New Wave (manga)

New Wave
Years activeLate 1970s – Early 1980s
LocationJapan
Major figuresKatsuhiro Otomo, Noma Saeba, Hisaichi Ishii, Fumi Saimon, Yukio Kawasaki, Fumiko Takano, Jun Ishikawa, Keizō Miyanishi, Yōsuke Takahashi, Hiroshi Masumura, Daijiro Morohoshi

New Wave (Japanese: ニューウェーブ, Hepburn: Nyū Uēbu) was a movement within the Japanese manga industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Critics together with artists challenged the by then conventional frameworks of shōnen manga, shōjo manga and gekiga by introducing innovative means of expression and non-gendered approaches to manga. While artists differed vastly in terms of style, the visual language of Katsuhiro Otomo, new approaches to science fiction, the emergence of boys' love (BL) manga, and a less feminine approach to shōjo manga were some of New Wave's characteristics. The short-lived movement was centered around smaller manga magazines that were initiated by manga critics, but had a wide impact onto the development of mainstream manga.