La politica serializzata dei manga. Immaginazione civica e attivismo pop dei giovani = The serialized politics of manga: civic imagination and young people's pop activism

Abstract

This paper examines how politics is present in manga by shifting the focus from explicitly "committed" content to the serial forms and infrastructures that sustain its circulation. Seriality is approached as a narrative technology of time: publication cycles, tankōbon volumes, anime adaptations, digital platforms, events and fan practices produce a shared rhythm in which themes such as justice, sovereignty, memory and violence repeatedly return, enabling young readers to rework judgments and categories. The Japanese media mix extends the lifespan of works and consolidates affective bonds with characters who function as interfaces between entertainment and the public sphere. In this framework, the notion of civic imagination highlights how serial worlds provide pop figures, scenarios and vocabularies through which young people can reflect on change and experiment with forms of participation. Three analytical layers make these dynamics visible: the controversy surrounding the manga Oishinbo after Fukushima as an arena of public debate; My Hero Academia, Death Note and Attack on Titan as ethical-political laboratories; and the case of the Tokyo Metropolitan Youth Ordinance together with the institutional campaigns built around March Comes in Like a Lion and Spy×Family as examples of fan activism and the political uses of characters. Taken together, these cases delineate a landscape in which Japanese manga appears as a space where politics is made serially, in the encounter between infrastructures of seriality, the media mix and the socio-cultural practices of younger generations.