ABSTRACT
Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen is a fictionalised account of the author’s survival of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Originally published in Shōnen Jump magazine between 1973 and 1985, it presents a strongly anti-war message while conforming to the graphic conventions of a genre aimed primarily at adolescent males, and which frequently presents the performance of violent acts as a means of purposeful action and self-construction. Barefoot Gen responds to a violent act of geopolitics but focusses primarily on the depiction of smaller-scale responses to this act rather than the spectacular manifestation of war that motivated its production. It is argued that the drawing styles employed to depict violence in Barefoot Gen create visual metaphors that embody the rejection of militaristic nationalism, and an emphasis on self-reliance and resilience. By drawing on Thomas Lamarre’s analysis that focusses on a distinction between what he calls ‘plastic’ and ‘structural’ lines, and which makes the broader argument that Barefoot Gen’s drawing style underscores its anti-war message by adhering to, rather than subverting, the graphic conventions of shōnen manga, it is suggested that Barefoot Gen’s tension between imposed discipline and its violent disruption is characteristic of narrative drawing more broadly.
