Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga: 1

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Having just finished the book, I wanted to share my thoughts, but if you want the short version of my review, here it is: If you want to write Shonen (boys) adventure stories like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragonball, this is a must read. If you’re a new writer looking for a basic book on writing in general, this is a pretty good read. If you’re an experienced writer who has read/written lots, it’s an interesting read, but mostly from a cultural perspective. It’d give it 4/5 stars. Manga in Theory and Practice”, de Hirohiko Araki. Disponible en una hermosa edición pasta dura de VIZ Media. And on the one hand he says you can have a “macho female” like Sarah Connor in Terminator II, but: “I don’t pay any attention to the difference between men and women, aside from possibly setting them apart through clothing or makeup or sometimes including observations based on women around me, like when I’ve wondered How long is she going to dry her hair? or What is she doing in the bath for an entire hour?” The book's main flaw - and it's a serious one - is its uncritical use of racial and gender bias. Araki writes and draws shonen, the most popular manga genre, aimed at boys and young men, as opposed to shojo (manga for girls). (Other genres include josei (for women 18-40), gekiga ( "dramatic pictures," complex narratives for adults), yaoi (or Boy's Love, about gay male relationships written by and for women), yuri (lesbian romance), bara (explicit gay narratives), Adventure, Sports, and Comedy). Much of his advice - such as the hero never being allowed to fail - is shaped by his experience writing weekly and monthly shonen where each installment has to excite the reader enough to read the next episode. Extensive reader surveys are conducted, and the least popular manga get cut. As such, the system, while an effective marketing device, has to play into the existing biases of its young male audience. It's a machine for perpetuating patriarchal attitudes about gender and reflects a shallow reasoning about emotions, personality, and success based on pop psychology. The upside is that its themes often convey positive moral messages about perseverance, friendship, and justice. Further, manga had grown as an industry to reflect a more inclusive perspective that values diversity.

Araki denotes the importance of 'motion' in a character, as well as rooted sense, and a feeling that they are evolving in some form by the conclusion, even across long running works (stagnation found in The Simpsons, and their clumsy attempts to fix it, are indicative of this). Araki’s thoughts on the relationship between Setting, Story and Character and how they’re all tied together by Theme are worth remembering and a good primer for new writers. He also gives a lot of good tips and suggestions about those elements of story and how they work in a Shonen comic. Con lo anterior dicho, Manga in Theory and Practice no es un libro bien ejecutado, empero dista mucho de la mediocridad; tampoco es debidamente manual ni efectivamente memoria. Es muchas cosas sin atinar en alguna, aunque como experimento resulta entretenido. Útil para quien no sepa NADA sobre la construcción de un Manga (u obra literaria), acaso un “must-have” para el fandom arriba citado, y una lectura que no está de más—la representación ideal para aquél meme que dice “No es lo que esperaba pero estoy satisfecho”. Probablemente en un futuro no muy distante Araki se tomará el tiempo para escribir un segundo volumen—“Manga in Life”, llamémoslo—entonces con más confianza (y acontecimientos). Theory and Practice, de momento, se queda como inclusión válida pero insuficiente en su carrera. Hirohiko Araki advice is an excellent contribute to the mangaka community; however, this book the reader will only get to the middle of Chapter 3 before putting the book down to take notes for contemplation of putting the puzzle together. The Shueisha Inc. who translated this from Japanese into English did not properly structure the paragraphs of this book. Blame Shueisha Inc. editorial staff for disrupting the flow of the story, not Hirohiko -since English is not Hirohiko's native language!

My Book Notes

Let's get this outta the way. I very much like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ( JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken.) That said, I don't think it's perfect and is marred by numerous errors, mostly owing to the unforgiving nature of the drafting, creating, publishing, mangaka. This is a really good primer on writing in general for new writers, whether you’re a visual artist or a pure writer, or both. Araki is the creator of the long-running Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, which has sold over 100 million books worldwide. It’s been animated for television, OAVs and theatrical features, as well as adapted to novelizations, video games, etc. Araki was one of five artists featured in the 1990 exhibit Le Louvre invite la bande dessinée (“ The Louvre Invites Comic-Strip Art“).

ANN: Your fansassociate JoJo's Bizarre Adventure with high fashion.Can you take us through the process by which you create unique costumes for your characters?Araki Sensei: Because there are times when I find inspiration for characters and Stands through music. the hero must always rise, or always fall, but never go through ups and downs, because that confuses the reader and looses their interest... He gives a passage from a Hemmingway story and claims that it tells us information that it really doesn’t. I have to wonder if this is a mis-translation of what he was saying the passage was supposed to be giving us. Is worthwhile advice given to many children but often forgotten later down the line, especially in writing. It shouldn't be outwardly apparent all the time, sometimes illusionary, but they are the words that glue together intrigue. Araki no cree que existe algo así como un manual para conseguir el éxito. Él cree en los puntos clave, los elementos existente en todas las obras de éxito, pero no en las reglas universales. Cada obra es una montaña. Y para escalar esa montaña, el autor debe encontrar sus propios medios, incluso si hace uso de un mapa. En otras palabras, Araki nos da las bases a partir de las cuales cada artista debe encontrar su método.