USC professor Northrop Davis combines the art of anime and the storytelling of manga in his manga production class and aims to make his classroom a place where students can learn to create stories in imaginative, creative and engaging ways.
For more than a decade, Davis has taught "Media Writing Advanced: Manga and Anime" at USC, encouraging students to explore their own creative ideas, he said. Students are able to explore the skill of visual storytelling through the viewpoint of Japanese art.
“The things that drew me to the form (manga) were all the various different kinds of genres that they work in and how wonderfully inventive it is, both visually and in terms of character,” Davis said.
The course challenges students to actively develop their own work, including creating original stories, characters and worlds, using a structured classroom environment to help students at their own pace, resulting in a portfolio of their own creative writing, Davis said.
Davis' teaching style involves hands-on learning through teaching students how to write manga-style stories. He teaches character development and the sequential art of not making jumps in writing so readers are not confused. These elements help students create their own manga for their final project.
USC alumnus Jarad Greene earned a degree in criminology and criminal justice, but is currently the administrative and development coordinator for a cartoon company. Greene took the class twice when he was a student 14 years ago after seeing a poster about Davis' manga class. Taking the class encouraged Greene to change his career path to work in the cartoon field, he said.
“I've loved comics my whole life, and I really just hadn't made long-form storytelling up until that point,” Greene said. “He really showed me how to do that … And so I just took what I learned from him and really applied it to comics.”
The workshop-style course focuses on collaboration and peer feedback. Students learn to give and receive constructive criticism, which helps them improve their work and prepares them for a job in the creative industry, Greene said.
Greene said he continues to use the techniques taught in Davis' class today when presenting his ideas to publishers and his agent for potential clients.
“I think one of the big things is it can be really hard to share your work with other people,” Greene said. “I don't think that I was very good at it at first, but over time, I've gotten better at it, and it is something that I still use today.”
Davis' class helps students create a portfolio that they can utilize in their careers, regardless of whether they pursue media arts, Greene said.
Fourth-year media arts student Tara Denslinger said she liked how the class includes peer review alongside Davis' lectures. Davis taught the "nitty-gritty" of manga that others might not know to cover all bases of the topic, Denslinger said.
"He touched base on basically everything, from the basics of drawings and (paneling) of it to the marketing aspect and how to localize manga and everything," Denslinger said. "I think his passion for trying to teach his students about the entire industry of it was really nice because I do see trying to get into this industry in the future."
Davis prepares students for the industry by teaching the good and the bad, not by "sugar-coating" what students can expect in the field, Denslinger said. He wants the best for his students, and he shows that in his teaching, she said.
"He's actually reached out to me personally, and he seems to care about his students because he's personally asked me if I've ever needed help about something," Denslinger said.
School of Visual Arts Director Andrew Graciano has known Davis for over a decade and said it is wonderful that USC is able to provide such a unique course in the United States with someone so experienced in the field. Davis teaches the history of manga as an art form, which students use when they make their own manga and anime pieces, Graciano said.
Davis is able to help start students' careers because of the contacts he has in Japan and all over the U.S., Graciano said. Many students have become successful because Davis connected them with his contacts, Graciano said.
"As a faculty member, he's not the typical academic who's like working in a silo," Graciano said. "He is somebody who has come into this position with a lot of professional experience, and then he uses that to the advantage of his students."
Davis said self-doubt is the most significant obstacle to creativity when working with students, and he helps students to overcome it .
“I think that our biggest sabotage that we do to ourselves ... is undermining our own selves,” Davis said. “I feel that if I can defeat that as much as possible and inspire them, that they can reach heights that they did not believe was possible.”
The course serves as a starting point for future employment in writing, animation and other creative fields, Davis said. The quality of students is "wonderful," and they have great potential, he said.
"I believe that the University of South Carolina can be an incubator for creative work that then becomes commercially successful," Davis said. "And I think this may be a trend in the future, and I believe that our students are great."