuhiko Shimamoto & 1984's Be Free! by Tatsuya Egawa.

We now start moving on into the 90s, starting with 1989's Kogyo Aika Volley Boys by Hiroyuki Murata & 1993's Ike! Ina-chu Takyuu-bu/The Ping Pong Club by Minoru Furuya, two manga from Weekly Young Magazine that relish in being ridiculous & comedic, but with an aim towards older audiences than the usual shonen or shojo fare we've mostly seen. We also see the last collective of manga Minami features in this section, Unconventional Teachers, comprised of 1996's Great Teacher Onizuka/GTO by Tohru Fujisawa, 1999's Gokusen by Kozueko Morimoto, & 2003's Dragon Zakura by Norifusa Mita, which all move the lead character status from a student to a teacher, especially when they range from a former high school delinquent, the heir of a powerful yakuza clan, & a destitute lawyer/ex-motorcyle gang member, respectively. Finally, the School section ends with isolated entries for 2000's Sakigake!! Cromartie High School by Eiji Nonaka, an absurdist parody of delinquent manga (right down to copying Otoko Juku's title), & 2011's Prison School by Akira Hiramoto, which seemed a bit like a modern-day call back to Harenchi Gakuen's shameless & bawdy nature, but with modern sensibilities (i.e. it could be even more perverse!).

So up next is likely the section that most people will have some familiarity with: Action & Sci-Fi.

Interestingly enough, this section starts with a manga I'm sure barely anyone outside of Japan has ever heard of, partially because of its admittedly generic title. However, 1965's Iron Muscles by Mitsuyoshi Sonoda, a one-volume story of a young boy who's hunted after by a mysterious organization after witnessing a murder, looks to be considered an influential classic in Japan, especially when it came to the gekiga boom that was still going strong at the time. This also includes featuring a mysterious hitman, which I wouldn't be shocked may have been a slight influence for 1968's Golgo 13 by Takao Saito, the legendary episodic adventures of the mysterious sniper Duke Togo that has gone on for so long that it has even outlived its own creator. Alongside Golgo 13 as an isolated entry this early in the timeline is 1970's Sasori by Tohru Shinohara, which helped establish the idea of an action manga lead by a woman, in this case someone who was framed for murder & must now escape prison and get her revenge. However, this early part of the timeline is focused primarily on two collective groups, with the first being Police That Stick Out. Like the name says, this is about manga featuring non-traditional "police", whether it's 1969's Wild 7 by Mikiya Mochizuki (convicts who become an extrajudicial motorcycle force), 1975's Doberman Deka/Doberman Cop by Buronson (story) & Shinji Hiramatsu (art) (essentially "Shonen Jump's Equivalent to Dirty Harry), & 1976's Sukeban Deka by Shinji Wada (incarcerated delinquent becomes undercover cop to save her mother from death row).

Meanwhile, to go with a real world thing happening in Japan at the time, we have Occult & Apocalypticism Boom, and while not all of the titles included here are readily known outside of Japan, the ones that are known more than fit this collective's theme. There's 1970's Kyojinju/Giant Beast: The Paranoid by Kyuta Ishikawa (a man & woman suddenly become giants in modern Japan), 1972's Devilman by Go Nagai, 1972's Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezz, 1973's Japan Sinks by Saito Pro (an adaptation of Sakyo Komatsu's iconic novel that same year), 1973's Violence Jack by Go Nagai (the even darker sequel to Devilman), 1976's The Dark Myth by Daijirou Morohoshi, &1976's Survival by Takao Saito. Finally, to end off the 70s, Minami at least lightens the mood of the timeline a bit by including 1977's legendary Galaxy Express 999 by Leiji Matsumoto, which definitely errs more on "Sci-Fi" than "Action".

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things kind-of-sort-of doesn't belong?

Moving into the 80s, we see Minami have the Occult & Apocalypticism Boom collective arrow directly into the second (& last) untitled collective, this one comprised of 1982's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki, 1982's Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, & 1983's Fist of the North Star by Buronson (story) & Tetsuo Hara (art), which all feature some element of the apocalypse and/or the occult but with generally a less hopeless view of things in the long run (to varying extents, of course). After that comes a trio of isolated entries on the timeline, namely 1984's Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, 1986's Saint Seiya by Masami Kurumada, & 1986's Crying Freeman by Kazuo Koike (story) & Ryoichi Ikegami (art); definitely a trip to see Freeman right above Seiya on that timeline, that's for sure. As we start to move into the 90s Minami adds in another trio of isolated entires, in this case 1986's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki, 1988's Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki, & 1989's Berserk by Kentaro Miura. We now fully enter the 90s, which features isolated entries in 1994's Kakugo no Susume/Apocalypse Zero by Takayuki Yamaguchi (definitely a pitch perfect example of "yarisugi"), 1995's Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki (which that prior unlabeled collective in the 80s arrowed directly into, due to its apocalyptic theme), & 1998's Hunter×Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi. The 90s, going into the 00s, also features a collective titled Murder Machines, which is all about contract killers, comprised of 1994's Azumi by Yuu Koyama, 1995's Bakune Young by Toyokazu Matsunaga (a full-on satire of violent action manga), & 1998's Ichi the Killer by Hideo Yamamoto (most known by its infamous 2001 live-action film adaptation by Takashi Miike); yes, Minami literally puts Dragon Ball on the same timeline as Ichi the Killer.

We end off Action & Sci-Fi with the 00s, which is a rather small part, mostly comprised of a collective called Dystopia, which is treated as the end point of the arrowing that started all the way back with Occult & Apocalypticism Boom in the 70s & is comprised of 2008's Drifting Net Café by Shuzo Oshimi, 2009's I Am a Hero by Kengo Hanazawa, & 2009's Sprite by Yugo Ishikawa. Finally, there are two isolated entries here, namely 2002's Ultra Heaven by Keiichi Koike (seemingly no relation to Kazuo Koike) & 2009's Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama. Without a doubt, I'd argue that this section of the Yarisugi Manga timeline showcases the most "obvious" omissions, but aside from not wanting to simply inundate this part with too many iconic manga to count (Sports was already pushing things a good bit), I imagine Minami only wanted to include titles that best fit his definition of "yarisugi", which would be fair.

Anyway, let's start the second half of this timeline with the category that I will fully admit I have the least familiarity with (rimshot): Love & Sex!

Most notably, this is the only section of the entire timeline to not feature any manga from the 60s at all, though that would make sense. After all, Harenchi Gakuen is often considered the series that really opened up the floodgates when it came to anything even remotely "sexual" in manga, at least in the mainstream, despite Harenchi itself being rather tame in the grand scheme of things; still, it had to start somewhere. This section of the timeline is roughly 50/50 between isolated entries & collectives, so we might as well start with the latter, to some extent. Therefore, let's start with Cohabitation Boom, a.k.a. "Men & Women Living Together (Out of Wedlock)... Mass Hysteria!", which is comprised of 1970's Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi & 1972's Dousei Jidai/Age of Cohabitation by Kazuo Kamimura; got to love how direct the latter is with its title, right? Right above that is Sex Education... by Osamu Tezuka. Yes, the two 1970 manga featured in this collective, Yakeppachi's Maria (about a boy who falls in love with a sentient inflatable sex doll) & Apollo's Song (about a loveless man being forced by the gods to experience love & loss repeatedly throughout the ages), were both created by "The God of Manga" himself, now unshackled to explore love & sex however he wanted; I have to imagine Minami was having some fun here.

The third collective appearing right at the start of this section is Sex Travel Diary, which I think is fairly self-explanatory, made up of 1970's Koukousei Burai Hikae/A High School Knave in the Making by Kazuo Koike (story) & Keiji Yoshitani (art) & 1975's Ore no Sora/My Sky by Hiroshi Motomiya (which has had five different spin-offs/sequels to its name). We finish off the 70s with isolated entries 1972's Ai to Makoto/Love & Truth by Ikki Kajiwara (story) & Takumi Nagayasu (art), 1976's Kaze to Ki no Uta/A Song of Wind & Trees by Keiko Takemiya (an influentially early example of Boys Love), 1976's Irodori no Koro/The Season of Color by Mutsumi Tsukumo (which deals with an unplanned pregnancy via rape), & 1978's Alumite Senmenki by Ai Shiraishi, the last of which is arrowed directly over from Cohabitation Boom.

Moving into the 80s from the mid-70s, Minami includes a two-title collective which at first sounds like the most hilarious thing, Third-Rate Erotic Gekiga Boom, but it turns out that was actually the name given to a sub-section of erotic manga that was seeing popularity during the "New Wave" of manga that came about during the late 70s & early 80s, which just shows how little we really know about manga history outside of Japan; "Third-Class" can also be used as the translation. Anyway, this collective is made up of 1978's Tenchi no Harawata/Angel Guts by Takashi Ishii (who is also a film director, even directing the last two live-action film adaptations, of six, of this very manga!) & 1980's Youjo to Shojo ga Monchicchi/Little Girls & Young Ladies are Monchicchi by Fumio Nakajima... which, from what I can tell, may just be straight-up hentai. Said possible hentai is also used to tie into another two-title collective, Lolicon Boom, in which it's paired up with 1982's Andro-Trio by Aki Uchiyama, which in its original serialization in Weekly Shonen Champion was censored, but in 1994 got re-released with revised artwork that made it actual porn. I may have died a little on the inside for having just written anything about literal lolicon porn, but I'm just following manga history dictated by a Japanese man who seemingly knows what he's talking about... and very often history isn't pretty.

Moving on, the 80s ends with isolated entries for 1980's Baku-chan no Vita Sexualis by Ayumi Tachihara, 1987's Tsuma wo Metoraba/To Marry a Wife by Kimio Yanagisawa, & 1987's Telekura no Himitsu/The Secret of Telephone Dating (a.k.a. Tokyo Hightech Love Report) by Akira Narita, which is likely also hentai. As the timeline transitions into the 90s, Minami gives us the largest collective in this section, Female Sexual Liberation, made up of 1988's Tokyo Love Story by Fumi Saimon, 1994's Me wo Tojite Daite/Close Your Eyes & Hold Me by Shungiku Uchida, 1995's Happy Mania by Moyoco Anno, & 1995's Inu/Dog by Haruko Kashiwagi... a comedy where the lead woman only enjoys sex when she thinks of her partner as a replacement for her deceased dog. The last collective in this section has the greatest name in the entire timeline, HOW TO SEX (which I dared not alter in any way), which is made up of two manga all about being how-tos for those unfamiliar with sexual activity: 1992's Keishiki Kekkon/Formal Marriage by Kimio Yanagisawa & 1997's Manga Sutra: Futari Ecchi (a.k.a. Step Up Love Story) by Aki Katsu, the latter of which is still running to this day & is currently at 87 volumes & a bunch of short spin-offs, including two different "Step Up Sex Manuals"! Finally, the remainder of the 90s & all of the 00s are made up of various isolated entries, namely 1994's Chou-Ai no Hito/Super Love Person by Akira Narita (hentai, yet again), 2009's R-Chugakusei/R-Middle Schooler by Yukiko Gotou, 2009's Scatter by Hideki Arai, 2013's Sensei's Pious Lie by Akane Torikai, & 2014's Mizu-Iro no Heya/The Aqua Room by Yukiko Gotou.

So, yeah, this section of the timeline certainly went places, didn't it? Anyway, let's continue on with the second half of this timeline by moving on to section #5: Social Awareness.

As the name implies, this section is about manga that directly addressed real world issues in some way, either historical or contemporary. Minami starts this section off with isolated entries for 1963's Shiden Kai no Taka/Hawk of the Shiden Kai by Tetsuya Chiba (a story about a Japanese fighter pilot during WWII, which Chiba himself called a "failure" due to how somber & serious it got) & 1964's iconic & influential Kamui-Den/Legend of Kamui by Sanpei Shirato; if Minami went back to the 50s, I'm sure Ninja Bugeicho: Kagemaru-den by Sanpei Shirato would have been included, too. Up next is a collective named George Akiyama World, which like the ones seen back in Sports is all about works done by the titular mangaka. While likely best known in Japan for his 112-volume manga Haguregumo from 1973-2017, Akiyama was also known for his penchant for pushing boundaries, best exemplified with the trio of works seen here. 1969's Delorinman showcased a horribly scarred man who wants to be a "Hero of Justice" for his neighborhood, but is constantly rebuked by the town he wishes to protect simply because he looks like a monster. 1970's Asura showed the horrors of life for the commonfolk during the Sengoku Period, & was even banned for a time due to its portrayal of cannibalism. Finally, 1970's Zeni Geba/Money & Violence followed a destitute boy who was willing to kill for money & higher social status, with the manga even getting Weekly Shonen Sunday listed as "harmful" in some prefectures during its short run; the term "Geba" was even used as derogatory slang to refer to leftist protesters at the time. Another aspect of this entire section is how it is filled with real-world events & the like, all displayed in grey boxes (which had only appeared twice before), and George Akiyama World corresponds with The Heyday of Student Activism, such as the Anpro protests of 1959/1960 & 1970.

Asura & Zeni Geba are also part of the next collective, Hunger & Poverty, where they are joined by 1970's Gaki/Brat by Tetsuya Chiba. Also happening during the 70s is what Minami calls Political Season, a collective duo made up of 1972's Hikaru Kaze/Shining Wind by Tatsuhiko Yamagami (not to be confused with Shinsengumi manga Kaze Hikaru by Taeko Watanabe), which deals with the concept of extreme Japanese patriotism, & 1972's Kyohan Gensou/The Illusion of Complicity by Jiro Saitou (story) & Mori Masaki (art), which deals with student protests & sit ins. This is also the last collective in this entire section, with all remaining manga here being isolated entries, so the 70s continues on with 1970's Ode to Kirihito, 1972's Ayako & 1973's Black Jack, all by Osamu Tezuka (who really embraced deep social commentary during this time), 1972's Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa (which dealt with the aftermath of the atomic bombings, as told by a Hiroshima survivor), 1975's Hamidashikko/Kids Out of Place by Jun Mihara (showing the plights of orphaned & abandoned children), & 1976's Saint Muscle by Tsutomu Miyazki (story) & Masami Fukushima (art), the last of which can probably be best described as "The Last Gekiga", as it debuted right as that kind of comic died out & got absorbed into manga overall (so it got cancelled after just three volumes), but has since been re-evaluated over the years.

We then jump straight into the 80s, during which the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan was happening, which includes 1982's Kibun wa Mou Sensou/I Feel Like I'm at War by Toshihiko Yahagi (story) & Katsuhiro Otomo (art), which was made in direct response to the aforementioned war, 1983's Message to Adolf by Osamu Tezuka, 1986's Yonchoume no Yuuhi/Sunset on District 4 by Hajime Yamano (a response to the Bubble Economy, & how it didn't benefit factory workers, arrowing directly over from Hunger & Poverty), & 1988's The Silent Service by Kaiji Kawaguchi. The 90s, defined here by the First Gulf War, the "Aum Shinrikyo Incident", & the Great Hanshin Earthquake, features 1992's Kaji Ryusuke no Gi/Ryusuke Kaji's Opinions by Kenshi Hirokane (which stars the son of a politician who's encouraged to follow down the same path after his father's death), 1992's Gomanism Sengen/My Declaration of Arroganism by Yoshinori Kobayashi (essentially "Japan's Stephen Colbert [the character, not the man] talks about his arrogant views on society & the like, to the point where Aum Shinrikyo literally tried to assassinate him"), & 1997's The World is Mine by Hideki Arai (two psychopaths go on a nation-wide killing spree, all while a Godzilla-esque kaiju rampages throughout the country). Finally, we have the 00s & On, defined by the 9/11 Terrorist Attack & the Great East Japan Earthquake, gives us just 2002's Give My Regards to Black Jack by Shuho Sato (which delves into the darker side of the medical world) & 2012's Genpatsu Genma Taisen/Nuclear Harmageddon by Takashi Imashiro (which decries the Japanese government's handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster).

As you can see, this is the shortest section of them all, yet arguably the one with possibly the most to actually "say" about the world, or at least Japan as a country & society. So let's lighten the mood slightly, depending on the manga, by going over the final section of the Yarisugi Manga timeline: Career.

Similar to what we saw in School, the Career section features a giant through line, but in this case it's literally one long collective, namely Mangaka Manga. Naturally, this includes manga about making manga, a genre that sadly rarely gets licensed for English release, & begins here with 1961's Mangaka Zankoku Monogatari/Cruel and Terrible Tales of Mangaka by Shinji Nagashima (tying Chikai no Makyu for oldest manga on this timeline), followed by 1968's Otoko no Jouken/A Man's Terms by Ikki Kajiwara (story) & Noboru Kawasaki (art), the latter being only the fifth serialized manga in Shonen Jump history; Harenchi Gakuen & Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho would make their serialized debuts the following issue. After that, Minami wouldn't list any other manga about mangaka until 1990's Moeyo Pen/Burning Pen by Kazuhiko Shimamoto (the original precursor to the long-running Blue Blazes), followed by 1993's Henshu-Oh/Editor King by Seiki Tsuchida (an ex-boxer becomes a manga editor), & finally 2000's Mangaka Cho Zankoku Monogatari/Super Cruel and Terrible Tales of Mangaka by Nawoki Karasawa, that last one being a comedic parody of Nagashima's title; nice bookending. There are three other long-stretching collectives in this final section, though none quite as long as Mangaka Manga, so let's continue on with the second longest: Outrageous Cooking Battles.

This starts with 1973's Houchounin Ajihei/Chef Ajihei by Jiro Gyu (story) & Jo Biggu (art), a cooking series all about making delicious fast food for the masses that became so iconic that if you ever come across a noodle shop in Japan that has the name "Ajihei" then it was named after this manga. Similar to the first collective, Minami then jumps ahead a decade+ for 1986's Mister Ajikko by Daisuke Terasawa, another iconic cooking manga in its own right, though one could argue that its anime adaptation by Sunrise & director Yasuhiro Imagawa is more iconic due to it introducing the concept of wild taste testing reactions, which didn't exist in the manga. After that we jump to 1995's Iron Wok Jan! by Shinji Saijyo, which took Ajikko's concept to a wild extreme (both in terms of high-concept Chinese food & some wild artwork & fanservice), followed by 2005's Bambino! by Tetsuji Sekiya (focusing on Italian food) & 2007's Dokacook! by Yasuhiro Watanabe (a multi-part series about a cook who makes delicious food for construction workers so that they can finish their jobs perfectly). Finally, before we move on to the other longer collectives, I should point out the two isolated entries found in the 70s: 1974's Designer by Yukari Ichijo, about being a stylist, & 1976's iconic (& long-hiatused) Glass Mask by Suzue Miuchi, about stage acting.

The third longest collective in Career is The World of Salarymen, because manga truly is for everyone in Japan. This begins with 1982's Naze ka Shousuke/Why Shousuke? by Hideo Hijiri & 1983's Section Chief Kosaku Shima by Kenshi Hirokane. While the former came first & totals 51 volumes across two series, it's really Hirokane's manga that has become the true definition of a salaryman manga, detailing the life & career of the titular Kosaku Shima from his start as a simple section chief to division chief to managing director to executive managing director to executive director to president to chairman to senior adviser & now "outside director" of the fictional Hatsushiba Electric. The franchise technically starts a new series with each new position Shima gets, so the franchise currently totals 85 volumes, and that's not counting the handful of spin-offs! After that we have 1991's Miyamoto kara Kime he/From Miyamoto to You by Hideki Arai (oh, dear god, a salaryman manga by that man...), 1994's Salaryman Kintaro by Hiroshi Motomiya ("GTO, but a salaryman" isn't necessarily inaccurate), & 2005's Boys on the Run by Kengo Hanazawa (which flips the script & is about a salaryman leaving his job to become a boxer).

During the course of all of these collectives the Bubble Economy of 1986 to 1991 happens, the collapsing of which would lead into the final collective Minami has in this entire timeline, All the Money in the World!. Naturally, the manga here are all about making money (following a financial collapse) & include 1990's Naniwa Kinyuudou/The Path of Loaning Money in Naniwa by Yuuji Aoki & 1992's Minami no Teioh/The Emperor of Minami by Dai Tennouji (story) & Rikiya Gou (art) (both about loan sharks, with the latter still running & currently at 168 volumes!), 1993's 100-Oku no Otoko/The 10-Billion Yen Man by Yasuyuki Kunitomo (pretty much "Kaiji, but without being forced to play life-or-death games of chance"), & 2004's Yamikin Ushijima-kun/Ushijima the Loan Shark by Shohei Manabe. Finally, to end off this entire timeline once & for all, there are three isolated entries found throughout the 80s & 90s, namely 1988's Waru/Evil Woman by Jun Fukami (which uses kanji normally read as "akujo", while the 1971 bancho manga uses katakana), 1992's Weather Report Girl by Tetsu Adachi, & 1995's Minori Densetsu/The Legend of Minori by Akira Oze, though these three technically should be their own collective, as they all deal with women having careers (specifically trading, being a sexy TV personality, & writing, respectively).

So now, as promised, here's the translated version of the timeline shown at the beginning.

And with that, we have now covered all 193 manga, written and/or drawn by 163 different people, mentioned in the Yarisugi Manga timeline. If you actually went through all of this, then I certainly hope you learned something, even if it's only on a cursory & surface level, because I sure have. Without a doubt, this timeline was something that I knew I had to share in some way once I saw it in Nobunaga Minami's book, because I've never seen anything even remotely like this originating from Japan by someone who should know something; again, this guy is also an actual manga editor. Now there is no doubt that this isn't, in any way, a "definitive" manga timeline, as there are tons of influential & legendary titles that are nowhere to be found, but by splitting it into six sections it really helps show the evolution & influence of manga in general across a much wider net than I think anyone has really ever thought of, at least in North America. To so many, manga history only tends to go back as far as as each individual feels like, hence why you see so many claim history & influence that only dates back to the 80s, at best (with only the rare acknowledgement of anything older than that), so seeing a massive timeline like this do its best to better showcase that history is amazing, even if it has its own restrictions.

Not just that, but Yarisugi Manga Retsuden is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to Japanese books that detail various aspects of manga history; as mentioned early on, Minami himself has multiple books (& two more timelines!) on this stuff. There are so many books about manga (& anime) that may as well be considered "lost" to those outside of Japan, because to many "lost" apparently now just means "I can't easily access it based on my own myopic attempts", and while I know that this timeline will only go so far in changing that (read: "It won't change a thing"), I am at least happy to have offered something, even if only minuscule, in that regard.

*all manga covers were sourced from eBook Japan*

Book © Nobunaga Minami 2015