Category: Manga

My Favourite Manga That I’ve Read Per Decade

Published September 14, 2023

Considering I wrote an article recently about my favourite anime that I’ve watched from each decade, I thought it would only make sense that I do the same for the manga that I’ve read. The same restrictions as in the other article will apply, those being that I’m not going to include the 2020s since the decade hasn’t finished and that I will be excluding any decades from which I have not read any titles. With that being said, let’s take a look at my favourite manga that I’ve read from each decade.

1920s – The Four Immigrants Manga

First off, I should clarify while the collected book was released in 1931, the original chapters were written from 1924-27. Therefore, I’m counting this as a 1920s title. The Four Immigrants Manga is an autobiographical work by Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama about his and others experience as immigrants to San Francisco and it proves to be a fascinating read. For one, while certainly emphasising comedy, The Four Immigrants Manga is a fascinating insight into a time and perspective that we rarely get to see. Sure, the comedy doesn’t always work and the artwork and panel layout can be rough but, close to a hundred years later, I still found myself enjoying the book and the things I learned about the time period. That certainly counts for something!

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The History Of Vampires In Japanese Media

Published August 28, 2023

Anyone who’s familiar with anime, manga, video games or many other forms of Japanese media will know that vampires are a popular subject with numerous vampire fictions being created throughout the history of these mediums. However, it may surprise you to learn that vampires have only recently grown popular in Japan and, so, I thought I’d take a look at the history of vampires in Japanese media.

To begin, it’s interesting to note that vampires are foreign to Japan with vampires typically associated with European mythology. However, blood-drinking creatures can be found in a wide variety of cultures worldwide and Japan is no exception. Amongst the yokai of Japan, two particularly notable examples that drink blood are the Rokurokubi, creatures who look like women but are capable of extending their neck in a snake-like manner or even detaching their head and flying around, and the Nure-onna, creatures that look like snakes with the head of women, sometimes with arms as well, that uses their tongue to suck the blood out of a body.

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Some Of The More Notable Manga Based On Video Games

Published August 21, 2023

Video games and manga have a long and intertwined history. In the early days of video games, manga was often used to promote new games or to tell stories that were too complex to fit into the limited gameplay of the time. This need has waned as video games have become more and more capable of telling their story without the aid of additional media. Regardless of this, many manga based off of video games continue to be produced and I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the more notable ones.

Let’s start off with, as far as I can tell, the best-selling manga based on a video game, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. Based on the popular Dragon Quest video game series, The Adventures of Dai follows the titular character as, after being the only human on an island called Delmurin that was filled with monsters after the fall of the last demon lord, he learns that the demon lord has returned and that he must be trained by the previous hero, Avan, to fight against this menace. The series has proved popular with numerous anime adaptations and several video games and an estimated 50 million volumes sold as of 2022.

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Exclusive Interview With Remote Angel Authors Yennie Fer And Banunu

Published August 7, 2023

The Kickstarter for Remote Angel Volume 2 is ongoing as of the time of this article and I am honoured that I’ve been given the chance to do this exclusive interview with the authors behind this series, Yennie Fer and Banunu.

Why don’t we start by introducing yourselves to the readers?

Yennie Fer: Hello! I am Yennie Fer. I am an author and the main artist of Remote Angel. I have been doing art nearly my whole life and picked up on writing as a passion in 2020.

Banunu: So my name is Banunu. I have always had a passion for reading and writing. When I reached middle school, I decided that I wanted to start seriously pursuing it.

And since Remote Angel is the topic today, could you give us a brief overview of the premise?

Yennie Fer: Sure! After a freak accident of an attempted assault, Alice Desangi wakes up in a different apocalyptic universe. Gifted with mysterious powers of an earth angel, she dies in unfortunate occurrences. She wakes up to relive that day again in a confused manner. Depending on her choices, they could change history.

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Several Anime And Manga That Were Cancelled

Published July 13, 2023

I’ve spoken before about manga seeing their English releases cancelled but it’s quite different when a series, anime or manga, sees their release in Japan cancelled. When it comes to anime, it can be a little nebulous about when something is cancelled but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some anime and manga series that ended up getting cancelled, some of which may prove quite surprising.

Considering the sheer size of the Gundam franchise, which grossed nearly $1 billion last year, it may shock some of you to hear that the series that started it all, Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979-80, was originally due to run for 52 episodes but suffered from poor TV ratings and ended up having its episode count cut to 43 episodes. While a trilogy of compilation films revitalised the franchise, eventually resulting in Gundam becoming one of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world, it’s always surprising to remember that this titan of anime started out as a ratings failure which resulted in its cancellation.

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Anime And Manga That Are Primarily About Food

Published June 29, 2023

I’m sure we’re all aware of the many lovely shots of food that we see in anime and manga and how delicious they look with examples that primarily spring to my mind being the food from the restaurants in the film “Your Name” and the ramen from the manga and anime “Naruto”. However, there’s also plenty of anime and manga that whose purpose when it comes to food is much stronger, being a central core around which the whole story revolves. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to talk about some anime and manga that primarily deal with food as part of their story.

When it comes to the history of these food anime and manga, the earliest example that I’m aware of is a manga called “Cake Cake Cake” written by Aya Ichinoki and Moto Hagio, one of the Year 24 Group, which centred around a girl, who adores sweets and cakes, moving to Paris in order to learn more about preparing pastries. With regards to anime, the earliest example that I’d aware of is a series called “Mister Ajikko”, an adaptation of the manga of the same name that aired from 1987 to 1989. Of course, I’m sure there must be earlier examples and I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a comment if you are aware of any earlier titles.

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Ribon, Nakayoshi And Ciao: The Three Important Shojo Magazines

Published June 12, 2023

I’ve touched on Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Shonen Magazine quite a bit and have even dedicated an article to Weekly Shonen Sunday! However, while certainly the most popular, there are other manga demographics besides shonen. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some shojo magazines, specifically the three most important, Ribon, Nakayoshi and Ciao.

The earliest of these is Nakayoshi which saw its first issue released in 1954. Published by Kodansha, the magazine has been continuously running since and has sold over 400 million copies over its lifetime. One of the earliest manga that I’m aware of from Nakayoshi is the remake of Princess Knight, a popular series from legendary mangaka Osamu Tezuka, and has made very significant contributions to Japanese popular culture since with numerous popular series such as Candy Candy, Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura running in the magazine.

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My Favourite Manga From Each Major Publisher

Published May 15, 2023

I recently wrote an article called “Some Of The Most Notable English Language Manga Publishers” and, while already mentioning it for one publisher, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at my favourite manga that I’ve read from each of the English language manga publishers that I mentioned.

Starting off with Viz Media, my personal favourite is the legendary “Death Note”. Part of this may come down to nostalgia as it was one of the first manga that I ever read but I also think it remains a fantastic series. For those unfamiliar with the premise, although I bet they are far and few between, Death Note follows a character called Light Yagami who discovers a notebook, the Death Note, which allows him to kill anyone by writing their name into it. What results is a brilliant game of cat and mouse that constantly keeps you guessing what’s about to happen. Granted, the ending isn’t as good as I would’ve liked but it remains a landmark title in the medium of manga.

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What Are Espers And Their Prevalence In Japanese Media

Published May 8, 2023

When exploring Japanese media such as anime, manga and video games, you’re quite likely to come across a term that is infrequently used in the West, “Esper”. It’s a word that is actually quite easy to understand but, due to our lack of familiarity with the term, many can still be quite confused. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what espers are and their prevalence in Japanese media.

Let’s start with what an esper is. An esper refers to someone who has ESP (Extrasensory Perception), hence the first three letters in the word esper. ESP refers to any ability to obtain information outside of the five senses with examples including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition etc. Note that the term only refers to the ability to receive information, not the ability to affect the world around such as telekinesis, levitation, astral projection etc. However, as we are going to see, espers in Japanese media are not restricted by this and are often depicted as being capable of exerting force using their psychic abilities.

Tetsuo from Akira is one of the more notable espers in Japanese media.

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The Interesting Trope Of Banchō and Sukeban

Published April 27, 2023

As I was watching Ultraman Taro, a tokusatsu series, the other day, there were a couple of episodes where some children were being bullied by their seniors and something that stood out to me was their clothing. Large heavy jackets that were black in colour with a tinge of blue, a peaked cap and quite a few metal accessories. I explained to those present that this outfit indicated that they were juvenile delinquents and that I’d seen them in a variety of Japanese media. Realising that I’d never talked about it before, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the interesting trope of Banchō and Sukeban.

Let’s begin by looking at what the words “Banchō” and “Sukeban” mean. Banchō, written as 番長 in Japanese, originally referred to a governmental position that involved controlling troops near towns and was repurposed to describe the gangs and leaders of juvenile delinquent males around the mid-20th century. As these gangs refused to admit female members, sukeban, written as スケバン in Japanese, were established which were female juvenile delinquent gangs.

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