Manga VS Anime: What's the Difference? (Part One)

In light of my recent turn of interest to manga and anime, I decided that I should pitch my articles towards manga/anime too. So now my blog is literally a mishmash of books, fanfiction, games and manga. Never too good to diversify like that, but everything is all in the good name of writing, so it's hard to separate them.

Anyway, this would be a pilot blog post of sorts, to get me started on all the other drafts and ideas that I have in my head. Despite being a starter, this blog post caters to both the veteran manga readers and the newbies. So continue reading, it may be more useful than you think.

For my non-manga readers, the meaning of 'manga' means japanese comics. 'anime' is short for the word 'animation'. You may refer to them as 'japanese cartoons' but they should not be treated like cartoons, for the only commonality they share is that they are both animated.

Now, back to differences between manga and anime. If you are vaguely some kind of manga/anime fan, you would know the difference between the two. They have been discussed, presented in many websites that you can just pop by and Google nowadays.But there will always be that one person that always interchanges the terms, sadly.



Today, I will present the differences once again to you, in my own words. Some things that I will mention is based on my conclusions by looking at some examples. Also, I rely on the manga "Bakuman" for ideas because the manga focuses on the manga business. You can read more about Bakuman here.

I never had a problem differentiating between manga and anime. I guess it's because I was exposed to the both of them from a young age. For the handful of people who confuses the two terms, especially newbies who are starting out on the world of manga/anime, I can see why they are confused as to whether there is truly a difference. Many big titles that we see together, like Naruto, One Piece, Sword Art Online... They both have the manga and anime version. The anime version is usually more popular. You see them watching episodes on trains, in schools... people think that manga and anime are interchangeable but they are not!

Differences
1. Medium
Most obviously, manga is drawn on paper while anime is animated to be watched like a video. It's not rocket science, but an easy parallel to compare with is for example, the Spiderman comics VS Spiderman cartoons.


Comics on the left, cartoon on the right.

I leave you with the manga and anime of HunterxHunter for you to compare. You may see the obvious that manga is often not coloured but anime is.




2. Inspiration
Manga usually begins as an original story from a mangaka (manga artist). Examples of these are BLEACH, One Piece and many more. There are many cases where manga originate from an already existent idea or universe. So the manga births from a light novel or a highly popular game. Examples of those are Shakugan no Shana (light novel), Full Metal Panic (light novel), Star Ocean EX (game) and Tales of the Abyss (game).

For the anime, almost all the time, the anime project begins when the manga title is largely popular. As such, almost all your mainstream, popular anime are around because their manga counterparts were popular first. There are anime that stems from light novels and games, but the manga would have been in publication first. However, the popularity that leads to the production of the anime is not as dependent on the manga popularity in this case.

3. Publication
The ways to publish manga and an anime are vastly different. As mentioned earlier, animes are proposed to be made once the manga has reached some kind of popularity. Often, the anime helps to boost manga sales.

Now, according to "Bakuman", there is a more tedious process of getting the work published. In a nutshell, authors submit their one-shots and wait for the publishing company to agree to publish it. If the one-shot has a good response, only then can the mangaka (manga artist) draw a series on it. But that's just from Bakuman, so don't take my word for it. However, I feel that in such a competitive industry, I believe it's not so easy to just submit anything for printing.

Manga usually first appears in a comic magazine like Shounen Jump or Margaret, where it's a whole mishmash of chapters from many comics. When the title gains lots of recognition, the author/mangaka will be offered a chance to make their series into tankobons, which is the volumes of manga that we see in comic book shops and so on.

4. Creators
Usually, a single manga artist (or mangaka) draws the manga. There may be assistants helping out with the backgrounds and inking and all that, but the initial plan and sketches are thought of by the mangaka, supported by an editor in the publishing company.

There are people who form teams to draw manga. One comes up with the story plots and one draws.



Bakuman is a prime example. In the manga where two boys aspire to make manga, one of them creates the story and the other draws the manga out. Interestingly, "Bakuman" is created by a team of two people too. With Ohba Tsugumi as the writer and Obata Takeshi as the artist. You will also be interested to know that this same team of people created your ever-famous Death Note.

For anime, a team of artists and producers work together to create an animation. The original creator of the title, if I'm not mistaken, plays a smaller role, more like an advisor rather than to draw for the anime.

4. Content
As mentioned earlier, the anime team usually may or may not have the mangaka's 100% participation. As such, content in the anime may be parallel with the manga, but we will see discrepancies. Examples of discrepancies are filler episodes, or information tweaking. In some cases, the anime completely changes the ending because the manga is still ongoing.

Nowadays, we are lucky to get most anime titles trying to have similar features and events being the same as with the manga. Once upon a time, we have  weird endings just so that the anime can have a peaceful rest (I'm staring at you, Samurai Deeper Kyo anime!)

Well, these are some of the basic differences between anime and manga. So please don't go around saying that they are the same because they can be real different in terms of origin and even their content!

So for my interested readers, I will try to compare the experience of reading manga and watching anime, and which one would suit you. Hope this long exposition has helped you!

Pictures taken from:
Odd one out
Spiderman Comic
Spiderman Cartoon
HunterxHunter Manga
HunterxHunter Anime
Bakuman

There has GOT to be an official name for this...

Like all book lovers, we like to buy and own some of our favourite books. I, however, have certain idiosyncrasies when it comes to books. It drives my friends and relatives nuts, but a small pool of bibliophiles understand :) There must be some kind of medical term to such obsessions, I feel.

1. If my books belong to some kind of series, they MUST be of the same publishing company.

Let the pictures explain.

Harry Potter from different publishers, all over the world. 

My books cannot jump from publisher to publisher. Therefore I can't have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Scholastic and then Chamber of Secrets in Bloomsbury (I cringe as I think of it. Actually, that is what happened with my book.)

This is not fine. I think I need to go and get the replacement soon because I heard Scholastic is releasing a new print *gasp*


This is fine.

Even manga has to be (as far as possible) from the same publisher. However, I'm not extremely particular. Maybe it's because the covers are still quite similar. Just that one uses Simplified Chinese while the other uses Traditional Chinese.

2. I hate broken book spines.
This one really drives my sisters insane. They use it as an excuse to explain why they don't like to read even though their little sister has so many. I can't exactly blame them. I get really nervous when they open the book and bend the spine. It was because of this stupid obssession that I feel so torn between wanting my friends and families to read my favourite books and keeping the books to myself so that they remain nice and pristine.

Then again, if you've seen my books, the pages are quite yellow, and I don't really mind. Some people, I heard, keep the book in the original shrinkwrap that the book came in. Hurhur. I'm not THAT diligent enough to keep up that maintenance.

3. I can't stop buying books, even though I have too many unread books on my shelf.
Every biblophile identifies with this, maybe 70% of them. I am not one to browse the library often, I'm not exactly sure why, but I suspect it's because the library does not have the variety and exoticness that I wanted as compared to Kinokuniya. As the years went by, the habit stuck and I ended up buying books from Kinokuniya. Therefore, sometimes there are books that I bought that I didn't really like, for example, Coraline (review here!) and even the Eon/Eona series (review).

The number of books that I buy have dropped comparatively as compared to when I was younger. Then again, when I was younger, I read thinner books so...

That's all the book-related idiosyncrasies that I have. If you ask me, I don't have very particular pet peeves or weird stuff. I don't find the need to sniff the pages of a new book, or arrange them in any particular order. Wait, I DO arrange them to some kind of order, but it's not very systematic. Apart from a very particular obsession with nice, smooth book spines and a compulsive book buying disorder, I consider myself quite a normal bookworm.

What do you think?

Pictures taken from:
Harry Potter with different printing
Old Kingdom trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen)

What "Hirunaka no Ryuusei" has reminded me about writing

Warning: Spoilers for Hirunaka no Ryuusei's Chapter 76 ahead.

I should be doing other important stuff, but I felt that I need to bring this up as this will serve as a reminder to me in the future, should I ever feel discouraged.

I'm not sure how many of you have read this amazing shoujo manga called "Hirunaka no Ryuusei". If you have not, go read it. In the simplest way that I can describe, it is really good and worth a read.

Anyway, do you remember how I mentioned my dislike for love triangles?



Yeah, I still do. Anyway, quick introduction. Girl is Suzume, who fell in love with her teacher, Shishio. Meanwhile, classmate Mamura also likes her. Initially, Shishio likes Suzume too, but broke up with her when he felt the pressure of having to keep a secret teacher-student relationship (Good for you, Shishio.) So Suzume felt that she should move on, and she made the decision to be closer to Mamura.

Trust me. The story is much better written than my summary. Yes, yes, it's a typical shoujo manga plot, what were you expecting?

From here, the story spent a bit of time on Suzume and Mamura's relationship, while Shishio at the side, felt that he was not as willing to be apart from Suzume as he thought. The recent chapter has begun to climax the story, as Suzume finds out that Shishio was hospitalised and was concerned for him. Mamura, knowing of this, told Suzume to find Shishio.

Damn.

By the way, this post is NOT going to be a rant. I'll get to the real part in a bit, but allow me to say that to be honest, I was quite upset that the story was going to progress to a SuzumeXShishio ending (seems like it). I liked Mamura. He was the consistent character in the story and had always tried his best without being irritating. I also felt that Mamura and Suzume makes a more compatible pair.

Okay, that's over. Now, the REAL reason for this post.

Shortly after Chapter 76 was released, there was a ton of tweets sent to the author of the story, Yamamori Mika.

(I edited the names out for my website only.)

There were quite a number of tweets, but I just selected some. I was quite glad I was not on some impulse to send the author requests too. For one, I did not know that she was on Twitter, hehe.

Shortly after, Yamamori sensei made her Twitter private. Honestly, who would like to see that? Firstly, I suspect that since she has locked her Twitter account, it means that she really is going for a SuzumeXShishio ending. I will get over that.

I felt bad for her. She did not deserve the horrible comments from the readers, at all. Seeing what had happened to her reminded me that many years ago, I had something like that happening to me. I was writing "Their Memories of Fukinara High", and I paired Kyoshiro and Yuya together (by the way, the canon pairing is Kyo and Yuya, which I definitely prefer). I wrote with that pair in mind because Samurai Deeper Kyo had not ended yet, and it was a long time since I first started the initial "KISS Me!" that led to "Their Memories of Fukinara High".

So there was a reader who messaged me a few times over the story requesting for a KyoXYuya ending instead of a KyoshiroXYuya one. She even suggested plots to help 'salvage' the situation (as I saw it).

No. I remembered that feeling. It was bad. I felt torn on one hand to want to make my readers happy, and on the other hand, I wanted the story to go MY way. In the end, I ended the manga on hold so it ended as a KyoshiroXYuya story.

If Yamamori sensei's initial idea was for Suzume and Shishio to be together, then I WILL truly be disappointed if she changed to Suzume and Mamura just to make some readers happy. I want Yamamori sensei to do what she wants to do, even if the ending is something that I do not like.

So what has Hirunaka taught me? It has reminded me of how I felt when my readers wanted me to do things their way. It has reminded me that I am ultimately writing for my pleasure (and someday hopefully, for a living). It has reminded me that while feedback is good and should be considered, I should follow my heart for the best interests of the story and characters.

I will support Hirunaka no Ryuusei regardless of the ending.



やまもりせんせい、がんばってください！

Picture taken from:
Hirunaka no Ryuusei
Tweet posts
Chapter 1 coloured cover

Days of Exile is near completion

Yes, you've heard me.

Days of Exile is near completion. I mean, really. For good. No more stories on Meia and co.

I am currently typing the second last and last chapter at the same time. So it just hit me that after the last chapter... I have no clue what I should do next.

A part of me actually cried out, "No! I don't want this to end!"

I guess that for the last three and a half years, I've been so comfortable in the world of Meia and my motley crew of BC Turks. I mean, yeah I dabble with other story ideas on the side, but I always return to "I Want To Be A Turk!" and "Days of Exile". The world and the characters that I've created are so second-nature to me now.

It will be darn weird when all this ends. I mean, when I start a brand new story, there will be no such character as Meia. Damn. What the heck.

What am I supposed to upload next? I feel so lost without a story to think about. It's time for me to commit to a new story soon.

Oh by the way, I intend to finish the entire story before the year ends. Yes. You WILL get everything out by December latest. I promise. So don't go missing in action on me yet, hehe!

Writing 101 (2): Idea Hoarder (inspired by "Words Fail Me")

Today, I was browsing randomly in the bookstore and I've decided to get this book:



Well, it's not the kindle edition. I got the paperback. It's a book about writing. Don't ask me. I hate nonfiction, especially exposition, but reading all about the English language never bores me. I relish discussions and conversation explaining and arguing which preposition is more suitable for the verb and so on. Not that I'm an expert, but it is always an enlightening and satisfying moment when I get an answer, or acknowledgement that I knew was correct.

Anyway, I'm not done with the book (I just bought it, geez!) but I particularly liked a chapter where the author Patricia explained about organisation. As it turned out, she encouraged budding writers to hoard their ideas and keep them somewhere. You never know when you need them.

It's something I wished someone taught me before I threw my stash of laughable drafts away.

Anyway, after reading the chapter (actually I'm only halfway through the chapter but I'm pretty motivated now), here is my plan:

1. Write.
As Patricia T. O'Conner suggests, words, phrases, ideas, conversations, punchlines... Everything, anything. Write them down.

Noted with much gratitude. Looks like I'm going to be walking around with something to jot down all the time. Maybe it's time to buy a voice recorder. Nah, that would be too creepy. I'll lose friends at that rate.

2. Keep all plot bunnies 
Even if they are fanfiction or fiction, I'm going to now keep all my plot bunnies in a nice place. No more "Bah, that's stupid." *toss it to one side* EVEN IF it's stupid, I'm gonna keep it.

3. Keep a vocabulary notebook. For real.
I don't see this happening anytime soon, but I had a vision of collecting a compendium of new vocabulary words. Yup, I'm not going to upload them on the blog like before, because it'll be hard to maintain. It's not happening because I don't have the guts to get started. Seriously. I wish I can, but I barely know where to begin. It's supposed to be an attempt to improve my vocabulary, but now I see that it's necessary. Maybe I've got to do one for English and one for Japanese. Stay tuned... IF it ever happens.

So that's all I have planned so far! I'm going to head outta here and capture all my lost plot bunnies. Have a good Sunday ahead!

Picture taken from:
Book Cover