Fusanosuke NATSUME developed a unique method of comic analysis which focuses on comic's frame and line and comic-specific symbolic expression called 'manpu' in the 1990s, which was the beginning of a quest for manga studies.
1990年代に夏目房之介が、漫画のコマや描線と「漫符」と名付けられた漫画特有の記号的表現に注目して分析する独自の分析手法を開拓し、漫画学の模索が始まった。