MANGA

THE AESTHETICS OF SELF-SACRIFICE IN MANGAS

Bushido philosophy for the young

By Bowen Tan

Sometimes Self-Sacrifice Comes In Strange Forms

I have read many Japanese manga throughout my life. Most of them are warrior’s adventures. They all have the same theme: A warrior goes out into the world, meets people, battles enemies, and finally becomes the strongest person in the known universe. My three favorite Japanese manga are the very popular Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto. These have been serialized for over 15 years and One Piece is still going strong. Part of the popularity of these warrior tales is that they are a strange but clear representation of Japanese Bushido philosophy.

Bushido is based on eight virtues: righteousness, courage, benevolence, respect, integrity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. If a warrior wants to retain his honor, he has to fulfill these eight virtues. What connects them is the overarching notion of Giri. Translated into English Giri means roughly duty or obligation, or even “burden of obligation.” One must “serve one’s superiors with a self-sacrificing devotion.” In other words, sacrifice isn’t a bad thing in Japanese culture, but instead is the key to honor.

All these mangas are essentially teaching books for the young. How should they act? What should they aspire to? What can they hope to become? The issue is not only entertainment, but also and most importantly the values that it hopes to transmit to its readers.

The Virtues

Dragon Ball is about a boy who named Goku. He has a dragon ball with four stars inside it. One day he finds out that there are seven dragon balls dispersed throughout the world. If someone can collect them all, they can ask one wish of the god Dragon. So Goku starts to collect all the dragon balls. During his adventure he meets Master Roshi who is the greatest martial artist in the world, and he teaches Goku how to fight. Goku has lots of battles and becomes such an adept warrior that he surpasses his master in skill. When he finally collects all the dragon balls, he is the best martial artist in the world. What Goku must navigate is what does it mean to be technically good (I have the skills) and how does that translate into being actually good (I do good things).

Children love Goku, not just because he is the strongest fighter in the Dragon Ball universe, but because of his fighting philosophy—which is a clear representation of Bushido ideas. The reason he wants to get stronger is not about personal power, but about protecting the people that he cares about. That is the reason that every time he bets his life and honor fighting his enemies he puts himself in the worst situation, in order to protect his friends and family. The manga is quite clear about its values here and a great deal of Dragon Ball is the struggle to turn technical skills into moral ones.

One Piece is about a boy named Luffy who eats the gum of an evil fruit. Because of this, he gets a super power: his whole body can extend like gum. His ambition is to be the greatest pirate in the world and he achieves that. He and his crew sail around world doing pirate stuff and they’re so successful that the authorities (whoever they are) put up a huge bounty for his capture. Yes, being an outlaw pirate is fun—we’ve all done it and it’s great to steal—but what we learn from Luffy is how he negotiates that fun with the idea of honor.

Here's Luffy and the gang

The difference between Luffy and other captains is he never considers his crew as subordinates, but as his family. Because Luffy teaches his crews to respect and trust each other, they are more powerful than other crews. No matter who is in danger, they put their own lives at risk in order to help others. The power of their trust helps them beat many enemies that are much stronger than they are. Again, despite its boy’s adventure genre, like Dragon Ball, One Piece is suffused with Bushido philosophy.

In Naruto, a young boy, Naruto, is born on the same day that a monster, Kyubi, attacks his village. His parents, expert ninjas, sacrifice their lives to save their community. The only problem is that in order to do so they sew the monster into their new born son’s belly. Needless to say, this complicates young Naruto’s life. Some people view him as a monster responsible for the deaths of his parents and almost everyone is a bit wary of him. Fortunately, there are a few who care about him and this forms the basis of this boy-monster manga, the notion of care.

The complex tale of Naruto

We learn that Naruto is a brave and eccentric boy. He always wants to improve himself and to gain the respect of others. His ambition is to be the strongest ninja and the leader of his village despite his past and the monster locked inside of him. One of the pleasures of this manga is how Naruto’s exuberance and brightness bring people over to his side. The story becomes one about Naruto's learning to control the monster within him and to become the best person that he can be.

What you can see in these general plots is a desire to inculcate values and the most radical is: the sacrifice of a life. In all of these mangas, there comes a point where someone must sacrifice himself for the good of the whole. In Dragon Ball, it’s Vegeta who blows himself up to save the world. Usually the death of an important character is sad and tragic, but in these mangas there is also a sense of celebration of the values and duty that come with self-sacrifice. It’s not just the death that matters here, but also the way in which that death has come to stand for the continuing life of the community.

The glory of Dragon Ball

When Vegeta dies, all the panels are in a beautiful and serene blue. It makes you feel as if his death, or, more importantly, his sacrifice is good and brings calm to the community. Similarly in One Piece, Ace uses his body to defend his little brother Luffy. His sacrifice becomes a symbol of duty and honor and also of great purpose to the ethics and morals of the story. After Ace’s death, Luffy become much stronger in his to take revenge for his brother’s death. Here, sacrifice is an opportunity, rather than a loss. Japanese manga are not just warrior’s adventures, but are attempts to engage readers into a life governed by Bushido philosophy where sacrifice and community are the highest values.

©Bowen Tan and the CCA Arts Review