How to start reading manga?

This epic moment from Dragon Ball can help you visualize the order of the panels.
Reading a manga for the first time is not so easy if you have not had a Japanese comic in your hands before. There are many genres, specific types of manga, and specific reading codes to remember. Superprof offers you to discover what are the steps to start reading a manga !

Choose a series of sleeves well: How to start reading manga?

There are several types of manga that correspond to a commercial objective and that depend in particular on the publisher who publishes them. This can give you a first idea of ​​the topics covered in these stories:
The Shonen , manga for children (mainly adventure, action and fantasy).
The Shojo , manga for girls (mainly romance, school life and life).
The Seinen / Josei , the young adult manga (primarily drama, suspense, horror, and science fiction).
The Kodomo , the children’s manga (mainly comics and adventure).
However, these types of manga do not completely reflect everything that you will be able to find. For example, a manga like Death Note meets many of the criteria that can be found in a Seinen , although it has been considered a Shonen since it was published in Shonen Jump magazine .
Therefore, we must refer to the manga genres, which are very numerous and offer totally different worlds. Here we leave you a synthesis of these genres , as well as examples of sleeves:
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Look for:

Gender Example
Nekketsu (adventures) Naruto
Action Dragon ball
Romance Wolf Girl and Black Prince
Drama Nana
Thriller Monster
Fantasy Seven deadly sins
Science fiction Gantz
Mecha (robots) Evangelion
Terror Tokyo ghoul
Lifetime Maison Ikkoku
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You can also choose based on the length of the manga, its popularity, and of course your personal interests . If you are young, resort to a Shonen or Shojo, while if you are older, you may like a Seinen more!

Japanese reading standards

The first thing to keep in mind when reading a manga is the direction of reading , which is different from what we know in the West. In fact, you will have to follow the direction of the Japanese writing, from right to left and from top to bottom. Therefore, you will read the right page before the left!
In the same way, on a manga page, you will first read the bullet points in the upper right, then the ones that stay on the same plane, then the ones at the bottom to finally get to the bottom left panel. Said like this, it may seem complicated, but it is not like that: you learn quickly.
You also need to understand the meaning of the background behind the vignettes. Although it is usually white, it can also be black: in this case, the action occurs in the past, as part of some memory or a flashback. A transition background, gradient between black and white, means that we go from the present to the past or vice versa.
The facial expressions of the characters can also be difficult to understand because they correspond to Japanese graphic codes. Therefore, redness, sighing, nosebleeds, discomfort, or expression of anger are among those recurring elements in all sleeves.
Noises and onomatopoeia are also represented in the manga, to express loud noises, screams, laughter, etc.