Phones in Manga

Like other forms of media, manga can give an insight of the era in which the work is done. One subtle but interesting trend is the mobile phones used by the characters. Since I started reading manga around the turn of the century, traces of the telecommunication evolution and the growth of Internet have appeared constantly in manga works.

It is an interesting experience to see fictional characters change their mobile devices from clamshell phones all the way to smartphones, as occurred in several long-running series with modern settings. Video cameras went from expensive equipment to school commodity, and SNS from underground to life necessity. All these changes in manga reflected real life.

When looking back, these are definitely an important part of our history that we cannot afford to overlook.