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One Punch Man = Emoji man


I unfortunately could not find a single page that presented both art forms used in the manga at the same time so I'm using two pages to illustrate how the author uses abstraction.

In chapter 2 page 30 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics there's a face diagram showing the abstraction of a realistic face down to its most simple form. McCloud says, “When we abstract an image through cartooning, we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details.” This page of one punch man shows a more realistic style, which is not the norm for the overall comic itself.



Most of the time one punch man is depicted in a very simplistic form closer to the maximum abstraction shown in McCloud's book as seen in this page. (I circled his face in red)



While most Japanese manga feature characters that from time to time, for comedic expression, change to a more abstract form, one punch man does the opposite where in the abstract form is how he is normally presented and the realistic form is only presented when he is serious. Also, in the manga, the artist has in-between forms that are somewhere between the two extremes. This allows the artist the greatest range of expression. This unique style of switching between abstract and realism actually allows readers to see more of themselves in the character. One punch man is basically a walking emoji. His simplistic abstract style allows you to go through a wide range of emotions, while his serious style lets you know that things just got real, literally, as of realism itself was an emotion. He doesn't only get serious during fights, something as simple as realizing a deadline is fast approaching can make him go serious face. On page 41 of his book McCloud says, “through traditional realism, the comics artist can portray the world without and through cartoon, the world within.”  One punch man takes advantage of this concept in a way that suggests the real world can come crashing within at any moment. It's kind of like when we're doing everyday tasks or having fun, we're a bit like an emoji in that we don't think about our emotional states seriously during those times, we just are that emotional state. But when something important happens to disturb that train of thought, we become acutely aware of our emotions and everything seems more real while dealing with the crisis. One punch man takes advantage of both trains of thought, expressed through its artwork, to achieve a comedic effect. Scott McCloud does go into some detail on this unique aspect of Japanese comics on page 44. In the end one punch man is a good example for many of the things talked about in chapter 2 of Scott McCloud’s book. When compared to most Japanese manga it has one of the widest degrees of abstract to realism. I would not have thought of this dynamic between abstraction and realism had it not been for McCloud's book. 

Fun fact: Seeing faces or likenesses in clouds or other objects is called pareidolia. It is more likely to occur if an object has three distinct shapes within it that form what appear to be two eyes and a mouth to the viewer.

Comments

  1. Hello!
    When you first started to mention about the facial expression that Saitama makes through the manga is an excellent example of what McCloud talks about in chapter two. I remember reading the manga and seeing how Saitama could easily make his face from serious to funny or to relax, especially when he would talk to Genos. I also like you were able to make a connection about realism that McCloud talked in chapter and comparing it to the One Punch Man manga. Some of the artistic styling in the manga showed realism, even when Saitama would make the emoji-like faces.

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