Manga Beginners: How to Read Manga

Manga is known as comics in Japan and is still popular as ever for many audiences. It is also a reference for producing many anime shows. If you have a manga already and new to them, there are few steps how to read in a proper way.

Sample manga page from one-nmanga.blogspot.com

1.) Start at the back page of the manga.
- many manga titles advise us to read the manga starting at the back first. I've seen the warning of a volume of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge that's something like this: "Warning, the manga is read from right to left!".

2.) In Western comics (especially our own version komiks in the Philippines), the comics read from left to right. But in Japanese manga, it reads from right to left. Speech bubbles and sound effects of manga also read from right to left.

3.) Repeat the process in the panel to the immediate left

4.) After the final panel, turn the next page and start from the next first right panel.


Note:
- There are manga titles that are read from left to right especially if they are doujinshi (fan-made comics in anime style).

- Footnotes can be quite confusing, but don't worry they help you to know the Japanese definition mentioned in few pages.

Now, you can enjoy reading manga in these few simple steps. You can also read manga from the internet. So, happy reading!

The Basics of Anime - Expressions

Drawing by naruto224.deviantart.com

One of the good reasons why Japanese anime and manga is so popular because of their expressions. In order to portray emotions we must have actions, gestures, movements and reactions. Without it, we're neutral and we cannot guess what do we meant of our actions. In Western and Japanese animation, the most obvious way to tell a cartoon character's feeling is that by looking their face.

Blush
Blushing displays the redness on the face and usually you can find in the person's cheek. It also results to emotional response like embarrassment, shame or being in love. In anime and manga especially if their genre contains romance, a character who shows blushing indicates he/she likes another person of the opposite sex although he or she cannot admit his/her feelings for a moment. Blushing can also add the cuteness effect.

Sweatdrop

Sweatdrop indicates that they are worried on a particular situation. Sometimes, it also indicates confusion. Mostly, the sweatdrop can be located at the side of their head.

The Red Vain / Popped Vain

Can you see a red cross on a character's head? It's called the red vain or sometimes, referred as a popped vein. It indicates that the character is angry (sometimes being annoyed or frustrated).

Funny Eyes

If you watch any modern anime especially if the genre has comedy, you may see these character's reaction like this. The eyes of the characters show in the picture above has squiggly eyes with white pupils. This kind of expression is used to determine confusion, happiness, anger or hopelessness.

It's also optional for creators to make puppy dog eyes huge and cute like in this example.


The XD

If you tried using Yahoo! Messenger or Facebook and posted the word 'XD,' it means extreme happiness (or sometimes frustration). The 'X' means squiggly eyes and the 'D' is the mouth.

and lastly...

I cannot even tell this kind of emotion if it is angry because of pain or what (I think Lelouch seems quite freaky especially he has two Geass in his eyes). Oh yeah, this kind of emotion shows anger in serious way and commonly you can see that if the anime contains action or drama.

Well, these are the basic facial expression you see in many anime. There are lot of varieties of expressions that I cannot explain,though. It's up to you if you want to discover more like in this website at http://www.mangatutorials.com/tut/expressions.php

References:
* Anime Character Expressions: The Roundup.(July 14,2006). http://www.basugasubakuhatsu.com/blog/2006/07/
14/anime-character-expressions-the-roundup/

* Draw Anime Expressions/ Manga Expressions: How to Draw Manga /Anime Facial Expressioms with Drawing Lessons. http://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/drawing-lessons/
manga-anime-lessons/howtodraw-anime-expressions.html

* Some screencaps found in the internet.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge...Live Action!

Yup-yup! If you love Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (or in case, The Wallflower) on TV 5 this is for you. Last November 30, 2009 the Japanese magazine Bessatsu Friend announced that there will be a live-action of The Wallflower and finally announced who will be the cast. This manga-serye series already started in Japan last month. We're not sure when this will air in the Philippines (either on Hero or TV 5)...

More info at http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-5516

EDIT:

If you can't wait to watch the live-action, here's the first episode. English-subbed. :D

The Last Airbender Movie Poster

Image from Avatar Aang the Last Airbender on Friendster