Introduction

Interest in, and consumption of, Japanese
animation has increased exponentially across the world in the last ten years. Total sales of anime and related character goods rose to ¥9 trillion (US$80
billion) in 2002, up from less than a tenth of that a decade earlier.
Despite Japan’s flagging revenues in other markets from steel to manufacturing and heavy industry, the Wall Street Journalrecently commented that “Japan has more than made up for it because of its cultural exports.”

Indeed, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lauded anime in his 2003 opening speech to the Diet. Using Spirited Awayas a pointed example, Koizumi asserted that anime has become the savior or Japanese culture.”

Considering all of this “hype,” we ask the question: how did anime, once regarded as a product produced for and consumed by Japanese children, become such a powerhouse in the
global media market? The answer lies in the international pull, not push, of anime to other nations’ shores. A wave of internationals became interested in anime, manga (Japanese comics), and other cultural products as they studied or served in the military in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, at the very moment that the slogan “Japan as No. 1” began to reshape that country’s popular consciousness. Those who returned to America wanted to share anime and manga with their friends. The introduction of the VCR into the American and
Japanese mass markets in 1975 made this possible: for the first time, fans could tape shows to show others in America.

Initially unable to share because of the Japanese-English language barrier, fans were relegated to explaining the bare basics of an anime plot as a slew of fantastic imagery and incomprehensible anguage bombarded audiences at the back of science-fiction conventions. Worse yet, a     reader might struggle with the “backwards text and images” of manga alongside a Japanese-competent friend. As Henry Jenkins once commented about this period, “We didn’t know what the hell they were saying, but it looked really cool.”

New technology and distribution networks quickly enabled fans to proliferate their anime
message. What followed was the birth of fan distribution—a process of releasing anime shows on a vast underground network of fans throughout the country. Following a shift in the constitution of the fandom, fansubbing, or translation and subtitling of anime videos, was added to the distribution process by 1990. After leaving college, many fans started anime companies, becoming the industry leaders of today. Read More →

Manga United States

Manga made their way only gradually into U.S. markets, first in association with anime and then independently.^[57] Some U.S. fans became aware of manga in the 1970s and early 1980s.^[58] However, anime was initially more accessible than manga to U.S. fans,^[59] many of whom were college-age young people who found it easier to obtain, subtitle, and exhibit video tapes of anime than translate, reproduce, and distribute tankōbon-style manga books.^[60] One of the first manga translated into English and marketed in the U.S. was Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, an autobiographical story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima issued by Leonard Rifas and Educomics (1980–1982).^[61] More manga were translated between the mid-1980s and 1990s, including Golgo 13 in 1986, Lone Wolf and Cub from First Comics in 1987, and Kamui, Area 88, and Mai the Psychic Girl, also in 1987 and all from Viz Media-Eclipse Comics.^[62] Others soon followed, including Akira from Marvel Comics' Epic Comics imprint and Appleseed from Eclipse Comics in 1988, and later Iczer-1 (Antarctic Press, 1994) and Ippongi Bang's F-111 Bandit (Antarctic Press, 1995).
In the 1980s to the mid-1990s, Japanese animation, like Akira, Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Pokémon, made a bigger impact on the fan experience and in the market than manga.^[63] Matters changed when translator-entrepreneur Toren Smith founded Studio Proteus in 1986. Smith and Studio Proteus acted as an agent and translator of many Japanese manga, including Masamune Shirow's Appleseed and Kōsuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess!, for Dark Horse and Eros Comix, eliminating the need for these publishers to seek their own contacts in Japan.^[64] Simultaneously, the Japanese publisher Shogakukan opened a U.S. market initiative with their U.S. subsidiary Viz, enabling Viz to draw directly on Shogakukan's catalogue and translation skills.^[55]

A young boy reading Black Cat in a Barnes & Noble bookstore

Japanese publishers began pursuing a U.S. market in the mid-1990s due to a stagnation in the domestic market for manga.^[65] The U.S. manga market took an upturn with mid-1990s anime and manga versions of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell (translated by Frederik L. Schodt and Toren Smith) becoming very popular among fans.^[66] An extremely successful manga and anime translated and dubbed in English in the mid-1990s was Sailor Moon.^[67] By 1995–1998, the Sailor Moon manga had been exported to over 23 countries, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, North America and most of Europe.^[68] In 1997, Mixx Entertainment began publishing Sailor Moon, along with CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth, Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte and Tsutomu Takahashi's Ice Blade in the monthly manga magazine MixxZine. Two years later, MixxZine was renamed to Tokyopop before discontinuing in 2000. Mixx Entertainment, later renamed Tokyopop, also published manga in trade paperbacks and, like Viz, began aggressive marketing of manga to both young male and young female demographics.^[69]
In the following years, manga became increasingly popular, and new publishers entered the field while the established publishers greatly expanded their catalogues.^[70] and by 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales.^[71] Simultaneously, mainstream U.S. media began to discuss manga, with articles in The New York Times, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired magazine.^[72]

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Manga

manga (漫画^?) are comics created in Japan, or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.^[ They have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art.

In Japan, people of all ages read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, suspense, detective, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce,

among others.^[3] Since the 1950s, manga has steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry,^[4] representing a ¥406 billion market in Japan in 2007 (approximately $3.6 billion) and ¥420 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2009.^[5] Manga have also gained a significant worldwide audience.^[6] In Europe and the Middle East the market is worth $250 million.^[7] In 2008, in the U.S. and Canada, the manga market was valued at $175 million. The markets in France and the United States are about the same size. Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white,^[8] although some full-color manga exist (e.g. Colorful). In Japan, manga are usually serialized in large manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. If the series is successful, collected chapters may be republished in paperback books called tankōbon.^[9] A manga artist (mangaka in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company.^[10] If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or even during its run.^[11] Sometimes manga are drawn centering on previously existing live-action or animated films.^[12]

The term manga (kanji: 漫画; hiragana: まんが; katakana: マンガ;  listen (help·info); English /ˈmɑːŋɡə/ or /ˈmæŋɡə/) is a Japanese word referring both to comics and cartooning. "Manga" as a term used outside Japan refers specifically to comics originally published in Japan.^[13]
Manga-influenced comics, among original works, exist in other parts of the world, particularly in Taiwan ("manhua"), South Korea ("manhwa"),^[14] and China, notably Hong Kong ("manhua").^[15] In France, "la nouvelle manga" has developed as a form of bande dessinée comics drawn in styles influenced by manga. Read More →

Naruto Manga

Naruto is a manga about a young boy name Uzumaki Naruto from a ninja village known as Konoha. He has no parents because they died after he was born, so he doesn't know about parents love. He grew up alone in the world and he was lonely. The village people all stay away from Naruto because they were told to but they also was afraid of Naruto. Inside Naruto was sealed a fox demon which has almost destroyed konoha village. As a result, Naruto was treated as if he was a monster. So, he knew the pain of solitude and in order to cope with it, he do mischievous things in the village to get attention from the people. This is his way to find
reason to stay alive. Naruto has a dream which to become Hokage in the village. Hokage is the most respected ninja in the village, it is the same as a president. He want to show to the village that he can become a great man someday. So he started his journey to become a ninja.
He has companions who are Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi. All 4 of them form Team 7. Ninja usually form a group which usually consists of 4 people when they went out to do mission to the village. This is ninja way to earn cash/income by doing mission which consists of different level from F up to S depending on the difficulty. The missions are diverse from finding lost pets to killing a target. Konoha was one of the biggest village in the Naruto world. The world was divided into several parts that been controlled by respective villages. They always been rival between the villages in order to gain more power and clients. The world of ninja was always stuck with the chain of hate. This is the enemy that Naruto has to face.

The manga has proceed quite a long way. Naruto has already 16 years old and he was not a brat anymore. He is more matured and power up quite a lot compare when he was 12 years old. Even though he is still a genin (beginner ninja) but his power well exceed jounin (expect). But he lost his friend Uchiha Sasuke to the darkness. Sasuke left Konoha village and planning to get his revenge by killing all of the Konoha villager. Naruto who has no choice has to face Sasuke in order to stop him from destroying Konoha. Naruto and Sasuke had fought before and Sasuke won by a small margin. Naruto still doesn't give up hope to save his friend Sasuke from darkness. His persistence was amazing even though Sasuke trying to kill him, Naruto still want to save him.

Naruto manga is still ongoing. The latest was there is a war between Akatsuki and the world of ninja. It is known Ninja world war 4. This is the new opening song from its anime which showing metaphor relationship between Naruto and Sasuke.

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Anime Review - Naruto and Naruto Shippuden

What do you get when you mix Dragonball Z and Ninjas together? You get Naruto. Naruto is an very long, but entertaining anime. The first series running about 220 episodes and the second series, Shippuden, running about 150 episodes, yet it is big even today. It has some of the most interesting story arcs you can find, and the animation is top notch. But with an anime this large there doesn't seem to be an end in sight yet. So how much longer can this anime go on before losing the attention of Otakus?

Now the first place any reviewer should start for this anime is the characters. This anime has a lot of characters. In every story arc they create new good and bad guys, go into there back stories, and by the end of the arc you grow to love them. This here is the reason why most fanfic writers love this anime. When you get so many characters, you can have a lot of material to write. But Characters are not enough to create a great anime, you need a story.

The story is amazing. It is moved along completely by the characters, with very little out side force. Story arcs are all different and entertaining, with the exceptions of the fillers, the story is really good. But as I said, there are a few things dragging down the story, and you can't talk about Naruto with out talking about them.

First, it is long. If you have a low attention span, then some of the longer story arcs feel like a task getting through. The last story arch lasted 20 episodes! Then there is the evil every Naruto fan knows all about: fillers. Filler arcs are used when an anime that is based off of a manga, like Naruto, catches up with the manga. They are used to kill time till the manga is far enough out that they can continue on with the story without problems. Now I will be honest, I haven't watched every filler episode, for a reason. Naruto has 3 years worth of fillers, and by the time I got to them Shippuden came out. Now Shippuden creators have made some interesting fillers as of late, fitting them into the story by filling some holes that the manga didn't, so hopefully this means they are trying a little more to make quality fillers.

Naruto is really good, for the most part it is fun and entertaining, the characters are good and the story is interesting, and if they keep up what they are doing, then I think this anime would be worth watching till the end. You can check out Naruto on Hulu.

You can see this review and more at [http://www.anythinganime.net]
Check out my website at [http://www.anythinganime.net]

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Girls In Japanese Animation

From 1990, girls have been featured as both protagonists and antagonists in most Japanese animation shows. Yet they have proven themselves to be smarter with their charm and being perceived as weaker species. Those serve as their weapons which helped to overcome obstacles and get them what they want.

That was very different from the mangas in the 1950s to 1980s when they played one-dimensional supporting roles such as damsels in distress and doing everything they are told by men. Now they are more independent and capable than anyone may think. Instead of men saving women, it is now the other way round when they saw their men being abused and beaten up by their own kind.
Examples of such animation show
s are Apple Seed Ex Machina by John Woo and Shinji Aramaki as well as Silent Mobius by Kia Asamiya.

Silent Mobius is especially memorable to me when the main character Katsumi Liqeur plays both protagonist and antagonist when she fell to the dark side after her boyfriend Roy's death on the eve of their marriage.

Other than Katsumi, Kia also focuses on developing other supporting characters in an all-women police force. Leader Rally Cheyenne, her second-in-command Mana Isozaki, tomboy Kiddy Penne, girl with psychic powers Yuki Saiko, socceress warrior Lum Cheng and IT analyst Lebia Maverick.

In spite of their unique abilities, they are very much human. They made mistakes and have mood swings occasionally. Yet the way they managed their problems is much better than men most of the time.

What amazes me is that Kia has a great understanding of women despite being man himself. This is apparent in the way his Silent Mobius characters argued, communicate and ultimately work together against a common adversary to achieve peace for the society.
Besides Silent Mobius, Dark Angel, Compiler and Accelerator are his other trademarks of having women as main characters.

I also like Apple Seed Machina. In the story, main character Deunan pulls herself together from a trauma of losing her boyfriend Briareos from humanity to accepting him as reborn cyborg. Yet when Briareos is wounded again, she faces the same dilemma when her new partner looks exactly like her boyfriend's former human self.

On the whole, the contrasting personalities and traits of different girls are created with the authors' objective to make the story more realistic and engaging to the audience as compared to conventional guy saves girl action shows.

If you have been a manga fan like me who have been struggling to draw the perfect manga character, feel free to check out my site on How To Draw Manga Faces
But should you find drawing manually to be time-consuming chore, you might consider automation with Manga Studio

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amuro_Wesley_K

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A Brief Introduction to Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for comics in general. Outside of Japan, the term manga is used exclusively used to refer to the Japanese comics.

Manga covers a wide variety of genres, and reaches audiences in many different and diverse spectrums of ages. Manga is a very important part of the publishing industry of Japan and it motivates many adaptations to different formats: animated series, known as Anime, movies, video games and novels.

Note: Tagosaku to Mokube Tokyo Kenbutsu (1902) is considered the first manga.

Terminology

Hokusai Katsushika, a representative of the ukiyo-e, coined the term manga by combining the kanji corresponding to informal (man) and drawing (ga). It translates literally as "Informal Drawing" or "doodles". The Japanese call it 'insignificant images', also in the manga because they buy annually more than 1 billion volumes in black and white, printed on cheap paper. The professional to write or draw manga is known as a manga artist.

The manga industry

The manga in Japan is a true mass phenomenon. A single fact serves to illustrate the magnitude of this phenomenon: In the year of 1989, 38% of all books and magazines published in Japan were manga.

As you can guess by this figure, the manga is not just a fad for young people. In Japan there are manga for all ages and social status, including homemakers, clerks, teenagers, office workers, etc. Erotic manga also known as hentai is a quarter of total sales.

Manga Magazines
Manga magazines are one of the most popular distribution forms of manga in Japan selling millions of copies every week. Shonen Jump Magazine, the most popular manga magazine in Japan sells around 6 million copies every week. Shonen Magazine follows with around 4 million copies.

Manga magazines are weekly or monthly publications of between 200 and 900 pages in which there are many different manga series that consist of between 20 to 40 pages of the magazine. These magazines are usually printed in black and white low quality paper with the exception of the cover and usually some pages from the beginning. If a series turn out to be successful they tend to be published for several years within the magazine.

Another variant that has emerged as a result of the proliferation of file sharing over the Internet is the digital format called e-comic. The most use formats of e-comics are the.cbr and.cbz, which its basically really is a set of compressed files (rar and zip, respectively) with images in formats such as jpeg or gif inside.

John L. Michael - Visit [http://www.animepreview.com] for more anime resources.

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How To Draw Manga Step By Step

In this tutorial, we are going to put all the knowledge together as I take you through how to draw manga step by step. You will finally be able to draw your own complete manga character.

Step 1

Start out by sketching your character in stick figure form. You want to create different poses using straight lines and circles.
Here is your chance to be creative. As you are designing your manga character, put him or her in whatever pose you want. Play around with it. You can even have the manga character hold swords or fly in mid-air.

Once you've decided on a pose for your manga drawing, sketch it out onto a new sheet of paper.

The next step is to add dimension to your stick figure. Use the different 3D polygons like cylinders and blocks to map out a basic body structure.

Now it's time to decide what you want your character to wear. This is completely up to you and depends on what kind of character you want to create.

Are you going to create a ninja assassin with black uniform? Or a southern belle in a dress?
As a tip, I would stick to more simple clothing for now as you are still just starting out. Something the hugs the body will be easier to draw than billowing drapery.

As you become more skilled, you can make things as intricate as you want.

Once you are done with the clothing, sketch in the beginning of the hairstyle.

Step four is to fill in the details for the face and hair. You should also begin erasing some of the guiding pencil marks that does not fit into the drawing.

Now it's time to go over your sketch with ink. Take out your pen and ink over the lines.
Now you don't want to ink every line in your drawing, only pick the ones that look the best and leave out the "mistakes" and practice strokes.

You'll find that after you are finished going over it with ink, your drawing will suddenly look much better and polished.

The light pencil marks will fade away when contrasted by the ink and your drawing will look much sharper.

Then lastly, once the ink is completely dry, go over your drawing with an eraser and rub out all the extra pencil marks.

This last step of how to draw manga step by step is optional, but if you are feeling ambitious, you can now color in your drawing.

Coloring can be tricky if you are not experienced at it. It requires some experimenting and trial and error. That's why I recommend you make a photo copy of your original manga drawing and practice coloring on the copies.

Once you have found the color combination that you like, you can now apply it to the real thing.
Congratulation, you've just created your first manga character.

And if you'd more free drawing tutorials (with pictures) just head over to http://howtodrawpeoplefaces.org
You should also check out my article on human figure drawing. Learning figure drawing will help you draw manga better.

                                                     Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ethan_Nguyen

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How To Draw Manga Using Basic Shapes

How To Draw Manga The Simple Way

Hello and welcome to the third tutorial on how to draw manga. In the last tutorial on drawing manga, you learned how to draw a manga by creating simply stick figure poses.
In this tutorial, we will focus on filling in those stick figures with simple shapes to give your manga characters more dimension.

Using Simple Shapes To Learn How To Draw Manga
Everything around us, including our bodies, are made of simple geometry shapes like cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres. Therefore, in order to learn how to draw a manga, we must first learn how to draw these simple shapes.

Drawing Exercise To Help You Understand 3-D Shapes
Here's a quick drawing exercise to help you understand 3-D shapes and also shading.
First draw a rough sketch of a cube.

Next, tighten up the lines. Think about where the ground should be. Also imagine a light source and where it is located relative to the cube.
And finally, finish off by shading the cube accordingly. Make sure to make the area that is faces away from the light the darkest as it is receiving the least amount of light.

Drawing Shapes From Different Angles
Now that you understand how to draw a simple shape, let's mix it up a little bit by drawing them from different angles.

This is very important to learning how to draw a manga because your manga characters will be in a variety of different poses. And if you want to depict them accurately, you'll need to know how to draw the shapes from different angles.

Try drawing these objects in different positions and angles. Keep in mind the direction of the light. You will be basing your manga drawings on these shapes so by practicing them you'll gain an accurate sense of shape, size, and volume.

Adding Shapes To Your Manga Figure Drawings
Now for the most fun part of learning how to draw manga. It's time to add these shapes to your manga stick figures.

Use cylinders for the arms and legs. Use spheres for the joints. And use a basic polygon for the hands and feet.

Remember, we are still in the sketching process of developing our manga character. Take it slow and step by step.

First draw the manga stick figure.

Then add in the shapes. And there you have it. Now you know how to draw a manga using basic geometric shapes. Look pretty good doesn't it?

And if you like more FREE manga tutorials, just head over to my website at http://howtodrawpeoplefaces.org. There you find tons more articles and tutorial about how to draw.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ethan_Nguyen

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Manga And Anime - Then To Now

If you really want to understand anime, you have to understand manga. Really understanding manga means you need to know a little about where it came from. It's also fun to know why things today look like they do.

Manga started in Japan as entertainment for children.

In the 1950s, manga could be rented from libraries for a few yen. (Believe it or not, in Japan they had and still have pay libraries - you pay a small fee to rent a book, unlike most American libraries, where as long as you have a library card you can borrow books for free.)

Boys' comics, or shounen, focused on historical adventure, samurai stories, and sports, while girls' titles, or shoujo, focused on romance or puppy love.

One creator was popular with boys and girls. Osamu Tezuka, who wrote and illustrated in a Disney influenced style, created an enormously popular series called New Treasure Island. He also created a character and series named Ambassador Atom, renamed Astro Boy in the United States.

His style was so popular most manga for the next twenty years was illustrated in a similar style.

Later in the 1950s, science fiction stories became really popular, especially stories with robots in them. Tezuka's Ambassador Atom (obviously he liked the word "atom") ran in a magazine called Shonen Magazine for nine years. It was about a robot that could never become fully human. (If it sounds like it was a rip-off of Pinocchio, it was. Tezuka later admitted he "borrowed" the story from Pinocchio as the basis for his story about Ambassador Atom.)

By the way - if you're starting to think Tezuka was responsible for basically creating the comics industry in Japan after World War II, you're right.

An animated TV series based on Ambassador Atom followed in 1963. It was so popular that it started a robot craze, and hundreds of artists and series were created that basically copied Tezuka's series. (He shouldn't have been too mad about that, since he got the original idea for his story from Pinocchio.) To learn more about Astro Boy and the history of Anime And Manga

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Is Watching Anime a Sin?

A teenager once asked, "Is anime a sin? 'Cause I'm trying to love God more. I know war is a sin, but what if you're going for the good guys. Or what if it's just a regular anime?"

Here's my point. Literally, watching anime is not a sin. Yeah, right. In fact, I'm writing a book about it wherein I discuss the matter more specifically. Watching anime is just like you're watching an indie film, or Discovery Channel, wherein you acquire some information and at the same time you are being entertained. If I'm going to directly answer the question "Is watching anime a sin?" then the answer is no. However, there are many things to consider when it comes to anime. There are several "but's" about this matter. In a more literal sense, anime itself is not a sin but the way you handle your emotion while watching anime is another thing. That is just one of the many cases. Because there are many.

People, especially teenagers, who are hooked up with Japanese animation consider this merely as a form of entertainment. I do not argue about that anyway, since it's the fact. However, everyone must consider that if watching anime replaces your responsibilities and quiet time with God, then you are totally guilty in the eyes of the LORD. Watching anime becomes a sin when you spend time on it more than you spend time with God. Uh-oh. I don't want to sound like a preacher here, but, I have to include a verse that supports my claim.

It is God's command that we should meditate on His word. Not only that, it says day and night. If we read the scriptures we will know the principles of God and the things that pleases Him, including the things that displeases Him. God is not pleased when His children are so busy doing other things for selfish reasons, when in fact He should be prioritized above anything else.

In this case, if you are watching anime and spending more time on it, then let me ask you a question: are you spending a quiet time with God? Can you compare your prayer time from how long you're watching anime stuffs?

If you want to love God more then you should be more concern of how to grow your relationship with the Father. We should not try to love God. But we should love God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our soul. That is the greatest commandment of the LORD!
I was once an anime lover before, and honestly, I cosplayed, too. And this is a viewpoint of a former cosplayer who abandoned the animeland in the pursuit of following Christ...

I was once an anime lover before, and honestly, I cosplayed, too. And this is a viewpoint of a former cosplayer who abandoned the animeland in the pursuit of following Christ...

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jenine_U_Silos

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Manga's Popularity in America - Where Did it Come From?

n the last six years manga has gone from being about a third of the $75 million graphic novel industry to claiming almost two third's of what is now a $330 million industry! This being said however does not mean that it is all bad news for American comic publishers as the new manga boom may have bypassed comics specialty shops, but it has opened up additional space in bookstores helping to sell American graphic novels.

Artist's around the world are creating works influenced by manga, in 2006, the U.S manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment issued titles that represent the pinnacle of manga assimilation. It asked its western artists to draw in the Japanese format of right to left. Kurt Hassler, former novel buyer for Walden books and Borders, played a major role in the manga boom. He said that "At the time there were maybe 10 or 20 graphic novels in bookstores, some were uneasy about right to left paging. I was in a position to say if you make this change, Walden books will support what you're doing." The paperback format, the lower price, Kurt's encouragement, the growing familiarity with Japanese styles. All of these factors combined to make Tokyo pops stand up manga a smashing success.

Soon, manga has its own aisle in many stores. Eventually more than a dozen manga publishers were competing to woo readers in the booming bookstore market. As sales of manga rose, sales of comic books plummeted. Hundreds of pages of manga could be had for $10, while most 32 pages American comic books cost $5. In late 2002, VIZ started publishing a stand up English version of the Japanese Shonen jump, offering nearly 500 pages for $5 through big boxed stores. It's current monthly circulation is 250,000. The amazing spider man sells only 100,000.

The biggest cultural export in terms of manga was in the 90's and it was the export of Pokemon. Pokemon helped mange to bust out of the comics shop ghetto. The manga spin offs of the franchise sold millions of copies mostly through outlets like Toys 'R' Us and for the first time a manga was the best sold comic franchise in America.

After this first success many more were to come through manga's such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor moon, Digimon and Gundam Wing. To make the manga more popular in the us. Companies went on to animate these manga which made them appeal to children at a young age way before they could read and then once they had become able to read they would be interested in the manga form of the animes that they grew up watching.

Let me know what you guys think by heading over to my blog:
http://rashels-dnb.blogspot.com/2011/02/mangas-popularity-in-america-where-did.html

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Things to Do in Manga

Are you looking for the perfect beach holiday along the Mediterranean Sea? Then consider a trip to La Manga. La Manga del Mar Menor is a resort town located near Murcia, Spain along a strip of land that is roughly 21 kilometers long and 300 meters wide. At the southern end of Costa Blanca, La Manga separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Mar Menor. With its ideal location, La Manga offers a wealth of things to do on your holiday.

La Manga has numerous hotels, museums, shops and bars, plus more than 40 kilometers of beaches. It also offers fine dining and family fun to its many annual visitors. In La Manga, there is something for everyone.

Because the Mar Menor and Mediterranean are such ideal locations for water sports, it is no surprise that La Manga is home to lots of fun in the sun. In fact, La Manga del Mar Menor translates to "The Sleeve of the Minor Sea." The Mar Menor is the largest saltwater lake in Europe. It is ideal for all types of water sports because its average depth is only 3.5 meters, with a maximum depth of 6.5 meters. It is reported that its waters have healing properties and are good for the skin. Locals say the water feels like a warm bath and helps cure aches and pains.

The Mar Menor's great weather and consistent water temperature have earned the area the country's first recognition as an "estacion nautica," or "nautical resort." Sailing, deep sea fishing, kayaking, surfing, swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, kite-surfing and windsurfing are all very popular activities along the beautiful beaches of La Manga. With an average of 315 days of sunshine a year, it's no wonder that water sports are such a popular local pastime. In addition to water sports, La Manga has one of the best tennis centers in Europe, as well as equestrian centers, spa facilities and lush tropical gardens.

Travelers should note that some of the dining and nightlife in La Manga can be rather opulent, but the world-class food and fun are well worth the price tag. One of the most popular nightlife options in La Manga is the local casino. Other options exist for nearly every budget. The nighttime action in the Zoco region of La Manga is especially popular with young adults, as are the city's three open-air cinemas and the La Manga strip.

La Manga is home to three 18-hole, championship golf courses that cater to golf enthusiasts year-round. If you are looking for day trips from La Manga, the provincial capital of Murcia is about 70 kilometers away. It is rich in history, offering visitors museums, monuments, historical architecture and a beautiful cathedral.

La Manga boasts near-perfect weather. It is so ideal that the World Health Organization has proclaimed that La Manga has one of the world's healthiest climates. Many travelers love the region and its health benefits so much that they decide to make La Manga their permanent home. So whether you are traveling to enjoy its beaches, its culture or its many other offerings, you are sure to enjoy your vacation in La Manga.

La Manga Club holiday resort provides golf, tennis, horse riding, water sports, children's club, cycling etc and if you would like the chance to Win a Free La Manga Club holiday and receive the La Manga Resort Guide please visit the website.

The La Manga Club Resort is the perfect resort location for your Holidays in Spain set on 1500 acres of breathtaking Spanish countryside.

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Is Anime the Same As Manga?

On the whole the main difference between anime and manga is a simple one which is that one is animated and one is in the form of pictures and words on paper. While this is the main difference there are also many other more subtle differences that would go unnoticed if a person was to say for example only watch an anime version of a series that is also in a manga format.

In Western culture, Anime is spoken in reference to the animation that originated in Japan whereas in Japan, Anime refers to animation as a whole. Japanese animation was produced since around 1917, however it wasn't really until the 70's and 80's that the look and feel of the anime that we are familiar with today began to become popular. During that time, series such as "Gundam" became popular in Western countries. This contrasts with manga greatly as manga in its most simple form is a Japanese comic art book. Modern Manga originated during the Second World War, and was influenced greatly by the western comic books and pre-war Japanese art.

Most anime would originate from manga however this does not mean that they are the same. The reason for this is that the main purpose of anime and manga is to make profit and so the costs of production of the two are very different. Manga would cost less as is it is in paper form and so a lot of detail can go into the contents of it also the amount of detail is essential as most anime originate from manga. However some of the detail needs to be left out at times when it comes to anime and the reason for this is that the costs of production of anime is a lot higher than manga and so some key sub plots of certain characters must be left out due to budget cuts. Another difference would be that sometimes the anime would be moving too fast in terms of story development and in order to prevent this from happening some anime go away from the plot in what is known as a filler arc which has no relevance to the actual plot. This is not the case in the manga. Another difference is that an anime has to stick to a time slot and so sometimes some scenes must be cut out from the manga in order for the chapter to finish on time with a few things having happened rather than nothing happening in terms of story development.

Overall the differences between manga and anime are not that much as both do tell the same story if they are both the same series.

Let me know what you guys think by heading over to my blog:
http://rashels-dnb.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-anime-same-as-manga.html

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How to Draw Manga People

What's the difference between a head and a face? Plenty. When thinking about a how to draw manga faces, most people picture a flat surface seen from the front. Others might picture it turned to a 3/4 view. But no matter which angle it's drawn, most people envision the face as the "flat" part of the head. And this is exactly where the problem lies.

A human head is round and therefore, the face is ROUND as well. But as long as we "think" of the face as flat, we'll continue to draw it flat. And a flat face also flattens out the liveliness of a character.

Here's what you can do to improve how you draw manga faces:

Start by drawing your face with rounded sketch-guidelines. (Center Line & Eye Line).

Draw the features on and along the rounded guidelines. In the popular 3/4 view (which shows perspective), the shape of the features will stretch just slightly, as they appear to wrap around the face.

Only in the front view will the Center Line be drawn as a straight line.
Remember that the Eye Line needs to be curved to reflect its horizontal orbit around the head.
Okay, here's the recap: A slightly rounded face adds emphasis to the curves of the eyes, eyebrows, bridge of the nose, and stretched lips. A slightly curved face will add life to your characters and make you a better artist.

Was this tutorial on how to draw manga faces helpful?
A complete book on manga anatomy must be written is targeted to beginners, the widest segment of manga fans. It must be packed with dynamic step-by-step demonstrations detailing how to draw correctly proportioned manga faces and bodies, plus lots of tips and tricks of the trade.

It should also include many examples of the finished cartoon. You want to be able to understand where you are going to end up. The best way to start is through this kind of imitation of professional Manga Cartoons.

In Japan, people of all ages love manga. action-adventure, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, romance, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, just about anything goes. Manga has also attained a tremendous worldwide audience.In Europe and the Middle East, U.S. and Canadian. So learn to draw Manga well and you will be amazed at the size of your audience both in the United States and abroad.

Best-Selling Author Christopher Hart has over 3 million books in print, in over 20 languages. He is published by Watson-Guptill, the art imprint of Random House. You can see him on the Comcast TV Network, where he hosts segments, "How To Draw Action Heroes With Chris Hart," on The Activity TV Channel. Visit Chris Hart Books

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