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Manga
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{{japanese|eng=Manga|kanji=漫画|kana=�ん�|romaji=manga}}
{{otheruses}}
'''Manga''' (漫画) is the
Japanese language Japanese word for
comics and print
cartoons. Outside of
Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese
comics. Manga developed from a mixture of ''
ukiyo-e'' and Western styles of drawing, and took its current form shortly after
World War II. It comes mainly in black and white, except for the covers and sometimes the first few pages.
Image:InuYashaVolume1.jpg InuYasha.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|2nd English edition of ''[[InuYasha Vol. 1'' manga graphic novel..html" title="Meaning of 2nd English edition of ''[[InuYasha">thumb|2nd English edition of ''[[InuYasha Vol. 1'' manga graphic novel.">2nd English edition of ''[[InuYasha">thumb|2nd English edition of ''[[InuYasha Vol. 1'' manga graphic novel.
Popular manga is often adapted into
anime, once a market interest has been established. Adapted stories are often modified to appeal to a more mainstream market. Although not as common, original anime is sometimes adapted into manga (such as ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion'').
Origins
{{Main|History of manga}}
Literally translated, ''manga'' means "random (or whimsical) pictures". The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century with the publication of such works as Santo Kyoden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798) and Aikawa Minwa’s "Comic Sketches of a Hundred Women" (1798) and the
19th century ''
Hokusai manga'', containing assorted drawings from the sketchbook of the famous ''
ukiyo-e'' artist
Hokusai. However, ''
gi-ga'' (literally "funny pictures") drawn in the
12th century by various artists contain many manga-like qualities such as emphasis on story and simple, artistic lines.
Manga developed from a mixture of ''ukiyo-e'' and Western art movements. When the
United States began trading with Japan, Japan tried to modernise itself and catch up with the rest of the world. Thus, they imported Western artists to teach their students things such as line, form and colour (things which were never concentrated on in ''ukiyo-e'' as the idea behind the picture was normally considered more important). Manga at this period was known as ''Ponchi-e'' (Punch-picture) and, like its British counterpart
Punch (magazine) Punch magazine, mainly depicted humour and political satire in short 1 or 4 picture format.
Image:Osamu Tezuka Stamp.jpg thumb|300px|right|Osamu Tezuka and his creations commemorated on two stamps
Manga as people know it in the 20th and 21st centuries only really came into being after Dr.
Osamu Tezuka, widely acknowledged to be the father of story-based manga, became popular. In 1945, Tezuka who was studying medicine, saw a war propaganda animation film called ''
Momotarou Uminokaihei'' whose style was largely copied from
The Walt Disney Company Disney's ''
Fantasia''. Though a war propaganda film, it was also a children's film, so the main theme of the film was peace and hope in the time of darkness. Tezuka was greatly inspired by the film and later decided to become a comic artist, which at the time (and somewhat even now) was an unthinkable choice for a qualified medical doctor. He later commented that a part of reason he went to medical school was to avoid conscription and he actually didn't like seeing blood.
Before Tezuka, most Japanese comics were drawn on one or four picture format dealing with social or
political satire or humour. Tezuka introduced film-like story telling and character in comic format in which each short-film like episode is part of larger story arc. The only text in Tezuka's comics was the characters' dialogue and this lent the comics a cinematic quality. Tezuka also adopted Disney-like facial features where a character's eyes, mouth, eyebrows and nose are drawn in a very exaggerated manner to add more distinct characterisation with fewer lines which made his prolific output possible. This somewhat revived the old ukiyo-e like tradition where the picture is a projection of an idea rather than actual physical reality.
Initially, his comic was published in a children's magazine. Soon, it became a specialised weekly or monthly comic magazine, which is now the foundation of the Japanese comic industry. Tezuka adapted his comic to almost all film genres at the time. His manga series cover from action adventure (for example ''
Kimba the White Lion'' (''Jungle Emperor Leo'')) to serious drama (for example ''
Black Jack (manga) Black Jack'') to science fiction (for example ''
Astro Boy''), horror (for example ''
Dororo'', ''
The Three-eyed One''.) It is often commented that any manga genre which Tezuka did not create was done by someone who was desperately trying to find something Tezuka wasn't doing. Though he is known in the West as a creator of the children's animation ''Astro Boy'', many of his comics had some very mature and sometimes dark undertones. Most of his comics' central characters had a tragic background. Atom (Astro Boy) was created by a grieving scientist trying to create an imitation of his dead son, who then later abandoned the boy. Kimba's father was killed by human hunters and the theme of conflict between man and nature was a recurring theme for the comic. Hyakkimaru in Dororo was born severly crippled because his father offered 48 parts of Dororo's infant body to 48 demons. Some criticise Tezuka's somewhat excessive use of tragic dramatisation in his stories. As the manga generation of children grew up, the market for comics expanded accordingly and manga soon become a major cultural force of Japan. Tezuka also contributed to the social acceptance of manga. His qualification as a medical doctor as well as his serious storylines were used to deflect criticism that manga was vulgar and undesirable for children. He also mentored a number of important comic artists, such as
Fujiko Fujio (creator of ''
Doraemon''),
Akatuka Fujio and
Shotaro Ishinomori.
Gekiga
Another important trend in manga was
gekiga. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, there were two forms of comic serialisation. One, the manga format, was based on the sales of magazines. The other, gekiga, was based on a rental format, much in the same line as the modern movie rental systems. Manga was based on weekly or biweekly magazine publications so the demand for prompt production and deadline was paramount. Consequently, most manga artists adopted Tezuka-style drawing where characters are drawn in a simpler but exaggerated manner - most typified by large round eyes which is regarded as a defining feature of Japanese comic in the west.
Gekiga on the other hand did not have any deadline, and can be seen as analogous to
graphic novels in the USA. The artist could use much more detailed drawings and more realistic portrayal of character. As well, a greatly complex and mature story line was also available. For this reason, gekiga was considered to be much more artistically superior. However, gekiga's rental business model eventually died out in the 1970s, while comic artists in manga format significantly improved their graphic quality and story. Eventually, gekiga was absorbed into manga and now is used to describe manga style which does not use cartoonish drawing. The most famous gekiga style manga in the West is ''
Akira (manga) Akira''.
Cultural importance
Though roughly equivalent to the American
comic book, manga holds more importance in Japanese culture than comics do in American culture. In economic terms, weekly sales of comics in Japan exceed the entire annual output of the American comic industry. Several major manga magazines sell several million copies each per week. Manga is well respected both as an art form and as a form of popular literature though it has not reached acceptance of "higher" art genres like film or music. Like its American counterpart, some manga has been criticized for being violent and sexual. For example, a number of film adaptation of manga such as ''
Ichi the Killer'' or ''
Oldboy (manga) Old Boy'' were rated Restricted or Mature in the west. However, there have been no official inquiries or laws trying to limit what can be drawn in manga, except for vague decency laws applying to all published materials, stating that "overly indecent materials should not be sold." This freedom has allowed artists to draw manga for every age group and for about every topic.
The manga style
Image:Manga Example.png Marmalade Boy.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|A page from the ''[[Marmalade Boy'' manga, volume 1 (Japanese version).html" title="Meaning of A page from the ''[[Marmalade Boy">thumb|A page from the ''[[Marmalade Boy'' manga, volume 1 (Japanese version)">A page from the ''[[Marmalade Boy">thumb|A page from the ''[[Marmalade Boy'' manga, volume 1 (Japanese version)
The popular and recognizable style of manga is very distinctive. Emphasis is often placed on line over form, and the storytelling and panel placement differs from those in Western comics. Impressionistic backgrounds are very common, as are sequences in which the panel shows details of the setting rather than the characters. Panels and pages are typically read from right to left, consistent with traditional
Japanese language#Writing system Japanese writing.
Image:Moe-Manga-pic.GIF thumb|100px|''Moe'' face picture.
While the art can be incredibly realistic or cartoonish, it is often noted that the characters have large eyes, small noses, tiny mouths, and flat faces. Large eyes have become a permanent fixture in manga and anime since the 1960s when
Osamu Tezuka (see above) started drawing them in this way, mimicking the style of
The Walt Disney Company Disney cartoons from the
United States.
Image:Moe-Manga-eye-pic.GIF thumb|100px|''Moe'' eyes picture.
Further more, inside the big eyes, the transparent feeling of pupils and the "stars" like reflection in eyes are often exaggrated, regardless of surrounding lightening.
(See also:
Bishoujo)
Being a very diverse artform, however, not all manga artists adhere to the conventions most popularized in the west through
anime such as ''
Akira (manga) Akira'', ''
Sailor Moon'', ''
Dragon Ball Z'', and ''
Ranma ½''.
A fair number of manga artists do not feel that their stories and characters are set in stone. So a set of characters may build relationships, jobs, etc. in one set of stories ("
story arc") only to have another story arc run where the same characters do not know each other. The ''
Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi'' series in particular is known for this; there are more than thirteen different unrelated story arcs based around Tenchi and his friends.
Manga symbols
The following is a non-exhaustive list of artistic conventions used in mainstream manga.
*A white cross-like bandage symbol denotes pain.
*A large sweat-drop on the side of face denotes embarrassment or exasperation.
*A scribble on the cheek shows injury.
*A red cheek denotes embarrassment.
*A balloon dangling from one nostril indicates sleep.
*
Hammerspace.
*A common artistic pun are nosebleeds, usually caused by shocking sights - especially those with a sexual undertone.
*There are also many eye symbols such as love-hearts, crosses and spirals.
Manga format
Manga magazines usually have many series running concurrently with approximately 20–40 pages allocated to each series per issue. These manga magazines, or "anthology magazines", as they are also known (colloquially "
phone books"), are usually printed on low-quality newsprint and can be anywhere from 200 to more than 850 pages long. Manga magazines also contain
one-shot comics and various four-panel
yonkoma (equivalent to
comic strips). Manga series can run for many years if they are successful. Manga artists sometimes start out with a few "one-shot" manga projects just to try to get their name out. If these are successful and receive good reviews, they are continued.
When a series has been running for a while, the stories are usually collected together and printed in dedicated book-sized volumes, called
tankÅ?bon. These are the equivalent of American comic's
Trade paperback (comics) trade paperbacks. These volumes use higher-quality paper, and are useful to those who want to "catch up" with a series so they can follow it in the magazines or if they find the cost of the weeklies or monthlies to be prohibitive. Recently, "deluxe" versions have also been printed as readers have gotten older and the need for something special grew. Old manga have also been reprinted using somewhat lesser quality paper and sold for 100
yen (approximately one US Dollar) each to compete with the used book market.
Manga are primarily classified by the age and gender of the target audience. In particular, books and magazines sold to boys (
ShÅ?nen manga shÅ?nen) and girls (
ShÅ?jo manga shÅ?jo) have distinctive cover art and are placed on different shelves in most bookstores.
Japan also has manga cafés, or manga kissaten. At a manga kissaten, people drink
coffee (drink) coffee and read manga.
Many things appear in manga format, including wanted posters for criminals.
Traditionally, manga are written from
yokogaki and tategaki right to left. Some publishers of translated manga keep that format, but some switch the direction to left to right, so as not to confuse Western readers.
DÅ?jinshi
Some manga artists will produce extra, sometimes unrelated material, which are known as ''omake'' (lit. "bonus" or "extra"). They might also publish their unfinished drawings or sketches, known as ''
oekaki'' (lit. "sketches").
DÅ?jinshi is produced by small amateur publishers outside of the mainstream commercial market in a similar fashion to
small press small-press independently published
comic books in the
United States.
Comiket, the largest comic book
convention in the world with over 400,000 gathering in 3 days, is devoted to dÅ?jinshi.
Unofficial fan made comics are also called ''dÅ?jinshi''. Some dÅ?jinshi continue with a series' story or write an entirely new one using its characters, much like
fan fiction.
Types of manga
Many of these genres apply equally well to
anime (which very often includes adaptations of manga) and Japanese
computer game computer games (some of which are also adaptations of manga).
By target audience
*''
Josei'' (or ''redikomi'') women
*''
Kodomo'' children
*''
Seinen'' men
*''
ShÅ?jo manga ShÅ?jo'' young and teenage girls
*''
ShÅ?nen manga ShÅ?nen'' young and teenage boys
Genres
*
Alternative manga Alternative (See also:
Garo)
**
Gekiga (dramatic pictures)
**
La nouvelle manga (Franco-Belgian/Japanese artistic movement)
**
semi-alternative manga Semi-alternative (popular publication individualistic style)
*
Battling companion (not an official name)
*
Dojinshi DÅ?jinshi Fan-art or self-published manga
*
Magical girl (''mahÅ? shÅ?jo'')
*
Mecha (giant robots)
*
Moé (also ''mahÅ? kanojo'' or magical girlfriend)
*
ShÅ?jo-ai (or
Yuri (animation) Yuri, lesbian romance)
*
ShÅ?nen-ai (or
Yaoi, gay romance)
International influence
Image:Cover demo2.jpg Demo_(comics) thumb|right|''[[Demo (comics)|Demo'' by
Brian Wood (illustrator) Brian Wood (story) and
Becky Cloonan (art) is an example of an American comic that is influenced by manga.html" title="Meaning of Demo.html" title="Meaning of thumb|right|''[[Demo (comics)|Demo">thumb|right|''[[Demo (comics)|Demo'' by
Brian Wood (illustrator) Brian Wood (story) and
Becky Cloonan (art) is an example of an American comic that is influenced by manga">Demo.html" title="Meaning of thumb|right|''[[Demo (comics)|Demo">thumb|right|''[[Demo (comics)|Demo'' by
Brian Wood (illustrator) Brian Wood (story) and
Becky Cloonan (art) is an example of an American comic that is influenced by manga
Manga has long had an influence on international comics and animation the world over.
American artist and writer
Frank Miller has been heavily influenced by Manga and in particular by
Kazuo Koike Kazuo Koike's 28 volume samurai epic ''Lone Wolf and Cub''. Miller was one of the first American comic artists to make use of
decompression (comics) decompression, a style prevalent in Manga.
Other American artists such as
Brian Wood (illustrator) Brian Wood and
Becky Cloonan (''
Demo (comics) Demo'') and Canadian
Bryan Lee O'Malley (''
Lost At Sea,'' ''
Scott Pilgrim'') are heavily influenced by the mainstream manga style and have received acclaim for their work outside of anime/manga fan circles. These artists have many other influences that make their work more palatable to non-manga readers. These artists have their roots in the anime/manga subculture of their particular regions.
American artist
Paul Pope worked in Japan for
Kodansha on the manga anthology ''
Afternoon (magazine) Afternoon''. Before he was fired (due to an editorial change at Kodansha) he was developing many ideas for the anthology that he would later publish in the U.S. as ''
Heavy Liquid (comic) Heavy Liquid''. As a result his work features a strong influence from manga without influences from international
otaku culture.
In France there is a
La nouvelle manga "Nouvelle Manga" movement started by
Frédéric Boilet which seeks to combine mature sophisticated daily life manga with the artistic style of traditional
Franco-Belgian comics. While the movement also involves Japanese artists, a handful of French cartoonists other than Boilet have decided to embrace its ideal.
In addition, there are many amateur artists who are influenced exclusively by the manga style. Many of these have their own small publishing houses, and some
webcomics in this style have become very popular (see ''
Megatokyo''). For the most part, these artists are not yet recognized outside of the anime and manga fan community. Many people outside of those circles view those works as being too focused on the American anime subculture, and not focused enough on telling stories that resonate with a wider audience.
Manga outside Japan
{{main|Manga outside Japan}}
Language notes
*Because nouns in
Japanese language Japanese do not have a plural form, ''manga'' is the form for both plural and singular. It is also commonly called コミック(''komikku'', from ''comic'') in Japanese.
*''
Mangaka'' (漫画家) Literally "Manga professional" is a
Japanese language Japanese term for a manga author/artist.
See also
*
Anime
*
Dojinshi DÅ?jinshi
**
List of dojinshi (manga)
*
List of manga
**
List of H manga
**
List of H doujinshi (manga) List of H dÅ?jinshi (manga)
*
List of manga by Japanese title
*
List of manga distributors
*
List of manga magazines
*
Manhua (manga from the
Sinosphere)
*
Manhwa (Korean manga)
References
*Gravett, Paul. ''Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics''. New York: Collins Design, 2004. ISBN 1856693910.
*Schodt, Frederik L. ''Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga''. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 1996. ISBN 188065623X.
*Schodt, Frederik L. ''Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics''. New York: Kodansha International, 1983. ISBN 870117521, ISBN 4770023057.
External links
'''Websites with descriptions and information:'''
-
Anime Frontier- Features a number of manga reviews and news items, as well as a growing database of manga related information.
-
Anime News Network- A huge database of information on anime as well as manga.
-
Anime University - History of Manga History of Manga article from AnimeInfo.
-
Manganews.net - Contains a large database of manga titles with useful descriptions, and also lists recently
scanlation scanlated manga, with manga news and reviews updated daily.
-
Baka-Updates Manga Lists manga title and author information, and has information pertaining to manga scanlations.
-
U.S. Papers Adding Japanese-Style Comics
-
Manga Design reviewed w/ art
-
Manga Magazine Guide Guide to Japanese Manga Anthology.
'''Websites of News:'''
-
Manga Jouhou- Manga news
-
Manga.3Yen - Daily news and info on Manga from Japan.
-
Manga Reviewer - Reviews, previews and mangaka bios.
'''Websites with Tutorials:'''
-
Mangaka.co.za A South African manga community site with artist profiles, video manga tutorials & forum discussions.
-
How to draw manga - A popular series of art instruction books. Here the tutorial page.
'''Websites with illustrations:'''
-
Mangallery- A big Manga and Anime Gallery in Poland.
-
Lyhana8- Huge database of pics, able to illustrate this article.
'''Webstores supplying Japanese language original manga:'''
-
JList- A store with doujinshi and artbooks (Warning: Contains explicit images)
-
Bemmu- Supplies any Japanese manga or artbooks
-
Sasuga- Great selection of manga
'''Others websites:'''
-
IMAF - International Manga and Anime Festival,
County Hall, London
Category:Comic books
Category:Manga *
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{{verylarge}}
{{catmore|Manga}}
Manga (
Kanji: 漫画,
International Phonetic Alphabet for English IPA: {{IPA|maŋga}}) is the
Japanese language Japanese word for
comics; outside of
Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics.
See also
*
:Category:Anime
*
:Category:Comics
*
:Category:Comic books
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