How to Get Into Manga

Last Updated: December 27, 2021

Manga (pronounced maan – Ga), or comics in Japanese, cover a wide variety of subject areas targeting both children and adults.

Translated comics are fun to read and is also an easy way to learn about popular Japanese culture.

Steps

1
Decide what type of manga you are interested in. There are several different kinds to choose from, usually grouped by the gender and age of the target audience, including:
- Shojo: Manga designed to target 12-18 year-old females through character-driven stories. Popular shojo themes include: magical girl (see below), school romance, historical romance, modern romance, science fiction, sports, Gothic horror/vampires, and boys love (yaoi) manga. Fruits Basket, Hot Gimmick, Fushigi Yugi, Peach Girl, Vampire Knight, Nothing But Loving You, Emma, Godchild, Ouran HighSchool Host Club and Kare Kano are examples of shoujo manga.
  - Magical girl (mahhokka) is a popular subgenre of shojo featuring young girls who use their superhuman powers to fight evil and protect the Earth. Examples of magical girl manga include: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Alice 19th, Shugo Chara, Tokyo Mew Mew and Wedding Peach.
- Bishoujo titles involve extremely cute girls or animals. Think cuteness overload. Example titles include Hamtaro.
- Shonen: Action-themed stories written for boys. Shonen manga is usually involves humorous plots featuring male protagonists. Camaraderie between boys and men in sports team and fighting squads are often plot elements. Shonen titles often feature attractive female characters with exaggerated features. Example titles include: Naruto, One Piece, "D. Gray-Man", Gon, Ranma 1/2, Slam Dunk, Lupin III, Bleach, Inuyasha, Prince of Tennis, the aforementioned Love Hina, Gun Blaze West, Rurouni Kenshin, HunterxHunter, Tenchi Muyo!, Initial D and Full Metal Panic!.
  - Mecha is a common subgenre of shonen involving giant robots. Mecha titles include Gundam Wing, Voltron and Big O.
- Shonen-Ai: Stories involving affection between boy characters targeting a mainly female audience. Shonen-ai manga is aimed at teenage girls and usually involves feminine, effeminate characters resembling boy bands like NSYNC.
- Seinen manga targets college-aged men, although some titles are aimed at men well into their 40s. Unlike shounen manga, seinen manga features a wider variety of artistic styles and subject matter ranging from avant-garde to pornographic. While seinen manga contains many of the same themes as shounen manga, it is more rooted in reality with a stronger emphasis on plot. Works of manga that are the most acclaimed for their depth and maturity, such as Maison Ikoku and Ghost in the Shell, come from the Seinen genre. Other popular seinen titles include Lone Wolf & Cub, Golgo 13, Eagle, Death Note and Monster. Chobits is one more on the adult side.
- Josei is the female equivalent of seinen manga and considered the manga equivalent of a Harlequin novel. Most of the josei manga found in the United States, fits into the yaoi genre (see below). Storylines usually involve: office life, marriage, babies, infidelity, families, and romance. Non-yaoi titles include Paradise Kiss, Happy Mania, Tramps Like Us, Blue, Walking Butterfly, Midnight Secretary, and Honey and Clover.
  - Yaoi is manga involving graphic depictions of homosexuality. The vast majority of yaoi manga is produced by women, for women. This is the more mature form of shonen-ai.
2
Learn the rating system. Because some manga contains adult themes, there is a rating system set up for manga which is very similar to that for video games and movies. Some U.S. manga publishers use the following ratings:
- A (All Ages)
- Y (Youth, 10+)
- T (Teen ages 13+)
- OT or T+ (Older Teen, 16+)
- M (Mature, 18+)
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3
Read anime publications. New Type, AnimeInsider and Animerica are good sources to turn to for manga reviews.
4
Find places to get manga, including the following:
- Anime/Manga magazines like Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat -- monthly serialized anime compilations which allow you to sample many titles at a time.
- Bookstores Many large chain bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Nobles have sections for manga and graphic novels.
- Online Sellers Many manga online manga shops can be found simply by searching for manga in Google.
- Another alternative to buying manga is reading it for free online. Sites like MangaFox have thousands of series online.
- Online Rental Services Just like you can rent movies online through Netflix and Blockbuster, there are online rental services such as Anime TakeOut that allow you to rent books of manga.
- Your Local Library: Yes, you read that correctly: your local library. More and more libraries these days have sections devoted to graphic novels and manga to encourage "reluctant readers" and bring more traffic into the library. If your library doesn't have the titles you want, you can often request items or obtain them from another library via Interlibrary Loan.
5
Read manga from the farthest right page to the farthest left, and read each individual page from the top right to the bottom left. Some manga exported out of Japan is reversed, so that it is read from top left to bottom right. If this seems confusing to you, don't worry, open up a manga like you would open a regular book, and there will often be a page that will tell you how to read it.
6
Find fellow fans. See if there is a manga/anime group at your school or in your town. Many metro areas host manga meetups. Many colleges and high schools now have manga and anime clubs. In addition, you can attend anime conventions which bring fellow manga/anime fans together.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I get manga for free online?

CLARISSA SWEETLAND

Community Answer

MangaFox.com is a good place to start, although you might want to be careful, as some manga aren't appropriate for younger ages. Make absolutely sure to check the rating before starting a new manga, because you never know what's in it.
Question

What can I do if manga isn't sold in my country?

Life attache

Community Answer

You can find some on the Internet or purchase e-books of manga. There are many websites contaminated with ads that provide manga to read, as well as online stores where you can order physical copies.
Question

How can I read manga more easily if it's hard for me to read in black and white?

Elan

Community Answer

Try getting a colored transparent plastic sheet and putting it over the manga paper when you read it.

Warnings

A lot of manga contains mild nudity such as shower and dressing scenes. If the manga has nudity it should have a warning on the back cover.

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Helpful 33 Not Helpful 2
Most manga is fairly pricey in translation, $8 or more in the US, perhaps more in smaller markets. Be prepared to spend!

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If you're not prepared to spend money for one, go to a public library. Most libraries nowadays have them.

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Even in shounen manga aimed at a younger audience, the level of violence depicted may be quite higher than what is usually accepted in Western entertainment.

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Be sure you know what you are getting. Use the ratings or previews on the publisher's sites.

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