What is manga, how did the genre develop, and how does it differ from Western comics? 

If you had to explain what manga is in a nutshell, you could say that it is a Japanese comic book. But such a definition would be too superficial. In fact, manga is much more than that, if only because this type of comics has its own name, which is known throughout the world.

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How did it all begin?

Manga, like any other art form, has its own history, but there is still no consensus on how and when the first manga appeared. So let’s look at some of the origins of manga.

Version 1: the penetration of American comics in Japan after 1945.

This version of the origin of manga is held by Dr. Sharon Kinsella, who teaches at the University of Manchester. It is difficult not to agree with her opinion, at least in part, because after so many years of isolation the Japanese greedily absorbed everything new. American films and television have also had a serious influence on modern manga. In particular the activity of the Disney studio.

Version 2: The author of the first manga was a Buddhist monk

According to Mark McWilliams, another researcher, the first Japanese comic book appeared as early as the 12th century. Its author was the Buddhist monk Toba Shozo. The monk drew four scrolls called teojugiga, «funny pictures of animals. What were these drawings notable for? Each scroll told a story that had to be read from right to left (like a manga). The largest scroll is 11 meters long and depicts the life of twelfth century Japanese, depicted as animals. These scrolls are a national treasure of Japan and are preserved in museums in Tokyo and Kyoto. Later, in the middle of the XVII century, two new trends in art — otsu-e and ukiyo-e became popular. Otsu-e — folk art, pictures, most often depicting simple satirical subjects, with explanatory captions. Ukiyo-e were the famous prints that depicted monsters, sumo wrestlers or beautiful geisha. Over time, they began to decorate stories with such pictures, calling them «ehon» — «book of pictures». In 1798, the term «manga» was coined for the first time.

source: 10-raisons.fr/

What is manga like today?

No matter how deep the roots of manga are in the Japanese tradition, it wasn’t until the 1950s that this form of art found its modern form. Advances in economics and printing gave artists the opportunity to create something new and allowed them to tell the whole country amazing stories. Every unusual work that came out at the time, created a new genre, became a breakthrough.

While a special committee on censorship in comics, known as the Comics Code Authority, stymied the development of comics in the U.S. for decades, turning them into entertainment exclusively for children, in Japan manga developed absolutely freely. Now manga is a whole industry that has become a symbol of Japan on a par with samurai, sakurai and anime. Everyone in the country reads manga, both adults and children. This demand has created a huge variety of genres. You can find everything from giant robot fighters and pirates to wizards and cat girls in manga. Sports, comedy, drama, romance, martial arts, horror, science fiction, detectives and fantasy are just some of the genres that are revealed in manga.

source: unsplash.com

What is the main difference between manga and Western comics?

1. The color palette. Virtually all manga are black and white, and even with modern printing capabilities, the tradition is not broken. It just so happens that manga had its heyday in the post-war years, when the economy was just beginning to recover and few people could afford to buy color magazines on good paper every week.
2. Specifics of reading. Manga, like any Japanese literature, should be read from right to left.
3. One author. Often a manga is a purely personal work, on which works one author. The plot, storyboard, sketches, backgrounds, sounds and text are all created by one person, sometimes involving assistants. Whereas a comic strip is the work of a team of professionals.

Sometimes the work on the manga series becomes a lifelong affair. Thus, the world famous hits Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, One Piece by Eiichiro Oda and many, many other series, on which the permanent author has been working for years. In comics, it’s rare to see the same character development as in the manga, because the authors often replace each other and the series is fragmented into several parts. There are exceptions, of course, but they get lost in the crowd. In manga, changing authors is unthinkable! Long manga series, created over the years, are an opportunity not to limit imagination and tell the story of the characters from beginning to end.

The Meaning of Manga

Manga and their screen incarnation, the anime, have long been very popular in the United States and Europe. The most successful manga is also published in other languages, and the largest streaming service Netflix has long adapted it, releasing the feature films Bleach, Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist, among others.

The manga’s popularity stems from the fact that it is an inexhaustible source of original stories. Hollywood has long produced blockbusters based on popular manga. Recently in such projects have invested a lot of money and invited well-known actors. For example, the film «Fringe of the Future» with Tom Cruise is based on All You Need Is Kill and tells the story of a soldier caught in a time loop. No matter how many times a guy dies in combat, each time he is reborn, allowing him to envision the future and hone his fighting skills to defeat the alien invaders. «Ghost in the Shell,» starring Scarlett Johansson, is a rather liberal adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, whose protagonist, the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi, in her spare time fighting crime, wonders what defines a person — body or soul? But despite the abundance of films based on the manga, they are still far from the original.