So Film4 here in the UK currently has a whole string of week nights dedicated to Asian films. One night saw me watching a film taken from a hugely popular manga, and that’s pretty much the one for this weeks Manga Monday. Starting in December 2003 and lasting for 12 volumes, Death Note was a massive success. It follows the story of an extremely intelligent highschool student, know as Light. He finds a black book, a book known as ‘The Death Note’, dropped onto the earth by a God of Death. Light learns that by simply writing...

Any comic book artist, be that professional or hobbiest understands how difficult it is trying to make it and fitting into the ‘normal’ world and our geek world together truly is. Comic Party is a manga that focuses on just that. First let me explain quickly what the Japanese word ‘dōjinshi’ actually means. Well a dōjinshi artist is somebody who draws manga for a hobby or what they do while they are trying to make it famous. Any manga they do produce is often self-published and using the characters of other artist. Comic...

Iconic mangas are those that have stood the test of time. They are known by everyone (even if they haven’t read it), are constantly cosplayed, respected and above all have avoided fading into obscurity with the million other mangas that have been and gone. Cowboy Bebop has managed to do just that, with its amazing mash-up of film noir, sci-fi, beautiful women, danger, Jazz and out right weird. Cowboy Bebop is set in the year 2071 and finds itself set in outterspace after an explosion from a warp gate experiment results in daily...

Now us comic book types, be that manga or otherwise, are often stereotyped to not liking sports and in  fact, being rather allergic to exercise all together. So I thought this manga would be perfect. Not only is it sports based but it is a Japanese manga that is based off an American sport. Football. Eyesheild 21 is a pretty big manga, concluded at a hefty 37 volumes, had a successful anime in Japan and even had a spin off TCG (trading card game) and video games. While American football seems to be an odd choice, even more so...

Before I get into another Manga Monday, I just want to say a quick thank you to all the readers who put up with my disappearance over the last month or so. I have now graduated from university and couldn’t have done it without all the fantastic support I have received. So without further delay…. While thinking about this week’s topic I was reminded about how much geek culture crosses over. When someone is a geek in one particular area, it is not uncommon to also find them in another. For example many manga fans are also...

While thinking about the manga artist group CLAMP, I remembered another manga that I feel in love with early on in my addiction. The manga is known as Cardcaptor Sakura. It follows the story of 10 year old Sakura Kinomoto, who happens to stumble upon an old book. Upon opening the book she learns that she has released many magical cards into her world and she is now a Cardcaptor. Her new role as Cardcaptor means she has to use new powers granted to her to tame the now lose cards and then use the powers for herself. The cards...

I am finally back! After finishing off at university, going to PAX and getting sick while I was there, I can say I am back brining you Manga Monday even though I’m sure most of you skip it. Anyway this week we look at the super popular and slightly odd manga known as Chobits. Chobits was written by one of the most famous groups, known as Clamp. It was started in February 2001 and ran until November 2002 and spanned only 8 volumes. Now Chobits is a bit of an odd one as due to its romantic themes, hapless hero and ‘girly’...

Hey everybody!! Yatah! Hollie here with another MANGA MONDAY!!! No that isn’t true I can’t live a lie. This is Sheldon our good friend Hollie is taking a week off LARPING some place in a Fury costume. Zing see two can play at that! So any who! This week we are going to step away from the norm of MANGA and check out Marvel Comics foray into the wondrous world of Manga! Dubbed the Marvel Mangaverse it was intended to bridge the gap between popular Marvel Comics at the time and Manga , it was published from 2000 to 2002, with...

Manga comes in many different varieties and caters for many different people. This particular manga proves that you don’t have to have a manga 40 books long and an anime that spans 10years to create something with impact and something that you can fall in love with. Paradise Kiss is only 5 books and 12 episodes long. It is by my favourite artist Ai Yazawa and become so popular it was translated into at least 10 different languages. The anime has some amazing music; the opening is called ‘lonely in gorgeous’ and the ended...

Well Manga Monday is once again not on a Monday because I was once again delivering babies. Awesome, I know. If you were living under a rock them you probably didn’t know that Comic Con has just come and gone, which oddly enough gave me my inspiration for this week’s post. A lot of people go to this Con in San Diego, and many others dress up, or doing something we have come to know as cosplay, which you probably could have guessed is a word of Japanese origin. Cosplay is short for ‘costume roleplaying’, where both...

Right. I have dodged around it for as long as possible but this Manga Monday I am actually going to approach the subject of yaoi and attempt to make it relatively insightful. Yes, I said ‘attempt’. Right. If you actually recall from my very first post, yaoi is Japanese for homosexuality of a romantic nature specific to the male gender (yuri is female homosexuality). It is something that is featured heavily within the anime and manga world, but what always struck me as odd is that yaoi is actually a market dominated by women....

In the past Comic Impact readers have seemed shocked to find out that I don’t read comics, even though I write for a comic book website. My answer is pretty simple; I do read comics! Manga is, after all, translated roughly as the word ‘comic.’ I just don’t read western comics. So for Manga Monday this week, we will look at the history of manga and what helped create this style of comic book that is so close, yet so far away, from western comics. Many believe that manga as we know it today developed most rapidly...

So far on Manga Monday I have discussed the cult classics Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and odd ones such as Ranma 1/2, the girly ones like Nana, and the action ones such as Trigun. Typically I’ve stayed away from the more popular and mainstream manga but this week we will give it a go. However you can stop reading right now if you expect me, for even a second, to actually discuss Naruto. Instead, I choose Bleach. Bleach is a current and hugely popular manga and anime in Japan, the UK, and America. Like all popular manga it...

Chances are that if you spend quite a bit of time on the internet, at some point you have come across the meme ‘It’s Over 9000′! Did you know that meme originates from one of the longest running mangas ever made? Yes, Dragon Ball started life as a manga in 1984 and ran in the weekly magazine, known as Shonen Jump untill 1995. That is 519 chapters, or 42 books! Since Manga and Anime share a close relationship all 42 books were adapted into a well known,  long running anime that had three different series, known...

Firstly I apologize for not blogging last weekend, as mentioned I am a midwife and I spent last Monday knee deep in amniotic fluid and clunge. So without further delay, lets talk geek…. Manga fans, much like comic book fans, enjoy spending time among their own kind. Don’t say I blame them, nobody but our ‘own kind’ gets us. You know what I mean- your ringtone, t-shirt, and those little in-jokes you make. Yeah only your friends get it. This brings me very nicely to my theme for this Manga Monday which is of course, conventions. It...

So yeah, it is blatantly Tuesday and I am made of fail. However, I spent a large portion of yesterday afternoon with my head in the toilet blowing chunks. Oddly enough my vomiting was not hang-over induced, but none the less it was a painful and typically unpleasant experience. I did (several times in fact) attempt to post my Manga Monday only to find that looking at the computer screen for more than 30 seconds sent me racing back to the bathroom. Yet the talk of needing to throw up, and things being particularly unpleasant,...

Yes, if you are a gamer than chances are you know that E3 is taking place in L.A. right now. Due to this I have decided to make the theme of this Manga Monday about gaming. Now as you are probably aware (you do read my posts, right?) I went to London MCM Expo last weekend and I actually did buy some manga. Yes, I know its hard to believe but I didn’t actually spend all of my money on cocktails in China Town. The manga I bought caught my eye instantly because it is actually the manga version of my favourite video game! Now...

So it’s Manga Monday again (seriously, it feels like Monday comes around much more than any other day), and instead of talking about manga or my inability to hold my alcohol, I will talk about my adventures that I had this weekend to London Movie, Comic, and Media (MCM) Expo. London MCM Expo started in 2005 and is now one of the UK’s biggest entertainment expositions, attracting tens of thousands of people to pass through it’s doors every May and October at Excel in the Docklands in London. As you would expect...

Now I am supposed to be a serious journalist but in all fairness but I am rather drunk (wine is my best friend) and after the abomination that is the star wars podcast I thought it best that I don’t try to hard to impress you (in all fairness that wont happen).So let’s keep it really simple. I started watching this anime with my little sister and I will admit, its not really a guys anime yet this anime is a long standing tradition among females and for any anime fan it is part of growing up! The anime stated in 1992 and was...

By now it’s been established that manga can be pretty odd to say the least. I thought I had read some of the weirder stuff out there until I was introduced to this… It’s a comedy like no other and it ran from February 1999 to June 2002 and only spanned 4 volumes, yet proved to be popular enough that it was aired on TV Tokyo in a rather odd format. Each episode was only 5 minutes long and for the weekend a repeat of all 5 was pushed together into one 25 minute episode. For the DVD release a title and end credits were...

While alot of my Manga Monday posts have been about older and more substantial mangas this one is particularly new. Yet, despite this it has taken the anime world by storm and its defiantly a hot topic at nearly all anime conventions I’ve been attending. It only started in 2003 and is currently spanning 13 volumes and is still growing. Its an ultimate shojo manga and its currently being published in American and Europe by the company Shojo Beat. Like many of the best mangas out there its got a hugely popular anime series...

After debating heavily on what type of manga this Manga Monday should focus on I decided that I should leave the yaoi manga for a little while longer and bring you something a little deeper. This manga was introduced to me very early on in my manga addiction and it’s another that has left a huge impression on me. It started in 1996 and ended in 1997 and only totalled 5 volumes (relatively short in the manga world) yet it still spawned a successful anime, a movie and even live theatre. This manga brings together the simple...

Since I made you read through my suggestion of a Shojo manga last week, I’ve decided to bring you one of my favorite Shōnen mangas this week to balance it out. This manga Started in 1995 and was wrapped up only recently in 2007, with a anime airing in 1997, an animated feature film expected some time this year and was the top selling graphic novel of 2004. This particular manga has a strong steam punk theme as its an outer space meets wild wester shoot meets comedy meets hard core action meets heart aching moments. Yeah...

So spring is creeping upon us and with it comes sunshine, the birds and the bees and all that ‘love is in the air crap’, so what better way to kick off this weeks Manga Monday with than a true romance Shojo manga. This particular manga is one of my favourites and one I digest also most instantly from release. Before you roll your eyes and ignore this entire post, this manga is so popular it has two live action films based off it, an anime series and has sold over 22million copies world wide. Now while this is a romance manga...

So while last weeks recommended manga was fairly new, I thought this week we would look at something slightly more ‘retro’. While modern anime/manga is often summed up through mainstream programs such as Pokemon and Dragon ball Z and have become art forms many people recognize. This week’s manga takes us back to more simple times. This particular manga ran from 1987 to 1996 and was a shoene manga that was one of the first mangas to become popular with anime fans in main stream markets, like America. So this week I bring...

Well I have to apologise before I even begin. I have just returned from Minami con (expect a more in-depth post later this week) which is the UK’s longest running anime and manga convention. Between me and my group of 30 friends we consumed over £1000 worth of food and booze, had hentai parties in our hotel rooms and even had takio drum lessons. So as you can imagine I am not in a great state for any form of communication. Well I digress since this post is supposed to be about manga. After last weeks post into Sheldon’s...

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...