Manga and anime are commonly regarded as media products geared primarily towards entertainment and merchandising opportunities. However, some are capable of offering critical commentary on society, humanity and more broadly, life itself. Following the lead taken by the 'God of Manga' Tezuka Osamu in "Seimei-hen" in "Hi no Tori" ("Life" in "Phoenix", 1980), a number of manga and anime have produced unsettling images of clones and hybrid beings, particularly those resulting from organ transplantation. These works question, typically ahead of the technology of the time, the value of life, the integrity of its form, and its immunity from commodification. In spite of their fictionality, these narratives are associated with a great sense of reality and immediacy, due in part to rapid developments in biotechnology, computing and engineering. At the same time, humanity itself appears to have changed along with these developments and the fictional narratives can be said to embody fears, hopes, and dreams concerning life and its significance. They deal with a range of pressing social and ethical issues, especially those related to the self and its multiple boundaries, whilst entertaining their readers and viewers. Using several narratives as exemplars, this paper will explore the use of biotechnology in manga and anime as devices in envisioning 'life'-what it may be, how it is formed and how it could be dealt with, at the individual as well as collective level. In doing so, the paper will demonstrate how these manga and anime narratives and others like them are relevant in a wide range of contexts despite their apparent linguistic and cultural specificity.
This article explores the relationship between ‘glocalisation’ and the formation of national identity in Christine S. Bellen's picturebook retellings of four Philippine fairy tales from the Mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang [Tales of Grandmother Basyang] series by Severino Reyes. ‘Glocalisation’ is an effect of globalisation and exists in the dialectic between global phenomenon and local culture, resulting in a dynamic glocal identity. The choice to explore glocal phenomenon in Bellen's picture books comes from the likelihood of these being some of the child's first experiences of glocal literature as well as the fact that the tales carry on a tradition of appropriation and re-creation. Bellen's retellings shift the fairy tales from post-colonial texts to glocal texts and, by grounding global signs on local significance, give voice to the glocal Filipino child.
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