Iizuka Hiroyuki, et al. - Shojo Beat Manga Artist Academy (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

This is a general introduction to creating shoujo manga, done in manga format. It's slightly gimmicky; we follow little panda Satomi in her quest to become a shoujo mangaka, but I forgive it for the gimmick because I am so amused by Satomi and Mr. Manga Star, her hard-ass editor.

The book is divided into several sections, each of which covers a topic on manga production, each written by a different shoujo mangaka. They can vary widely in quality; thankfully, the ones that seemed pretty bad were the sections I wasn't very interested in anyway. These include the two chapters on writing (character and plot), which seem to believe that the more cliched something is, the better. I also suspect that the book isn't very good for those looking to improve basic drawing skills like perception or human physique.

On the other hand, while the book never manages to go into great depth, it actually covers things like panelling and toning and inking, all of which are topics that are very foreign to me. I think if you know anything about those topics, this book might be boring, but since I don't, it was pretty neat. I liked it best when the mangaka got into the nitty gritty of what they do, of the pens and the ink they use, of things like sand erasers for erasing clouds into skies of screentone. And there's some fairly basic stuff that I don't think about, like having the main character generally facing or running or walking from right to left, to follow the reader's reading patterns.

Also, while I disregarded most of the story-telling advice ("Exaggerate your characters so you can describe them with just one word!"), I liked notes on how to compress monologues and skip over unimportant action, both of which are things that I (hopefully) already know how to do in writing, but not necessarily in manga.

Now I want more detailed books on things like panelling!

Comments

[chomiji]

Hee! Sounds like fun ... I wonder if our local comic shop has it. This is also very timely because I recently realized that everything I've been reading is shounen manga, so I've decided I need to educate myself about the other side of the fence ... . (To that end, I was just asking - on my LJ - for suggestions about classic shoujo manga that would show me what people were talking about, without sending me into convulsions from too much fluffy/sparkly/etc.).

[oyceter]

It is pretty fun! Unfortunately, it doesn't go into the differences between shoujo and shounen, but after looking at more than a few panel layouts, you start to get a sense of standard shoujo layout. It's been neat rereading things and checking out the paneling.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Exaggerate your characters so you can describe them with just one word!

I don't know, this sounds kind of awesome. Although I have trouble using one word to describe anything as proven by that 'Describe me in one word' meme.

Slightly off-topic, I'm reading Fruits Basket, and I much prefer it to the anime, which I liked but gave up on about half-way through.

[oyceter]

I don't know, this sounds kind of awesome.

I feel like it could be, except the words are things like "klutzy" or "cute" or other such tropes. Woe. See, if it were "assassin," I would be right there!

Ooooh, Furuba! I liked the anime, but I absolutely adore the manga.