MANGA: Independent >>> Mainstream

Becoming a Mainstream Mangaka!

There are a few ways to do this:

1. Go Mainstream Immediately
2. form a good doujin circle, make own incredible stories, get noticed and then get big.

Method #1 would be like stated in this article:
How to become a Mangaka

One Mangaka, Hiromu Arakawa, started by being an assistant to Etō Hiroyuki before coming up with her own mind blowing Full Metal Alchemist(click link for a review)


(image - Hiromu Arakawa's Full Metal Alchemist, one of today's best loved manga. One of my all time favorites XD )

Method #2 was proven by CLAMP

...and if you don't know who CLAMP is, search my old blog entries.
I'm getting lazy here >D Have Fun.

MANGA: Independent >>> Mainstream

More on Doujinshis!

just a few articles I found online about Doujinshis - or fan drawn Manga

here's the History
(scroll down, ignore the web jargon)

Doujins and their value


and a few case studies when Doujins cross the line

Crypton to Doujin Circle: Cease and Desist

Editor’s Desk: doujinshi, obscenity, and Japan’s imperiled freedom of speech

Manga History - the changing of styles

Here's an imprompto gallery of the ever changing art styles of the Manga industry.

Click here and scroll down to see old to new Manga

Mind you, the author intended this page to showcase the female Mangakas throughout the ages.
The works featured here are from a few of the A-Listers of female mangakas - quite like the Audrey Hepburns or the Marilyn Monroes of the industry.

Enjoy XD

Manga: Independent who made it BIG

Here are some links I found that gave me more insight on how one of the most successful Doujinkas in came to be, and how they are still inspiring Manga readers world wide today:


Happy Birthday CLAMP!

Beginning as a group who drew fan manga, CLAMP have produced some of the best loved series ever to come out of Japan. Join Animefringe as we take a look back at this remarkable quartet of manga-ka.

Four Mothers of Manga Gain American Fans With Expertise in a Variety of Visual Styles

An Article of CLAMP interacting with Fans in America - also has interesting insights of other female mangakas that made it big (which i sadly will not speak about here. They were mainstream artists from the get go)

And also a forum of some fans discussing CLAMP's works - as you can see, I'm not the only one to think they did a great job at combining Shojo and Shonen =P

Manga: MISC - Some Insider stuff

Here's a good blog on Manga! The blogger, Shaenon, has good info and articles on Manga for casual and hard core Fans

Here's her blog on some of the current recommended manga - I've read most of them, and agreee with everything she says like a good little fan =)


Also, click here for a online comic on the essential insider Manga jokes
and here for EVERY fan's pet peeve - the horrible job that major corporations do with their Japanese-to-English translations. Here, it's One Piece, which imho is a really good series and 4kidsanime network (thank you VGCats! you make my day!) XD

Manga: Fans becoming Legends

Through my many years as a Manga reader, I find that this industry's style changes little by little - any big leaps can be seen only after a generation has passed.

Just look at the samples through the decades from my previous posts to see what I mean - you can tell which one looks less refined. Those would be from the 50s or 60s, when Manga first boomed in the Japanese market, just at the beginning of becoming a well loved cultural icon of the nation.

The others are those Manga masters' (mainstream) legacies - the fans(independents) who grew up on their work and go on to produce their own.

and I find that these changes in happen when new blood infuse the market:

One example would be the Naruto Mangaka, Masashi Kishimoto - he openly admits to his fans that he takes inspiration from Dragon Ball's artist, Akira Toriyama and Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo

(A Page from Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama)

(A Page from Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto)


Naruto's style does look like a combination of both Dragon Ball and Akira mangas. However, the real changes happened when the Naruto Mangaka got trained by the Mega-publishing house, Shonen publishing - they gave him a more refined edge in his works.

(Naruto Pilot Manga, that the demo Manga he submitted to Shonen publishing)

Click here to view Kishimoto's interview


Then, there are also independent groups - in this case, an actual Doujin group (Amature Manga producers) made it big time. This group is called CLAMP.

They started as a group of 17 high school girls, where only 4 of them remained and made it big. What fans say made them big was the breakthrough combo of good shojo art with decent shonen storylines. So, you could say they revolutionized the genre for that niche of girl readers - girls back then were wowed by material that held more water than the typical romance drama Manga of those years.

Among their famous works would be X/1999 - where they broke the traditions of Shojo and Shonen Mangas. They combined the feminine style of Shojo with an action-filled storyline, which you would only expect from a Shonen Manga back then.



They still continue to wow the Manga/Anime audiences today. Works like XXXholic were known for their unique combination of Art Nouveau and traditional Japanese aesthetics.

Their new work continues to inspire current generations. I expect one day, they would also have a small ring of artists that would published work inspired by them - like how Dragon Ball's Toriyama has followers like Naruto's Kishimoto.

Manga - Icons in the Manga Drawing Style

Manga drawings throughout decades and the world share a few unique icons in their drawings -

1.Black and White illustrations - guess this technique lived on after the Godfather cos current Manga publishers have to deal with releasing 20-30 pages of new Manga chapters every week. There's no time for coloring, except for the covers, or special occasions

2. EVERYONE will use big doe like eyes. I believe this started when the God father got too influenced by Betty Boop and Disney.

3. Screentones - the grey spots/lines/patterns u see in the background

4. Speed Lines - for motion/focus/shock/light emitting from somewhere/inner thoughts. Hong Kong and Western Comics utilize this as well, but those comics use them minimally. Manga, as u can see, uses them for any other little thing... (refer to the three images above =P)

5. The cute little expressions that EVERYONE seem to use to convey the mood of the atmosphere to the readers.

Like the sweat drop for times when the character is embarrassed/exasperated (works even when you do not see the character's face).

Or eyes hidden by a dark shadow to show evil intent or impending punish(usually before the character unleashes violent harm onto the victim)

or the Vein Pop, which is the simplified symbol of the veins visibly showing a person's head when enraged. Click here to read more on them

5. "Chibi" or "SD" (semi deformed) - the cuter, baby-fied version of the original characters, usually used to convey humor

Here are some links that I found that talk more about this topic:

Manga Iconography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_iconography
Manga wiki http://manga.wikia.com/wiki/Manga

The Manga Drawing Style http://www.animeinfo.org/animeu/core102-l2.html

http://www.narutocentral.com/information/masashi-kishimoto-interview/

MANGA: Mainstream >>> Independent

Factoid: Any Manga reader or artist will favor one genre of Manga that the Mainstream has established.

Mainstream in this sense are the publishers of Manga, whom have to sate the incredible demand of Manga readers firslty in Japan, the Mecca of Manga. And nowadays, the rest of the world who also consumes Manga.

Most of the well-known and best selling manga are released WEEKLY, chapter by chapter, in a big phone-directory sized magazines called Tankobon. Then, when they get big enough, they get sold as smaller, A5 sized versions.

(Image - the Weekly Shonen Jump 2004 New Year Special, can you spot some Big Name Manga here?)

(Image - a blogger with his Bleach Tankobon)
(Image - Bleach Volume 1)

So, publishers like Shonen Jump here, are under pressure to churn out manga fast - so, out of logistics and a clarity, Manga has more or less fallen into very clear cut and very different categories to suit different readers.


Well, looking into Manga's Past History and wasn't too hard - I began asking alot of my friends, like myself, have been exposed to the culture than a a third of their young life. (Yes, v b Otaku, that's Hard Core Manga/Anime fans for you =P) I explained briefly I was looking on how Mainstream and the Independent groups affect the Manga art styles, story telling and the rest of the industry, then asked if they have also made such observations or felt such shifts during the many years they have been following this industry. Not surprisingly, they agreed, and shared some of their experiences.

The first thing they all agreed on were the very well established genres - Shojo for the girls, and Shonen for the Boys. This two main separators is where any Manga reader will begin.

Shojo (Image -Glass Mask by Suzue Miuchi) (Image - MARS by Furuyumi Soryo)

Storyline: Romance and Relationships, boys meets girl, someone MUST fall for someone...Drama, usually set in current day society, if not in famous cliche themes like love from ancient, bygone eras.
Art Style: Airy, light strokes; big doe eyes; lots of visual showing emotion; lots of shiny, soft patterns in background to create the mood; feminine and delicate features, even the male will look fragile and slender (and you wonder why so many popular Asian male actors/singers look like girls...their fans grew up on this)

Shonen (Image - Crossbone GUNDAM by Hasegawa Yuichi)

(Image - PARODY of Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiru Watsuki)

Storyline: Adventure. or Sports. Someone must get something or must fight someone. Again. and again. and again.
But then again, the cliche shallow ones go on like Pokemon.
The deeper, better storylines reaches out to readers and inspire them to think, and to go out and catch a dream. or fight some fear.

Art Style: LOTS of action lines (note the diagonal strokes in both images), very solid, usually very detailed backgrounds/ fight sequences/ angles.


I suppose Streamlining it to Manga for Boys and Manga for Girls gets the story across faster and so, the reader "gets it" with maximum impact. And then come back for more.

Imagine getting a dreamy, lovey-dovey teenager girl to read a Manga of underdog high school footballers trying to go pro.
Or getting a basketball loving dude to sit through a romantic tale of a Chinese princess forbidden love for a Dragon prince.

Not likely to go down well...

Them Manga publishers are smart, I think focus on producing solely Shonen/Shojo because that's the kind of stories their readers want.

MANGA: Mainstream vs Independent - Introduction

History of Manga - In A Nut Shell


right, right, I know this is long overdue, but here's the Introduction to my research(can I call this a mini-thesis?)

Manga (Japanese Comics) have been around a long, long time - in fact, it started in 16th century Japan. In this long, long time, this simple form of telling stories through black and white drawings on a piece of paper has boomed into a 14 Billion USD industry worldwide.

(Image - the Great Wave of Kanaga, one of the first Manga)

Manga started life as dynamic drawings by a rebellious artist called Hokusai. He broke conventions of the typical woodblock drawings back then. He went against the rigid styles of the ukiyo-e drawings of then and drew according to how his brush moved across the empty paper - thus creating the Manga style, Manga meant "Whimsical Pictures"

(Image: Comic Strip by Ippei Okamoto, one of the early Mangakas/Manga Artist )

Manga remained that way til the 20th century - when Japan became more open to the world. De to this, the Japanese started picking up new things from other countries, especially America. One of these new and marvelous things were comic strips found in most Western newspapers. The Japanese adopted this humorous outlet into their lives and began making it their own - even using it to spread propaganda messages among the masses during wartime.

Then came along the Godfather - Osamu Tezuka. This man single handedly transformed the Manga industry during the World War Two into the endearing and inspiring medium it is today. He broke the tradition of stagnant frames and bland drawings of the old Manga and re-shaped it to look like the dynamic black and white movies of then (kind of like Hokusai, eh?). He wanted his readers to really EXPERIENCE the story, to be a part of the adventure...something previous Manga failed to bring.

Needless to say, the public were blown away with this new style.
His breakthrough Manga, Shin Takarajima (New Treasure Island - see image below), sold 400,000 copies in its first printing alone.


(Image - The Breakthrough Shin Takarajima /New Treasure Island - note how incredibly cinematic this strip is compared to the previous comic strip...)


Then, the Godfather of Modern Manga laid the foundations of the Manga industry since - specifically, the different genres of Manga. Two main genres of the industry include the Shojo genre - featuring romantic tales, love stories for girls - and the Shonen genre, which had adventure, action and good-old-fashioned butt-kicking. ,

From the Manga came its animated sibling - Anime. Both industries are inseperable now, since most big name Mangas, such as DragonBall and Bleach, will get animated inevitably.

(Image - A page from Dragon Ball's Manga - note the improved cinematographic quality)

(Image - The Cast of the Dragon Ball Anime)


And as time goes on, Manga and Anime continue to grow. Notably, today's Manga and Anime are spreading across the globe, gaining lots of love wherever it goes, even in the West.
Kind of ironic isn't it? It was the Western comic strip that inspired the evolution Manga in the first place.

(Image - Bleach, the Manga)


(Image - Local Bleach fans Cosplaying / dressing up as their beloved character)



























(Image - And LOTS of American Bleach Cosplayers)


So, what's up with all this love?

As a fan, Mangas and Anime have offered me a way into a better world - a world where anyone can chase their dreams just by giving it your all, and anything really is possible.
A World where friends are really nakama, friends you can bet your life to always remain by your side, to chase dreams with.
A world where the mediocre can rise by believing - where the outcast orphan can rise to bring entire nations to stop warring each other, and find the family he never had among friends (Naruto); where a normal, everyday girl can find herself among Gods and Demons (the Oscar winning Spirited Away); even where the ugly duckling of her school can find love with an unexpected prince charming (Ouran High School Host Club).

Mangas also brought that world back here to reality, for as a Manga fan, I can go anywhere in the world and find other Manga lovers out there whom I can relate too.

This industry has remained a pillar of strength and inspiration to its fans because of simple stories - powerful yet simple stories that every and any laymen can immerse into. And grow with.

Perhaps, more than any other story telling industry out there, the Manga industry is very, very involved with its fans. In Japan, huge Manga/Anime corporations hold multimillion dollar events just for the fans - even showcasing their favorite Manga/Anime voice actors, or even getting real life actors to play their parts!




(Image - Bleach Anime's Characters, and their actors. Bloody uncanny resemblance...click here for info)

These corporations also hold off suing fans that breach copyrights. Fans that get so madly in love with the characters of their favorite Manga/Anime they actually draw and SELL their OWN VERSIONS of the story to other fans. Fan drawn Manga, called Doujinshi, are seen as LEGAL despite their obvious copyright infringement. That's how much love the fans get.

(Image - Another Big Name Manga, Naruto - Click here to head to a Naruto fansite)




(Images - ...and SOME of the MILLIONS of Naruto Doujins out there!)

So, I've decided to investigate this crazy, symbiotic relationship between the producers and the fans - Who has more influence in shaping this industry? The Producers? or the Fans? Mainstream or Independent?

We shall soon see.



and... if I still haven't drowned you with History lessons on Manga, get more Here and Here...and Here