Making visible the invisible

Representing religious content in manga

Abstract

Ghosts, spirits and ancestors have a central place in the Japanese spiritual imagination and are central to its contemporary popular culture. In visual narratives such as manga, both their way of depiction and their agency are the result of creativity, continuously in the making, at the intersection of the artist’s imagination, the work of cultural and linguistic translation and the representation’s legibility to the audience. This article delves into the representations of religious content in chosen manga, with a focus on image, text, and panel/frame composition.