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span class="inline inline-left">Welcome: An illustration by Sarah Tauhid, an Indonesian artist currently residing in Australia. She used the artwork for an Idul Fitri greeting for her friends.While some would associate anime and manga — the Japanese take on cartoons — with short skirts and flowing, multicolored hair, the spread of the art to various countries has given birth to a flow of hijab-donning doe-eyed characters.

These characters are easily found in various bookstores in Jakarta. Illustrations drawn in manga style decorate the covers of Islamic books and fiction that convey religious messages or that have characters that are depicted as Muslims.

Studio Siput, a small art studio comprising three workers, has experience providing illustrations for Islamic books. Their latest works are the illustrations for a series of children’s books called Princess Jihan.

The princess on the covers of the books wears a crown and a flowing dress, but unlike several princesses already familiar to children, she does not bare her hair, neck or arms. The princess’ head is covered with a glittering headscarf and one of the titles in the series is The Miracle of Reading the Quran.

Another design that is featured on the studio’s website is for a book called Ingat Allah dengan 100 Doa (Remember Allah with 100 prayers). Here, the anime style is even more evident, with the characters’ eyes drawn in exaggerated sizes and their faces made round and blushing.

Ferly Leriansyah, one of the members of Siput alongside Jajang Windaya and Hendri Setiawan, said their works extend beyond the Islamic, and indeed their website also features artwork with non-religious themes and characters that do not display particularly religious ways of dressing.

He said it was merely coincidental that their first order for artwork – a tale of the prophets – was Muslim in character.

The debut of the Bandung-based studio was inseparable from Ali Muakhir. “[Ali] was a work acquaintance, but he went into the children’s book scene earlier than us. At first we solely relied on Ali but we needed more jobs so we had to build links,” Ferly said.

Studio Siput is currently working on a book about asmaul husna, or the names of Allah.

Publishers and writers usually give Studio Siput the freedom to create the characters and illustrations for the books, but sometimes the process involves discussion between multiple parties, he added.

According to Ferly, some book publishers like Mizan specifically asked for Japanese-styled artworks for certain book series.

Ferly began drawing in the manga style in 1996 when he was still in junior high school, influenced by the likes of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball and Takeshi Maekawa’s Tekken Chinmi. His drawing style, however, has evolved over time and has now drifted a bit further than the manga style, he said.

Creating hijab-wearing characters is a fairly simple task although original manga style sometimes relies on anatomy and hair movement. “We just play around with the flow of the fabric [of the character’s clothing],” Ferly said.

Reja, an illustrator from Malaysia, is another artist who has been doing illustrations for Islamic books. His works can be enjoyed in the Dunia Aisyah series, published here by Gramedia International.

The main character, Aisyah, is described as fond of games like most children. She, like many other manga characters, also has round eyes and a somewhat “chibi” (mini) look, and her expressions and emotions are also depicted in manga style.

But, like princess Jihan, Aisyah also wears a hijab, and although she might be a bit reluctant to do her homework at times, she is good at reciting the Koran.

Reja said that a book publisher called PTS Islamika, which is under PTS Publications and Distribution, approached him to do illustrations for Dunia Aisyah after his first experience with his own comic, Shootz!, published by Komik-M, which is a sub-company of PTS.  

“In Dunia Aisyah, they chose Islam as their basis for writing. Because of that, they asked me to design the characters based on Islamic characteristics,” Reja said in an email to The Jakarta Post.  

Although he started drawing at 8 years old, it was after reading Dragon Ball that he was inspired to create his own. He said he has tried to change his drawing style but found that drawing in the manga style was easier and just looks better.  

Reja said his preferences go beyond works with Muslim nuance, but he still doesn’t go for the “very sexy-type designs”.  

“It is quite interesting to make illustrations for Islamic stories. Also quite challenging to do the character design, especially … the female characters. It is quite hard to differentiate between all the female characters because when they are wearing hijab they look the same. So I design various types of tudung [headscarves], do other ways of drawing the eyes, nose, etc. to differentiate,” he said.  

Browsing through the Internet creative hub DeviantArt, one can view the gallery of an artist who goes by the name Nayzak. His manga-style works carry various messages but most of them center on Islam and tolerance.  

Fairytale: Various princess designs are featured on the Studio Siput website. Courtesy of Studio Siput/Art by Jajang Windaya, Ferly Leriansyah, Hendri SetiawanOne of his works features a girl in a headscarf and a nun sharing a plate of food, and another, titled “headscarf princesses” features women wearing various styles of headscarf.  

One of the messages of the latter artwork, apparently, is to show that covering one’s hair is not an exclusive feature of Islam.

According to Nayzak, the women in the illustration include an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Sabian (Middle Eastern group mentioned in the Koran along with Jews and Christians) woman.  

Several of Nayzak’s works are nudges to perceived fears of Islam.  

For example, his work Why Not Read the Quran? depicts three chibi characters reading Islam’s holy book. One of the dialogue bubbles says “Strange! I still can’t find where it says blow yourself up and take as many of them with you as possible,” while another says, “Hey guys! You sure this is the Koran?”

In his FAQ section, Nayzak said that manga is “a very nice style. And between Western Style and manga, I think manga is more appropriate to deliver my message.”

There is also the site “Anime 4 Muslims”, which, according to the site’s “about” page, has the purpose of selecting “what animes are and what animes are not appropriate for Muslims”.

A review, signed by Fadzreeq, notes that anime does not have “anything that is un-Islamic. Islam teaches us to be good to friends, foes and families. This is what this anime is all about.”

Toni Masdiono, a member of the Asia-Pacific Animation and Comic Association, said that although the popularity of anime and manga is currently declining due to factors such as a longing to discover a more “personal” style, it certainly has made its mark on the current generation.

“Manga and anime entered Indonesia massively around 1985 to the 1990s, when Indonesian comics were at their low point. So children born in the 1980s are only familiar with the “looks” of manga, anime and a bit of Hong Kong [-style comics]… automatically, manga became the guide for the generation,” Toni said.