I was in the 11th grade of my school, in the midst of studying bleak chemical equations and dreary formulas articulated by Newton that I chanced upon mangas. I had been an ardent fan of anime since the age of ten; however it reached an all time high when I turned sixteen. My favourite channel on television was Animax, which aired the popular anime shows from Japan itself. But Animax failed to become a popular television channel as the Indian teens (it’s targeted age group) were more attracted to popular sitcoms like “Friends”, “Boston Legal” or “How I Met your Mother”. As a result, the shows on Animax became repetitive, airing only a few chosen shows and replaying seasons from three to four years ago.
Driven by frustration and disappointed, I furiously clicked the mouse away on google, looking for a way to find out what was next on my favourite anime. This was when I found out that most of the anime that are broadcasted on television are based on manga or Japanese graphic novels. I had hit the jackpot! There were around thousands of mangas that I could choose from and read online; each presenting different flavours of action, romance, school life or tragedy. Thus, began my manga-addiction which sent my grades in a downward spiral and gave me horrid dark circles under my eyes as I spent every day, every night glued to my ancient seventeen inch computer screen flipping through hundreds of pages of manga online. Though my quirky addiction has toned down, I still follow up on updates to mangas that I have read.
At this juncture, I would like to draw a distinction between mangas and normal comic books. Comic books depict short, crisp storylines following the adventures of certain main characters. They are sketched in a simple, colourful, yet appealing way and more often than not are aimed at entertaining the audience in a fun, light hearted way. Mangas are characterized by engaging plot lines, a seamless storyline and highly developed characters. Manga art is more visually striking, consisting of wide-eye and wild-haired characters with elongated limbs. The panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots of the characters. The genre includes a broad range of subjects like action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce, among others.
In fact, the diverse ranges of themes that are dealt with in mangas never fail to surprise me. Of the mangas that I have liked the most, there is Bleach following the story of a ghost-spotting teenage boy who is suddenly thrown into the action packed world shinigamis (soul reapers) because of his unique skills. Taking science-fiction, fantasy and gory manga art to new level is Gantz in which recently deceased mortals are employed by a metal ball called “gantz” to slay the aliens invading planet Earth. Red River is another popular manga clubbing together Egyptian history, fantasy and romance as it depicts the story of a Japanese school girl who is mysteriously transported to ancient Egypt and who falls in love with the ruling King, and eventually changes the course of history. I also came across a revolutionary form of sport in the manga Air Gear where players form a group of “storm riders” who wear “ATs” which are simply, roller skates with jet propulsion. There are mangas which have a more realistic take on life, like Paradise Kiss which follows the trials and tribulations of an aspiring model. There are mangas which depict the lives and challenges faced by mangakas (Japanese manga artists) themselves, like Bakuman.
On the basis of the targeted reader group, mangas are divided into shounen (10-17 years old), seinen (18 years and above), shoujo (10-17 years old) and josei (18 years and above). Manga are typically printed in black-and-white, although some full-color manga exist. In Japan, manga are usually serialized in telephone book-size manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. Most omnipresent are the magazines — Weekly Shonen Magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump, Young King Ours, Shojo Comic, and countless others. If the series is successful, collected chapters may be republished in paperback books called tankÅbon. If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or even during its run, although sometimes manga are drawn centering on previously existing live-action or animated films.
A manga artist (mangaka in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company. Across Japan, there are various schools and educational centres for teaching and refining manga art styles for newbies. They teach manga aspirants how to structure the human body from different perspectives and which pens to use while inking. Manga art in itself has separate categaories for instance in the "cinematographic" technique, the panels have a characteristic visual dynamism while the gekiga style of drawing focuses on the day-in, day-out grim realities of life, often drawn in gritty and un-pretty fashions.
Manga has risen in popularity across the world, especially Europe following the establishment of publishing companies which translate manga in regional languages. However, manga is far from popular in the Indian sub-continent. Firstly, many people do not know about mangas (If asked about it, they say, “Is that mango spelt wrong?”) and secondly, several prefer to watch anime over reading mangas. It will take several years for mangas to become accepted in the Indian culture and build its own prominent fan following. But if your curiosity was piqued after reading this small section, I urge you to go ahead and read mangas and see for yourself what you think about them!
- Aarshi Tirkey
1 comment:
i like it! :)
Post a Comment