Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga

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Steel Ball Run took an interesting approach to battle manga by focusing on a positive portrayal of a hero with a disability. What inspired you to create Johnny Joestar? SJ: Much of the emphasis of your new book, Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga is on shonen manga storytelling—is your advice the same for other kinds of manga? Also, do any Western comics come close to capturing the manga panel development work you describe in your book? If so, which ones? Let's get this outta the way. I very much like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ( JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken.) That said, I don't think it's perfect and is marred by numerous errors, mostly owing to the unforgiving nature of the drafting, creating, publishing, mangaka. When an artist gives form to something invisible, their state of mind will be reflected in the picture whether they’re aware of it or not. Any attempts at fake sincerity will be in vain. The readers will always see through to the truth."

My work centers around protagonists who grow as they overcome hardship. In creating Johnny, I didn't necessarily set out to depict a hero with a disability. He was the end result of my pursuit to create a character who could grow, both physically and mentally, during a race where he would be forced not only to rely on other people, but horses as well. Excellent advice book; however, the English paragraph structure is not present, and the copy I received was printed on inexpensive non-acid free paper. CAUTION: There is minimal surprises of adult references in this book.Sometime after you begin drawing regularly, there will come a point when you think, “This just isn’t working out lately.” When this happens, you may become somewhat worried, but if you keep drawing, you’ll be able to break through it. The very fact that you’re worried about it means that you��re trying. [...] You get a behind the scenes look at his Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure series, and the thoughts, ideas and approaches that went into making it the series it is. (I have to say, as a Jojo’s fan, I really enjoyed all the tidbits about the series he scatters throughout the book.)

It was at 'story taboos' that I became convinced of something. He lists four things to avoid, and I believe he is not just 'guilty' but trademarked by three of them... Most specifically in JoJolion's conclusion, which he almost directly alludes to here. I'm convinced JoJolion was written around and through this book, almost self referring and recurring into itself. It explains a lot, from Gappy's duality to The Wonder of U. There are a few times when the translation is a bit unclear, but those are few and far between overall. True, with admitted exception and alternative or fringe forms, of other mediums. Whether it be Jay, Gatsby, and Daisy; or the Xenomorph, the Babadook, the velociraptor of Jurassic Park. Could go on; characters are, often, key. I could name a ton of exceptions but the case is still a strong one. Especially if the metric result is 'popularity' or 'success' (often the same thing to some.) This is a review of the book plus my thoughts on Araki's Jojo series under the new light of this book.

A lot of the advice here is specifically for the Japanese manga market, because this is just a translation of a Japanese book for a Japanese audience, not an edition for foreigners. Think of the golden way of which I write in this book as signposts directing you to the royal road of manga at the summit. Attempts to reach those heights without any such map or anything else to guide the way will be frustrated far from the peak. This is something I’ve seen and heard happen many times. [...] To be perfectly honest, by making public ideas and methodologies that are trade secrets, which up until now I’ve held under monopoly, the publishing of this book will be disadvantageous to me on a personal level. But I’m writing this book because my desire to impart these techniques is far greater than any disadvantage that may come from revealing them." He goes into detail about his own experiences moving up through the manga industry. It’s not quite “On Writing” (Stephen King’s book), but it does give you a feeling for his highs and lows in the industry. Finally, even though female characters can look and act like male characters, unless you have an urgent erotic message to tell, you might try to keep your story single-gendered. “As long as your characters are appealing, you could get away with a world of all men. You have nothing to fear.”

Some may consider the idea of a skill book to be something of a relic of the past. Beyond the concept of an instructional book which usually focuses around a base level skill set and on hobbies or learning the arts, the idea of a material that engages with a readership that seeks to benefit from an author’s experience in one way or another is something that is typically reserved for memoirs or other marketable genres for famous and well acclaimed people to offer insight to the success and failures of their career/life. This book, rather like Blake Snyder's Save the Cat, is full of advice that is useful to storytellers in any medium. It is readable and short enough to read in a few days. It also has many references to popular western films and popular manga that most people interested in manga will recognize. He goes into great detail about how he creates characters, and even shows you his character template that he uses to think through his characters before he sits down and designs them visually. Sometimes, maybe influenced by my physical state that day or some chemical change beyond my understanding, my drawings go better than I had anticipated and make me think, “This line is really great!” or “I nailed the curve of that cheek! It’s perfect!” When those drawings come like unexpected presents, when my art is better than me, I think that maybe it’s the god of manga descending to visit me." Likewise, I've been drawing inspiration from Greco-Roman statues and post-enlightened paintings for my writing. Something about the depth and complexity of a statue is awe inspiring; I'd very much like to visit Italy, myself sometime.

A ese respecto, podríamos decir que el tema detrás del libro no es la creación. Es la mirada. La necesidad de educar la mirada para crear cualquier cosa. Overall this book kind of reminds me of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft with how it combines personal stories with tips on how to write. You can gleam a lot from the stories of both his successes and failures, as well as well as what personal elements they put in their story. All the advice comes across as quite humble, as Hirohiko seems to be unsure of his own worth to distribute such words of advice. This is a great book for understanding the ways of thinking that lay behind writing boys manga (aka The Golden Road), and how Japanese view creating manga in general. His thoughts on how manga are more emotionally driven than western comics are were interesting to read, and he really takes you through the process of creating his manga and how the Japanese manga artist system works. (If this part interests you, you should also read the manga Bakuman, which covers this in more detail and in more dramatic form.) Panel One: Comic Book Scripts by Top Writers (Panel One Scripts by Top Comics Writers Tp (New Prtg)) (Compilation book)

Overall if you are interested in writing manga, this would be a good book for you as it contains a lot of information when it comes to arranging and creating your manga. It is also an interesting look into the author's life and motivation when it came to creating their own work. Though I am not part of this audience, I did find these points interesting and a neat insight when it comes to the creator of JoJo.

You worked for several years with a weekly deadline as part of Shonen Jump, until transitioning to a monthly deadline when JoJo's Bizarre Adventure moved to Ultra Jump in 2004. What are your feelings on the weekly vs. monthly model of creating manga? Araki Sensei: I think it can be applied, but I'm not too familiar with American/Western comics so I can't give specific examples. However, I believe that detailed, precise manga panel development designed to depict intricate emotions is the defining feature of Japanese manga, and that approach can be applied in various forms. My closing conclusion is this: ultimately, the 'golden way' or 'royal road' to Hirohiko Araki is alike to Shelley's 'sublime.' That is to say, it is directly linked to his philosophy on the 'Golden Ratio' or symmetrical perfection; divine beauty derived by synchronised, synergised points of emphasis. He understands he does not achieve this all the time, but aims to achieve it where possible by refining his style and attitudes accordingly to maximise the propensity. That said, being able to get readers to empathize with ugly desires is a tremendously tall hurdle, one that requires thought and planning to overcome. Once you have that ability, you could turn even a heartless killer into your main character.