Welcome to Ben's Manga Page!
Here you will find a FAQ on manga, along with some images illustrating my information, and of course links to other manga-related sites.
Remember that I'm always looking for ideas and feedback! If you visit this page and have some comments - or better yet, a question for the FAQ - shoot me a line at benjohnston@compusmart.ab.ca
Enjoy the page!
1. What is manga?
Manga is the Japanese equivalent of a comic book, in essence. It is black-and-white, has fairly involved storylines as a rule, and has a very distinctive style of character design.
2. What is its connection to anime?
In Japan, popular anime series will almost always have manga tie-ins, and often vice versa. In addition, both anime (which is a distinctive style of animation that hails from Japan) and manga share the same character design traits.
3. What are these character designs?
Japanese character designs are very distinctive, possessing a simple face, generally large eyes, and weird hair. There are subtle visual cues such as hair or eye color or clothing that let the reader of the manga tell the different characters apart. Here are some examples of character designs:
The page is from Ranma 1/2; I wanted to show an example of one full page. You know you're a real otaku if you can tell which issue it comes from!
4. What is manga's role in Japanese culture?
Manga can have its origins traced back to ancient times, around the 12th century. Scribblings on walls and then on paper are generally considered to be where manga has its roots. Today, manga is far more acceptable as a mainstream art form in Japan than its North American equivalent, comic books, are in Canada or the United States. Manga is a deeply rooted part of Japanese culture which is surprisingly prevalent in everyday life.
For more information on manga's origins, check out my links section below.
5. What are some manga series?
There are literally hundreds of manga series in Japan, for every possible type of person. This ranges from that terrible Pokemon children's series to the perverted and disgusting hentai series (see below). Don't worry, though, those are two extremes on the anime scale. There's quite literally something for everyone.
If you're new to manga, I'd suggest picking up some Ranma 1/2 or Gundam mangas, which are fairly high quality. Or, if you're looking for a large collection, check out Comics Bon-Bon, a monthly publication of about phonebook size.
6. Where can I get these manga?
I would suggest taking a look in your local comic book store; any store owner worth their salt will either have manga in stock or be able to get you some.
7. What does __________ mean?
Here is some common vocabulary for you:
manga: a black-and-white style of comic that comes from Japan.
anime: the animated equivalent of a manga, albeit in colour.
otaku: a North American manga or anime fan.
hentai: animated pornography from perverts in Japan.
"face-fault": a term commonly used to describe the way a manga character's mouth will drop open in surprise.
"sweat-drop": a term commonly used to describe the way a large drop of water will appear on a character's faith when they're embarassed or feel stupid.
giant hammer: this is more of an image than a term, but hey. Anyway, when a female character hits a male one with a giant hammer, it generally means that the male is acting stupid, and the female is "reprimanding" him. Note that this and the prior two terms are manga shorthand.
gag manga: a manga that is mostly just played for laughs, such as the aforementioned Ranma.
8. What is up with all the cute things in manga?
Japanese seem to like cute, because practically every manga or anime series has some sort of cute character or object in it. It's worth noting, though, that many of these characters have massive destructive power.
Here are some examples of cuteness in manga:
9. What is up with all the splash pages in manga?
Splash pages (images which cover most or all of one or two pages) are fairly common in manga because the artwork lends itself well to big, cool pictures. The artwork tends to carry the series more than the writing does, though not always.
Here are some examples of splash pages:
10. Is Pokemon a good series?
No.
11. But everybody says...
I said no!
That's it, everybody, thanks for visiting!
|
|
