If you’re new to manga, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. That’s because manga is read in a totally different way than American comics are.
It’s important to know how to read a manga perfectly, as this will help you enjoy the story more thoroughly. So, let’s take a look at how you can start reading manga like a pro!
Panels
When reading a manga, you need to read panels in the correct order. This can be a little tricky to figure out, but it’s actually quite easy once you get the hang of it!
First, you need to know that manga is usually read from right to left. This is because the majority of people in Japan read from right to left, and it’s a way of catering for them, Check out the post right here.
Next, you need to understand that some manga panels can have gutters between them. These gutters are meant to show when an event happened in the past, such as a flashback.
You also need to pay attention to the color of gutters in manga. Sometimes they will be black, and other times they’ll be white. These color changes will tell you if something is happening in the past or in the present.
Word Bubbles
One of the most challenging aspects of manga is reading word bubbles perfectly. It can be a huge pain to figure out how to fit the correct amount of words into a small space, especially when going from one language to another!
If you’re not familiar with how to read word bubbles in a manga, here are a few things to know:
Depending on the language of the comic, word bubbles can be written either left-to-right or right-to-left. If you’re reading a Japanese comic, it’s important to remember that the text is usually written from right to left.
To read word bubbles correctly, always start from the top right corner of the page and move left to read the next panel. This helps to ensure that you don’t miss any important information in the dialogue!
Dialogue Balloons
There are a lot of different kinds of speech balloons used in comics, and it can be hard to know what they mean. Luckily, this tutorial will help you understand what each kind is and when you should use it.
The most common style is a basic oval bubble with a tail that points toward the character’s mouth or area of speech. It can be used for normal character speech in both manga and comic books, but it’s also a good option for negative or emotional dialogue.
Another type is a wavy-looking bubble that may be used to represent weakened or sickly-sounding speech. It can be made wavy by outlining the balloon or it could just be the tail that is wavy, depending on the artist’s needs.
When drawing comics, it’s important to stick to a consistent style for your caption boxes (the rectangular boxes that contain narration, dialogue, and text). Captions in general should always look the same and be the same size across the entire comic.
Pages
Manga is a popular genre of comic book or graphic novel that originated in Japan and has been adopted by audiences around the world. Its content features characters and stories that appeal to people of all ages and interests, including young adults in the United States and Canada.
Compared to traditional American comics, manga uses a different reading format. While reading a manga, readers should begin on the right side of the page and move to the left as they read each panel.
This may seem confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, manga reading becomes a breeze.
Conclusion:
Before beginning a new chapter, make sure you are reading the correct way by laying down the manga magazine on a table with its spine positioned on the right and leaf ends on the left. This is called reading manga “backwards.”