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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the role of fukidashi in conveying sounds representing physical force or violence. We will explore how certain authors have used fukidashi to visualise imaginary or exaggerated sounds and adjust the reader's immersion, instead of using motion lines, pain stars or onomatopoeia.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the role of fukidashi (speech balloons) in conveying non-verbal elements, specifically sounds other than human voices, within the broader question of how readers experience manga depicting physical force or violence inflicted by humans.

While audiovisual media have focused on depicting violence and combat (including simulated combat such as sports) in a realistic and immersive way, manga and comics in general have throughout their history been characterised by their hybridity in combining images, text and other signs. This has given rise to numerous metamedial expressions that draw attention to the signs themselves rather than realistic representations.

When it comes to depicting physical force and violence, symbols representing impact have been developed (e.g. motion lines, pain stars and onomatopoeia). However, some authors deliberately use fukidashi to visualise imaginary or exaggerated sounds, which can either deepen or slow down the reader's immersion.

We will analyse examples from the works of Ōtomo Katsuhiro, Matsumoto Taiyō, Uoto and others to examine the gap between the idea of representation and that of autonomous expression, the difference between characters' and readers' perceptions, and the mechanism by which manga elicits empathy for characters' emotions and suffering.