Manga - brif overview

If you didn't live under a rock for the last two or three decades, then the term "Manga" will sound familiar for you at least remotely. But other then the knowledge of Manga being a Japanese comics, containing characters with big eyes, not many researched the topic further.

You can quickly fix it by reading this short post.

The origins  

The word manga (漫画) literally means "cartoon picture". The term became widely used at the end of the 18th century, with publication of picture books such as "Shiji no Yukikai". But the works of that time were very different from the manga we know today. The change in style was made after the world war II, when the American comics was introduced in Japan. But no matter how far this influence changed the Japanese comics, it still stays unique and developing in it's own direction.

An interesting turn in Manga history was in the 60s. Until 60s Manga was intended mainly for children. But then came artists who created manga for adults, featured with serious subjects and complex plot. Around that time the gekiga (劇画) drawing style was developed. Depicting more realistic characters and fitting perfectly for the manga genre for adults.

After becoming popular in many demographic layers in Japan, the manga didn't stop there. It went into the wide world and particularly conquered it. The manga became spread worldwide at 70s and early 80s. Since then, it became popular in many countries. For example, in France at 2011 manga represented 40% of all the comics books sold. At Germany the parentage in 2007 was 70%. 

Nowadays, the digital Manga is taking the lead. And while the printed books sales become fewer and fewer, the Internet digital sales incising every year. This only shows that no metter the media, the manga stays popular as ever.

Specifications

What are the unique features of manga , compared to other comics? The first thought that will jump to everyone mind will be - the drawing style. Well, yes and no. Manga has many different drawing styles, from the chibi (ちび or チビ) characters for children to very realistic ones in gekiga style. And of cores everything in between.

Another distinct feature of manga comics is coloring. The manga is drawn in black and white, even today. I think the main reason for this is faster and cheaper production purposes. I found that for mangaka (漫画家) meaning "cartoon picture performer", who draws the manga, one page of manga takes up to 10 hours to draw. One chapter has 20 pages at average. Release rate is once a weak or once a month (depending on the number of pages). From these numbers can be concluded, that the manga is drawn by more then one mangaka artist.

An interesting feature, typically used in manga, is exaggerated emotions expressing. An when I say "exaggerated", I mean, they have spatial drawing symbols to express specific emotions such as anger, nervousness, confusion etc. Here some of them:

One more critical point to be addressed in relation to manga is the order of reading. Many beginning manga readers, including myself, are confused about the order of the dialogs. The reason to this is simple. Manga reading order is different from the western comics many accustomed to. The main rule for reading manga is from right to left and top to bottom. Here an example from wikiHow:

 

But pay attention! Some of the translators swapping the pages horizontally, "to make it easier on the readers". And it serves as another reason for confusion because it can create many paradox situations. For example, senses featuring driving in the car in Japan or UK suddenly drive in a right sided car. Or the logos and prints on shirts will be reversed. Even the dialogs can be confusing while the character pointing to the left but referring to something on the right.

Despite or because all the differences from the western comics, Manga serves as an interesting  alternative. 

Genres

While comics associated with content for children, genres in Manga are very diverse and vary from content for children to adult content. In addition to the regular genres like action, horror, romance, etc. Manga is also divided to age and sexual preferences categories.

Age categories:

Kodomo (子供) - Literally means "child". It's manga for little children under 11. The plot is usualy moralistic and educating children to stay in the right path in life. For example: "Castel in the sky", "Pokemon".

Shonen (少年) - Literally means "boy". It's a manga for boys at ages around 12-18. This manga categorized by high-action and the themes like robots, sports, science fiction etc. For example: "Death note", "Bleach".

Shojo (少女) - Translates as "young lady" or "little girl". This manga is for girls at ages around 7-18. This type of manga often coventrates on romantic relations an emotions. Examples: "Skip beat!", "Fruits basket".

Seinen (青年) - Meaning "young man" and literally "green man". This genre intended for men over 18. It doesn't necessarily means that the content should be sexual, but it can be violent. The topics of this manga are very similar to the shonen manga, but can include politics, sex and other adult topics. Examples: "Berserk", "Tokyo ghoul".

Josei (女性) - Meaning "woman". This manga intended for woman over 18. In contrarily to shojo manga, the josei type concentrates on more realistic relationships rather then the idealized romance. Examples: "Nana", "Kids on the slop".

Sexual preferences categories:

Ecchi (エッチ) - Meaning "indecent" or "sexy". This manga includes sexual content, like nudity, but nothing too graphic and no sex scene. Something like erotica. But the manga not necessarily should contain nudity and sex. It can simply imply erotic thoughts and behavior. For example: "Compulsive gambler", "High school DxD".

Hentai ( ヘンタイ or in kanji 変態) - Literally means "strange/weird". Comes from the full term
"hentai seiyoku" (変態性欲) meaning sexual perversion. Well, you can guess the genre type. Yep, it's porn. Sorry, but I'm not recommending porn.

Shonen-ai (少年愛) - Literally means "boys love" also usually written in Japan as acronym BL. This type of manga shows homosexual relationships and its auditory is largely females. A special term for this kind of manga is Yaoi (やおい) was invented in the 70s and it's a portmanteau to "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi" (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし) and translates as "no climax, no point, no meaning". Many try to separate Shonen-ai and Yaoi  and categories one of them as more mild and romantic and the other as more graphic and shallow. But in reality these terms are interchangeable. Examples for good non graphic yaoi are: "Gravitation", "Yuri on ice".

Shojo-ai (少女愛) - Means "girls love" and exactly the opposite of Yaoi. The term for this genre is Yuri (百合) also meaning lily - the flower. The term developed in mid 70s and now used to depict an attraction between woman. It can be sexual or romantic, explicit or implied. For example: "NTR: Netsuzou trap", "Girl friends"

Well, that's all for now. I hope the post was informative and not too heavy. And maybe you'll consider to give Manga a try.

Ikigai

To understand the Japanese language, you should learn Japanese culture. Otherwise, you'll come across terms and concepts, which will throw you off.

One important concept of Japanese culture, is Ikigai (生き甲斐). This term built from two words: iki (生き) meaning: life, and kai (甲斐) sequentially voiced as gai, meaning: effect, result, worth.
Consequently, the meaning of the term is "a reason for being". In Okinawa prefecture, the Ikigay thought to be "a reason to wake up in the morning". In western terms it will sound more like "the purpose of life".
Strangely, western people are trying to find the reason for their lives as an universal meaning for life. It gives the impression that all human beings have the same purpose. Personally, I think the universal meaning is not relevant in terms of human short lives. And there is no planned destiny for anyone. Every person should choose his/her reason for being, and this responsibility for his/her own personal life is too much for some people. Generally, a responsibility for anything is a hard thing for many people, but it's a different discussion.
The finding of Ikigay may be not a simple task for some people. Where you should start when you look for purpose? Some do meditation and wait for the enlightenment to come. Others traveling to India or other countries in a belief that all the answers there somewhere, just waiting or them. There are also people who ask others about their purpose in life. Subconsciously they want to draw ideas from others and maybe apply them on themselves. All those ways are legitimate but their effectiveness similar to firing in the dark and hoping to accidentally make a score.
I think there is a better way. Deduce the Ikigay from carefully selected questions.

What I love?
What I'm good at?
What I can be paid for?
What the world needs?

You can use those questions in two ways:

Find your Ikigay
You are open to the world and still didn't decide what you want to do with your life. Great, that's the section for you.

• Firstly, make a list of things that you love doing. It can include anything from painting and reading books, to making research in quantum physics.
• Pick from the list the things you are good at or the things you think you can become good at. 
• For each item you picked, write an estimation of time to become so good in it, that people will agree to pay you for doing it. For example: 3  years to become good pianist or 1.5 years to learn Japanese.
• Think if the invested time will be worth it. Are you ready to do it? What additional elements will you need (money, change of environment, tools for crafting etc.)?
• Now, only one question had left. For each item ask yourself if the action, made by you, will change the world. It may sound big, but you don't have to make a revolution. Maybe some actions will make people more educated, or the oceans will be cleaner, or the technology will become more affordable. There is no limit to the ways you can contribute to the world. Just find a purpose in every action in your list.
• Now it's time to choose from what had left in your list. Have nothing left? Think harder in the previous steps, try to be creative, experiment with topics which interest you and may become your new passion. Good luck. 

Determine the missing part
You already have an occupation, but do you have an Ikigay? Look at the chart below and ask yourself if there is anything went missing from your life. If yes, try to find a way to make it complete. You don't have to switch your life 180 degrees. Maybe little changes or additions will compensate for the missing part. A hobby can compensate for lack of things you love. A volunteering mission can fill the part of contributing to the world. Etc.
And don't forget, you have only one life, so make the most of it. Good luck.

Colors

Colors is are the very important in our lives, The change our mood, rule our behavior (traffic light), symbolize things (red symbolize danger), symbolic associations (wearing black is mourning) and so on. That's why the topic of colors is very important.

Colors in Japan
Historically, Japanese had different color perceptions. They made no clear distinction between blue and green, and the tendency to call green things blue persists in a number of cases today, such as that stoplights are said to turn blue, not green. Japanese children drawing the sun in red colors and the proverb: "the shoemaker's children go barefoot" in Japanese will sound like  "the dyer wears white" 紺屋の白袴 [ こうやのしろばかま ].

Colors
The word color in Japanese is iro (いろ).
The four oldest colors of Japan (mentioned in its' history) are:

aka	(あか)	red
kuro	(くろ)	black
shiro	(しろ)	white
ao	(あお)	blue

Only these four colors can be prefixed with ma (ま), meaning "pure", "genuine", to give us:

makka	(まっあか)	bright red
makkuro	(まっくろ)	pitch black
masshiro	(まっしろ)	pure white
massao	(まっあお)	deep blue

If we add the color     kiiro (きいろ) yellow, to the other four, we will get a group of colors which are all i-adjectives. That means, if you want to say that something is some color you put the color after the subject. But if you say something about the colored thing, you should write the color before that thing and add i (い) after it:

くるまはあかです。The car is red.
あかいくるま。        A red car.

Other colors
Here some other colors (they follow different rules):

kon	(こん)	dark blue
midori	(みどり)	dark green
murasaki	(むらさき)	violet/purple
mizuiro	(みずいろ)	light blue (misu - water)
chairo	(ちゃいろ)	brown (cha - tea)
haiiro	(はいいろ)	grey (hai - ash)
nezumiiro	(ねずみいろ)	grey (nezumi - mouse)
daidaiiro	(だいだいいろ)	orange (daidai - bitter orange)
momoiro	(ももいろ)	pink (momo - peach)
kin'iro	(きんいろ)	gold (kin - gold)
gin'iro	(ぎんいろ)	silver (gin - silver)

The rule for these colors is:
くるまはみどりです。The car is green.
みどりのくるま。        A green car.

Colors from English
The colors which came from other languages written in Katakana, but have the same rules for them like the other colors.

orenji	(オレンジ)	orange
pinku	(ピンク)	pink

Links
For more Japanese colors you can visit this page.
For the expended table of colors you can visit wiki.
A game for learning the colors is here.

My first understanding of Japanese

After I have decided to study Japanese, I started to search the Internet for courses. There are many sites, some of them were free and some weren't. Not all of the free courses are bad, so don't go and jump for the ones you should pay for.
I like the courses which include explanations about the Japan and Japanese culture. I think that it's important to know the customs and the way of living of the Japanese people, to fully understand their language. For example, how would you understand the word bento (べんとう) if you don't know that bento is a lunch box usually prepared at home and taken to work or school. There are many types of bento (depending on what you put inside). Typically it looks like that:

For the ones who wants to know more, I will include links to more detailed explanation in the body of my posts.

Early in my studding I discovered, that hearing the pronunciation of Japanese is very important. It helps you understand the people talking in Japanese. So in my next post I'll write about the best audio lessons I found.