I was recently visiting Shades of Grey Manga (check blogroll), where I saw a recent post by Yerocha, the author of the blog, which he had picked up from Organisation Anti-Social Geniuses (another great blog) about how he got into manga. I know that currently there are a few of these posts being put out by fellow anibloggers such as the “My Top 10/20 Anime” and more recently “My Ideal Anime Cast” both of which I would also like to and will write eventually but the story of me getting into manga is shorter, though it may seem boring.
Bear with me on this one.
Much like Yerocha, my story starts off with some first anime experiences. Having grown up outside of North America and Europe (just about) I wasn’t able to watch Cartoon Network for the anime – I had access it but the time difference wasn’t particularly accommodating – so I never got to watch Dragon Ball Z or Yu Yu Hakusho, two anime that have made their way onto quite a few peoples watch lists.
Even by being deprived of these two, I was lucky enough to encounter dubbed versions (not English if I may add) of Sailor Moon and Slam Dunk on TV. Granted I don’t remember anything from these series and it wasn’t until I found Cardcaptor Sakura on TV that I remembered anything anime/manga related from my childhood. Cut to my last few years of boarding school in England, and a friend of mine introduces me to Naruto, the series that I consider to be my “gateway drug” into anime and later on manga.
Naruto was a series I ended up marathoning quite severely and after about 6 months I had devoured my way through over 300 episodes of the series and was stuck waiting on a week by week basis for the next episodes. I don’t remember how long my patience held up for, maybe weeks or a few months, but at one point during the winter holidays of my penultimate year of school I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer and ended up finding the manga online.
That’s pretty much the gist of how I got into manga and to this day it stands as the most uninspired and boring story. As you can guess after having caught up with the Naruto manga, I found myself out of things to read/watch and that’s when I got recommended to get into Bleach (the story goes the same) and eventually One Piece. So up until the last year of my school life, I had only read shonen manga that were adapted into long running anime, but around the same time I noticed that Mangastream, whose website was one of the first ones I ever used to read manga online, were scanlating other series which got me interested.
Eventually I’d find myself reading a slew of manga, regardless of whether they had been animated or not via 2 central influences:
- The scanlation groups
- The publications which they ran in
When I finally got into reading more and more manga, I found it easier to discover and most of the time read weekly the manga being scanlated by groups which were handling my favourite series; Red Hawk is a good example, and not too long ago it was on their site that I discovered Gin no Saji and after various visits gave into reading Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai. Eventually, I’d just start reading whatever ran in Shonen Jump.
I know I’m lacking some variety from the demographic point of view so starting from last year I got into a few seinen/shojo/josei manga like Kimi ni Todoke, Jormungand and most recently 3gatsu no Lion, and I intend to expend my reading list even further in variety.
And that’s my history with manga as of 21/05/2012
14 comments
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John Sato
May 21, 2012 at 2:04 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hmm, I can definitely understand that burning desire for more. I've felt that many a time…
Cool post. Though you say it's a boring story, sometimes it's the mundane stories that turn out to be the most engaging. At least, I certainly was. And I'm glad to see you're doing some blogging projects! I look forward to your other contributions when you make them.
azeriraz
May 22, 2012 at 1:43 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks, I'll try to make them as entertaining as possible
Justin
May 21, 2012 at 10:48 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
There is never such a thing as a boring story when it comes to how you got into manga
Of course, what type of manga you are reading is another issue, and where you read it is also one as well. Go expand those horizons! (I think
)
azeriraz
May 22, 2012 at 1:34 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Yeah, I think I've been stuck in somewhat of a shonen bubble….. but I've started reading a few shojo/josei/seinen pieces and so far they've been harder to get into but just as enjoyable.
Yerocha
May 22, 2012 at 6:42 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I think a lot of people started out through the big three. Whether it's anime or manga, they haave some of the strongest appeal among newer fans, and it's only natural for fans of one version to gravitate to the other given enough time between updates.
Interesting story, and thanks a lot for the mention.
azeriraz
May 22, 2012 at 11:08 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
No problem, your story was also very interesting.
Kai
May 26, 2012 at 9:31 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
And I may be one of the few rarer types who didn't even start with the Big Three. I'm…. special! …..not.
Tails
June 11, 2012 at 10:38 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I also started solely with shonen manga but claymore led to berserk led to gantz etc.
It feels good to branch out and try other genres, and frankly there are better series in some. Shonen always seems to get repetitive due to the sheer number of series. Thats why i think naruto and one piece are doing so well its cause no 1 will copy them lol.
Im a huge shonen fan still, i try to keep up to all ne releases manga or anime lol. As it stands i believe i am only reading about 4 seinen manga and 15+ shonen.
Seinen- berseks,desert punk,intial d, gants
Top 3 shonen- HxH, getbackers, air gear
But as previous posters stayed its the normal stories that have most meaning because most of s didnt have that omfg epiphany of maaaannggaaa.
azeriraz
June 11, 2012 at 10:48 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I did find Claymore did a good job with getting me to branch out into other seinen manga and Shingeki no Kyojin as well. Both of those are good transitional manga since they focus less on being eye candy and more on the darker story, in fact it's because of them I've recently started Vinland Saga.
Hunter x Hunter is definitely near the top of my favourite shonen list but because of various arcs with terrible art it did lessen it's true value as a manga.
Tails
June 12, 2012 at 1:11 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I couldnt get into vinland saga myself, stopped after 10 or so chapters.
Shingeki no Kyojin is the series i am most hyped about right now, if only it would come out quicker lol, makes me wish i could read jap.
azeriraz
June 12, 2012 at 2:20 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
It's up to date but it comes out slowly because it's a monthly manga. It is great though and I do wish it was a weekly manga
adamevea
December 29, 2012 at 6:20 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Az, i am very happy to have found you ..digging thru the mountains of babble a few clear voices appear. you are one of them and i will be along for the ride now. thanks for taking the time you did to form your understanding and personal vision, for you now have intelligent things to say and you both listen and share. you were lucky to be protected from over exposure early i think, and your path in was a decent one, both Naruto and Bleach and the others are an ok ladder in. looking forward to many future spirited discussions. In the new year we have some fun returns and maybe some promising new ones.
azeriraz
December 29, 2012 at 9:00 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
You're making me blush. Thank's for the words of encouragement!
adamevea
December 29, 2012 at 10:06 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
You are good, It will be a pleasure to have you to talk with about the new releases and to discuss the series we all watch and enjoy.—