Draw Your Own Manga - Honing Your Style

DRAW YOUR OWN

MANGA HONING YOUR STYLE

CONTENTS Interview with Monkey Punch - - - - - - -6 Draw Your Own Manga: Honing Your Style Lesson 1: The Main Genres

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Essential Feature s Schools and Shojo 26 Bishojo and Lolita 32 Boys' Love 34 Girls' Love 36 Ladies and "OL" 38 Family 40 Pets and Animals 42

Sports 46 Martial Arts and Combat Sports 48 Samurai and Ninja 50 Historical 54 Fantasy 56 Sci-fi 60 Horror 64

Lesson 2: Common Situations and Actions Standard Techniques Arriving 70 Leaving 71 Running 72 Walking 73 Chasing 74 Jumping 75 Falling 76 Staircases 77 Sitting 78

Sleeping 80 Embracing 81 Sad 84 Laughing 86 Angry 88 Hostile 92 Fighting 93 Confrontational 95

Example Works by Famous Manga Artists Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu 30 What's Michael? by Makoto Kobayashi 44 Miyamato Musashi by Takeshi Kanda 52 Ah! My Goddess by Kosuke Fujishima 58 The Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow 62 The New Kindaichi Files: Murder at the Hotel Opera by Fumiya Sato 66 The Tale of Genji by Waki Yamato 82 Devilman by Go Nagai 90

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,,l,d tell aspiring manga artists not to bother trying to please a lot of people. If just one person likes your work, just try to please that one person.,,

Monkey Punch (Kazuhiko Kato> Monkey Punch is t he creator of the hugely popular comedy action manga Lupin Sansei ( "Lupin Ill"), w hich has been t ranslated into around a hundred languages worldwide. Lupin Ill's exuberant characters are certainl·f behind t he success of t he delightful TV ani me adaptat ion, which is considered a landmark series in t he history of Japanese animation. The animated movies o f Lupin Ill are popular t he world over, there are plans for a Hollywood live-action movie, and they have also inspired a whole array of stage m usicals and novels. The main character is Lupin Ill. that master of disguise noted for his red suit who is the grandson of Arsen e Lupin, the protagonist of Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Thief series of novels. Lu pin Ill, too, is a gentleman thief w ho avoids unnecessary violence or murder, but w ho is ruthless w hen it comes to destroying unscrupulously rich or cruel enemies. His quick wit somehow mag ically gets him out of the t ightest spots, yet he also occasionally bung les things hilariou>ly. The rest of his gang includes Fuj iko Mine, the charmingly enigmatic woman w ho regularly betrays him; Daisuke Jigen, the sharpshooter who takes aim f rom beneath the low brim of his hat; and Goemon Ishikawa, the master swordsman whose sword, Zantetsuken, is capable of cutting through anything from a huge rock to t h e w ing of an airplane. Finally there is Inspector Zenigata, who is always close on t he heels of Lupin and his gang as they get up to m ischief. Each episode, these f ive characters get caught up in a t hrilling, humorous, and unpredictable new story. Draw Your Own Manga interviewed Monkey Punch, whose real name is Kazuhiko Kato, in amongst t he computers in his studio. He is also a well-known pioneer in the use of computer graphics in manga, a field that he is still actively researching. In addition to his current work on a manga series of t he Arabian Nights, he is a professor at Otemae University where he teaches students how to draw manga, and president of t he Digital Manga Association.

Many young girls and boys dream of becoming a manga artist, but you succeeded in making that dream come true. How old were you when you began to have that dream yourself? Most manga artists of my generation-! can 'I say all, but at least haK-worshipped a particular manga artist and through them got hooked. In my case, I was really into Osamu Tezuka. ShOtaro lshinomori, Fujio Akatsuka, and the late Fujiko F. Fujio were all into his work, too. I get the feeling

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I that just about any manga artist initially gets into manga through being a tan of one particular artist.

You mean that right from when you were very small you used to buy manga and copy them yourself? Yes, of course I did! I grew up during WW2, so what I could get hold of at that time were things tike NoraJO~~~~ and usually some large organization or army is involved. You can add atmosphere with dist nctive co:stulmt1,f7-~i-~ designs.

The setting You can make the setting completely different from the present, just a little in the future, or even similar to the present but wi~h futuristic science and technology. The setting is the key to making your story interesting!

Special effects Imagine what the future will be like, and then try drawing your ideas.

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HORROR Manga that centers on beings not of our world, such as scary stories about the ghost of someone who died an untimely, possibly violent, death. Some also focus on magic or sorcery, or on ex·orcisirlg demons or evil spirits.

Ghosts don't havo a body as .

suc:h, so they often emerge the flc>or or walls. always have a

appearance.

You can enhance the S