The seas and the stars have been sources of human curiosity for millenia, driving humans to develop technology and explore the world. Rocket engineering brought Sputnik 1 to space in the 1950s and sailing revolutionized exploration as far back as 4000 BC.
But the technological development of all technological developments was the combination of fire and tools 3.3 million years ago that gave us the gift of modern day cooking. I underestimated the universality of food and cooking last week but that’s okay because it will be the theme of this week’s One-Shot Manga Roulette!
From “Howl’s Moving Castle” by Studio Ghibli
Food is prominently featured as a tool to unify a family and temporarily escape from war.
Food (energy) can be thought of as one of the great unifiers of life. Whether that’s in the form of the sun, plants, animals, or more recently plastic, everything has evolved in such a way to be able to get whatever it is their source of food might be.
Food as humans know it is incredibly unique in the animal world, as we are the only creatures that have a process of rituals before consuming food, a set of practices we call cooking.
The way in which we prepare our food or even what we eat is deeply tied to our culture and applying the five Ws of analysis (who, what, when, where, why, sometimes how) to whatever sort of food you’re eating can tell you a lot about the culture you exist in.
Take a birthday cake for example:
- Who: The person who happens to be born on that day and the close individuals in their life.
- What: Sweet bread topped with icing. European in origin.
- When: On the day the celebrated person was born, typically following a dinner meal.
- Where: Generally in a private or reserved setting.
- Why: To celebrate and reflect making it through another year.
- How: An understanding of all the people and systems that worked to create every material used in the process of making a birthday cake.
Going deeper into each aspect will reveal more about a food and its ties to other aspects of culture. A morning coffee after getting ready, a protein shake after a good workout, alcohol after a major accomplishment, are such examples with just drinks.
As British anthropologist, Sir Edmund Leach, notes in his essay Culture and communication: The logic by which symbols are connected, “eating marks the characteristic way people are simultaneously biological and social; at once animal, but not like other animals”1.
However even then eating, regardless of how ritualized it may be done, will always connect itself back to our roots as animals as noted by Leach: “’Food is an especially appropriate mediator because when we eat, we establish, in a literal sense, a direct identity between ourselves (culture) and our food (nature).”1
Eating’s ability to connect us back to nature is probably why so many of us find such enjoyment in eating. In-fact tastes and smells are the types of memories we as humans hold the strongest as evolutionarily remembering what you can or can’t eat ends up being a matter of life or death.2
It is nowhere near as extreme today but the strong connections we have to these memories remain the same. What tastes and aromas bring you back to comfort?
For me the smell of rich coffee, breakfast sausages, and endless stack of pancakes, brings me back to the many late night trips to the local diner. A nice, reliable, American classic I can always count on being open at 2 a.m.
Most of what I have been talking about doesn’t even touch on the cooking part, that is special in its own right! Whether by following a family recipe or one found online, the whole process of prepping, cooking, and eating brings about a new appreciation for food that (usually) improves the taste!
And there’s so many different ways in which you could prepare a given dish! Take shrimp for example: you can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it, fry it, smoke it, stew it… All the different methods and the way it changes the flavor of shrimp adds to the appreciation along-side the process!
Cooking with or for others returns us back to the social aspect of food. As the saying goes, “the secret ingredient is love”. Maybe it’s actually care as the chef does their best to make a nice meal or food’s innate ability to bring people together.
It doesn’t even have to be a one-person job as cooking with others is its own rewarding experience as you work together to make something greater or as you get taught the recipes passed down through generations.
It is no surprise then that so many artists express their love for food! The stress level this week is 5/10 – an appropriate amount to fit with the variety of food!
The one-shot featured this week has been chosen due to the historical significance of the mangaka to the medium.
Ishinomori Shotaro born in 1938 is best known internationally for creating the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series (known here as “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”), although I’d argue his most influential work is his manga series, “Cyborg 009”, first published in 1964.
Takahashi Tsutomu
Translation: “Teary Tantan Noodles” So satisfying you’ll never be able to forget it. An all-out contest! A potent one-shot!
Despite being one of the earliest mangas at the time, “Cyborg 009”, like other works created internationally at the time, came out of the post-war experiences of their creators. Reflected with Cyborg 009’s own plot about averting a world war and the many ways large-scale conflicts leads to the dehumanization of people.
The story featured this week is “Tokiwa-so Charmela”, a short story written in the semi-autobiographical anthropology, “Blue Kaleidoscope”.
Published in 1973, the story contains discussions between Ishinomori and his fellow mangaka in the now legendary apartment, Tokiwa-so. They vent their frustrations and desires for their work to be seen as something more than stories made for kids especially as anime had just become an art form, starting with “Astro Boy” in 1963.
The mangaka’s fight to have manga gain its cultural citizenship would be a still on-going effort although one of the first times it would be given it’s cultural value after framed panels depicting the history of manga would be showcased 25 years after anime’s inception at the Kawasaki City Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1988.3
The works created by Ishinomori Shotaro and countless other artists of his time would lay the foundation for the manga to achieve it’s artistic and cultural value as well as creating an invaluable space for any artist to broadly communicate their taboo ideas and interest.
Although author Sharon Kinsella notes in her 1996 paper, “Most manga however are purely commercially driven and continue to provide fantastical, morally irresponsible and raw entertainment,”3 a sentiment I am inclined to agree with today…
On a lighter note: this featured one-shot is interesting in that it is about Ishinomori’s thoughts about the promising future of manga and instant ramen, a classic combination many college students would be familiar with today!
DISCLAIMER: To preserve the experience of the column, tags and disclaimers have not been included for individual one-shots. Stories may contain suggestive or sensitive content. Discretion is advised.
“Tokiwa-so Charmela” – Ishinomori Shotaro (27 pages) – Ishinomori’s retelling of late night ramen trips with his fellow mangaka and their discovery of instant ramen.
“7 Days Diner” – Sanka Kumaru (61 pages) – Oomori travels out for business trips and enjoys recreating and posting his recreations of the lunch he has! Life is going well but he can’t help feeling that something is missing…After a fateful encounter at a local restaurant maybe it’s love?
“I Hate These Calm Days” – HANEFUL (11 pages) – A boy reminisces as he cooks a simple egg.
“1LDK Blues” – Sakuraba Yui (13 pages) – “I know that you really love working at home but I have to work too! And even though we’re splitting the expenses, I still take care of all the housework!” A cautionary tale about relationship equality.
“Teary Tantan Ramen” – Takahashi Tsutomu (41 pages) – After dealing with an awful job as customer service, all Kaeda wants to do after work is have a beer and some garlicky food at her favorite Chinese restaurant.
Be sure to remember to eat as you study through the day, especially through finals week! It can be especially hard to find time to cook as a busy student but once the Thunderword scores that coveted Hello Fresh sponsorship, trust that we’ve got your back.
Until next quarter, thank you for stopping by and enjoy the break!
Citations:
1. Leach E. Culture and Communication: The Logic by Which Symbols are Connected. RAIN. 1976 May;(14):14.
2. Miranda MI. Taste and odor recognition memory: the emotional flavor of life. Reviews in the Neurosciences. 2012 Jan 1;23(5-6).
3. Kinsella S. Change in the social status, form and content of adult manga, 1986–1996. Japan Forum. 1996 Apr;8(1):103–12.