So You Want to Draw Manga Style?

If you’re here to learn how to draw or improve your drawing skills – you’ve come to the right place! Almost everything you need to know will be posted here from basic shading to publishing your work. Of course, how far you get will all depend on you!

Today I'm starting a series of lessons to manga/anime drawing

A few things you should know about this place first…

1. The tutorials here are meant to help you draw your own original work. There are no how-to’s on specific characters. No how-to-draw Sailor Moon, no Kenshin, no Dragon Ball Z, none! Don’t bother emailing me about it either – I’ll tell you the same thing, and you’ll just be wasting my time and yours.

 here is a brief guide to some of the more popular terms and styles of Manga:

SHOUNEN — Boy’s manga, usually action/adventure, are aimed at boys 8-18 years old. It is by far the most popular style, and is usually characterized by big battle scenes. Manga such as Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!,Bleach, and Naruto fall into this category.

SHOUJO — Girls’ manga are usually story-driven, less action-oriented, and romantic. The second most popular format of manga, it is rapidly becoming a very major part of American manga sales. Titles such asSkip Beat, Nana, and Vampire Knight are among the most popular titles. Shoujo style manga is usually geared toward female readers ages 12-18.

SEINEN — Seinen manga are series aimed at male readers ages 18-30. While a variation on the Shounen style comics, Seinen series contain more graphic violence and adult situations. AKIRA and  is a very good example of Seinen manga.

JOSEI — Womens comics aimed at young working women and housewives from ages 21-30. The Manga equivalent of Soap Opera’s. Nodame Cantible is one such example from this genre.

HENTAI — Literally “pervert” manga. Hentai refers to pornographic comics and cartoons. Think any X-rated movie.

JIDAIGEKI — Historical manga, usually action-packed, and battle-oriented. Lone Wolf and Cub, and Rurouni Kenshin are some Jidaigeki.

MECHA — Mecha manga refers to the “Giant Robot” stories such as Gundam, Voltron, and Big O. They are usually action-oriented with big fights, lots of explosions, and tend to have some kind of “save the world” angle.

BISHOUJO — A very popular manga style, full of cute girls and/or funny animals. Series that fall under this category are Hamtaro, and Hello Kitty.

BISHONEN — “Beautiful boy” stories — aimed at teenage girls, and featuring very pretty, almost effeminate looking heroes. Series that fall into this category include Peach Girl, and X/1999 by CLAMP.

A few subcategories of the above types are:

SHOUJO-AI — Literally means “girl’s love” and covers female-female relationships, usually on a romantical level (aka Yuri).

SHONEN-AI — Literally means “boy’s love”, with story covering male-male relationships, usually on a romantical level (aka Yaoi).

KODOMO — children’s manga, aimed at 6-10 year olds, an offshoot of Bishoujo, shounen, or shoujo styles. Kodomo manga include Pokemon and Digimon.

There are a lot more subcategories under each section such as harem, sports, cooking, and magical girls but the main ones are listed above. For more terms, visit Wikipedia or read one of the many books that talk about manga such as Frederik Schodt’s Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan.