Manga

Manga makes up a very large part of the comics that I read regularly. It’s been a part of my life almost as long as super hero comics have. I suppose I first discovered manga through anime. Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Pokémon, Yu Yu Hakusho; the classics that were on mainstream T.V. when I was a kid. Then my school’s library started carrying a few manga volumes and after that I was hooked. Of course, coming from a small town without much cultural diversity, shall we say, that always prompted the questions of “why is that book backwards? Why are their eyes so big? If it’s Japanese, why don’t the characters look Asian?” Suffice it to say, I was in the minority back home by way of taste in comics. Although I never lost my appreciation for them.

 I just love how it’s such a wide-ranging genre. There is something for everyone if they know where to look. Since most American comics, at least when I was growing up and had access to, were very limited in their audience. Since comics in Japan are accepted as a legitimate form of literature, they have been able to grow and mature over the years in a way that American comics never have. There were specific genres for me when I was young, a lot of action-adventure, sci-fi and comedy, and now that I’m older, there are still just as many genres that interest me and have matured with my tastes, like romance, horror and drama.

            Some of the classics that I have read in the past include Astro Boy, Cyborg 009, Barefoot Gen, and Akira, but there are many many more that I follow regularly. Black Butler, Attack on Titan, Noragami, Ouran High School Host Club, Pandora Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist, Death Note and so many others that I couldn’t even begin to list them all. Most of the time I get introduced to a manga through its’ anime. Since most anime adaptations either never finish the whole story or deviate from the original, I almost always read the manga after I finish the series. I think it says a lot for the genre as a whole that there are so many formats for the stories. It’s really a statement to how widely accepted it has become, especially in recent years. It’s become an entire culture in and of itself. If Japanese comics can grow like this, than there’s still hope for American comics as well.