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Category: Manga

The Unusual Genre of Harem

Published July 19, 2021

One of the reasons that I originally fell in love with the mediums of manga and anime were the variety of genres and storytelling formats that had developed in contrast to the, at the time, stale stories told by Western animation. However, a controversial genre commonly seen in manga and anime and certainly one of the more unusual ones has to be the harem genre.

First, I should explain the origins of the word “harem” since that by itself explains quite a bit about what you’ll find when you begin to explore the genre. Harem is originally a Turkish word that referred to areas within a house that were exclusive to women. Interestingly, this word developed from the Arabic word “Haram” which literally translates as forbidden. However, the word harem tends to have a different definition in the English language, that being the women who make up a polygynous marriage. When it comes to the harem genre of manga, anime etc., it is this particular definition that is closest to what you will experience.

One of the more famous harem series.
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Low Pay In The Manga Translation Industry

Published July 5, 2021

There was a recent news story where a manga translation company called “MediBang” was accused of paying their translators unbelievably low rates. They responded by stating that the price in question was “only an initial starting price” which was ¥120 per page. This, understandably, provoked quite a discussion on low pay in the manga translation industry and I decided that the topic was worth taking a look at.

First off, we should discuss what the work of a translator consists of. Contrary to what many people believe, translation isn’t merely taking each word and converting it into another language verbatim. Instead, a translator must examine the intent of a sentence, any double meanings present, if any specific words set up future events etc. In other words, translation is an art rather than a science and a good translation should be able to adapt the work into a form where it evokes the same feelings and thoughts that it did originally.

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Why Is Manga So Dominant in American Graphic Novel Sales?

Published June 14, 2021

There was a recent news story which stated that the Demon Slayer manga alone had outsold the entire American comic industry. While this story turned out to be incorrect, the discussion that it provoked was quite fascinating and so I decided to take a look at the reasons why manga can be so dominant when it comes to American graphic novel sales.

First off, we should take a look at the bestselling graphic novels in the US in 2020. Looking at NPD Bookscan’s sales charts, who claim that they have sales information on approximately 85% of the physical book market in the US, you’ll notice how dominant manga seems to be. While no specific sales figures are given, you can see that the best selling graphic novel in the US in 2020 was the first volume of My Hero Academia, a manga. In fact, of the top 20 best selling graphic novels, only 5 are not manga with Strange Planet occupying the second slot, Stranger Planet in the seventh slot, March: Book One in the eleventh slot, Snug: A Collection of Comics about Dating Your Best Friend in the twelfth slot and a rerelease of Watchmen in the 15th slot. While we don’t know the difference in sales numbers between each entry, I do think that it’s fair to say that manga has become quite dominant when it comes to American graphic novel sales.

The first volume of My Hero Academia was the best-selling graphic novel in America in 2020!
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What Is The Super Deformed Art Style?

Published June 10, 2021

I was recently rewatching all of the Slayers anime series with some other people and one of them asked me why the characters would become small every so often. It took me a moment to figure out what she meant but she was referring to when Lina Inverse was shouting at someone and they became tiny or how when the characters were explaining their plan on a blackboard they would all become much smaller looking with large heads. I realised that I didn’t know that much about the super deformed art style and I decided to do some research on it.

First off, I should describe what super deformed art style is. Super deformed, also referred to as chibi, art is where anime/manga characters are depicted with a less realistic head to body proportion. In contrast to the standard head to body proportion where the head makes up about 1/7th of the body, a super deformed character may have their head make up 1/3rd of their body, 1/2nd or even cases where the head is larger than their body!

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The Strange But Fascinating World of Doujinshi

Published May 31, 2021

When it comes to the manga industry, it is very easy to only focus on professional manga, particularly when professional manga tends to be the only form of manga licensed by Western publishers. However, this ignores one of the more strange but fascinating aspects of manga culture in Japan, that being the world of doujinshi.

First, let’s define what doujinshi is. The term doujinshi combines the terms “Doujin” which refers to people who share a hobby and “Shi” which refers to magazines. Basically, it refers to self-published series and is typically, but not exclusively, released by amateur artists. Many professional mangaka started their careers by releasing doujinshi with a particularly notable example being the series “Black Magic” which was originally released as a doujinshi before later being rereleased by a manga publisher and kickstarting the career of Shirow Masamune, creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.

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Why Is Audrey Hepburn So Popular In Japan?

Published May 24, 2021

I’ve recently begun watching Gundam Unicorn, an entry in the Universal Century timeline, and have been finding it to be an incredible experience. However, something that caught my attention was when one of the characters, not wishing to use their real name, identified themselves under the alias “Audrey Burne”. “Surely this is a reference to Audrey Hepburn” I can remember thinking to myself but it also made me wonder how popular and well-known she was in Japan.

First, it might be worth explaining who Audrey Hepburn is for those who are unfamiliar with her. Originally born in Belgium before moving to Britain and performing at the West End, she eventually made her way to Hollywood and ended up becoming an exceptionally popular actress, being recognised by the American Film Institute as the 3rd greatest female star of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

A picture of Audrey Hepburn.
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Why Autobiographical Manga Is So Interesting

Published May 17, 2021

When I was perusing my manga collection recently for something to read, my eyes were drawn to a manga called “Ichi-F”. Covering the cleanup operation after the disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the story followed the true tale of a worker called Kazuto Tatsuta, a pseudonym, as he worked at the power plant and, later on, covering his decision to write the manga series itself. I found the manga itself very enjoyable but, more than that, it reminded me of how unique reading an autobiographical manga is and I decided to take a look at some particularly notable examples and why I find them so interesting.

One thing you’ll notice when you begin to examine the field of autobiographical manga is how many of them centre around artists and the manga industry. This makes sense to me as, in contrast to autobiographic prose where most people seem to have some capability to write, being able to draw a work to an acceptable quality is not a skill that most people tend to have. I do confess that this seems to restrict the variety of autobiographical manga to a certain extent although we still see some series develop that cover unusual topics.

The cover of the English edition of Ichi-F.
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What Are Manga Box Sets And How Affordable Are They?

Published April 29, 2021

I’ve been selling some items on eBay recently and one of the items I was going to sell was the first volume of the manga Battle Angel Alita. When talking to a friend about it, I mentioned that the reason I was getting rid of it wasn’t because I didn’t like it, it was because Kodansha released hardcover deluxe releases sometime ago. While looking it up, I learned that Kodansha have now released a box set containing all of these deluxe editions. However, when I mentioned how much the box set was, about €100, my friend recoiled at the price. Even though it represented a saving compared to buying the manga volumes individually, this experience made me consider how manga box sets, while seemingly affordable, can be quite off-putting to some people.

I should probably begin by explaining what a manga box set is. On occasion, a manga publishing company may choose to release either an entire series or a part of that series in a box set with a card/plastic case and sometimes an extra or two whether it be a small artbook, an unreleased chapter, stickers etc. They also tend to be priced so that the box set is a little cheaper than purchasing the series individually. For someone looking to fill up their manga collection, these box sets prove to be quite an affordable method to do so although that is not to say that there aren’t some issues.

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The Interesting Use of Manga To Promote Public Awareness

Published April 15, 2021

The promotion of public awareness campaigns can be quite a tricky ordeal to run. I, and many others, have seen billboards, internet ads and the like promoting public health, safe driving, political awareness and many other causes. However, we tend to shrug them off, not even sparing them a second glance. This is not to say that they cannot be effective, perhaps working subliminally. However, any effort that can make someone pay more attention to a public awareness campaign will, of course, be highly desired. In that effort, there are plenty of Japanese organisations that use characters from manga series to promote their causes. Considering this, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the uses of manga to promote public awareness.

I can distinctly remember the first time that I heard of a manga being used to promote some kind of public awareness campaign and how interesting I found the concept. It was back around 2010, not too long after I first started to get into anime, when I heard that the characters of K-On!, a 4-koma manga that was adapted into several anime media, were being used to promote the Japanese census in Kyoto. Since then, we have seen other series such as Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha and Sound! Euphonium (originally a light novel rather than a manga) being used to promote the census within Kyoto. While I would love to see statistics of how effective these campaigns were, the fact that manga characters are continually being used seems to indicate that they have been successful enough to continue this cooperation.

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Why I Hate The Term “The Big Three”

Published April 1, 2021

When one first discovers manga and anime, you quite often begin choosing titles based on what critics, fans and friends have to say. By the time I got into manga and anime around 2009, I began to hear the term “The Big Three” frequently. Naturally, these series were amongst the first that I watched and were quite formative on my initial tastes. However, as time has gone on, I have slowly come to detest and hate the term “The Big Three” for numerous reasons.

First off, I should begin by explaining what “The Big Three” are. The term refers to both the manga and anime incarnations of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach and were considered by many to be essential reading/watching when it came to exploring the worlds of manga and anime. However, the term has become not only irrelevant as time has gone on but it has also contributed to misinformation when it comes to both the manga and anime industries and the role that these series play within them.

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