Library News, Manga and Anime
What is manga and anime? According to Britannica, anime is, "a style of animation popular in Japanese films and television series. It often combines stark, colourful graphics with action-packed plots," whilst manga is, " a style of comic books and graphic novels... usually published weekly or monthly."
Manga and anime increased in popularity when they began to be translated into English. Some of the earlier popular titles were Sailor Moon, Astro Boy, Dragon Ball and Naruto. Current favourites include One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Attack on Titan. All of these manga are currently available at the CSC Library.
Anime and manga are huge businesses, with values totalling billions of dollars and much of the demand is driven by international audiences. There are over 400 anime production companies and one episode of a series can cost between $100,000 and $300,000 (US) to produce.
One aspect of manga which takes a little adjustment is that you read from right to left, rather than left to right as we are used to. Many of the graphic novels have a warning featured on what western audiences might imagine is the first page. These provide readers with instructions on how to read text and interpret graphics because they are reversed from the typical English order.
We are always working on expanding our general collection and our range of manga. Some new graphic novels which will soon be available are Samurai 8, Medalist and Go! Go! Loser Ranger. If you have any recommendations, please let us know.
Neal McClinton,
CSC Librarian.
References:
anime -- Britannica School (eb.com.au)