the attraction of manga part three

 So this is a continuation of a further look at asian dramas that were once animes that were once mangas.  Manga is the japanese term used for comics or comic books.  My daughter who had trouble expressing herself and her emotions could point at a picture in one of these books to describe how she was feeling.  She also used these books to figure out expressions to determine how others were feeling.  I was glad that she had discovered a way around her challenges with asperger's syndrome and encouraged this activity to help her "see"  what happiness looked like, what sadness looked like, what anger looked like.  In our journey together, I started to enjoy certain manga series and became hooked on them, so to speak.  The artwork alone made the trip worthwhile.  The storyline, the characters, their reactions to events taking place seemed quite real.  Thus the old adage a picture says a thousand words seemed to be the byline of these manga series we read.

Shoujo manga targets the female crowd, The story centers around romance and love, and is closely tied with drama. Here are a few I have enjoyed...

Aishiteruze Baby: story of an abandoned little girl who comes to live with her aunt and uncle, the impact she has on them, especially on their teenage son who changes for the better as he grows to love his little cousin. This one also became a short anime.

Anatolia Story, also known as Red River: an account of a young girl's falling thru a puddle and finding herself in Mesopotamia.... eventuallly becoming the king's wife.

Boys over Flowers: Premise: Poor girl on scholarship attends a rich prep highschool and is forced to take on the reigning bullies of the school. this became a drama.

DN Angel: a story of a family of thieves who steal with the help of Dark, objects that are not to fall in their foes' hands. This also was an anime.

Fruits Basket: a story of a cursed well to do Japanese family and how their lives change when a total stranger enters with the magic of being herself.

Goong: the premise is what would happen if Korea still had a royal family... this actually became a musical in Korea, as well as a drama.

Hana Kimi: A girl enters an all boys' highschool to help the one she has a crush on return to high jumping.

Kimi Ni Todoke: A very misunderstood girl who is an outcast is befriended by a boy and becomes accepted by her classmates, finally.....this was turned into an anime

Skip beat: A girl follows her childhood sweetheart to the big city of Tokyo and gets left behind as he becomes a pop star. She then vows revenge and becomes an actress.

Shounen manga primarily targets the male population. The story usually centers around fightiing and action, tied to the martial arts, adventure and action genres.

Bakuman: This is a story of two would be Mangakas(writers/artists of Manga) and the trials they go thru.

Bleach and Naruto fall into this genre, and have been explained before in part two.

Cross Game: A story of a boy who plays baseball, and his struggle to overcome his grief of losing his childhood sweetheart.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the revolution: Story of intrigue, betrayal and family disloyality as one of their own attempts an overthrow of the current regime... became an anime. has an underlying lesson about war and why people choose to fight.

Luck Stealer: A man has the abiltiy to steal others' luck by just touching them, making him a powerful assasin for hire. His motivation to given the luck he steals to his daughter who had no luck at all and would die without his gift.

Saiyuki and Trigun fall into this genre... both older mangas that became animes.

There are other catagories of manga. Based on its content, the target audiences of Japan pretty much know what to expect.

This author wants to state for the record that I am a novice of all this information. I only included those mangas that I have read and liked. I would welcome any recommendations anyone would offer.

There has been much said of late that this genre should be banned from the USA as something that would corrupt our youth. As I have stated before, any form of entertainment can be made to be obscene or pornographic. Parents should be involved with what their kids are reading. The thing is, as it happened with me, the adults might learn something of value... and maybe, just maybe, understand their kids a little more.

and so this may be novice's way of ending a story..... but i hope you will check out some of these stories and let me know what you think of them. btw, this is simply my likes, i will not be recieving any money for others efforts and achievements... just for the record.