Manga Study Guide: Barefoot Gen/Onomatopoeia

Return to Main Page

Onomatopoeia

Manga Convention:Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeias are the words containing sounds similar to the noises they describe. In Japanese manga, onomatopoeias are drawn as a part of the picture to show the sound of the action or the feeling of the character, it is often called Kakimoji or Onyu (symbolic words) in Japan. To show the different types of actions and feelings, the onomatopoeias are also drawn differently. For example, in the battle scene, the thick and black Kakimoji is used.

Same kind of onomatopoeias are used by different authors. However there are also many other onomatopoeias that different authors has originally made. The famous author Araki and are famous for making their original onomatopoeias.

In Barefoot Gen, there are some onomatopoeias that describes the sounds that we're often lay heard during the war. For example "whooooooeeeeee" is a sound of the emergency alarm when the enemy plane is coming.