Manga is a comic from Japan that is popular all over the world. You may have heard or Sailor Moon, Death Note, Naruto and Tokyo Mew Mew. These are all types of manga. A lot of cartoons on Western TV today were acctually origionally Japanese and started off as one of these comics.
Step 1
So you have heard of manga, and wan to become a fan. First you need to find the manga. There are a lot of ways to get your hands on manga. One way is to go onto manga websites like managfox.com or onemanga.com. These sites have updated manga, completely free to read.
Step 2
There are a lot of types on manga. Shonen (for boys) and Shoujo (for girls) are the most popular. Here are some explanations:
- Shonen is for young boys and is usualy full of action and adventure. A lot of girls read Shonen too. Eg Naruto, Death Note, DragonBall, Pokemon.
- Shojo is for young girls and usualy has a lot of romance. You don't have to be very girly to read Shojo though. Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Fruits Basket, Shugo Chara.
- Doujinshi is produced by fans and is unofficial. A lot of popular mangas are used for donjishi where the story-line is changed somehow.
- Yaoi or Shonen-ai is about male relationships. Eg Loveless, Gravitation.
- Yuri or Shoujo-ai is about female relationships. Eg Shiroi Heya no Futari.
- Hentai is NOT for children. There is also Redikomi (manga with adult content for women) and Seijin (the same, for men).
- Gekiga is like our (the Western countries) type of "Graphic Novels".
- Kodomo is for very young children who cannot read very well. This might be good to buy for your little brothers or sisters if they have taken an interest in your collection.
Step 3
If you don't like the idea of sitting at a computer reading it, Borders sell a nice selection of manga. Just ask an assistant.
Step 4
If you have little pocket money, you can also go to the library. A lot of libraries have manga now due to it's increase of popularity.
- Once you have bought and read a manga book, you can find a few friends who are also interested in manga and swap.
- Remember to always support a mangaka (manga author) by purchasing some of their works if you enjoyed them.
Step 5
You may need to learn a bit about Japanese culture, food ect. before reading manga, as some mangas do not explain clearly some of the things mentioned in it.
- The internet has a lot on Japanese culture but there is also library books too. You will eventually learn a lot from manga and will not need to keep looking up words after a while.
- You may also learn a bit of Japanese while reading them (Romaji, if English translated) but you will not need to be fluent in Japanese to read them!!
Step 6
You may find manga unusual at first, but after a while it becomes a great hobby and can make great conversations with friends at school ect.
Tips
- Take care of library books. Do not bring them to school, if you are not prepared to take full care of them. The library is kind to let you borrow its books and bring them home, do not ruin that or take it for granted.
- Make a little extra room in your bedroom or sitting room if you plan to have a large manga collection. A lot of fans take pictures of their collections and post them on the internet. You do not need a big collection like some of those. In my oppinion, a true manga fan is someone who appriciates all types of manga and is an avid reader.
Warnings
- Hentai is definately not for anyone under 18. If you are asking your parents to buy your manga for whatever reason, warn them not to buy one if it says this.
- Don't stay up late reading manga. Especially if you are using the computer. Reading in the dark causes you to go blind and staying up too late makes you too tired, and you may fall asleep in class.
- Don't try any dangerous stunts you see in the manga. Children have lost their lives before from acting like their favourite anime/manga stars.
- If you have any manga that you don't want younger brothers and sisters to see, keep it hidden or up on high shelves. Your the only one to blame if they do find it.
