OK, so manga are hugely popular -- but so are 500 yen umbrellas on a rainy day. Like those cheap plastic parapluies, though, manga seem little more than a temporary feature of daily commuting. Those young furiita and salarymen who thumb through the pages with barely a pause can't be getting much from it -- can they? After all, manga's not art -- is it?
Fusanosuke Natsume would beg to differ. Natsume has been a manga enthusiast since childhood and, as the author of several books on the subject, he was the first to propose that the language of manga has a unique grammar. (Ironically, Natsume, 52, is the grandson of the most well-read novelist in Japan, the late Soseki Natsume -- who appears on the 1,000 yen note.)
In his manga-filled office in central Tokyo, Natsume explains that in manga, the graphics, text balloons, frames and presentation style of the text all convey specific meanings.