K
kirbiyu
Guest
Well, they have a facts section for everythin else(anime and games), so thought that it would be a good idea to make a FAQs section on manga. Manga sometimes contains words are phrases that are different and people usually ask questions regarding manga, so here's something to help:
What is Manga?
For those of you who don't know what manga since it is sometimes confused with anime, manga is the Japanese word for comic book (or Graphic Novel, if you prefer) and is used in English to mean Japanese comic books. Manga and anime are very closely related, as artists frequently crossover, as do the characters they create. Usually the manga is created first, and if it becomes really popular then the market it deemed capable of supporting a much more costly animation based on it. Manga is first made in Japanese then translated over to English.
How the heck do you read Manga?
Manga is read in "Japanese-Format" from right to left. Some manga may have been altered to where you can read it normally. When you get a manga you'll notice that the book it kinda backwards, that's how it's supposed to be. You start at the top right panel and go from right to left.
Where can I find Manga?
You can check out your local book store(such as books a million, or barns and nobles). Manga would be in the "graphic novels" sections and not the comics section. If you don't have a book store that sells manga you can order it from of the internet. Try:
Tokyo Pop: http://www.tokyopop.com/
Viz: http://www.viz.com/
Shonen Jump: http://www.shonenjump.com/
Aamazon: http: //www.amazon.com/
Books a million: http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?redirect=1
Barns and nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Sauguasa Japanese store: http://www.sasugabooks.com/
These are just a couple of good links.
Credit goes to Hakuryuu-chan-What!Comics: http://whatcomics.com/default.cfm
Here's some terms:
Baka- Basically an insult, it literally means fool, like saying o-baka or great fool.
Bishoujo-means beautiful girl, like Bishoujo Sailor Moon(pretty soldier sailormoon)
Bishounen-means pretty boy, they can be masculine or manly, and not necessarily "effiminate" Bishounen is usually found in Shounen AI or boys love manga
CGI credit goes to the blackmoon- Refers to Computer Generated Illustration as used in manga or anime. Macintosh computers started an explosion in the use of computer assisted illustration in manga production, and today's manga make heavy use of computers... though the results still look hand crafted. Today's anime makes wide use of computer technology, even when it is not evident. Miyazaki's Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke) used computer technology extensively for tracking motion, charting perspective, filling in color, and generating some limited special effects. Other contemporary anime like BLOOD: The Last Vampire rely heavily upon CGI but make no attempt to hide the results. "BLOOD" is a brilliant example of the fusing of traditional cel
animation with the digital arts.
-CHAN-A suffix used when addressing or referring to children, girls and young women. The word is not used between adults unless there is a great deal of familiarity and affection. Because of the cuteness of the term, it usually refers to a specific gender and is more often heard when referring to females, as in "Rei-chan spoke with Gendo-san."
CHARA- A short Japanese word for the English word character. The word refers to character designs in anime, manga, movies, or games. The characters are usually drawn in sketches of black and white. Many anime illustration books include a chara section.
DOUJINSHI-Doujinshi translates into same stuff, different people. These are unofficial, amateur produced manga based upon successful, well established manga or anime series. Doujin range in quality from simple black & white pamphlets having only a few pages. You'll find a lot of talented artists creating doujin, and many successful mang got started in doujin circles. Most doujinshi are parodies, or alternative takes on established titles, with some doujin venturing into explicit adult themes. Large Japanese publishing houses generally look the other way and ignore the small print runs of doujinshi publishers.
HENTAI- A Japanese slang word meaning perverted or perversion. Usually porn. In the world of manga and anime, hentai refers to the adult oriented titles that present extreme, graphic sexual imagery. A common Western stereotype concerning manga and anime is that these artforms are filled with graphic sex.
HENSHIN-To transform. Seen most often in Magical Girl manga and anime like Card Captor Sakura, and Sailormoon. A henshin sequence is when a normal character transforms into their magical alter ego.
KAWAII-The Japanese word for cute.
-KUN- Another suffix used for addressing or referring to children and teenagers, particularly males, or in an adult setting, used to address an inferior. In anime, you see this term used more and more to address females, especially ones who tend to act rather "masculine".
OTAKU- This word can have a very negative meaning depending on the context in which it is used. In Japanese society its usage is widely understood to mean someone who is an anti-social maniac. But in the International anime community the word has evolved into a slang reference meaning obsessed fan.
SAN-The formal, polite honorific one uses when talking to or about someone of equal social status. The honorific is gender neutral and used when referring to adult men or women, as in "Gendo-san and Ritsuko-san both work with computers."
MECHA- A Japanese contraction of the English word mechanical. Often used to refer to robots in manga.
-SEMPAI-An suffix used by a young person when talking to or about a benefactor or senior in a social organization. Used commonly in anime and manga when students are talking to or about their senior classmates, as in "Tamiya-sempai heads the campus motorcycle club."
SEIYUU- A professional voice actor or actress. In Japan, animation studios employ seiyuu to provide the many voices for characters. Some seiyuu have become big stars in their own right due to their voice acting abilities.
-SAMA-The very formal suffix used when talking to or about someone who is much older and wiser, or someone whom you admire to the point of near worship. The honorific is gender neutral and used when referring to men or women. Used to show great respect to an individual, as in "Miyazaki-sama is a distinguished artist."
SHOUJO-The Japanese word for girl.
SHINTO-Japan's oldest and original intrinsic religion is Shinto. In Shintoism everything in the natural world possesses it's own spirit, or kami. Shinto is based upon the worship of and coexistence with the natural world.
SENSHI-The literal translation of this word is soldier.
SHOUNEN-The Japanese word for boy.
SUPER DEFORMED-A style of drawing extremely common in anime and manga that has absolutely no equivalency in the West. Normally proportioned characters are shrunk and distorted in the super deformed style. Bodies become very small and heads become disproportionately large. Often times characters in a particular scene will be drawn in both normal and super deformed styles.
SWEAT DROP-This is a signature visual stylization used in manga and anime. Whenever a character is feeling embarrassed, perplexed, self-conscious, or just plain stupid... a large tear drop shape will appear near their face or head.
TOMODACHI-Friend
YAOI-Also known as shounenai or boy's love. Yaoi manga features romantic love between male characters. These homo-erotic titles which can sometimes be quite explicit are enjoyed by a great number of women in Japan, in fact, there are many more female readers of yaoi manga than there are male readers. There is no equivalent to shounenai in the world of Western comic books. And I can see why ^_^
Yuri- Also known as girl's love. manga features romantic love between female male characters. These homo-erotic titles which can sometimes be quite explicit.
ARIGATOU-Thanks. The use of this word denotes some familiarity with the person it is being said to. The full polite expression would be, Doumo arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you very much).
These were added by Hakuryuu-chan-
Manga-ka - A manga's creator and/or artist.
Doujinshi-ka (or doujin-ka? meh, both are the same) - A doujinshi's creator and/or artist.
Anime Veins - A vein that usually pops up on a charater's head when they're angry and PO'ed. It kind of looks like this: #
I'm still goin to add more.
What is Manga?
For those of you who don't know what manga since it is sometimes confused with anime, manga is the Japanese word for comic book (or Graphic Novel, if you prefer) and is used in English to mean Japanese comic books. Manga and anime are very closely related, as artists frequently crossover, as do the characters they create. Usually the manga is created first, and if it becomes really popular then the market it deemed capable of supporting a much more costly animation based on it. Manga is first made in Japanese then translated over to English.
How the heck do you read Manga?
Manga is read in "Japanese-Format" from right to left. Some manga may have been altered to where you can read it normally. When you get a manga you'll notice that the book it kinda backwards, that's how it's supposed to be. You start at the top right panel and go from right to left.
Where can I find Manga?
You can check out your local book store(such as books a million, or barns and nobles). Manga would be in the "graphic novels" sections and not the comics section. If you don't have a book store that sells manga you can order it from of the internet. Try:
Tokyo Pop: http://www.tokyopop.com/
Viz: http://www.viz.com/
Shonen Jump: http://www.shonenjump.com/
Aamazon: http: //www.amazon.com/
Books a million: http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?redirect=1
Barns and nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Sauguasa Japanese store: http://www.sasugabooks.com/
These are just a couple of good links.
Credit goes to Hakuryuu-chan-What!Comics: http://whatcomics.com/default.cfm
Here's some terms:
Baka- Basically an insult, it literally means fool, like saying o-baka or great fool.
Bishoujo-means beautiful girl, like Bishoujo Sailor Moon(pretty soldier sailormoon)
Bishounen-means pretty boy, they can be masculine or manly, and not necessarily "effiminate" Bishounen is usually found in Shounen AI or boys love manga
CGI credit goes to the blackmoon- Refers to Computer Generated Illustration as used in manga or anime. Macintosh computers started an explosion in the use of computer assisted illustration in manga production, and today's manga make heavy use of computers... though the results still look hand crafted. Today's anime makes wide use of computer technology, even when it is not evident. Miyazaki's Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke) used computer technology extensively for tracking motion, charting perspective, filling in color, and generating some limited special effects. Other contemporary anime like BLOOD: The Last Vampire rely heavily upon CGI but make no attempt to hide the results. "BLOOD" is a brilliant example of the fusing of traditional cel
animation with the digital arts.
-CHAN-A suffix used when addressing or referring to children, girls and young women. The word is not used between adults unless there is a great deal of familiarity and affection. Because of the cuteness of the term, it usually refers to a specific gender and is more often heard when referring to females, as in "Rei-chan spoke with Gendo-san."
CHARA- A short Japanese word for the English word character. The word refers to character designs in anime, manga, movies, or games. The characters are usually drawn in sketches of black and white. Many anime illustration books include a chara section.
DOUJINSHI-Doujinshi translates into same stuff, different people. These are unofficial, amateur produced manga based upon successful, well established manga or anime series. Doujin range in quality from simple black & white pamphlets having only a few pages. You'll find a lot of talented artists creating doujin, and many successful mang got started in doujin circles. Most doujinshi are parodies, or alternative takes on established titles, with some doujin venturing into explicit adult themes. Large Japanese publishing houses generally look the other way and ignore the small print runs of doujinshi publishers.
HENTAI- A Japanese slang word meaning perverted or perversion. Usually porn. In the world of manga and anime, hentai refers to the adult oriented titles that present extreme, graphic sexual imagery. A common Western stereotype concerning manga and anime is that these artforms are filled with graphic sex.
HENSHIN-To transform. Seen most often in Magical Girl manga and anime like Card Captor Sakura, and Sailormoon. A henshin sequence is when a normal character transforms into their magical alter ego.
KAWAII-The Japanese word for cute.
-KUN- Another suffix used for addressing or referring to children and teenagers, particularly males, or in an adult setting, used to address an inferior. In anime, you see this term used more and more to address females, especially ones who tend to act rather "masculine".
OTAKU- This word can have a very negative meaning depending on the context in which it is used. In Japanese society its usage is widely understood to mean someone who is an anti-social maniac. But in the International anime community the word has evolved into a slang reference meaning obsessed fan.
SAN-The formal, polite honorific one uses when talking to or about someone of equal social status. The honorific is gender neutral and used when referring to adult men or women, as in "Gendo-san and Ritsuko-san both work with computers."
MECHA- A Japanese contraction of the English word mechanical. Often used to refer to robots in manga.
-SEMPAI-An suffix used by a young person when talking to or about a benefactor or senior in a social organization. Used commonly in anime and manga when students are talking to or about their senior classmates, as in "Tamiya-sempai heads the campus motorcycle club."
SEIYUU- A professional voice actor or actress. In Japan, animation studios employ seiyuu to provide the many voices for characters. Some seiyuu have become big stars in their own right due to their voice acting abilities.
-SAMA-The very formal suffix used when talking to or about someone who is much older and wiser, or someone whom you admire to the point of near worship. The honorific is gender neutral and used when referring to men or women. Used to show great respect to an individual, as in "Miyazaki-sama is a distinguished artist."
SHOUJO-The Japanese word for girl.
SHINTO-Japan's oldest and original intrinsic religion is Shinto. In Shintoism everything in the natural world possesses it's own spirit, or kami. Shinto is based upon the worship of and coexistence with the natural world.
SENSHI-The literal translation of this word is soldier.
SHOUNEN-The Japanese word for boy.
SUPER DEFORMED-A style of drawing extremely common in anime and manga that has absolutely no equivalency in the West. Normally proportioned characters are shrunk and distorted in the super deformed style. Bodies become very small and heads become disproportionately large. Often times characters in a particular scene will be drawn in both normal and super deformed styles.
SWEAT DROP-This is a signature visual stylization used in manga and anime. Whenever a character is feeling embarrassed, perplexed, self-conscious, or just plain stupid... a large tear drop shape will appear near their face or head.
TOMODACHI-Friend
YAOI-Also known as shounenai or boy's love. Yaoi manga features romantic love between male characters. These homo-erotic titles which can sometimes be quite explicit are enjoyed by a great number of women in Japan, in fact, there are many more female readers of yaoi manga than there are male readers. There is no equivalent to shounenai in the world of Western comic books. And I can see why ^_^
Yuri- Also known as girl's love. manga features romantic love between female male characters. These homo-erotic titles which can sometimes be quite explicit.
ARIGATOU-Thanks. The use of this word denotes some familiarity with the person it is being said to. The full polite expression would be, Doumo arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you very much).
These were added by Hakuryuu-chan-
Manga-ka - A manga's creator and/or artist.
Doujinshi-ka (or doujin-ka? meh, both are the same) - A doujinshi's creator and/or artist.
Anime Veins - A vein that usually pops up on a charater's head when they're angry and PO'ed. It kind of looks like this: #
I'm still goin to add more.
Last edited by a moderator:
