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Manga (Kanji:
漫画,
SAMPA: maNga) is the
Japanese equivalent of
comics.
Manga-ka (漫画家) is the
Japanese word for a manga
artist.
Literally translated, manga means "random pictures." The word first
came into common usage after the publication of "Hokusai manga,"
containing assorted drawings from the sketchbook of famous
ukiyo-e artist
Hokusai. Though roughly equivalent to the American comic book, manga
hold more importance in Japanese culture than comics do in American
culture. Manga is much respected both as an art form and form of popular
literature.
In the
19th century a great many examples of Manga were brought to Europe and
influenced popular European artists such as
Degas,
Gauguin,
Van Gogh and
Toulouse-Lautrec.
Manga magazines usually have many series running concurrently with
approximately 30-40 pages allocated to each series per issue. These manga
magazines, or "anthology magazines," as they are also known, can be
anywhere from 200 to more than 850 pages long. Manga magazines also
contain
one-shot comics and various four-panel manga (equivalent to
comic strips). Manga series can run for many years if they are
successful.
When a series has been running for a while, the stories are collected
together and printed in dedicated book-sized volumes. 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.
Manga have been translated into many different languages in different
countries including China, France, Italy, and many more. In the USA, manga
is still a rather small industry, especially when compared to the inroads
that
Japanese animation has made in the USA. The leading manga publisher in
America is
Viz, the American branch of publisher
Shogakukan
http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/ (小学館). They have many popular titles such
as
Neon Genesis Evangelion,
Dragon Ball Z,
Tenchi Muyo! and the various works of
Rumiko Takahashi. Since Japanese is read right-to-left, manga is drawn
and published this way in Japan. However, when various titles were first
translated to other languages, the artwork and layouts were flipped and
reversed in a process known as "Flopping," so that the book may be read
from left-to-right. However, various creators (such as
Akira Toriyama) did not approve of their work being modified this way,
and requested that foreign versions retain the right-to-left format of the
originals. Soon, due to both fan demand and the requests of creators, more
publishers began offering the option of right-to-left formating, which has
now become commonplace in North America. Left-to-right formating has gone
from the rule to the exception.
The most popular and recognizable style of manga is very distinctive.
Emphasis is often placed on line over form, and the storytelling and panel
placement differ from those in western comics. Panels and pages are
typically read from right to left, consistent with traditional
Japanese writing. While the art can be incredibly realistic or
cartoonish, it is often noted that the characters look "Western", or have
large eyes. Large eyes have become a permanent fixation in manga and anime
since the 1960s when
Osamu Tezuka, creator of
Astro Boy and considered the father of modern manga, started drawing
them that way, mimicking the style of Disney cartoons from America. Being
a very diverse artform, however, not all manga artists adhere to the
conventions most popularized in the west through
anime such as
Akira,
Sailor Moon,
Dragonball Z and
Ranma 1/2.
Fairly surprising for western readers is that (somewhat like the
Jazz approach to melody) manga artists don't 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" series in particular is known for this; there are more than
thirteen different pretty-much unrelated story arcs based around Tenchi
and his friends.
Manga, sometimes even adult manga, often have
furigana. The purpose of furigana in manga is to help younger children
who are still learning how to read complex
kanji. They can read the simple-character furigana earlier because it
is taught in school earlier than the complex characters are. There are
even special furigana Japanese-English dictionaries. Furigana is also
often used for character names, where unusual kanji are used or the name
may have more than one possible reading.
Taking a look at online
scanlations of manga is a good way to experience the genre.
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").
Unofficial fan made comics which continue with a series' story or write
an entirely new one using its characters also exist. They are known as
doujinshi.
For an extensive list of Japanese manga and Webmanga, see
List of manga. For the list of Manga artists, see
Mangaka.
Major distributions
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ADV Manga
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Raijin Comics
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Shonen Jump
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Tokyopop
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