Manga is a Japanese word which when translated into English becomes “comic book. Osamu Tezuka is referred to as the god of manga. Animated forms of manga have become very popular in the anime arena, but they started out as comic books.
Manga is a Japanese word which when translated into English becomes “comic book.” When referring to manga, anyone who is not from Japan is talking about Japanese comic books. This is a cartoon drawn and published on paper. Like in the US with Superman and Spiderman, manga in Japan has its stars.
Osamu Tezuka is called the god of manga.
He created Astro Boy, following the inspiration from Walt Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bambi. You can see the inspiration in the big eyes of the characters which allow the artist to show lots of expressive emotions in the story line.
Tezuka created a genre known as Mecha, namely fictional machines and robots in humanoid form. Animated forms of manga have become very popular in the anime arena, but they started out as comic books.
Every manga-ka (manga writer) enjoys portraying a fantasy world, and popular comics show ordinary people doing ordinary things but incorporating other attributes that make a character special. Ordinary teenagers will come home from school, do their homework, run errands, etc., but at the same time, you will find them to have special powers, friends who are unusual or not from this world or other fantasy traits. that makes stories come alive. Manga is like a novel, which has characters that remain consistent for the most part, but change as people move through life and have different experiences. They grow in knowledge and expand their philosophy and change from episode to episode because of this growth and learning.
Manga started as early as 1914 in Japan with cartoon drawings becoming popular and rising in popularity in 1918. In 1951 it really took off with the Astro Boy creations, and exploded into anime a few years later.
One of the popular manga is Dragon Head which consists of three books. In this series, three high school students are the only survivors after their train is in the wreck and kills hundreds of their classmates. They are buried in the train in the collapsed tunnel and have little hope of rescue. With true visual storytelling, the series’ creator, Minetaro Mochizuki, achieves joy and fear as the reader advances.
Maybe the manga that has become a best seller is a manga called Phoenix Volume One: Dawn. Osamu Tezuka created the Phoenix and this famous illustrator and storyteller stretches stories from the beginning of Japanese history to the distant future. In an incredible mix of myth, fantasy, and historical accuracy, he has created a profound story, and over time, readers will find deep meaning in it.
There is also Naruto, a manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. There is an anime adaptation too. The main character is an unpredictable and hyperactive teenage ninja who is always looking for approval. He tried to become the leader of all the ninja in his village. The manga was first published in 1999, but still tops the manga list, with around 46,000 people searching for the term monthly on the most popular search engines.
Are manga popular?
The answer is most definitely YES. Approximately 131,000 manga lovers search for this term every month on the Internet, and this is growing in leaps and bounds. Of that particular poll group, it was found that a little over 33% had more than 15 manga shows on their computer hard drive. Yes, it’s certainly popular and there’s no sign of it’s slowing down.
