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

Kirby: Right Back At Ya!

If you think Nintendo's Pokemon is the only anime based on video game you know, then think again. One of the popular video game characters from Nintendo appeared in anime. Kirby: Right Back at Ya! or known as Kirby of the Stars in Japanese appeared in the year 2001 up to 2003 with 100 episodes.

If you play any games from Nintendo, you might heard or tried any Kirby games which was first appeared in ol' Game Boy days. The anime tells about the adventures of Kirby in the planet Earth. Kirby falls from the space due to his spaceship broke then fell to PuPuPu village (Cabby Town in English dub-version). Meanwhile, the mean, fat and greedy ruler King DeDeDe the penguin plots evil plans to get rid of Kirby by sending out monsters he bought from Holy Nightmare Corporation (NightMare Enterprises). As usual, the monsters cause problems and mayhem but with Kirby, along with his friends saves the day.

Like any tokukatsu shows you seen on TV (let's say Super Sentai or Kamen Rider series), every episode appear every different monster sent by the antagonist but then they're destroyed by the hero. It's just like it was meant for kids. Not only adventures, but there are few moral values from real-life that are light-hearted. There are some characters that are actually based on the video game counterpart like Meta Knight, Chef Kawasaki, Waddle Doo and the main villain Nightmare. But there are some characters that are added for the anime only - like the siblings Fumu and Bun (Tiff and Tuff) and King DeDeDe's right hand Escargoon. They even appeared as computer animation then switch back to hand-drawn animation which is worth good.

The anime was aired in North America's 4Kids Entertainment almost a year ago after it aired in Japan. There are a lot of name changes from the original Japanese dub-version. After it was aired in America, Funimation Entertainment released the DVD of Kirby: Right Back At Ya! in 3 volumes and a 90-minute movie entitled Kirby: Fright to the Finish-Movie.

In the Philippines, the Kirby anime was used as original Japanese version which first aired on GMA 7 last year. It was re-aired in QTV 11 in weekday mornings this year. In conclusion, Kirby: Right Back at Ya! is good anime for kids and not as much terrible to watch.