Reviving the Power of Storytelling: Post-3/11 Online ‘Amateur’ Manga

Abstract

This chapter discusses online manga that responded to the Japan’s triple disaster—the massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, that caused the tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear meltdown—created by non-professional cartoonists who published their works on social media. Focuses are on Misukoso’s Field of Cole: Remember the Great East Japan Earthquake (Itsuka nanohana batake-de) and Kizuki Sae’s Seven Days in the Disaster (Shinsai nanoka-kan). Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s theory on the nature of ‘storytelling’ that conveys lived experiences of the people, my chapter attempts to evaluate the powerful function of graphic storytelling, its resilience to the mass media(ted) images and information, and its ability to maintain human empathy toward the disaster victims.