Way back in July I did a post called Adventures in Reading pt 1  all about comic books.  The whole point was to dive into different types of writing I had never read before.   Before the project I hadn’t read a single comic book and yet I would see the movies and wasn’t that big a fan.  I thought maybe if I knew the art behind the movie I might appreciate them more and for the most part it worked.

There were some things I didn’t like such as the treatment of women but I’ve been reading more of them and they have gotten much better in recent years. Either way, it is fun to try new things and step out of your comfort zone.

However, not every step out of the comfort zone is successful.  My next adventure was to read ‘manga’ which are kind of like a Japanese comic book and graphic novel morphed together.

For the project I picked 7 different series- Fruits Basket, Chi’s Sweet Home, Astro Boy, Attack on Titan, Yotsuba, Dragonball, and the Black Butler.

I decided on these 7 by looking online at family friendly manga articles.  Each of these series would be fine content-wise for teens and children with the exception of Attack on Titan that is pretty violent.   Oddly enough it was actually my favorite but more for teens and adults than children.

The reason why it has taken me so long to write this post is I found myself struggling to get through them.  That may be strange thing to say about children’s books but let’s just say manga is not my favorite.

A lot of the pacing felt schizophrenic.  One minute a character would be talking and then the next an explosion.

And from Dragonball (which was one of the better one’s).  But characters would go from normal talking to screaming at each other with no real reason.

It seems like a lot is lost in translation.  A lot of the writing felt like a drill commander giving orders or robots talking not people.  Like this scene from Yotsuba”

She’s getting ‘caughted by a bad person’.  and then ‘Leave it to me to take care of the bad person’. In all of them the dialogue felt choppy and disjointed, which made them unpleasant and difficult to read.  I have to believe the Japanese is more nuanced and fluid.

A lot of it felt like the old 60s Batman show with the expressions of “pow”, “bam”, “crash” thrown in instead of interesting setting, characters or plot.  In a way it is surprising to me because in the anime, which are based on many of these books. the backstory and legends are usually quite complicated and intricate.  I didn’t get any of that feel in reading the manga.

It’s funny these are so popular in Japan because almost all featured a blonde haired girl in the lead.  You’d think Japanese kids would want stories of kids they can relate to and look like them.  But regardless of looks I just couldn’t get immersed in the stories.  It felt too spastic and choppy.

There are some cute characters like the Chi books which are basically like board books for the very little child. It kind of reminded me of Hello KittyI also liked the graphics in Astro Boy, which felt more like a US comic book:

I don’t know if it is just the lack of color but I prefer the artistry of comic books and the story actually.  Of the 7 series I read none of them enticed me to explore the franchises more.

Conclusion/Review

I guess not everything in life is going to be my taste but I’m still glad I gave it a shot and tried something new. .  Now when people mention manga I will have a little more understanding of what they are like and how the stories are structured.

And you never know when you will hit upon something new that you really love unless you give it a shot.

So, manga is not for me but I’m glad I went on the adventure.

What do you think of manga?  Any I didn’t try which you think I should?

Now on to graphic novels.  Any suggestions?