What is manga? Features and patterns

Surely, every self-respecting anime fan knows what manga is. After watching your favorite TV series, reading it is the second favorite activity for all otakus. Although, alas, not everyone knows what manga is and they are missing out on a lot. In Japan, manga is much more popular than books, newspapers and even magazines. It is easier to find there than other types of anime goods. It is read by adults and children of all ages. You probably already know that you can buy manga with delivery throughout Ukraine in our Anime store. The manga itself began to develop after the Second World War, and came to us after the 1980s. Now it is very popular all over the world and many publishers are fighting for the right to print the most popular one. The most rated mangas are used to make anime and produce many products for fans.

Whatever one may say, manga is, essentially, Japanese comics. However, it can be so diverse that it is difficult to remember all the types and features. Some compare manga with ordinary comics, already familiar to our eyes, which are popular among children and are easily found on the shelves of any bookstore. This is a big misconception. Even an inexperienced person can easily make a series of comparisons and find at least three main differences.

The most important and noticeable of them is that the manga is completely black and white. This is due to the fact that the mangaka (the person who draws manga) pays a significant amount of attention to the smallest details so that they do not get lost in the overall picture. This requires a lot of work and time. But, you've probably seen color pictures in manga, haven't you? This special part of it is called the cover. Also you can Read manhua. Sometimes authors highlight several special pages in color that depict key moments or an interesting plot twist.

The second difference is very funny and interesting. When you read manga from our publishers, most often everything is quite familiar and easy for you to perceive. But, if you get your hands on a special edition, or, even cooler, a real Japanese manga, then you may be a little surprised when you open the first page and see the word “end”. Do you know why? This trick is due to the fact that real Japanese manga is usually read from the last page, from top to bottom and from right to left. This reading style is common in Japan, as we read from right to left. The quality of the manga, of course, is not affected by the writing style, it is easy to get used to it and, in the end, having received a real manga, you will be able to read it like a real otaku!

The third difference is less noticeable compared to the first two, but it is still considered one of the main ones. I'm sure many of you have seen in regular comics the inscriptions "BABAH, BOOM, SMACK, TYTS, KLOTS" and a bunch of other similar ones. There they are highlighted in bright colors and drawn on top of the pictures in a large font specifically to highlight and emphasize the situation. In the manga they make it easier. Not only because the manga is in black and white, but also because it places more emphasis on depicting the character's emotions. It is important to be able to reflect the situation on the hero’s face, in his smile or tears. Naturally, such inscriptions appear quite often in manga, but they take up very little space and are usually placed next to the incident to which they relate.

Authors are rarely given color pages. They are received by popular manga, which has many fans and first places in the ratings. After all, initially manga is published in large collection magazines, where several authors are published at once, and only then the mangaka gets the opportunity to publish a volume or a whole series of volumes of his masterpiece.

Many anime are dedicated to drawing and publishing manga. This is especially pronounced in the anime "Bakuman", where the main characters make their way along a thorny path to become famous manga artists. More mentions of young authors can be found in the recently released and very popular anime “Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo” (Cat from Sakurasou).