The art of Japan

Manga and Anime

By Akshay Katnaur

To know this world

The purpose of this report is not only an introduction to the world of manga and anime, but also to provide knowledge of its origins, and its diversity.

What are Manga and Anime?

Manga is a type of phone-book size comic native to Japan. It is traditionally in black-and-white and is read from right to left, from the last page to the first. Much like their western counter-parts we are more familiar with, a manga can be published weekly or monthly. An anime is a 2D-adaptation to a manga series. A anime consists of episodes based upon the storyline of the manga.Anime usually fall behind in terms of story with the manga, so as to have a steady flow of episodes while the manga is still being published. Both manga and anime have existed for as long as we might remember MARVEL or DC .Recently it has gained popularity among other countries, and has slowly gained fan base western countries like USA while also holding a large share of the market in Asia. Although anime had debuted in India long ago. It officially gained awareness among Indian children in 2009 with the launch of Animax TV on Indian television, bringing different anime series 24 hours.Its also the first channel of its kind to do so.

History of manga
Though an outsider might think Japan "stole" comics from the West, this is not true. Japan has been making cartoonish art for a very long time (there are humorous ink drawings of animals and caricatured people from hundreds of years ago, bearing striking resemblances to modern manga). True, some aspects of manga are taken from the West (Osamu Tezuka, the "father" of modern manga, was influenced by Disney and Max Fleisher), but its main features, such as simple lines and stylized features, are distinctly Japanese. It may be that Chinese art had more influence than Western. Although manga exists in this time it still holds the roots of its cultural origin in japan.Manga is usually black-and-white due to the traditional Japanese being written with black ink and with a paintbrush, on white paper. Japanese is usually printed in vertical columns from right to left, thus explaining the odd pattern to read a manga from the end page to the first.

(Image showing how a manga is to be read)

Publication
In Japan, manga constituted an annual 406 billion yen (approximately $3.6 billion USD) publication-industry by 2007. Recently, the manga industry has expanded worldwide with distribution companies license and reprint manga into their native languages. After a series has run for a while, publishers often collect the stories together and print them in dedicated book-sized volumes, called tankbon. These are the equivalent of U.S. trade paperbacks or graphic novels. 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 (about $1 U.S. dollar) each to compete with the used book market.

Age groups and genre

Although the graphics is the style of the cartoons anime is much more than caricature to their fans. Although traditional animation in the U.S. either humorous or simple are good versus evil stories, the typical Japanese cartoon characters as the series along and deals with complex issues real life to develop, such as friendship, love, loss, although the reality and the acceptance of death. Japanese manga is based on the genre since its inception to marketing. The titles are for children (Kodomo Manga), girls and adolescents (shojo manga), and in children and adolescents (shonen manga), Women (Josei Manga) and men (Seinen Manga) created. Manga is not only for specific age groups, but also have different genres, just like novels and movies. The genre includes a broad range of subjects: actionadventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce, among others.

These genres are further passed down to the respective anime series, which also go about the same way.

Popular manga

Just like movies and books, manga too are viewed by a large number people, and thus are cited and received by a large number of audiences. They too have award ceremonies, and the most popular ones are awarded. The Japanese manga industry grants a large number of awards, mostly sponsored by publishers, with the winning prize usually including publication of the winning stories in magazines released by the sponsoring publisher. Examples of these awards include:

the Akatsuka Award for humorous manga the Dengeki Comic Grand Prix for one-shot manga the Kodansha Manga Award (multiple genre awards) the Seiun Award for best science fiction comic of the year the Shogakukan Manga Award (multiple genres) the Tezuka Award for best new serial manga the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize (multiple genres)

Here are some of the top selling mangas which have been well received.

Bleach by Tite Kubo

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Currently one of the longest running manga)

Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto (Currently one of the best selling manga)

Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima

We Conclude...
So exactly what do we learn about manga/anime from this? Manga has emerged out of Japan and now is distributed worldwide. It has gained a lot of readers and fans and continues to develop weekly/monthly. Unlike American comics and cartoons, manga does not revolve around a simple plot and is not only meant for kids.Infact they are usually separated according to age groups and genres. It is now a popular culture, which continues to grow to this day, as each week hundreds and thousands of mangas are sold in stores, in various languages around the globe. Popular Manga series are followed by an anime, which is a 2D-cartoon based on the series. Thus getting distributed as media as well. So the next time you walk into a bookstore and find yourself picking up a manga,or switching on the TV to watch animax.Dont feel uncomfortable, they are meant for you.