Dear readers, do you know about renting a bookstore? This is a question that can easily reveal your age. If you don’t know, congratulations, it means that the judge is still quite young.

However, since we want to understand history, we still need to talk about "rental bookstores" and the "loan comics" that were popular in rented bookstores at that time.

When Akamoto was about to die, Tezuka’s creation was at a standstill.

If you want to be popular in a rented bookstore, do you know how to borrow comic books?

The term "loan comic" comes from Japan. Some people will translate it as "rental comics", which means the same thing. Because many words in Japanese use Chinese characters, it is easy to use the "formal translation" method. Here we will use the term "loan manga".

Since there are "loan comics", there are also rental bookstores. The two are interdependent.

Rental bookstores in Japan have been around since the Edo period, but they may not be called "stores" at this time. At that time, they were mainly delivery-style rental bookstores that carried books on their backs around the city. Mainly, a bit like a "seller" walking around the streets.

After the mid-Meiji period, rental bookstores with fixed locations like bookstores were born. However, at this time, there were no comic books available for rent in rental bookstores. The early rental bookstores were for adults, mainly popular novels, and lending comics came later.

Let’s talk about the post-war period, about 1955 to 1959, a period before Japan entered rapid growth. At this time, more than ten years had passed since World War II, but the sequelae of the war still remained. , has not yet entered its heyday. At that time, television was not yet popular, school libraries and public libraries were not perfect, and cultural and entertainment facilities (game consoles and the like) had not yet entered homes. Of course, there were no smartphones at that time.

At this time, what should people do if they want to have a cultural and entertainment life? One of the options is to read comics.

Of course you can buy comic books, but there are still not enough comic books published by large publishing houses. "Akamoto comics" were criticized by all walks of life, and the Japanese tax began to impose "recovery taxes" on small publishing houses that made huge profits from publishing Akamoto comics, so Akamoto comics gradually disappeared.

So, if you want to read comics, renting books from a "street library"-style rental bookstore has become a very good choice.

People choose to rent bookstores for various reasons. For some people who don’t have money to buy books, or are unwilling to spend money to buy books, it is very cost-effective to rent books to read comics. However, there was a more important reason why Japanese people liked to rent bookstores at that time.

Some books can only be seen in rental bookstores. In other words, some books are specially available for rental bookstores. This kind of comic book specially provided by rental bookstores is "loan comic". And "realistic comics" are the main force of loan comics.

The influence of "realistic comics" is huge. It replaced the monthly magazine-centered works in the 1950s and led the post-war comics trend. It can be said that "loan comics" and "realistic comics" are rare publishing cultures that combine circulation forms and book types. The combination of the two in rented bookstores was a great spectacle at the time.

Usually, the books we can rent in bookstores can be purchased in bookstores. But at that time, realistic comics could only be rented and read in rental bookstores. This was a very special phenomenon.

Now let’s talk about realistic comics. Realistic comics emerged in Kansai and originated from rented comics. This has been said before. Realistic comics are available exclusively at rental bookstores.

So the question is, why are realistic comics a special offer in bookstore rentals?

The main reason is that the cartoonists who create loan comics are not subject to censorship restrictions and do not need to worry about children's interests. Censorship of books for children is strict. Loiben comics are not books for children.

So, these comics. From the style of painting to the plot, it has gradually moved closer to a more adult style, leading to the formation of a new genre - "realistic comics" (sometimes also called "drama").

So, how did realistic comics come into being?

It is said that in the mid-1950s, there was a group of young cartoonists who gathered at Mitsunoshi Shobo (Hinomaru Bunko) in the Osaka Shipyard. They are Matsumoto Masahiko, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Saito Takao, Sato Masato and others.

Although these young people live in poverty, they have not given up and have been working hard to draw the comics they love. However, their works are always not welcomed. No publisher is willing to publish their work.

Because their works are different from Osamu Tezuka’s style. No one can compete with Tezuka. There is only one thing that cartoonists can do, imitate Osamu Tezuka, and that is to draw "story comics" in Tezuka's style. In the eyes of publishing house editors, "realistic comics" have no future.

This group of young cartoonists had no choice but to publish and publish their own magazines.

In 1956, a magazine called "Shadow" was founded. Realistic cartoonists finally have a stage to publish their works.

As a result, there were two styles of comics in the comics industry at that time. One was published in "Shadow" and the other was published in Central Magazine. The former is "realistic comics" and the latter is "story comics".

Realistic comics, although the pictures are relatively childish, are very contagious. The contents of comics are mostly documentary stories, so they are called "realistic comics". This is similar to the story comics in the style of Osamu Tezuka. There is a big difference. To use an analogy that may not be very appropriate, Osamu Tezuka's works are romanticism, while realistic comics are realism.

Fortunately, Tezuka stopped writing during this period. The disappearance of the great god gave "realistic comics" an opportunity to shine. Realistic comics became a good alternative to Tezuka-style story comics. As an alternative, people are finally starting to notice the existence of "realistic comics".

However, in March 1957, Hinomaru Bunko went bankrupt.

Because newly planned adult comics (comics for adults, such as political themes, not pornographic comics) had a large number of returns, resulting in a refusal to pay for the books. The capital chain is broken.

As a result, the elders of Hinomaru Bunko, Matsumoto Masahiko, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Sato Masato and others began to plan a new magazine to replace "Shadow". This was "Street" they founded in Nagoya.

Later, "Shadow" resumed publication, but the veteran authors saw the opportunity and went to Tokyo to develop. In January 1959, they established the "Realistic Comics Studio" and published the resounding "Realistic Comics Studio" Comic Manifesto.” They published "Skyscraper", and later "Wushuang", "Shanhe Boy" and so on.

As cartoonists who once made Kansai their main base entered Central Magazine, realistic comics began to become widely known, people began to accept and recognize such a form of comic expression, and realistic comics began to fundamentally To change the form of comics, of course, we should take advantage of the blank period when Tezuka Osamu is not in the comics world.

The development of "realistic comics" has not been smooth sailing, and it has encountered great resistance.

People blame realistic comics, mainly for two aspects: one is the problems caused by the rental form of realistic comics as "loan comics", and the other is the problem with the content of realistic comics.

The first problem with "Loan Ben Comics" is hygiene.

One characteristic of renting comics is that a book has to pass through the hands of many people, which naturally causes people to worry. Is such a book hygienic? Won't it carry germs? Obviously, these concerns come from parents.

On November 24, 1957, there was a report in "Weekly Sankei" entitled "The red light is on when renting bookstores." This report mainly talked about a situation represented by mothers. Regarding the issue of "loan comics" discussed at the seminar, the report read:

In response to such reports, the National Book Rental Industry Federation visited the relevant departments and took measures. After investigation and study , there was no health incident as the housewives said. In fact, even the Library of Congress does not disinfect books. There is actually no need for this.

So they concluded:

In fact, we can also judge based on common sense. It is impossible for public libraries to disinfect books regularly, and it is even less possible to rent bookstores. It is unfounded to link the books that others have read to illness. After all, according to the logic of housewives, no one should use public items, let alone banknotes.

Please don’t underestimate the human immune system too much.

The second problem with "Lianben Comics" is that as a "realistic comic", there is a problem with the content. The problem is even more serious.

"Realistic comics" have a big feature in content, that is, "realistic". One problem with realistic things is that they don't look so positive and healthy.

This is not difficult to understand. There are always many ugly things in our world. Different from the routine of "justice always defeats evil" in the story, the stories in realistic comics are more realistic and complex. Characters cannot simply be labeled as "good guys" or "bad guys". They are three-dimensional and will switch between good guys and bad guys. This makes many people regard "realistic comics" as a distortion of "no distinction between good and evil" Vulgar cartoons.

Loanben Comics is facing a crisis.

During the "Akamoto Comics" period, there was a "movement to expel bad books", and the same movement may also happen to Lobimoto Comics.

In order to prevent this movement from spreading to "Lianben Comics", the Lianben Comics industry once wanted to take a preemptive strike and take measures to conduct a self-purification campaign first, so as to win the favor of the public and strive for survival space.

However, no matter how hard we try, the issue of "realistic comics" eventually became a social issue and triggered widespread discussion.

People accuse "realistic comics" of unhealthy content, too many cruel descriptions of violent and bloody scenes, and of teaching bad children. In their view, comics should create a fairy tale world full of kindness and love.

"Realistic comics" were greatly affected and received poor reviews.

With the decline of rental bookstores, "Lianben Comics" eventually disappeared, but "realistic comics" that were once bundled with Lianben Comics survived as a form of comic expression, and Moved to Central Magazine for new developments. People began to realize the value of "realistic" techniques.

New forms of expression always grow in a disorderly space without many restrictions. As the saying goes, "out of troubled times, heroes emerge." Although new things may receive some criticism and opposition at first, good things will eventually be passed down and leave a valuable legacy to future generations. This is true for both Loimoto comics and Akamoto comics.

"Story comics" were born in "Akamoto comics", and "realistic comics" were born in "Loan comics". Although "Akamoto" and "Loimoto" have disappeared as a comic carrier, the two comic expression forms of "story comics" and "realistic comics" have been passed down, and they have provided inspiration and laid a foundation for the creation of Japanese comics in later generations. foundation.

The reason why Japanese comics are what they are today is inseparable from the "Akamoto" and "Loanben" back then. In the Japanese comics we read now, we can often still see the shadow of the "story comics" and "realistic comics" from that time.

Thanks to those pioneers in troubled times.

For more content in this series, please see the table of contents:

Table of Contents - Let’s talk about the history of Japanese animation development