Every Monday Comic Impact will see a post that will give you insight into something new, that something is Manga (if you hadn’t already guessed). Now before you stop reading hear me out, its not all Pokemon and tentacle rape, well I mean of course there is Pokemon and tentacle rape and if you ask nicely I’m sure I can even talk about in the future.

Manga is roughly translated as comic books while Anime is what you watch on TV. Manga is often in black and white and is read ‘backwards’ to us westerns with Manga being read from top to bottom and right to left. Just to put things in perspective the Manga business in Japan is worth a whopping $4.4Billion a year, while in America, to reflect its growing popularity, is worth $175-200Million a year. Much like western comics Manga is an art-form all of its own with each artist holding a distinct and often recognizable style. Manga has even seen some people, such as Courtney Love, produce Manga novels such as Princess Ai.

So to keep thing as simple as possible and ease you in nice and gently this first post will be used to explain some of the different types of styles and genera’s of Manga as well as the meaning of words often associated.

Shònen Manga – Refers to Manga that is aimed towards a male audience, often of a high school age. This type of manga is often about action, adventure and lots of fighting

Shòjo Manga – Refers to Manga that is aimed towards a female audience, often of a high school age. This type of Manga is often about Romance and drama with females taking the lead role.

Bishòjo – A term often used to describe beautiful girls often below the age of 18

Bishònen – A term often used to describe beautiful males often below the age of 18

Yaoi/Shònen ai – Manga often focused on male homosexual relationships. Yaoi as its know to English speakers is often sexual while the Japanese term of Shònen ai (Boy Love) refers to romance and love. Yaoi has been made popular by young females.

Yuri-Shòjo-ai – Manga often focused on female homosexual relationships. As much the same with Yaoi, Yuri is a term often used by English speakers and is often sexual with Shòjo-ai (girl love) refers to romance and love.

Dòjinshi – used to describe fan made comics, comics that use pre-existing characters. Dòjinshi may also include characters from games (such as Final Fantasy) and popular culture (Harry Potter). Many famous manga artists, such as those from the group CLAMP, started their carers as Dòjinshi artists. Dòjinshi commonly features both Yaoi and Yuri of both a romantic and strong sexual nature.

Ecchi – A term that means lewd or naughty. Often applied to Manga that has either a mild or strong sexual reference, such as pantie shots and tight clothing but does not feature scenes of a explicit sexual nature.

Hentai – Manga that contains scenes of explicit sex, this may or may not contain tentacles. It is illegal to buy and read Hentai Manga if below the age of 18.

So if you stuck with me and read that, well done! If you stuck with me and read it and want to learn more, even better! From here on in every Monday will focus on a different Manga title from any or a mix of the genera’s above. Yes, I’m afraid Yaoi will eventually be discussed.

Hollie ‘Pheonix’ Bennett
Hollie@comicimpact.com