Manga Publications

Manga claims a share of 3.707 billion USD publication industry in 2007. Manga industry has expanded to other parts of the world with distribution companies license and reprint manga into their native languages.

When a series has been running for a while, the stories are usually collected together and printed in dedicated book-sized volumes, called tankōbon. These volumes use higher-quality paper, and are useful to those who want to catch up with a series so they can follow it in the magazines.

Manga are classified by the age and gender of the target audience. Books and

magazines sold to boys and girls have distinctive cover art and are placed on

different shelves in most bookstores.

Kissaten in Japanese is a coffee shop. Japan also has manga cafes known popularly in Japan as manga kissa. kissa is short of kissaten. At a manga kissa, people take coffee and read manga, sometimes stay overnight there.

There has been an increase in the amount of publications of webmanga and is intended for online viewing. It can be ordered in graphic novel form if available in print.

Manga Magazines

Manga series run for many years if they are successful. Manga magazines usually have many series running concurrently with approximately 20–40 pages to each series per issue. Magazines such as the anime fandom magazine features single chapters within their monthly periodicals. These manga magazines or anthology magazines as they are also known colloquially phone books are usually printed on low-quality newsprint. The number of pages in such magazines can be anywhere from 200 to more than 850.. Manga magazines contain one shot comics and various four-panel Yonkoma, equivalent to comic strips. Manga artists start out with a one-shot manga projects just to try to get their name out. If these are successful and receive good reviews, they will continue to grow into largescale.

Josei (women’s) magazines: CUTIE, Be-Love, Feel Young, Judi, You, Young Rose
Seinen (young mens’) magazines: Afternoon, Big Comic, Big Gold, Big Comic Ikki, Big Comic Original, Big Comic Spirits, Manga Action, Ultra Jump, Young Animal, Young Jump, Young Magazine, Weekly Morning
Shōnen (boys’) magazines: Shonen Ace, Shonen Champion, Shonen Gangan, Shonen Jump, Shonen Magazine – weekly, Shonen Magazine Wonder – monthly, Magazine, SPECIAL – quarterly, Shonen Sunday
Shōjo (girls’) magazinesHana to YumeNakayoshiMargaretShojo ComicRibonCookieCiao

Kodomo (kids’) magazines:CoroCoro Comic

Japanese Language is difficult !

Japanese language has the reputation of being one of the most difficult language to learn. The cumbersome writing system that combines around 2000 Chinese Kanji characterss with native Japanese syllabaries - Hiragana and Katagana, makes the Japanese not so easy to learn for foreigners.

Hiragana and Katakana can be learnt with relatively little effort. Kanji makes the brain twist. Pronunciation is simple and easy to learn. First thing we heard in our Japanese lessons is there is no need to worry about gender and number. That much relaxation Japanese gives !

When comparing with Indo-European language groups, there are number of basic differences. The word order, I mean the placement of verb, subject and object is different in Japanese from European languages. But similar to South Indian language group - Dravidian languages. That may be the secret that my friends from Tamilnadu state in India master Japanese language in a short time and speak like a native people. The style of talking, the expressions, the elongation of certain words and the excitement in discussion (as seen in Television) are almost similar to that of Tamil.