Lesson 14 — Activity 3: Manga and Japanese Anime
Lesson 14 — Activity 3:
Manga
and
Japanese Anime
Japanese artists have been influenced by such animators as Walt Disney. They have adapted their styles of creativity to combine traditional Japanese styles with modern animation to fashion a new form of Manga Art.
About 60 years ago, a Japanese artist published a graphic novel; a story told in the form of manga illustrations and dialogue. Now these types of books are very popular in Japan and around the world. Manga magazines in Japan may have stories that appear weekly and are continued in the next edition. These magazines may be from 20 or more pages to hundreds of pages long. The more popular manga stories also appear as anime — animated TV shows and movies. Some that you might be familiar with include Astro Boy, Gundam, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Naruto.
Manga plots are created in various forms and genres to appeal to different age groups and genders. One reason for this continued growth in popularity is that, as Japanese children grew up reading manga, the artists continued to produce new material that appeals to this aging group of readers.
Although there are many forms of manga, some features are common to the work of many artists:
- large eyes
- large head compared to body
- exaggerated facial expressions
- exaggerated physical signs of emotion (for example, large drops of sweat on the face of a character who is nervous or embarrassed)
