In Japanese Manga means “comics” or “quirky characters or images”. Manga were developed from a mixture of ukiyo-e and Western styles of drawing, and took its current form shortly after World War II where boys and young men became some of the earliest readers of manga. Manga is usually published in black and white is read from top to bottom and then right to left.
From 1950s onwards shōnen manga another form of manga focused on topics of interest such as robots, space-travel, and heroic action-adventure. Popular themes were included such as science fiction, technology, sports, and supernatural settings in perspective of modern era. Super hero Manga with solitary costumes did not become as popular as was thought by artist.
Introduction to female characters in Manga:
The role of girls and women as characters in manga produced for male readers has evolved considerably over time to include those featuring single pretty girls such as Bell dandy from Oh My Goddess!, stories where such girls and women surround the hero, as in Negima and Hanaukyo Maid Team, or groups of heavily armed female warriors (sentō bishōjo) which intrigue the interest of popular male readers began to increase over time.
Sales and Popularity
In Japan, people of all ages read manga. This includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy, detective, drama, historical, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotic, sports and games, and suspense, among others. Many manga are translated into other languages for increased popularity.
Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry. In 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued to be ¥586.4 billion ($6–7 billion), with annual sales of 1.9 billion manga books and manga magazines in Japan. Manga have also gained a significant worldwide audience over the years. In 2008, in the U.S. and Canada, the manga market was valued to be $175 million.
Modern times and Manga
In recent years, there has been a rise in manga released digitally. Web manga, as it’s known in Japan, has a seen an increase due to image hosting websites where anyone can upload pages from their works for free. Although released digitally, almost all web Manga Stream stick to the conventional black-and-white format despite some never getting physical publications.
The rise in web manga has also been credited to the digital world of smartphones and computers as more and more readers read manga on their phones rather than from a print publication. While paper manga has seen decrease overtime due to digital manga which has been growing in sales every year. The Research Institute for Publications reports that sales of digital manga books excluding magazines jumped 27.1 percent to ¥146 billion in 2016 from the year before while sales of paper manga saw a record year-on-year decline of 7.4 percent to ¥194.7 billion. They have also said that if the digital and paper keep the same growth and drop rates, web manga will exceed their paper counterparts.
Conclusion and common comments on storylines
As author we too feel that actions have consequences. If the protagonist screws up, he or she has to deal with those results and, if the person is smart, he or she will remember not to make that mistake again! Thus many characters grow and change, learn new skills, get better at old skills, mature and gain wisdom. Bad people can improve and find redemption. Unhappy heroes can find themselves, through personal crisis, and in doing so find happiness. A lot of life meaning is added to each and every manga bringing in meaning and purpose, though it must be fought for. Not all stories have these spiritual or philosophical messages, but many do and when these simple but universal themes are woven more or less convincingly into the fabric of good plots and characters, magic happens.
They tend to have one of three endings: the hero wins (the throne, the person of the opposite sex, whatever), the hero dies (usually after winning), the hero sort of wins (but at a great loss). A manga is crafted in a manner of bringing tears to its readers we can’t describe it here, but think of the ending to any truly good movie, and you probably have it.
