Here's a scenario with a question.
You have two comics. A western comic and a manga. They're both in black & white, they're both in the same genre and have similar stories, and they have similar art styles.
What makes one a manga and the other a western-styled comic?
You can answer the question however you see fit. This is all just a matter of opinion.
Sep '21
Sep '21
Good question, I feel there are quite a lot of aspects when it comes to the differences between manga and western styled comics.
One of the differences is that a large part of manga read from right to left, whereas western styled comics from origin read left to right. There's also the style difference (though in this case if they are similar it wouldn't really matter).
The only thing that matters to me is the origin country. If it's japanese, it's manga. If it's western, it's a western comic. Regardless of art style.
im sure it's only about the orgin... i mean manga is right to left, but even if you are let's say from Scotland and do right-left it still wouldn't be manga, just like "Avatar the last airbender" isn't anime even if style is closer to anime than spongebob( maybe weird example but oh well)
It's just where it came from. Something is a manga if it was made in Japan, or in the language and for a Japanese audience. Similar for anime, they're Japanese animations or animations made for a Japanese audience. That being said 'manga' basically just translates to 'comic', when you're making a comic you can say you're making a manga, although the Japanese don't associate western comics with manga. Same with Korean comics. Manhua = Korean comic.
That being said I would argue that left-to-right vs. right-to-left aren't style things but readability things. The Japanese languages reads from right-to-left, so their comics are made with the most practical reading experience in mind. Not gonna lie, that's why I get a little peeved when someone does their English "manga style" comic from right-to-left, it shows they don't understand the country's decision and just want to blindly emulate what they think is a stylistic choice.
Direction of how it's read would be one of the first things I'd bring up. Left to Right being Western and Right to Left being more Manga.
Okay so this is my take. It may come across as divisive, but that's not my intention. This is just my observation after years of reading comics.
If they have similar art styles then there's no technical difference.
But if the art styles are widely different, then I'd start separating. Also it comes down to writing style as well. Each type of comic has a lot of nuances in how character mannerisms and idealogies are portrayed, and this varies by country. (I'm excluding manwha here, because the question was specifically about Manga vs Western (and I can assume specifically American comics)
No one ever accused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo of being manga just because they had Japanese elements. The art style was too different, as well as the writing style too.
(For those that don't know, TMNT started out as a black and white comic series in the early 80s)
Sure, if you're a manga purist you could posit that the difference between manga and western comics is strictly the country of origin and nothing else, but the fact is that's not how most people see it. I've seen a lot of strong opinions about this, so take this with a grain of salt since I'm a western comic creator.
Art style, lettering style, writing style, cultural hallmarks, all of these differ drastically between western and eastern comics. Manga is very identifiable, and I can quickly pick up from someone's comics if they've read a lot of manga. I think of the word manga as a stylistic identifier, not one strictly tied to nationality. If someone is attempting to emulate manga by putting in all of these factors, and they want to call it manga because they really love eastern comics, ok! Honestly who cares what they call their own work, even if others think it's technically incorrect?
It's interesting to me that the term "manga" means "Japanese comic" in the west, because I speak some Japanese and have several Japanese friends, and even if I say"コミック” (Japanese spelling of the english word "comic) when referring to my comic, they'll still sometimes say Stuff like 「今日は漫画を描くのだった？」(Did you work on your manga today?) and refer to me as "someone who draws an online manga"
Interestingly, Korean comics are sometimes called "manhwa" and Chinese comics are sometimes called "manhua" and I'm pretty sure all three words originate with the Chinese word!
Tbh there's very little different other than country of origin, manga means comic. And when you start talking about style you hit the giant wall of how do you compare something like JoJo or The Compulsive Gambler to things like the Puella Magica or YGO, hell, even within their own genres or within their own franchise - Puella Magica mangas have massive differences between the cute once to the raunchy dark comedy ones to the more adult seinen ones? Not to mention you then hit the issue of things like WITCH or Winx which are a hybrid of both. And beyond that, western and eastern media are constantly circling each other. It's no secret the large eyes associated with anime and manga was originally inspired by Mikey Mouse and anyone up to date with current anime/manga trends knows it's circling back towards the more realistic looks favoured by western comics in the past.
You may as well as what the difference between a webtoon and webcomic is.
I think of manga as comics created in Japan. Manga doesn't mean it's required to be black and white with a specific style. Some people also brought up that the way it's read is different, but that's only because this specific reading style is right to left. For example, hanja (Chinese characters) can be written in both left-right and up-down. I don't speak Japanese but I know for comics they use an older style of reading that's opposite from modern, which is left-right.
Honestly I think manga is anime style. It does not have to originate from japan. Japanese paperback manga should be read left to right, and japanese vertical comics (such as comico) should be read up to down.
Comics from Japan are called manga regardless of their style. Even if it is emulating a western-style, people will still just call it manga.
Western comics in an anime style may be referred to as manga or western-manga.
Companies like Tokyopop were well known for these and they were often sold in the manga section of stores along with the ones from Japan.
Tho I know some people may argue terms and say "that's not REAL manga". I feel like discussion tends to involve non-Japanese speakers getting angry and trying to "defend the honor of manga" when I think most people in Japan would not really care and probably call both manga.
