Favela no Mangaka - Ch. 1 - A diamond in the rough in São Paulo

[MangaDex]

 

[xyzzy]

Nice first chapter! I've never been to Brazil so I can't really make any rolling statements - is it actually like this?

 

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the chapter. I really liked this

 

[SUPER7X]

I definitely still disagree with the decisions made at points, but translating this is pretty fucked because they're using ⟨mangaka⟩ to mean both “comic artist” and “Japanese comic artist”/“mangaka” at different points, and you can't really express that clearly and cleanly in English I don't think, so I'm not super bothered. Altho I do resent whoever replaced “Favela Comic Artist” as a title with “Favela Mangaka” rather than just adding the latter.

Nice first chapter! I've never been to Brazil so I can't really make any rolling statements - is it actually like this?

I wonder if I can find it but I saw a Brazilian reply that was bothered by the way the gang was depicted. Oh here it is.
https://x.com/fou_toni/status/1803896116569677986
This person is upset because despite the São Paulo location, the gangs resemble Rio de Janeiro gangs rather than São Paulo gangs according to them. This could be a total nitpick or it could be a legitimate point. I don't know. How different are the gangs in these 2 cities?

 

[77BLc9JwJGpLVARkamJx]

Seems cool but kinda lold @ rio vs sao paolo gang operation above.Might be bothering some brazilian but maybe the chapter discussion thread can be informative if actual brazilians chime in.

 

[ITSigno]

This person is upset because despite the São Paulo location, the gangs resemble Rio de Janeiro gangs rather than São Paulo gangs according to them. This could be a total nitpick or it could be a legitimate point. I don't know. How different are the gangs in these 2 cities?

I'm not Brazilian myself so I can't say for sure, but I will say that we have two people on the team that are from Sao Paolo specifically and neither of them complained about that being an issue.

The commenter you linked doesn't really explain the differences -- though they do say you can "ask for proof" which is kinda weird, imo.

Hagimoto-sensei actually speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese to a fair degree. Also, on page 4 of our release you can see a list of Brazilian "supporters" at the bottom that Hagimoto-sensei has used for verifying things in the story.

Personally I'm more inclined to trust the people that I work with all the time that are from Sao Paolo and Hagimoto-sensei himself over some random guy on twitter being coy.

Altho I do resent whoever replaced “Favela Comic Artist” as a title with “Favela Mangaka” rather than just adding the latter.

I see both titles listed. I don't know how MD chooses which to use for the alternative title, but until there's an "official" English title, the main one is gonna remain "Favela no Mangaka". Personally, I'd prefer to use the Portuguese title "Mangaka da Favela".

 

[Nintakun]

Brazilian here and I've read the chapter like 2 weeks ago or something.

For the people curious about it, Hagimoto has been interacting with brazilians on his facebook profile for quite a long time, like the past 2 years or so, and he grew very interested in brazilian culture, and so, someone recommended him to watch "City of God" (arguably the most internationally well-known brazilian movie out there), and it left a very deep impression on him, so it was just a matter of time for him to try his hand at writing a manga set in Brazil. He's been doing A LOT of research and having information on the subjects coming directly from brazilians themselves.


About the accuracy of the setting in the manga... first of all, we need to remember Brazil is an absolute behemoth of a huge country, so a lot of regions can differ among themselves greatly. In a loose comparison, I think it's somewhat safe to compare São Paulo to New York to some degree. Huge city, the biggest one in the whole country and where the biggest things usually happen, economically. But that's not all, there are also slums in there. São Paulo slums (or "favelas") are kinda different from the ones in Rio de Janeiro, the ones that people known more about usually.

So... yeah, places like this indeed exist in Brazil. Not the entire country is like that obviously, but these places are not that uncommon either. I'm personally from Rio de Janeiro but I know plenty of people from São Paulo who said the depiction of its slums was pretty much on point, but I can see why people are reminded more of Rio's gangs reading this rather than São Paulo's. There's a saying here that "two guys on a bike" is almost guaranteed that you'll be robbed if you see them, depending on where you are and when, and this indeed happens in the chapter LMAO (I personally was never robbed like this but I've heard about people who were).

TL;DR: Yeah, the depiction was kinda accurate, even if a bit exaggerated for dramatic storytelling reasons. Take that with a grain of salt, but it isn't too far from what actually happens in favelas sometimes.

 

[SUPER7X]

Personally I'm more inclined to trust the people that I work with all the time that are from Sao Paolo and Hagimoto-sensei himself over some random guy on twitter being coy.

Yeah of course the guy could be outright wrong, tho as a pedant myself I'm pretty open to pedantic complaints if it is that.

I see not Brazilian myself so I can't say for sure, but I will say that we have two people on the team that are from Sao Paolo specifically and neither of them complained about that being an issue.

TL;DR: Yeah, the depiction was kinda accurate, even if a bit exaggerated for dramatic storytelling reasons. Take that with a grain of salt, but it isn't too far from what actually happens in favelas sometimes.

So it seems to me to be more a nitpicky complaint rather than baseless. However, with fiction, it's difficult to portray things 100% accurately, even if you want to, and you may not want to! It can be really restricting. Exaggeration for dramatic effect can be legitimate depending upon the degree and the goal, and in this specific case, I'm inclined to think it's acceptable. However, it's only the first chapter. If things become way crazier later, I will want to check in again. Thank ye both for your input!

I see both titles listed. I don't know how MD chooses which to use for the alternative title,

Well yes because I added it back lol.

Personally, I'd prefer to use the Portuguese title "Favela da Mangaka".

“Mangaká da Favela” you mean, right?

 

[Panino]

It's nice that he did his "research", talked with a lot of brazillians but... "we" are a bit concerned with type of person who is advising him. The end of the chapter with the criminals talking about the kid being at the age of becoming one of them is a bit ridiculous.

 

[ITSigno]

Yeah of course the guy could be outright wrong, tho as a pedant myself I'm pretty open to pedantic complaints if it is that.

So one of our guys went into a little more depth on the issue:

well, regarding the information of gangs, I would say it's an artistic freedom the mangaka did
fantasy doesn't need to be tied to real world situation
the real world situation right now is that the country is splitted in 3 zones. Sao Paulo has a unified mafia organization called PCC
so there won't be any kind of gang wars
the manga is more related to Rio-style of decentralized gangs in each slums, but even that is changing... it's more like a unified cartel like PCC now. They are called CV (Comando Vermelho) Red Command.
in the northeast of Brazil we have Familia do Norte that is the dangerous type like mexican cartels
PCC operates as italian mafia and usually don't mess with common people

“Mangaká da Favela” you mean, right?

lol, yes. Figures I'd get that wrong.

 

[newromanticsailors]

as a brazilian-american who can’t read portuguese very well i was waiting oh so patiently for the english translation and.. it’s peak

 

[samuelgcs]

Nice first chapter! I've never been to Brazil so I can't really make any rolling statements - is it actually like this?

It really is like that, but only in the favela. The favela gangs are stronger than the police.

 

[PDR]

It's nice that he did his "research", talked with a lot of brazillians but... "we" are a bit concerned with type of person who is advising him. The end of the chapter with the criminals talking about the kid being at the age of becoming one of them is a bit ridiculous.

Brazilian here, criminals saying this is not as ridiculous as you think, because children in the favela end up growing up close to criminals and some of their families end up being part of the drug trade and consequently some of them end up idolizing the whole thing of being part of a gang, and that's why they end up joining them very early.

 

[LoliLover852]

Ayy, the author also wrote Asper Kanojo so I have high faith its gonna be peak

 

[Paitaon]

I´d say it´s actually in the author´s best interests to mix the gangs up a little bit since the portrayal of a war (nuanced as it may be) will inevitably raise some concerns if brought to the attention of some gang members, especially because this looks like a story that´ll be very grounded in reality so we should expect some messed up things such as João entering IM.

Plus, he went to the trouble of changing the names of the gangs which, if you know the context, you can figure out instantly by the regions they control.

Personally, I think there´s a joke to be made somehow about IM being the one with 2 letters in the acronym, while FSL is the one with 3 as it would be the opposite in real life, but, oh well, can´t figure.

I look forward to this manga and the possible misunderstandings there´ll be about the author´s thoughts on the eternal gang wars, also.

 

[HenrykDodwel]

I love this autor other work, so I have high hope for it

 

[Josezinho]

Nice first chapter! I've never been to Brazil so I can't really make any rolling statements - is it actually like this?

As a Brazilian, my answer is... YES, but it's a little more complicated than that. Brazil has a violence problem and the favelas are violent, true. I also think that the mangaka gave a fair representation of the favelas, getting details wrong that I think it's silly to point out now.

The problem is: BRAZIL IS HUGE and it's not just one big favela. Brazilians are tired of hearing the same story being told about us, not just by foreigners, but also by our own media. It's as if all the stories about the USA took place "in the hood" and were about police violence and gang warfare. This exists, and it's fair that they talk about it, but when it's ALL they talk about it makes it seem like there's nothing left when there's so much more. When this manga was released, there was some controversy about it here, but now it's over.

It turns out that this mangaka is very active with the Brazilian community. He interacts daily in Portuguese (using translators), answering questions, analyzing some Brazilian comics, and even posting an unofficial translation of the work in Portuguese freely. He's trying his best to be fair, and I really think he was succeeding. He wrote the most realistic favela I've ever read by a foreigner, but it's still a bit tiring.

 

[Josezinho]

It's nice that he did his "research", talked with a lot of brazillians but... "we" are a bit concerned with type of person who is advising him. The end of the chapter with the criminals talking about the kid being at the age of becoming one of them is a bit ridiculous.

As a Brazilian... Sorry, is not that far away. Its not that hard if you go to some favelas seeing kids with less than 10 years old holding firearms. Factions recruiting youngs in poverty is the most horrifing social problem we face in brazil.

 

[twinklecake]

It's a manga that explores stuff like technical ability vs. artistic value, and the joy of creating art, the way that joy fades when it goes from hobby to a job, the universal nature of art, and so on. And the fact that it's coming from a mangaka with relatively low technical ability but a very soulful premise enhances the whole experience immensely for me.

So, the gang shit doesn't bother me because it's not a political manga. It might bother me if the drama being foreshadowed ends up stealing the focus from its aforementioned strength though.

I really hope this one goes well. It's so goddamn promising.

 

[GGCannon]

I definitely still disagree with the decisions made at points, but translating this is pretty fucked because they're using ⟨mangaka⟩ to mean both “comic artist” and “Japanese comic artist”/“mangaka” at different points, and you can't really express that clearly and cleanly in English I don't think, so I'm not super bothered. Altho I do resent whoever replaced “Favela Comic Artist” as a title with “Favela Mangaka” rather than just adding the latter.


I wonder if I can find it but I saw a Brazilian reply that was bothered by the way the gang was depicted. Oh here it is.
https://x.com/fou_toni/status/1803896116569677986
This person is upset because despite the São Paulo location, the gangs resemble Rio de Janeiro gangs rather than São Paulo gangs according to them. This could be a total nitpick or it could be a legitimate point. I don't know. How different are the gangs in these 2 cities?

Brazilian here.
I mean, it is kind of mixed in a few points.
The violence itself seems more like Rio, where I live, but I never really visited São Paulo to know how it is around there too well.
I would say that it isn't impossible at all to be similar, but it also isn't impossible to have differences that aren't accurately portrayed here.
I didn't feel it too off because it is very similar to the violence I know off, and the favela itself really looks on point.
Those tiny alleys and thin streets look a lot like places I've visited myself to go visit some friends who lived in communities.
If it was in one of the satellite cities around Brasilia, I would say it would be very off. I lived in Brasilia for a while and visited the house of my nanny who lived in a community in one of the poorest satellite cities a few times when I was a kid.
But I don't think, from what I know, that São Paulo would be that drastically different when it comes to gang activity, though I believe I remember that they shifted from criminal gang activity to illegal paramilitary groups in recent years, where those are more into coersion and extortion around there, which could be why that paulista felt it was more misrepresented.