Hello! If you've come here looking for essays on manga layout and art and links to other sites that talk about it, you're in the right place. I write a weekly manga column for Tokyopop, and these are the essays that started me out in this strange business of being a Web pundit.

Feel free to add me to your friendslist without asking - I don't get offended by that. :D Please excuse me if I don't add you back - it's not because of you, it's because I've got too many journals on my friendslist to keep up with right now and adding more would completely overwhelm me (I do try to at least go and look at your LJ occasionally). You're perfectly welcome to come in, hang out, read, and comment as you choose.

One request: if you comment and you're not a Livejournal member and don't have an OpenID to identify yourself with, please leave a name. I get lots of anonymice making comments on these, and some sort of name or nickname separates your anonymous comment from all the other anonymous comments and makes all of us take you a bit more seriously. You may also want to come back and check for replies - I, and the other people who comment here, do tend to reply to comments because we're interested in talking about manga with other people, and presumably you are also.



The Series:
Part 1 - What Makes For Professional Manga (Akira Toriyama, DRAGONBALL Z)

Part 2 - Order out of Chaos (Kazuya Minekura, SAIYUKI)
   Part 2.1 - Follow-up to Order out of Chaos, on SAIYUKI

Part 3 - Visual Flow I (Natsuki Takaya, FRUITS BASKET)
   Part 3.1 - Visual Flow II (Natsuki Takaya, FRUITS BASKET)

Part 4 - Action Jackson - Controlling Time (Hiroaki Samura, BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL)
   Part 4.1 - Quick Followup on BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL
   Part 4.2 - Combat (Masashi Kishimoto, NARUTO)

Part 5 - Characterization (Obata Takeshi, DEATH NOTE)
   Part 5.1 - Characterization II (Obata Takeshi, DEATH NOTE)
   Part 5.2 - Characterization III (Obata Takeshi, DEATH NOTE)

Part 6 - Aging Characters (Hiromu Arakawa, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, Ashinano Hitoshi, YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU) added 10 July, 2005
   Part 6.1 - Aging Characters (Obata Takeshi, DEATH NOTE and HIKARU NO GO) added 11 July, 2005
   Part 6.2 - Aging Characters (Kishimoto Masashi, NARUTO and Ai Yazawa, PARADISE KISS) added 11 July, 2005
   Part 6.3 - Aging Characters Quick Followup added 11 July, 2005


Mangatalk, open threads on various themes in manga.
   Gender issues in manga.
   Plot and story cliches.
   Paneling and repetition in Saiyuki.
American comics in comparison.
Why and how does simple graphic design work? Using Fruits Basket to explore the elements of page composition.
Comparing Fullmetal Alchemist and Saiyuki
Differences in Japanese and OEL shoujo
Covers Comparing the covers of the top and bottom 5 manga in the monthly top 50.
Covers, part 2 Continued.

Manga essays and talk in other journals and websites

I have essays by other Livejournal people on manga analysis saved to my memories here. Many of them are also listed out here, in case Livejournal's memory function isn't working.

Essays on manga by Matt Thorn, a cultural anthropologist who teaches at the School of Cartoon & Comic Art at Kyoto Seika University in Japan.


Livejournal communities:

manga_talk - for discussion and analysis of manga/manwha/manhua/OEL manga, and posting links about same.
homemade_manga - discussion, comments, and criticism of your creative manga work
mangaartists - for anime- and manga-style artists












I'm willing to listen to suggestions for future essay topics, but you'll have a better chance if you ask a question about the process or techniques involved instead of asking for a particular series, since I tend to pick a series that serves as a good example for the subject and not the other way around.