I recently wrote an article called “Some Of The First Anime That I Ever Watched” and I thought it would also be quite interesting to take a look at some of the first manga that I ever read, some of which may be quite obvious and some of which may be quite unusual.
Interestingly, the first manga that I ever read was an OEL manga. Around the time, I was really into World of Warcraft and was eager to consume anything Warcraft related. I was in Waterstones and I remember coming across a book called “Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy – Shadows of Ice”. The book was an OEL manga produced by Tokyopop and I didn’t realise that Shadows of Ice was the second volume in the trilogy. Still, I remember enjoying it and it would only be later on, when I learned what manga was, that I would realise that I had an OEL manga already.
In terms of the first Japanese manga that I read, the Studio Ghibli films were amongst the first anime films that I saw so I was eager to try the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga since I’d heard it was quite different to the film. Something that I still find quite amusing is when I received the first volume in the post and showed it to my parents, they were very confused by the fact that the spine was on the right hand side of the book rather than the left. I remember correctly identifying how to read it but my mother tried to convince me that I should still read the panels left to right on each page.
I mentioned in my article about the first few anime that I watched that Naruto was the first anime series that really gripped me. Naturally, Naruto was one of the first manga series that I wanted to start collecting and I have a fond memory of buying the first volume in Dublin and reading it in the train station, taking note of all the little differences between it and the anime. It may be a bit of a cliché manga to start off with but it proved to be quite formative in my interest in manga.
In terms of the first manga series that I ever read in its entirety, I think that it was Death Note. I remember picking up the manga box set of Death Note and I believe that I became so engrossed with it that I read all twelve volumes in the course of a couple of days and, to this day, Death Note remains one of my favourite manga.
It’s surprising to me how many memories I have associated with these first manga but I remain thankful to them as they have helped to shape my passion for the medium of manga. Let me know your thoughts on some of the first manga that I ever read, what some of the first manga that you read were, any interesting memories you associate with them and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!