So I've been sick the past few days, during which time I finished reading ぼくらの (well, the bits that have been released as tankoubon) and started in on AKIRA.

Man, have things changed since 1982. Kanji use is distinctly heavier throughout than in more modern manga, but in particular I found it interesting that まで is written as kanji 迄 throughout (it's curiously given furigana once, not even close to the first time it appears—presumably it has some other reading I don't know about that could have been appropriate there). 云 actually sees some play.

Anyone else notice any significant differences in older-but-not-that-old works?

~J

I wonder if it's stylistic? I was reading a new manga that took place in older times and the kanji usage was very different. Assumably how people wrote at that time. Of course target audience will make a difference too.

It's not impossible, but I doubt it; the setting, on the off-chance you're not familiar with it, is slightly futuristic (2019, or 27 years from date of first publication), so it's not reflecting any real past period.

The kanji are also used by street hoodlums, so it's not indicating refined gentry, either.

~J

I don't think I've ever seen that in a manga -- and I've read a fair few manga from the 1970s, shoujo stuff by Ikeda Ryoko and Hagio Moto. But AKIRA is targeted at an older audience, who would no doubt recognize those kanji from their literature classes. I've seen that kanji usage, but mostly in pre-war literature like Mori Ogai and Souseki.

The author may be doing it to sound Literary.

I've actually seen that kanji at a shop here in Takadanobaba. It's not dead yet!

迄 isn't a rare kanji.. It's on signs all over the place here in Nagoya.

Is it in place names, or are they actually using it for standard words?

~J

For standard words: Eg: Breakfast served until(まで) 10am.

Huh. Maybe it's local, or maybe it's just in contexts that I only would have had an opportunity to see back when I wouldn't have been able to identify it.

Thanks.

~J