Introduction
The quest to develop and identify one’s individual identity is very dominant in the manga/ anime characterization. Narrative driven structures that combine visual art forms are used to depict a broad range of phenomena that deals with the search for individual identity (Bryce n.d). Twins can be characterized in manga/anime presentations to try and show the inner struggles they go through in defining their identity, otherness, inner conflict, sexual maturity and the view of human goodness or evil.
Twins in manga/anime characters are therefore created to embody the personal, psychological struggles of an individual twin, independent from the other his/her half. Psychological issues that represent twins struggles with the real self against the expected self, the split and fragmented self and the internal conflict between the ego and the super ego. The narratives in manga/anime therefore seek to bring out the anxieties and uncertainty about individual identity among twins.
Twins
Offsprings developed from the same zygote and produced in the same pregnancy are referred to as twins. The scientific process involved in the development of twins is widely understood by medical experts. However their psychology that deals with how they relate in different aspects of life is quite puzzling. Even twins themselves have not been able to clearly articulate what they go through life in relation with people who are not twins. In the twins’ world, there are fraternal and identical twins.
Identical twins share far more features and genetic make up than fraternal twins. As a result they are likely to have a stronger bond and in some cases, their likeness goes beyond physical features to include their intelligent quotients (Perry 2002). Twins make up approximately 2% of the world population, a significant number that makes them an interesting constituency for study.
Twins can be looked at from the Manga/anime characters perspective; these are different characters but of the same kind and they form interesting subjects of study in terms of identity. Identity in this case will be explained through the otherness, self acceptance, inner conflict, sexual maturity, and change of or perception of human goodness or evil by the twins.
The pattern of twinship that twins share creates some sort of identity struggles that they find hard to overcome (Klein 2003). Many twins share a bond that goes beyond that of ordinary siblings. While the majority of people are born separate and learns intimacy as they grow up, twins are born intimate and learn to find separation (Rajamanickam 2007).
The bond and the emotional connection that accompanies it forms an interesting psychological study work. However, there are studies that have been conducted on the effect of nature versus nurture in twins.
According to Klein, where twins were left to stay and grow up together, the bond grew with time and their identities were more a like, but in cases where they were separated, they developed different identities but stuck to their childhood identities as either bad or good kids (Rajamanickam 2007). In manga/ anime characterization twins are characterized by identical male or female twins who look similar and exhibit strong bonds especially in western culture and/or jealousy or rivalry especially in Japanese manga characterizations.
It is important to note that representation of twins in Manga/anime characterization comes in narratives told in the form of animations, caricatures and tales are used to show the characterization of twins. Intersubjective relationships between the self and the other are therefore used in portraying the double in twins (Bryce n.d).
The philosophical principle where one person changes his perspective for the other is referred to as otherness. Otherness of a person in psychology represents the self. It involves the study of the cognitive or affective study of someone’s identity. The self that makes the otherness in human beings therefore plays an important role in human motivation, identity and cognition. Identity here will be the most important factor as far as twins’ otherness is concerned.
Twins comprise to the group of individuals struggling to find the true sense of self. The otherness is a position of outsideness that is needed by a twin to complete the self (Bryce n.d). Depiction of the outsideness is normally achieved by creation of caricatures like cartoons that play roles of the other twin and how he/she thinks. The caricatures also behave in a completely individualistic way reflecting the thinking of one or both twins in their quest to attain independence.
According to (Klein 1995), twins have unique struggles of identity. The reality of twinship more often than not overwhelms the push for development of self identity in twins. The struggles breed conflict struggle in terms of competition and sharing and separations that are always stressful and traumatic (Klein 1995). These conflicts best captured by animations e. g cartoons which are better placed to capture the situation compared to narratives.
Some psychologists have argued that it is possible for twins to have separate identities. This because they owe allegiance to their twinship, and it’s a reality they cannot escape. They also need to develop the self as a separate human being. The difficult and sometime impossible to choose, situation leads them to having double identities.
In the quest to develop their identities through the self, twins have many obstacles, especially the fact that they live in world where most people do not understand what it means to be a twin. The lack of understanding of twins comes out in the various anime/Manga characterizations that producers have developed.
Stereotyping is common in such tales, and caricature presentations that seek to explain the self in twins. The bond that exists between them and whatever they do to cope with their predicament is only understood by themselves and close people like husbands, wives and siblings.
In building a blended identity, twins often feel isolated due to the lack of understanding from people, and only find reprieve from the close people who can stand their close relationship. They have difficulty in relating with other people and surviving alone. For the twins who are never separated in early childhood, the shared identity bond lasts through out their lifetime. It is made up of shared thoughts and emotions that make their functioning away from each other difficult (McMahon 1999).
However in cases where separation takes place in childhood and nature shapes their identity, twins will develop like other human beings who were born single. Medical observers are quick to point some exceptions do exists where even twins separated at birth exhibit similar development of the self, hence identity. Despite efforts by parents or guardians to nurture separate identities, they always remain attached to their twins hence achievement of a complete self is difficult.
According to Newman and Newman, self acceptance comes from positive feelings that someone feels come from the acceptance he receives from other people (2008 p 410).
Newman & Newman further says that conditions of approvals or love that other people put in place present the largest barriers to self acceptance. People are therefore forced to make modifications on their behaviors to suit the opinion of majority so that they can have acceptance.
Twins realize that they live in a non twin world, most of the time that is. It is always difficult for twins to explain themselves to people who do not understand what it means to be a twin. The inability to express themselves about the whole experience foster closer relationship with each other since they are the only ones who can understand it (Herbert 1996). To develop an identity twins must learn to accept their situation as twins so as it can facilitate their relationship with others.
Twins encounter numerous incidences of misunderstanding from non twin people which often leads them to developing closer relationships with fellow twins or next of kin (Windy 1998).
The acceptance of their situation can only find solace it the close bond that they form with their fellow twins. Sometimes, self acceptance is overwhelmed by public views from single people which force twins to behave like the rest of the population. That however does not diminish the bond that twins have and the acceptance of their situation as twins.
The use of tales in characterization of twins grew in the 1980’s in Japan. Numerous stories exist on the failure of twins in accepting themselves as twins and the struggle to be like other people who were born singly. The presentation of the self is better captured through cartoon caricatures that exhibit the struggles twins go through in accepting themselves as people with dual and shared personalities.
The conflict that confronts twins in their quest to develop identity is very conspicuous. Conflicts in twins lives come from separation and identity issues. It is conflict that results from the uncertainty in choosing between the self and the expected self. The social pressures that twins go through to be themselves and at the same time what the society considers normal exposes them to a conflict that is severely emotional (Leal 1994).
The manifestation of the bonds of twins leads to a conflict on their individuality. A conflict motivated by love hate feelings, so to say. The need for one to develop his own unique identity and the tearing force of togetherness dictated by their twin status breeds a conflict (Klein 66). Other psychologists contend that someone who is a twin lives a double souled life where he is in constant communication with the inner companion. The double soul status leads them to conflict where they are torn between two choices of whatever kind.
The fact that twins can live on double identities does little to lessen the inner conflict they have to deal with. The conflict will also stem from difficulty in accepting the separate identity that one twin has as an individual (Danesh 1985).
The strong bond between them may breed conflict especially when one or both twins develop other relationships. Homosexual or heterosexual relationships are likely to be characterized by jealous from one or both twins. The jealous may not be malicious too but just stemming from the internal struggles that they go through.
Twins also do have conflicts when it comes to separation. The attachment that is natured from childhood does not disappear instantly in the case of separation. During schooling years, separation may take a toll on twins who have had close relationships since infancy. They are normally torn between obeying the natural order or their strong feelings towards each other.
However some may find reprieve in their teenage years by developing a completely parallel lifestyle. The intensity of the conflict brought by separation is determined by the bond that they share (Piontelli 2002). Though they may have resentment towards each other just like normal human beings, twins bearing a common external source of stress experience less conflict than those that face stress from within. The conflict too does manifest its elf in cases where twins live in different family settings.
The families may be hostile to each other and when it happens before the twins, it deeply affects them. The separation that stems from such hostile settings normally manifests itself permanently, breeding an almost eternal conflict between these twins. Despite their bond as twins the twins are bound to take sides leading to the widening of distance and more manifestation of the differences.
The same conflicts are distinctly exposed in cases where twins were separated and brought up in different environment. They grow up developing different personalities and qualities. Such twins if they are reunited will feel the twin bond but will always be in conflict trying to be normal and conforming to what they have been made into (Francine 2002).
Twins again do suffer from conflict stemming from death or expected death of one twin. It is a harrowing experience for them especially considering the general belief that twins are exposed to the same course of nature. The surviving twin feels like a part of him has been lost while at the same time he is expected to live a normal life. The conflict affects the surviving twin for the rest of his life.
The above conflict situation description is better captured through dramatized tales and narratives depicting the inner conflict that twins go through to develop their identities.
Narratives have also been used from time immemorial as a manga/anime technique to explain the sexual behavior and feelings in twins. According to Bryce, narratives have told time and again since ancient times to often depicting an ambiguous self and/ or the “other” in relation to sexual and gender issues.
Sexual development in twins is not explicitly linked to their twinness. The development is more individual and minimally linked to the fact that two people are twins. Feelings, orientations and preferences of twins have little to do with the common bond that twins enjoy (Mitterer 2008).
In a nutshell, there is marked improvement in terms development of separate identity as far sexual development is concerned. There have been cases where twins have shown same preferences for sexual partners. However it is not always the case. Many twins especially in teenage develop distinct character identities that always define their sexual orientation (Tinglof 2006). More often than not, they have different tastes. They do also show different sexual orientations against the common birth identity of twinship.
External behavior elicits reactions from different people. Good reactions from people help boost self esteem while negative reactions crush the ego. The special attachment that comes along with being a twin brings a lot of attention from single people. Twins find themselves on the receiving end of peculiar questions regarding their identity, feelings, physicality and their way of thinking. Some of these queries border on the stereotype which makes twins have a crooked view of the world (Stewart 2000).
If the queries that they receive make them feel unwanted, twins view other human beings as evil. The failure by single people to understand twins too does contribute to the view by twins that human beings are evil. However that is not to say that their view on human nature is only crooked (Barbara 1983). The people close to twins do understand them and they contribute to the view that human beings are not a bad lot.
The issue bout the Manga, Anime and representation of identity is a universal one. The twins point of view is just one angle of the big picture. The search for identity in the amine characters is a continuous process which is nearly inevitable. The feelings of conflict, closeness and self acceptance will always characterize creatures in such situations, in search of their identity.
It should never be lost to an observer that twins are normal human beings capable of living a perfect life, like people born singly. The use of tales is especially an effective way of representing the other side of twins. Increasingly, caricatures like cartoons and animations have become more detail oriented and more real in their presentation of twins in the manga/anime characters.
References
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Bryce, M (n.d) Another Half and/or Another Individual: Representation of Twins in Manga. Australia, Macquarie University.
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Klein, S (2003) Not all twins are alike: psychological profiles of twinship. Greenwood Publishing Group, Berlin.
Leal, L (1994) The essentials of psychology, Volume 2. Research & Education Association, New York.
McMahon, M.J (1999) Radical Self-Acceptance: The Spiritual Birth of the Human Person. Crossroad Publishing Company, New York.
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Tinglof, B.C (2006) Parenting School-Age Twins and Multiples. Mc Graw Hill Professional, San Diego.
Windy, D (1998) Developing self-acceptance: a brief, educational, small group approach. Wiley, London.