Anime vs Manga
Author: Andrew Wills

Anime vs Manga
If you are a magna fan and reading up on the latest anime
and manga releases and the history of the subject, you will
find there has been a lot of confusion between anime and
manga. Oftentimes, fans will ask others on forums or on
blogs or in chat rooms what the difference is. But this is
like having the blind lead the blind in most cases.

There are experts who visit these sites and can answer
questions intelligently, but since they do not usually
leave links to back up their claims, it can be unclear if
what they say is true or if they are really experts. If you
go to an online encyclopedia, you often find so much
information to wade through with so many big words, it's
hard to fully make sense of it all.

Suffice it to say that manga means Japanese comic books, or
in other words, those drawn-on-paper cartoons originating
in Japan. Similar to the American comics with Superman and
Spiderman, these comics were often made into different
series and are still produced in quantity. Anime is
animation, or you could say, the animated versions of manga.

Any animation actually needs to start out as a cartoon
drawing of some kind. Manga artists create the characters
and story line, then their drawings are made into animated
film. The animation process is long and detailed, and takes
a number of talented people to bring off the final product.
The artists who originally create the character, his
personality and the scene where the action takes place play
a large part in the production of the anime.

Sometimes, besides the creator of the manga itself, studios
take the artwork and make the backgrounds and other details
with the labors of other animators. These drawings are
combined and photographed or scanned as one piece, making
an entire scene with the character, extras and the sights
of a modern city or whatever is being portrayed. Thus anime
is created.

Rumko Takahashi created the popular series, Inuyasha and
Ranma ½. She does the original drawings and assists in the
animation process along with other artists in the studio
that produce the final anime. And so it is with many
manga-kas (manga writers).

Which came first, manga or anime? That is easy to answer in
studying the history of cartoon drawing. In Japan, the most
famous manga artists were in production in the 1940s, for
they were producing cartoons regarding the World War in
progress at the time. That doesn't mean there weren't other
cartoonists prior to this time. Certainly there were.

In the U.S., comics were in vogue early on. As early as the
late 1700s, Benjamin Franklin started the first editorial
cartoon. This soon expanded to the longer comic strips, the
first of which was drawn by Richard Outcault in 1895. Then
in the 1930s there were the debuts of such heroes as
Superman and Batman.


About the Author:

The author is a is the Admin of the Anime Friends Network
site http://www.animemine.com (AnimeMine.com), where you
can meet new friends and discuss your favorite anime and
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