Please mark your calendars for this Graduate Student Speaker Series event.

On Thursday, September 14 at 12 p.m. we welcome Nikita D'Monte.

The title of her presentation is: Princess of Manga:  Rumiko Takahashi and the Rise of the Female Manga Artist.

The influence of Japanese anime and manga has grown way beyond the boundaries of their country of origin. As forms of popular culture and “serious literature,” anime and manga have drawn the attention of numerous scholars such as Susan Napier, Helen McCarthy, Frederick L. Schodt et al. In this dissertation, I will critically explore the life and work of Rumiko Takahashi—a female mangaka alongside other manga artists. While academic and public libraries and online archives now showcase plentiful research about male manga artists, very few scholarly studies focus solely on the works of female mangakas and their unique struggles in the anime and manga industry. My project aims to uncover and explore through close reading the creative works of Rumiko Takahashi to give her full credit for creating masterpieces in the field. I will contextualize my analysis within the broader experiences of other women working within and behind the scenes in anime and manga production and in contrast to the experiences of male manga artists and anime creators. Through this study, I hope to encourage other anime and manga scholars to focus more on female creators’ contributions and provide an important case study of the working conditions of one female mangaka.