Week 10: Manga and the Tradition of Japanese Comics

I never got into Manga as a child, but many of my friends grew up on Inuasha, Naruto, or Dragon Ball Z.  I knew that this was a popular art style and tried to mimic the style (without watching any of the shows or reading any of it), but for some reason I was never drawn to learn more about the styles.  I was excited to start reading it and try my hand at getting back into them since I feel that it is so important for an artist (and storyteller) to be well versed in all forms of visual storytelling.  The first Manga I decided to try was Battle Angelita, Last Order.  It was an interesting read... and I definitely had to reread it again in order to fully understand it.  What surprised me most about it, right off the bat, is that Manga isn't afraid to go violent or approach these crazy premises; in Manga, they somehow just work.  Granted, you could say that the superhero comics were violent and have far fetched premises, but this Manga showed their faces with bloody bandages and half robot humans... it was a lot to take in at first.  I had trouble originally reading it since I was unsure if it was read left to right or right to left or top to down.  I finally figured out that it was read top to bottom but the text was read right to left, presumably because of the way it was translated.  But I felt the story was very complicated; which the half-asleep Carla that first read it couldn't follow any of the storylines.  But I think this complexity is what also makes it compelling, since you aren't dealing with your typical storylines.  I mean where else do you read about half robot children?

Even though Battle Angelita, Last Order didn't seem to be my cup of tea, I decided to read a little bit of Astro Boy and see how everything started.  Suddenly, robot-human crossovers don't seem so crazy of a premise.  After scrolling through some more Manga's, I realized that this robot-human theme was a very popular concept.  To me, what's interesting is that the closest American-originated idea (that I can think of at the moment) that comes close to humans and robots (excluding movies about AI) is Transformers.  Clearly though, all types of audiences respond to ideas like this, as shown by Americanized versions of these concepts such as Pacific Rim.  After reading these Manga's, you can also witness bits where American comics have taken bits of their artistic style or visual style for their own comic work.

After this little taste into Manga, I got hooked.  I decided to also read Ranma Book 1 by Takahashi, which is a complex premise that you wouldn't see usually within an american comic.  I think the premise alone (a boy changing into a girl based on the temperature of water thrown on him) intrigued me so much that I felt drawn to finish the first book in one sitting!  Honestly, where else do you find things like that?  In this Manga specifically, I liked how the expressions for me were super exaggerated and how the designs simplified depending on the situation the main character was in.  It was an effective way to show that emotion for that quick read and it was funniest parts of the manga for me.