9

Even though manga has lots of different art styles we still have an idea that certain styles are "manga style" and other ones aren't. What is it about an art style that lets us know it's manga style? What elements reappear across many manga? What distinguishes our idea of manga style from our idea of Western comics style?

enter image description here

Torisuda
  • 12,484
  • 10
  • 47
  • 112
ClassicEndingMusic
  • 191
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
    To perhaps hint at the difficulty in answering this question, the picture you included doesn't really look like manga to me at all. In fact, the "manga-style" drawings on the top look more like 1980s American cartoons like GI Joe or Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, whereas the "realistic" drawings on the bottom remind me of older fighting manga, like Fist of the North Star. – Torisuda Apr 02 '16 at 20:17
  • Yah, those illustrations don't look like they're trying to distinguish between manga and western comics. Instead they look like they're distinguishing between more realistic and less realistic comic styles. – Ross Ridge Apr 02 '16 at 22:46
  • Well, then just ignore this image. – ClassicEndingMusic Apr 02 '16 at 22:58
  • 2
    This is a very interesting question - but, as Torisuda points out, a difficult one to answer. In particular, there are many levels on which we can distinguish manga from other comic art - panel layout, character design, "framing" of "shots", speech bubble placement, use of color (or lack thereof), use of onomatopoeia (Japanese notwithstanding), screentones/shading, and beyond. – senshin Apr 02 '16 at 23:45
  • I find https://www.google.com/ to be an invaluable resource. Wikipedia is also very helpful if it has information on the manga. You should particularly pay attention to the the first sentence, which usually starts with something like "Title is a **Japanese manga series**" to figure out if if the Japanese comic is a... wait for it... manga. *emphasis added by me* – ton.yeung Apr 03 '16 at 01:46
  • 4
    @ton.yeung I assume you're implying that the categorization is arbitrary and the only way to distinguish manga from Western comics is to yield to the popular vote or the opinion of recognized authorities. But the question actually asks specifically how to tell from the art style. The answer might be "you can't tell from the art style alone, it's purely definitional", but the OP did specifically ask how to tell *from the art style*, whereas your comment relates to how to tell *in general*. From your tone I gather you find that a stupid question, but that isn't actually what the OP asked. – Torisuda Apr 03 '16 at 06:27
  • @Torisuda Rather than popular opinion or authorities, I'm implying that the first few lines on wikipedia is "good enough". If it isn't, a few more lines will tell you who the author is, and see if they're Japanese. The main point is that "art styles" in either manga/anime or comics are diversifying. Trying to determine whether or not its manga or comics by art style is futile. "picture books" from Japan is manga, and from west are comics – ton.yeung Apr 03 '16 at 16:02
  • 2
    @ton.yeung This discussion is fascinating, and unfortunately these comments are too small to contain it. I think there's a difference between "manga" and "the manga art style". Manga is manga because we say it is; as you point out, the spectrum of art styles in real manga is diverse, from the cartoonish One Piece to the baroque CLAMP, from the soft and fluffy shoujo look of *Honey So Sweet* to the odd juxtaposition of caricature and realism that we see in *Onward to Our Noble Deaths*. But I still argue there is some archetype in our minds of "manga style art"... – Torisuda Apr 03 '16 at 23:56
  • 1
    ...otherwise we wouldn't be able to say that Legend of Korra is "manga style" and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is "not manga style" even though the latter is Japanese and the former is not. While the OP perhaps didn't express it in the best way, I see this question as asking "what are the defining traits of that archetype of manga art?", not "What's a magical test that can always let me tell I'm reading a manga just from looking at the art?", which is, as you say, an impossible and futile goal. – Torisuda Apr 03 '16 at 23:58
  • @Torisuda I see your point now. I think he's asking both. This question should probably get edited for clarity by removing the first question as it sets the tone for the rest of the question. If the OP was "what are the defining traits of that archetype of manga art" as you say, then there's less of an impulse for snark. – ton.yeung Apr 04 '16 at 01:08
  • @ton.yeung I made a small edit that I hope clarifies the question. I'd like to add some of this material we discussed here in the comments, but I'm wary of adding a bunch of stuff and distorting the OP's question into my own. – Torisuda Apr 04 '16 at 04:01
  • 1
    @Torisuda I think its fine to leave it as it is. The comment chain does clarify the OP if anyone cares to read it. If you still think the comments should be wiped, though, ping me in chat and I'll delete my comments. – ton.yeung Apr 04 '16 at 05:20
  • http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13256/what-differentiates-manga-from-other-comics – Darjeeling Oct 20 '16 at 06:40
  • It might be worth to move / ask this question to https://crafts.stackexchange.com/ since one could argue it is in the same league as, what defines cubism or impressionism? Afaik, art in respect of history usually found distinct features in style of paintings and painters although with of course blurry lines between. I expect nothing less for this question too. – Bort Dec 14 '16 at 15:30
  • If you haven't read [*A Drifting Life*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Drifting_Life) by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (his autobiography) before, you definitely should. It describes the evolution of manga from the 1945-1960, and this question is one of the overarching themes. – HotelCalifornia Feb 09 '17 at 21:50

4 Answers4

2

I'm not sure there is a specific answer to this. As you acknowledge, different artists have different styles. Both Japanese and western books vary from "cartoony" to "realistic". There are cultural differences seen in the art, such as in Japanese media adults often smoke, while in American media, they seldom do -- definitely not in titles geared to children. (Maybe they do in French media; that's why I switched from "western" to "American".)

Hell, sometimes an artist has extremes in his own work; consider Yoshiro Togashi and his "bad days" on Hunter x Hunter. Here is a comparison of a page that got published in the weekly mag, versus how he improved it for the HxH volume:

poorly drawn page on left, well-drawn on right

Is the left even identifiable as manga vs comic book (vs fan art)? On the right, the main clue as to being a manga, at least to me, is the eyes of the upper right character. Otherwise it could be from a (somewhat dark) American funny-animal comic book, a la "Fritz the Cat visits a jungle".

Let's look at another page:

First Kingdom, Book 6 cover

Is there anything innately Japanese or western concerning Jack Katz' work on The First Kingdom? If I didn't already know, I could not tell anything except that he is a remarkable artist (a mangaka in every sense of the word except his nationality). ... Hmm, maybe in Japan they would have to fade-out all the nipples.

I myself instantly recognize manga because the pages have to be read from right to left. The other instantly recognizable hint is that manga are typically b&w, whereas western comics are usually color.

RichF
  • 3,134
  • 3
  • 20
  • 42
0

I could be wrong, but based on observation, here is a theory:

"Manga-style" refers to the shading process. Compare the conversions from books to animation, there is much less line shading due to grayscale limitations not applying to animation, especially with coloring.

Furthermore, just the facial style of western cartoons, in comparison to Japan in specific, eases the differences.

-1

well to me It's more about the lack of details. Be-sided the obvious eyes (tough they come in different styles) the main deference to me between comics and manga it's the lack of realism. Comics use a lot of details in the hair, eyes, shading, and body...making the characters look more realistic. But in Manga for example they gather a bunch of hair into two line strokes and gives volume with shading, a vary cleaner look to the character. Idk, just less realistic I suppose.

ferrethause
  • 1
-2

If you do research you will find that the Japanese consider animation such as cartoons and anime to all be anime but some styles are usually seen separately.

www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-807827/the-anime-is-a-cartoon-argument

The main difference is the age. What we call cartoons are things aimed at kids, while anime is usually aimed at older people as well as young but the so called cartoons pokemon and yugioh are anime.

The thing is us Americans just separated everything.

Definition of Anime by Merriam-Webster

a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes.

a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine. synonyms: caricature, parody, lampoon, satire; More

a motion picture using animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects.

if it helps most of the cartoons we have in america are made in japan.and all of this started in japan.

Toshinou Kyouko
  • 34,175
  • 26
  • 160
  • 297
CRAIG JONES
  • 89
  • 1
  • 5
  • You're answering the question "What defines anime?", not the actual question "What defines the art style of anime?". – Torisuda Dec 12 '16 at 05:35