Why/how did you start reading Manga?

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
/topic shamelessly stolen from MAL


Until earlier this year I never gave manga much of a chance. Aside from following the Naruto manga weekly, reading half of the DN manga and reading 3 Berserk volumes, I hadn't bothered with it.

What started me getting into it was eBay. I'm a bargain hunter and, after getting bored with the lack of anime bargains, I started checking out the manga section. I picked up Vol. 1-11 of Maison Ikkoku for about £10, Naruto Vol. 1-3 for £5, Vol. 1-6 of Bleach for £11 and Vol. 1-8 of Chobits for £15-18. It was then, when I started reading manga away from my PC screen for the first time, that I started to view manga as more than just the blueprints for anime.

I now own 2x Viz box sets and something like 100 other volumes.
 
I think it was Hellsing that got me reading manga. I loved the TV series, but I wanted more - some one I knew said the manga was way better and it grew from that.

Still don't have that many, maybe 30-40 volumes? Though I can see it expanding a lot in the near future.
 
The transition from buying a copy of Dragon Ball once a week to owning a full blown manga library is a bit fuzzy. The very first DB I saw was a 'hey, that's a japanese comic whaa....?! grab hold of don't let go'- experience, but maybe it's an understandable one as I was going through some tough sheit and was totally exhausted. I've always been a big reader, but at the time I couldn't concentrate on anything at all let alone something literary, so manga was really a heaven sent chance for a bit of escapism from all the worrying. And heck, I realised I really missed reading comics which I hadn't really done in years. Total love addiction from then on.
In all honesty I don't remember what came after DB, it must have been something I picked up from a used bookstore which I haunt on a regular bases. And then comicbook stores for a bigger selection. But if it weren't for the internet I doubt I'd be the happy owner of hundreds of manga today. < dubious laurels :p
 
My first encounter with manga was via Manga Mania magazine, which I actually bought for the anime coverage, in 1994. At the time they were serializing Akira, Dominon, and... something else. The first graphic novel I bought was probably Ranma later that year.
 
I had been introduced to the comic Lenore, so I was browsing my local comic store looking for something new to read. They had a Tokyopop stand, I looked at the artwork in all the series and picked out Priest because it looked unusual and dark.
 
I have been into western comics and anime for years, but never really gave manga much of a thought. For some reason (probably hearing things on the boards) I startred to order a couple of bits with my comics, now I order a fair few each month. Also it is something I can read at lunch time during work without feeling a bit odd like trying to read a comic.
 
I used to read alot of marvel/dc comics. So, I assume it was that which helped me like it; As for finding it, a friend showed me naruto manga (after I had watched most of the anime), and I really liked it. Eventually I tried other series - Mainly fullmetal alchemist and one piece, which got me further into it.
 
When some guy said to me "Read the comics, much better than the cartoons" So I just bought some, and yeah, they were better than the cartoons. Mostly.
 
Well, having seen anime, I was already a fan of the style. While working at my book company job, all it took was one sexy front cover (Battle Vixens vol. 1) and I was hooked.

Bought a good number of manga while I was there, especially Love Hina... Ahhh those were the times.
 
Well,back in the day I used to be into the dragonball series and had heard about the manga being released over here,so i went out and bought the first two volumes and my journey began from there.........^_^;
 
Mainly to see what they were like i guess, while the first manga i read was Fist of the North Star (brother loaned it from the libary and then gave it to me to read along with a manga called Aqua Knight) but the first manga that i actually bought was the Gundam SEED adapation, and that was to see if it was that much different then the anime which i had started watching (answer: not totally, merely shortened it and the art style youths the cast a lot) but after that i started buying more and more manga.
 
The first manga I read was Azumanga Daioh less than a year ago after watching the anime and being intrigued as to how it would work on paper... since then I've worked my way through most of Shirow's work (have loved the anime adaptions of his stuff for many years), Yotsuba and YKK but frankly I still wouldn't say I'm very "into" manga, certainly compared to my love of anime.

Unlike western graphic novels I find the art in manga particularly sparse and not the sort of thing I can spend time appreciating (YKK being a rare exception to this rule, and one of the reasons it's my favourite). I pick the odd volume up when browsing in bookshops but am never all that impressed. I'm not saying by any means that I dislike manga (it would get me killed around here), but it has to be a very special manga to appeal to me.
 
ayase said:
I still wouldn't say I'm very "into" manga, certainly compared to my love of anime.
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I've gone from not caring about manga at all to caring about manga more than anime. I'm currently struggling to watch more than a few episodes in a row, yet I can sit reading manga for hours. It's as if an invisible switch has been pressed in my mind.

The reason is obvious: Most anime adaptations suck in comparison with the source material. The art is usually inconsistent, the animation is usually average due to animation studios being cheap, most adaptations are usually far from 100% faithful and, quite simply, there's just something special about seeing the story as the creator intended.

I regret arguing in the past with others how reading black and white pages is inferior to watching the story with motion and colours. It would be true if the numbers of faithful/great adaptations was higher but, as it stands, I was very wrong to say that.
 
Hmm... I know what you mean Aion, and I usually always prefer novels to their film adaptions - but it might just be that animation is my favourite method of storytelling. I've recently read the novel of Welcome to the NHK so I'm looking forward to seeing what I think of the anime.

The more I think about it though the more I think music plays a big part in my preffering anime over manga. We can all give characters distinctive voices in our heads but few of us I imagine can come up with a soundtrack to go with what we're reading. And when I pick up and look at something like Death Note in manga form the story and characters still seem great but a lot of the atmosphere (created in no small part by the music) I know from the series just doesn't seem to be there...
 
When the music is great it certainly improves the experience. The music in Death Note is so wonderful that it takes the anime a furter step above the manga, but the Death Note anime is one of the few manga>anime exceptions anyway. If Madhouse created every anime and didn't go for their poor filler endings the world would be a better place.

But music can't save an anime that suffers due to needless changes and filler. I mean, the Naruto music is fantastic, the track 'Heavy Violence' always used to make me go tingly during the more epic moments, but that didn't paint over the fact it had inconsistent art and average animation, nor did it make the fillers watchable. The content needs to be good before the music can raise it to another level.

About novels, the few that I've read and seen adaptations of lead me to believe that novels will always be better. Nothing can beat a good imagination and rich detail; not even flashy CG effects and hot actresses. Oddly, what makes novels more appealing to someone with a vivid imagination is the lack of images; the fact that the mind creates the world based on the words. For example, Gankutsuou is my favourite anime but I rate The Count of Monte Cristo far higher - not even my favourite anime could surpass the novel it was based on. :p
 
Started reading manga when I first got into anime, I watched Trigun and loved it so much i went out and started collecting the manga to see how the story differs. Now I collect mangas of my fave anime series, i love it when the two differ especially in series like Air Gear and when the story carries on where the anime falls short like in Genshiken
 
I have always been into comics such as x-men and then when I was in year 10 in high school my friend let me had a look at a volume of Fruits Basket she had which I really enjoyed and I have been reading manga ever since :D
 
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