Manga as it
is today, are Japanese comic stories that incorporated almost every other genre and in turn appeals to any type of reader.
Manga has a history pre World War II, but since then has transformed into a distinct art form and enterprise.
Dr. Osamu Tezuka
is credited to being the father of modern manga. His famous work of "Astro Boy" greatly increased the popularity of
manga in Japan. His art style from character creation, setting, to the construction of manga serves as a foundation
to many mangaka today. Along with Dr. Tezuka is Machiko Hasegawa, her work of "Sazae-san" greatly heightened the popularity
of manga in the 1940s.
Dr. Tezuka
was greatly influenced by the animated features of Walt Disney, and his art form reflects animation styles used by Disney,
for instance the large eyes of Mickey Mouse. When manga became better known in the 1990's, large eyes are seen
as an iconic identification of Japanese manga.
Manga would
be as popular as it is now without the works of many female mangaka such as the Year 24 Group and CLAMP. These groups
have created many titles of manga that has greatly involved a large female audience. A category of manga is listed for
manga that is written to appeal to girls, this is called shoujo.
Manga that
is written to appeal to males is called shounen. There are so many sub-genres to anime that include any aspect of literature
you can think of such as fantasies, biographies, science fiction, mystery, and can combine 2 or more sub genres to create
an exceptionally well rounded manga title. Manga has specific targeting demographics for age and gender for all of its
fans.
Mangaka first
start popularizing a title by creating self-published manga called Doujinshi and begin selling copies around their
local area. Then, mangaka can submit their work to a manga magazine publisher starting with a
one chapter story that can be anywhere from 20-40 pages in length, and if the manga gains good reviews it is further continued
in magazine publications. Young King OURs is a very famous magazine publication that debuts the best shounen manga has
to offer.
Once there
are enough chapters to collect in a book called tankoubon, the manga title can be sold in a paperback book format.
In the 1990s, Japanese animation
was growing rapidly in popularity with anime titles such as Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z amongst America's youth.
Unlike Japan where manga came before anime, anime came before manga in the U.S. Anime hard copies were more accessible
to find and easier to obtain from the Internet than manga. After anime had established a marketing foothold
in the U.S., companies such as Tokyopop, Viz Media, and Dark Horse Comics published a vast array of manga titles
in tankoubon format starting in the 21st century. These companies are careful to keep the translation from
Japanese to English as accurate as possible and construct the manga in a tankoubon design where English readers will
open manga starting from the back and read the pages right to left instead of left to right. Since 2007, 15
U.S. manga publishers have released between 1300 to 1400 titles.
