Customer Reviews

Manga Madness

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'll start off by saying this: don't be deceived by the cartoony cover. It's actually probably the best HTDM (How to Draw Manga) book I own. It teaches you everything from the origin of manga, to backgrounds, different coloring methods, chibis, robots, comics, and, of course, the basics of drawing characters.

Pages 6-7 cover the tools of drawing manga. It explains what kind of paper you need (size and such), what kind of pencils are best, what kind of eraser is best, and much more.

Page 8 explains anime/manga related terms, and even the origin of manga itself. The terms covered are anime, bishoujo, bishounen, chibi, doujinshi, kawaii, manga, otaku, RPG, shoujo, and shounen.

Page 9 gives illustrations of the eight step process the pros use to create manga. They include brainstorming, writing the script and drawing a rough layout, penciling (which, as a side note, I found was misspelled in the book), lettering, inking, lettering, erasing, coloring, and (finally) publishing.

Page 10 discusses the basic elements of manga style. This has a quick explanation of how hair, mouths, and noses or manga characters differ from that of standard American comic books.

Page 11 tells the origin and differences of shounen and shoujo. In case you didn't know, shoujo (as quoted from page 8)"refers to comics aimed at young males", and shoujo "refers to comics aimed at young girls".

Pages 12-15 point out some basic elements of heroes and villains. The heroes include "the dashing hero", "the magical girl", "the rebellious hero", "the big guy", "the kid", and "the mascot". The villains include "the big bad", "the evil queen", "the fallen hero", and "mindless goons".

Pages 16-17 basically explain that everything drawn is a collection of basic shapes. It also gives you a few examples of three-dimensional figures.

Page 18 is very helpful. It explains about light sources, and how shadows work.

Page 19 discusses and gives examples of the difference between soft shading and cel shading.

Pages 20-21 show the difference between coloring in markers, colored pencils, watercolors, acrylic on acetate, and computer coloring. I found these two pages to be quite helpful.

Pages 22-23 cover manga eyes. It shows the difference between male and female eyes, and shows you the steps of drawing both. Personally, I wish they had more examples on faces instead of simply drawn directly onto the page.

Pages 24-25 explain hair styles. These pages are incredibly informative! It gives you a color chart that includes several colors and what the typical personality is for its wearer (for example, blue = youthful, energetic, cool and introverted; red = energetic, good fighter, outspoken, stubborn and strong-willed.) and a picture of several styles and the typical personality of its wearer (long, straight hair: Traditional and down-to-earth; spiky: Energetic and youthful; ponytails: Cute, energetic, and a little ditzy.)

Pages 26-31 demonstrate how to draw faces facing forward, to the side, and even a three-quarter view.

Pages 32-33 have a list of emotions and a small example. The list is large and includes twenty-one emotions. They are pleased, laughing, happy, joyous, embarrassed, confused, sleepy, sly, pouting, bored, annoyed, angry, enraged, shocked, terrified, worried, crying, bawling, blubbering, yawning, and smug.

Pages 34-36 break down proportions for the adult male and female, the teenaged male and female, the young female and male, the chibi male and female, and one super-deformed female. I was quite pleased to see children who weren't chibis. Most How-To-Draw books only include how to draw chibi children. And best of all, no nudity!

Pages 37-38 explain a little bit about poses. This section is very short compared to most HTDM and quite uninformative.

Page 39 also isn't very helpful. It explains a bit about foreshortening.

Page 40 gives fantastic demonstrations of hands, as well as a great measurement tip.

Page 41 is great for drawing feet. It shows a few different poses, and even a foot in a high heel shoe.

Pages 42-43 focus on clothing. Page 42 centers on the flow and detail of clothing; while page 43 reminds you of the manga-specific clothing, such as kimonos, samurai armor, and the oh-so popular school uniforms. This page also has an example of two styles of uniforms for both girls and boys. I find myself referring to this section often.

Pages 44-85 include an example of many different characters as well as some tips and characteristics. The characters include the mischievous chibi, dashing hero, magical girl, rebellious hero, the kid (shounen), girls (shoujo), the big guy, the mascot, fallen hero, evil queen, the big bad, mindless goons, unstoppable fiend, fantasy warrior, elf princess warrior, martial artists, cat girl, android boy, Victorian rose (bishoujo), school girl (bishoujo), Victorian gentleman (bishounen), hipster student, skate girl (shounen youth), cyberpunk kid (shounen youth), space hero, space pirate, mecha, humanoid robot, and the crab robot. Most of them include a drawing in both colored pencil and computer colored.

Pages 86-87 give some interesting tips on martial art moves and battles.

Pages 88-89 remind you to consider the weight of weapons in your drawings. For being the weapons section, it isn't elaborate as most HTDM.

Pages 90-93 show examples of different actions and explains some important details such as what a character does when he/she jumps.

Pages 94-97 aren't necessarily for beginners. These pages are very, very helpful for hard core manga artists. These two pages cover the basics of linear perspective, and drawing figure in perspective. They go into amazing detail and explanation.

Pages 90-105 list some very helpful tips of drawing backgrounds and such. The examples include city buildings, the fantasy castle, the space station, and the traditional Japanese home.

Pages 106-113 show you how to draw vehicles. In order, the examples included are a jumbo jet (simple sketch only), old car (simple sketch only), sporty car, flying car, sky cycle, good-guy space fighter, pirate space fighter, good-guy spaceship, and pirate spaceship.

Pages 114-121 are about the design of a manga page. Now, the comics aren't good at all, but the pointers are. This includes the basic elements of a manga page (basically defining and giving examples of speed lines, bold lettering, narrative captions, and such), planning a comic page (teaching smooth transition of text), designing dynamic panels (different "camera" angles), basic panel shots (mostly different panel sizes), and pacing and panel flow (great tips on how to set up an interesting and sensible panel).

Page 122 defines the different kinds of word balloons and shows some lettering options.

Page 123 discusses sound effects. This page also includes sound effects in both English and Japanese. This page is also great to refer to when you'd like to see the meaning of a Japanese sound effect while reading manga.

Page 124 covers features commonly found in manga, such as speed lines, the big head yell, and falling cherry blossoms.

And finally...

Page 126 summarizes "the business of making manga". This covers six steps of drawing manga professionally.
Step One: Know your strength and weaknesses
Step Two: Meet people and get feedback
Step Three: Promote your work
Step Four: Be persistent
Step Five: Keep Learning
Step Six: Stick with it

Thanks for reading my (incredibly long) review!

When I initially picked up this book I thought it was a parody. It highlights all sorts of overdone stereotypes in anime and manga, from magical girls to fallen heroes.

This book would have shined as a hokey, farcical piece meant to poke fun at people who dive into manga and anime without any time spent learning illustration basics because that's exactly how David Okum's amateurish art appears. Facial features melt off characters' faces, folds of fabric make no sense, and anatomy overall is painfully bad.

While anime and manga-styled art might not be drawn "to life", the foundations of anatomy and skeletal structure are important, and when there are exaggerations they're made in an informed way. Books like these might be fun and silly, but they can do a tremendous disservice to people who are eager and interested to learn illustration without learning any basic foundations first.

What makes so many anime and manga styled pieces so intriguing is that many artists exaggerate features, expressions, and other characteristics while still staying true to depicting the human form to some extent.

If you're looking for a silly and goofy satire of popular anime and manga culture, this is the book for you. However, if you're looking to actually learn illustrative techniques, this book only serves to boost the author's ego and will not teach anything technical.

This book is really neat, especially if you want to draw stories that have to do with superheroes and villians. The drawings are really cool, and it tells you the common things included in many hero mangas (very helpful if you are looking to make your own manga story).

In this book you learn how to draw the japanese version of comic art manga. one thing i have to say is that this is a bit more of a cartoony version of manga. You still learn a lot of drawing techniques and its still a good book, but whats on the cover is what you learn how to draw. if you would like to draw advanced manga i suggest the complete idiots guide to manga. anyways over good book.

Okum is honestly the worst manga artist I have ever seen. I can't fault that it's informative, but the artwork is beyond amateur; Okum has obviously never even looked professional manga art (or even skilled amateur art) in his life. I think he seriously needs to go back to art school and actually learn something before attempting a stylization he obviously doesn't understand at all, or at the very least, actually take a look at some half-decent manga art. Or even non-manga stylised art.
But the thing that really, HONESTLY peeves me is that fact that he thinks he knows how to write a story. Okum goes so far as to list 'character types', ranging from 'The Hero', 'The Sidekick' and 'The Magical Girl' to 'The Villain', 'The Dragon', and 'The Minion', along with a solid template for a 'Five-Star Team'. All of these cliches are VERY much AVOIDED in anime and manga since about the 80's-early 90's (and even then they were incredibly cheesey). Essentially, Okum's method of story-writing is incredibly destructive of what sets japanese story-telling apart from our western comics, cartoons, etc. Anime and manga is known for being far, far deeper than good vs. evil, often concentrating on the blur between the two, and teaching far less obvious morals than 'the good guys always win', and much, MUCH more complex characterisation.
Basically, it's painfully apparent than Okum has never read a manga or watched a single second of anime in his life. The fact that this book is even published makes me not want to live on this planet anymore...

Enjoyed the layout and material. Feel it would be good for anyone who is tired of the how to books that never get to the point.