Manga come in two main forms: weekly, twice-monthly and monthly magazine style manga and paperback books, usually in a series. These series often spin off from the magazines and in turn are made into TV shows or movies; like Dragonball Z and Naruto.
Manga is read from the back of the book forward and one the page from top to bottom, left to right. It can be kind of confusing.Have you ever read a manga comic or book before?? Do you collect any comics or love a particular character?
Many manga carry full-color advertisements for muscle-building devices and pheromone sprays. As you might have guessed, most manga are geared toward shonen (young guys). But there are also shojo (young girl) manga. They deal mainly with science-fiction, sports and romance and tend to portray male characters as stereotypically as the guy's manga do with female characters. A popular girl's manga is Sailor Moon, which also became a successful TV show and several movies. Naturally, they're popular with girls but also with a certain number of boys and young men. This and the popularity of animated porn is, I'm afraid, beyond my understanding. Suffice to say that the world of manga and anime (animation) is huge in Japan and beyond and there are countless Web sites dedicated to it.
Most weekly manga are the thickness of a telephone book. Even though they are printed on recycled paper, the price of around 200 yen seems ridiculously cheap. But with weekly sales in some cases of over five million copies and the most popular stories going on to become paperback collections, TV cartoons or dramas and even full-length movies, manga are very big business. Just two examples are given below.Shonen MagazineOne of the pioneers of the fat shukan manga (weeklies), along with Shonen Sunday, Shonen Magazine debuted in 1959 and is still one of the most popular boy's manga (shonen means young boy). With over 200 pages and a cover price of 230 yen, it seems like pretty good value. All the stories use kana (phonic) characters next to the kanji (Chinese characters), which makes them readable for the younger or less literate Japanese and useful for students of the language. As well as the manga stories and advertisements, the magazine has full-color photo spreads of a couple of teenage bimbos, usually in bikinis and with a contact address for fan-mail. The October 27th, 1999 issue (right) includes the mangas GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), which has been made into a TV drama and a movie, and Psychometora EIJI, made into a TV psycho-drama starring heartthrob Matsuoka Masahiro. Other subjects include soccer, fishing and sushi, while with some of the manga it's hard to tell what exactly they're about.
Launched in 1968, Jump tried to do things differently from the start. In order to compete with the already successful Shonen Magazine and Shonen Sunday, Jump concentrated on hiring and hanging onto talented but as yet undiscovered cartoonists and keeping a close eye on what its readers wanted, through surveys and polls. This approach helped Jump become by far the biggest manga in Japan with sales as high as six million copies a week. Its most successful series have been spun off to create TV cartoons, movies and video games including Dragonball Z and Dragon Quest which have been hugely popular both in Japan and abroad. Other huge domestic hits include Kinnikuman (Muscle Man) and Slam Dunk, which capitalized on the NBA craze of the early and mid-90's. 
Have you ever watched any anime? It is highly entertaining and the art work is amazing! You should check it out. Some popular TV shows that you can see on 
Ha thats kinda funny that older men will read comic books, but a lot of them are not suitable for children. I can't believe that their weekly magna is as thich as a telephone book.
ReplyDeleteJapanese culture is way different than ours.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how much we are different than them! As in the comic books and the way you read them. Reading them seems confusing enough and how you have to read from the back and start at the bottom. I have seen an anime on Nick. The drawings are absolutely amazing. They must be very artistic there. Im not too big into comic books but i would be interested in reading a Japanese one.
Anime looks interesting for people that are into cartoon books and things like that. but to me it doesnt look very interesting. it is cool how you have to read them the opposite way that we read in the united states. i have read one before. or at least tried to. it was very confusing so i only read two pages. i have not watched any anime other than that youtube video.
ReplyDeleteI think anyone who is into cartoons will like Anime, its a different type of art that stnads out to all age groups.When I first saw anything on Anime, the first thing that came to mind was Pokemon or somthing like that. But I was competely worng! Its so much more and completely different it actually seems a little bit interesting.
ReplyDeleteI do think it is a little funny how on some of the comics there are restrictions for the content and violence, NO KIDS ALLOWED! Its so hard to believe that they consider it pornography too! WOW!
A weekly magna being as thick as a telephone book!? What? Thats insane, I cant lie but I dont think I could read it only because any book that is thicker than an inch os out of the question for me!
I think it's funny how older men read the comic books and how they're as big as a telephone book. It's weird how they read the comic books backwards! There is only one I watched (I think) and that is Sailor Moon and the graphics and drawings look great too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would like Anime because I had never really liked cartoons growing up. But if you can get into them I think they would be neat to watch. I think it's strange how other countries do things backwards? Like reading or driving!
ReplyDeleteI used to watch anime shows like Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh all the time. These days I don't watch it very much. If I had to pick a favorite anime character it would probably be yu-gi-oh.
ReplyDeleteUhm, I find it kind of weird that older men read anime, but I guess that is another difference between Japan and the U.S. I think anime is weird, but that's just my opinion. I've never really took intrest in it. It's strange that you read them backwards. And there's no way I would read a book as think as a telephone book!
ReplyDeleteWow!! Having your kids watch pornography is crazy. The United States and Japan is very different. I have never read a comic book before. I think I wouldnt get into reading or collecting them.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap!!! Why would you let yous KIDS watch pornography!Well i have read a little of Katie's comic books.I have saw Dragon Ball Z cause my cousin watches it. Well now i can tell how the U.S is different from Japan.
ReplyDeletePornography is going beyond rediculous!! I Would never let my kiids do that! I have never been intrested in anime. Its weird how in the U.S its usually the younger generation is into the anime not the older men. I could never read a book backwords i would probably get all confused, but thats just another difference between us and Japan.
ReplyDeletehey i knew the show narota the action and violenct is intertaning i dont see how there is one book for girls and another for boys way not just read the same books and is there some good reason for reading the book from back to front
ReplyDeleteJapanese cartoons are cool if you are in to that kinda of stuff but that cartoon stuff would bore me. I watch Dragonball Z with my little brothers but other than that i dont watch Japanese Cartoons.Our culture and comic books are so different from each other. Its weird that men sit on trains and read the comic books and men in the US wouldnt touch a comic book.
ReplyDeletewoah ! how could you let your kids watch pornogrophy ! that is ridiclious ! if i wouold become a parent i would never let my kids do that ! but that is why japan is different from us !
ReplyDeleteOlder men watching cartoons or reading comics is just a little weird. i have seen these animae cartoons on t.v. but i always just flip through them. I have always thought they lokked stupid.
ReplyDeleteits akward that old dudes read comic books for kids. they obviously have to much time on their hands if they can read a telephone sized book in a week. i used to play dragonball z one the playstation until i realized it was weird. from alex
ReplyDeleteThis looks some what different than our American comics and characters. I know people that still watch or look at and also read about them still today. My cousins have books in the English version. That;s just not my bag of magizines.
ReplyDeleteSomeone might love it!
Cool! Unfortunately, my manga knowledge is limited to Saturday morning tv shows like Sonic X and Teen Titans!!But now i understand why Manga is so successfull: some of it is pornographic! I've never really been huge into it i just love all the overexaggerated emotions!
ReplyDeleteI stick to my old Captain America comics, because he's a Commie-fighting patriot.