bmwracer wrote:

If it was the Mitsuwa, I'd have thought it was the Sanseido bookstore, but I don't think they sold used books....

You are correct, inside the mall itself is a Sanseido Bookstore, but they only sell new. This place is not attached to the mall, but I would bet somehow affiliated with one of the owners...
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Too many JDramas, so little time!!

desert-raven wrote:

You are correct, inside the mall itself is a Sanseido Bookstore, but they only sell new. This place is not attached to the mall, but I would bet somehow affiliated with one of the owners...

Yeah, sounds probable.

Back on topic: Haven't read very much manga myself, so I can't recommend anything to you...

Now if we're talking Marvel Comics on the other hand......

desert-raven wrote:

Hey all, I just discovered a used Japanese book store near my house, they have novels and manga. But, I'm a little unfamiliar with Manga, is there someplace I can go online for like a top 10 list of Mangas out there? Or maybe can I get a recommendation on some to look for? It seems they had thousands of copies, old and new! Seeing that I am just learning the language, something easy to read, maybe Fantasy or Horror, Even one that's comedy is fine. I'm pretty open to any and all suggestions! Thanks -Dave ps. Any recommendations for Japanese Novels are also welcome.

For comedy, there's a whole lot of things to choose from. Personally, you can't go wrong with Yotsuba&.

For horror, you may want to start with anything from Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Gyo) or from Kazuo Umezu (Cat-Eyed Boy, The Drifting Classroom).

For fantasy, what's out right now is Pluto, which is a reimagining of Astroboy. If you want a one-in-done, try to look for Tekkon Kinkreet (which also has an awesome animated movie).

By the way, all the ones I mentioned have English versions. If you're well into reading Japanese, there's honestly a buttload of books out there that have never made it to an English translation that would be absolutely awesome.

Enjoy!

desert-raven wrote:

Hey all, I just discovered a used Japanese book store near my house, they have novels and manga. But, I'm a little unfamiliar with Manga, is there someplace I can go online for like a top 10 list of Mangas out there?

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?act=genresearch

Pick the categories you are interested in, search then click Rating to see the top rated ones.

I found that popular new titles tends to have higher ratings.
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My Jdorama trade list

ok i read hundreds of series (manga) cus it really is huge in JAPAN and u cud use the sight mangahelpers. Pretty good
u cud ask me wot genre u want and i cud recommend u decent ones??
literally i know most mangas and i cud give u good recommendations
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desert-raven.
So many mangas to read!
My favourite ones are:
- REAL - wheelchair basket
- Hikari no go - a boy on it's way to become a go master
- Solanin - about losing someone -> will be a movie next year
- Fruits Basket - orphan girl living in a jinxed family
- 20th century boys - Japan and the world shifting into a dictature
- XXXholic - lovely art work, very light horror, fantasy
- Ranma 1/2 fun stuff about a jinxed boy who sometimes transforms to a girl

You could also check those out, which have been made to doramas. I am thinking of Nodame Cantabile, Jin or H2.

Densha Otoko and Nobuta wo produce have been initially light novels as far as I know.

LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-magna29-2009nov29,0,7046985.story



Manga's story starts with kamishibai
Part street theater and paper artistry, the Japanese art form would go on to influence modern-day comics. In 'Manga Kamishibai,' writer Eric P. Nash unveils its little-known history.

By Liesl Bradner

November 29, 2009

It was the simple clacking of two wooden sticks on a street corner that signaled to children the start of kamishibai, a popular pastime during Depression-era Japan. Kamishibai means "street theater using painted illustrations." Author Eric P. Nash examines the little-known art form and predecessor to modern-day anime and manga in his recent book "Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater," published by Abrams ComicArts.

Storytellers would travel from town to town with their butai (miniature stage) on the back of a bike. The set-up was reminiscent of a "Punch and Judy" show, but instead of puppets the narrator would slide a series of poster boards with water color illustrations in and out of the box. He would act out the script, which was written on cards placed on the back of a board.

Each show consisted of three stories of about 10 minutes each: an adventure for boys, a domestic drama for girls and then a simple comic story. The majority of performances ended in a cliffhanger, forcing eager audiences to return the next day.

Nash, a New York Times writer and research editor and author of several books on architecture, has always been a fan of comics. It was while reading the book "Getting it Wrong in Japan" that he came across "kamishibai," a word he had never seen before, and decided to dig further. Unable to find any book on the topic in English, he traveled to Japan two years ago to investigate and found more than 300 images in two children's libraries in Osaka and Tokyo and discovered countless contributions that kamishibai had made to the comics genre.

"A lot of attributes seen in anime are present," Nash said, "such as Giant Robots and monsters from outer space." He also mentions the "manga-sized eyes," wide and oversized, meant to convey emotion found in popular characters such as Jungle Boy.

Golden Bat, created in 1931, was considered to be the world's first true comic superhero. Although visually resembling Captain America's nemesis Red Skull, Golden Bat and Superman share more commonalities: the red cape, skill of flight, superhuman strength and a fortress of solitude, albeit in the Japanese Alps.

Kamishibai artists departed from traditional Japanese line art drawing by creating a cartoon-like style and applying chiaroscuro, the Western style of contrasting light and dark, providing depth and mass.

During World War II, the Japanese government used kamishibai for propaganda, as did Americans during the occupation with stories centered on democratic values such as baseball.

The demise of kamishibai coincided with the end of the occupation and introduction of television in 1952.

Many of the form's writers and artists then migrated into manga in the '50s such as Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka.

In "Manga Kamishibai," Golden Bat creator Takeo Nagamatsu summed up his feelings on kamishibai's role in Japanese society: "Pictures that look nice in someone's house are great . . . but kamishibai are loved by many children and cheer them up. When I think of these children later growing up to be honorable Japanese adults, it makes me realize the significance of creating kamishibai."

bmwracer wrote:

LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-magna29-2009nov29,0,7046985.story Manga's story starts with kamishibai

That's such a trip that you posted this article. I recently learned about kamishibai for the first time on my trip to Japan. One of the places my buddy and I went to check out was Kyoto International Manga Museum which opened its doors recently. They took an old Japanese elementary school and converted it to a museum dedicated to manga. They have several exhibits on the history of manga and one of them focused on kamishibai, as the progenitor of the first manga.

This museum is pretty cool...they literally have thousands upon thousands of manga there for museum patrons to read and enjoy. The musuem has several reading rooms as well as a huge astroturf lawn cordoned off by netting where ppl can enjoy reading manga outdoors in a clean environment.

They actually have manga in English and other foreign languages too. My buddy and I actually picked a few comics and went out to lawn, to chill out and read for about an hour. It was amazingly peaceful which tripped me out b/c we were outdoors in the middle of Kyoto.

Anybody into comic books who plans to visit Kyoto should check this museum out.

Here are some photos:

^ Heh, what a coincidence.

Yeah, I noticed the article when I was browsing through the paper that Sunday... Interesting stuff.

bmwracer wrote:

^ Heh, what a coincidence. Yeah, I noticed the article when I was browsing through the paper that Sunday... Interesting stuff.

It is an interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

Tu_triky wrote:

It is an interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

When did this museum open?! I can't believe I missed it while I was kyoto.
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Wanna trade? My Drama List (UPDATED: October 10, 2010)

Wynter wrote:

When did this museum open?! I can't believe I missed it while I was kyoto.

I read that it opened back in 2006...so it's been open for about 3 years.

FarOutFreak wrote:

For horror, you may want to start with anything from Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Gyo) or from Kazuo Umezu (Cat-Eyed Boy, The Drifting Classroom). For fantasy, what's out right now is Pluto, which is a reimagining of Astroboy. If you want a one-in-done, try to look for Tekkon Kinkreet (which also has an awesome animated movie). By the way, all the ones I mentioned have English versions. If you're well into reading Japanese, there's honestly a buttload of books out there that have never made it to an English translation that would be absolutely awesome. Enjoy!

Good choice with Ito, Uzumaki is quite good, plus the Tomie series by him is now much easier to find. My faves are more on the light hearted side such as Azumanga Daioh, Maison Ikkoku, Genshiken, though more serious ones such as Death Note and Monster are good, plus the Umezo books that were mentioned above. I have well over 1,000 now, I have enough reading to last a long, long time. One favorite is this, only 5 volumes but something about it is just so endearing, hard not to smile through most of it.

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desert-raven wrote:

What's a Book-off?

I love Book Off!! thats where i got all My X Manga

Wynter wrote:

When did this museum open?! I can't believe I missed it while I was kyoto.

I missed it too - not because I didn't know about it but because we didn't manage to fit it in when we visited.

Next time???

Stevie wrote:

I love Book Off!! thats where i got all My X Manga

BOOK OFF in japan was started u roup of uni students, and look at it now, one of the biggest second hand book shop in JAPAN
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EstherM wrote:

I missed it too - not because I didn't know about it but because we didn't manage to fit it in when we visited. Next time???

As a manga lover, if you return to Kyoto you owe to yourself to check it out. It's a very unique place.

KAZdoramma wrote:

BOOK OFF in japan was started u roup of uni students, and look at it now, one of the biggest second hand book shop in JAPAN

when i was living in Japan,I was at Book Off a lot.One of My Favorite stores!!

I got a lot of Manga in there

Stevie wrote:

when i was living in Japan,I was at Book Off a lot.One of My Favorite stores!! I got a lot of Manga in there

hahaha yeah the only problem is that if u wanna collect a series of the same manga, its hard to do so cus not all volumes are there cus its a second hand store so u have to go around alot of bookshop to get it all...i just go to a normal bookshop when i cant be bothered to do that
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Tu_triky wrote:

As a manga lover, if you return to Kyoto you owe to yourself to check it out. It's a very unique place.

Will try my best to stop over when I go to Japan in March.

In the meantime, I got really spoiled at Christmas. My family got me the series Alice 19th, a manhwa called killer romance, two books of short stories by the guy who did Solanin and volume 4 and 5 of DMC. Aaah bliss.