MAN-KEN manga

[Bobbie Sellers]

MAN-KEN. Manga (Manga Research Club)
マンけん。; 漫研; Manken.

Released: Author & Artist Genre(s):
2011 Katou Daiki Comedy, School Life, Seinen
Read Man-ken. Manga Online
Higasa Sachi draws manga, but keeps it hidden from her classmates and
acts like a model student. Alice Toyozaki is openly otaku, draws manga
in class, and is bullied by her classmates. One day Sachi stands up for
Alice and is consequently invited to the manga research club.

The above is copied from MangaFox where only the first 4 chapters of
this High School version of Genshiken is to be found.
But today I found a larger selection of chapters at
<http://mangafox.me/manga/man_ken>

The central character is an aspiring mangaka but seems
to have a bad attitude toward the potential readers. She reads the
club magazine and is greatly impressed by the work of at least one
anonymous author/artist and decides to stay with the club which
she finds full of objectionable otaku, cosplayes, game players and
the like. Oh and the club is organized by a objectionable red-haired
girl with political clout through her father.
Now i thought I had posted about Manken already on the
ram Usenet newsgroup but I could not find that post today so went
ahead and did the above.

I recommend Man-Ken very highly.

bliss

[Bobbie Sellers]

I was teased with a long list of chapters but they really only go to
Chapter 5. Still Man-ken is highly recommended. Read it where ever you
can find it. I hope it gets licensed for North American release.
bliss

[Kenneth M. Lin]

"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:km6qpf$oti$1...@dont-email.me...

------------------------

This feels like a déjà vu and I swear that you have mentioned this manga
before.

By the time you reached high school in Japan, if you are not planning on an
academic track, the teachers wouldn't nag you to study and you can pursue
whatever you want, including holding a menial job for the rest of your life.
This frees you up to draw manga and enter competitions in order to be
discovered.

Despite having so many manga magazines, this is a very competitive field and
very few people can actually make a living at it. If you are lucky, you can
have a decent career as an assistant and I have seen profile of individuals
who are experts on applying zip-a-tones.

Fujiko Fujio A (yes, there were two guys sharing a pen name, the other guy
is Fujiko F Fujio) has a semi-autobiographical manga called Manga-Do
depicting his early career. At one point two of them were renting a room
that's the size of two tatami mats and they had to live and work within
until the great Tezuka Osamu loaned them money to take over his old
apartment.

I also recommend Bakuman, about two boys trying to become professional.
One's uncle was an one-hit wonder that provided them with a lot of
inspiration (and left them with a studio).

[Bobbie Sellers]

On 05/05/2013 09:06 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:
>
>
> "Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:km6qpf$oti$1...@dont-email.me...
>
> On 05/05/2013 12:09 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
>> MAN-KEN. Manga (Manga Research Club)

Snipped

>> The central character is an aspiring mangaka but seems
>> to have a bad attitude toward the potential readers. She reads the

>> club magazial clout through her father.

>> Now i thought I had posted about Manken already on the
>> ram Usenet newsgroup but I could not find that post today so went
>> ahead and did the above.
>>
>> I recommend Man-Ken very highly.
>>
>> bliss
>
> I was teased with a long list of chapters but they really only go to
> Chapter 5. Still Man-ken is highly recommended. Read it where ever you
> can find it. I hope it gets licensed for North American release.
> bliss
>
> ------------------------
>
> This feels like a déjà vu and I swear that you have mentioned this manga
> before.

I would have so sworn but I could not find it to make a followup post
so I concluded I was mistaken. If the readers of ram
find it too confusing I am sorry.

>
> By the time you reached high school in Japan, if you are not planning on
> an academic track, the teachers wouldn't nag you to study and you can
> pursue whatever you want, including holding a menial job for the rest of
> your life. This frees you up to draw manga and enter competitions in
> order to be discovered.
>
> Despite having so many manga magazines, this is a very competitive field
> and very few people can actually make a living at it. If you are lucky,
> you can have a decent career as an assistant and I have seen profile of
> individuals who are experts on applying zip-a-tones.

Well the good ones can earn a living working as assistants at least
even if they aren't able to become great successes.

>
> Fujiko Fujio A (yes, there were two guys sharing a pen name, the other
> guy is Fujiko F Fujio) has a semi-autobiographical manga called Manga-Do
> depicting his early career. At one point two of them were renting a
> room that's the size of two tatami mats and they had to live and work
> within until the great Tezuka Osamu loaned them money to take over his
> old apartment.
>
> I also recommend Bakuman, about two boys trying to become professional.
> One's uncle was an one-hit wonder that provided them with a lot of
> inspiration (and left them with a studio).

I am buying Bakuman but I would prefer to be buying:
G SENJOU HEAVENS DOOR Manga
G Battlefield; G戦場ヘヴンズドア

Released: Author & Artist Genre(s):

2001 Nihonbashi Yoko Drama, Mature, Seinen, Slice Of Life

I suspect that Nihonbashi Yoko is an alias so maybe there is
more than one person at work.
I like stories about mangka and/or otaku who are aspiring successes
like Sasahara aspiring manga editor and Oguia mangaka.
The stories about college age people are better for me than the
ones about HS unless the HS stuff is not particularly sexual as
is it can be so often.
Another one is the Flower of Life manga by Fumi Yoshinaga.
I was lucky enough to find this miniature 4 volume epic of HS
life in the San Francisco Main Public Library, several years back
before the 4th volume was even available. I re-read it from
time to time and one fails to tire of it.

Well I have to hit the sack as i am old and need my rest
despite the possibility of stimulating discussion.

bliss-

[Kenneth M. Lin]

"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:km7cl8$cv0$1...@dont-email.me...

======================

The Western Additional Branch of SF Public Library had a lot of manga if you
can read Japanese. It's quite far from BART stations so I have only visited
the place couple of times but I could spend an entire day there. I think
they had the entire Phoenix saga by Tezuka Osamu and was able to read the
few volumes that I was missing.

If you like your manga translated, Berkeley Public Library appears to have
good collection. (See my Free Comic Book Day post for upcoming events.)

Another interesting recent manga about manga is Mangirl! This is from the
perspective of group of girls who decide to edit a manga magazine.

http://mangirl.jp/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangirl!

The editors are sometimes like the parents to these creators as many begin
to draw professionally while very young. If they find someone with
potential, they'd move them to Tokyo near the publisher to better develop
them. Shonen Jump would often put these new talents to work as assistants
to established artists in order to gain experience.

Kameari has a character that is a shojo manga artist (and a female police
officer during the day) and I gained a lot of insights about female artists.
This particular artist required a lot of hand-holding and was so close to
her male editor that her boyfriend becomes extremely jealous.

Yamada Hanako was very famous for manga about being bullied (based on her
personal experience). She stalked her male editor and eventually committed
suicide. She passed away in 1992 and I am not sure if she's well known in
America...

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E7%94%B0%E8%8A%B1%E5%AD%90_(%E6%BC%AB%E7%94%BB%E5%AE%B6)

Bullying hasn't really been discussed in this country until very recently.
However, in manga this is a very common theme. Recently a fifteen-year-old
girl committed suicide in Saratoga after her classmates/rapists were showing
off the photos they snapped during the incident. Sometimes manga are much
too graphic and realistic for their own good.

There are tons of manga about the creators and editors. One recent one I
read is Henshu-Oh! (King of Editing)

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B7%A8%E9%9B%86%E7%8E%8B

This was a great satire about the entire industry and how office politics
affect the who get published. It's heavy on stereotype and there is one
aging artist who makes his assistants do all the work while he lives off his
past reputation. There's also an EiC that has lost his vision and so on.