2025/03/06 by Yuki Matsuda · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Digital Games and Media #Literacy, Media, and Education #Media, Communication, and Education
paper · doi:10.1080/21504857.2025.2470233
openalex publication_date 2025/03/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
This article examines how Isshiki Makoto’s Piano no Mori employs Floating Internal Monologues (FIMs) and Thought Bubbles (TBs), in combination with distinct writing directions, to shape reader empathy. Utilising a multimodal social semiotic approach (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 2021) and Cohn’s (2013) carrier classification, the study explores how FIMs, which float freely across panels, offer subjective perspectives by immersing readers in characters’ internal emotions. In contrast, TBs, enclosed within visible borders and connected to characters by ‘tails,’ provide a more structured, observer-oriented perspective. Writing directions play a crucial role in modulating empathy: vertical writing, associated with Japanese tradition, fosters emotional involvement, while horizontal writing, influenced by Western conventions, signals emotional detachment and cultural distance. The study applies Kinsui’s (2023) empathy model to demonstrate how these semiotic resources guide readers’ engagement, resulting in varying degrees of emotional and cognitive empathy. Corpus analyses of the manga’s internal monologues reveal that the protagonist’s vertical FIMs evoke immersive cognitive empathy, while the rival character’s horizontal FIMs create an intricate balance between detachment and involvement. These findings contribute to manga studies by highlighting how visual and textual elements shape reader-character relations and suggesting broader applications of these semiotic techniques across genres and media.