Four Graduate
Schools Offering Exceptional Diversity of Cross-disciplinary
Study Opportunities
Unique
opportunities for research
in manga culture...
- Kyoto
Seika University's Graduate School of Manga offers the first
M.A. course solely dedicated to manga/comics/cartoon studies
- Intertwining
creative and theoretical approaches to
manga/comics/cartoon
- Opportunity
to approach manga/comics/cartoon from multiple cultural perspectives
(with a high degree of internationality
among professors as well as students)
Manga (Japanese pages
for Grad
School of
Manga here)
Japan’s first graduate school to provide comprehensive
studies of Manga/Comics/Cartoon culture has two separate programs:
(a)
manga creation (narrative comics and/or cartoons)
(b) manga studies (concerning manga/comics in the broadest sense)
On
entering the program, students choose whether to concentrate
on practical production work
or theoretical research, culminating in producing either
a graduation work
or a written thesis. (The latter may be written in English,
however, Japanese proficiency is required for class work and
source material/references) Our
two different courses have separate entrance exams:
Manga creation: Educating Manga
Professionals
The manga creation program is addressed to future creators of
cartoons and comics. It covers the entire process of manga creation
from
first concept to drawing, panel and page layout, to editing
process and presentation. Students can improve their narrative
and graphic expression skills
by learning from professionals in each field. Since story-telling
is at the heart of manga, basic Japanese proficiency is required.
Due to the new structure of KSU’s Graduate School of Manga,
students who plan to become manga artists or producers have
opportunities to engage in exchange with cartoonists,
and also to interact with future critics and reseachers.
Japan’s first M.A. course
solely dedicated to manga/comics studies
Other schools provide opportunities for manga research studies,
but KSU’s Graduate School is
the only one which provides opportunities for manga/cartoon
research. Whereas the study of manga is usually subsumed to
a major academic
discipline such as sociology or media studies, and
furthermore, separated from the study of comics in general,
KSU’s Graduate School of Manga focuses on what constitutes
manga/comics/cartoons as a distinct mode of expression and
medium of communication,
while considering recent transcultural and transmedia flows
which call the very distinctiveness of manga/comics into question.
Students whose interests are geared towards theoretical manga/comics
studies, and who plan to become educators, scholars or critics,
have unique opportunities to interact with those who are focused
on manga production/creation.
Syllabus
(1.) Common
Core Subjects (shared by all four Graduate Schools):
Hyougen tokuron (Special Lectures on Expression)
Chitekisozou tokuron (Special Lectures on Knowledge-Building/Intellectual
Creativity)
Project kikaku enshu (Practical Project Planning)
Project work enshu 1-4 (Practical Work Seminar)
Eigo presentation enshu (English Presentation)
Gakujutsu ronbun enshu 1-2 (Seminar on
Academic Writing)
Gensho koudoku 1-2 (Reading of Source Materials)
(2.)
Special Lectures of the Graduate
School for Manga, open to students of our other three Graduate
Schools:
Manga riron tokkou (Fundamental Lectures: Manga/comics
theory and discourse)
Manga ryouiki tokkou 1 (Manga Studies 1 Lectures: Manga creators,
comics artists)
Manga ryouiki tokkou 2 (Manga Studies 2 Lectures: Printed manga
and manga film)
Manga ryouiki tokkou 3 (Manga Studies 3 Lecture: Manga as media)
Manga ryouiki tokkou 4 (Manga Studies 4 Lecture: Manga/Comics
as ‘contents’)
(3.) Seminars
of the Graduate School for Manga
(open
exclusively to students of this school with the professors below)
Full-time
Faculty Members:
Itahashi
Shuho |
 |
Takemiya
Keiko |
 |
Shinohara
Yukio |
 |
Tamada
Kyoko |
 |
Jaqueline
Berndt |
 |
Yoshimura
Kazuma |
 |
Admissions
Eligibility
(a) Manga creation course
Applications will be accepted from graduates with a sufficiently high
level of technical skill, where required. It is however not essential
to have previously majored in the intended field of interest.
entrance exam:
(1.) Japanese proficiency test (unrelated to total exam results)
(2.) Short essay (90 min., handwritten in Japanese or English, without
dictionary)
(3.) oral examination (approx. 30 min., in Japanese, with the candidate’s
portfolio at hand)
(b) Manga studies course
(1.) prior to entrance exam, an academic essay (bachelor thesis or equivalent,
in Japanese or English, approx. 10,000 words) is to be submitted together
with research plan and other documents
(2.)
entrance exam itself consists of Japanese proficiency test
(unrelated to total exam results) + oral examination (about
the submitted essay+knowledge of standard publications in Japanese
related to manga studies+proficiency of basic Japanese terms
necessary for manga/comics studies)
Since
all classes are taught in Japanese, a high level of
Japanese language proficiency is essential (see sidebar).
Students
of the manga studies course may submit their final M.A. thesis
in either Japanese or English.
Please refer to our Japanese language website for full details of KSU's Graduate
Schools.
If you wish to make further inquiries or confirm the availability
of a suitable course, contact KSU’s Office of Academic
Affairs (Kyomu-ka) in Japanese at kyomou[at] kyoto-seika.ac.jp
(or fax, +81 75 722 0838).
Graduate
School Outlines: Main | Art | Design |
Manga | Humanities
More
Information in Japanese: Art | Design | Manga | Humanities
