Decoding Manga –The World of Cartoons
Manga are cartoons or comics in the Japanese language. Even worldwide the term Manga is referred to describe comics and cartoons that are published in Japan. Manga is a set of stories presented in the cartoon form and have readership across different age groups. Generally cartoon based comics or publications are targeted at children but Manga has stories that appeal to all age group. People of all ages are known to read Manga in Japan.
It provides a wide plethora of genres and you can choose as to what interests you the most. It has stories that are aimed at school going children, stories that will fascinate the teens and even stories that will get the youth hooked. Middle age and elderly people are also known to be voracious readers of Manga. Manga is published in installments and can often run into several hundred of pages. Manga covers a broad and exhaustive list of story types like romance, thriller, murder mystery, comedy, business, science fiction etc. The Manga style was developed in Japan in the late 19th century and since then has gained immense popularity in Japan as well as in the world. Many Mangas have been translated into other languages so that more and more people can be exposed to the wonderful art form of the East Asian country.
Manga forms a large chuck of the publishing industry in Japan providing employment to a large number of the population. Manga artists develop the story and the cartoons and give it to the publishing house to make it into a comic book. Mostly it is the stories that are intriguing to lure the readers to the comics. Artist indulging in this form are called Mangakas.
Manga is further divided into sub groups with comic names for each target audience. Shoujo is for females up to 18 years of age which is peppered with some romance. Males have the shonen which is typically action packed or sports based comics. Kodomo are set of works for young children. Young women can read the josei and young men can read the seinen which has a hint of adult content. Manga also has the hentai group which mainly deals with erotica. The artists and writers of Manga are well respected in Japan. Manga is majorly published in a black and white format and are smaller in size.
Every comic book store worth its salt will sell Manga and it’s not that difficult not to like it. It has a good story flow often depicted with interesting and captivating pictures. It is for this reason that publications tend to bring out installments of the story rather than print the whole thing. Printing in parts piques the interest of the reader and the next part is eagerly awaited. Manga is a great way of introducing the children to the world of books. The cartoons attract them to reading the stories and more often than not these stories have moral endings.
