Why is manga formatted to be read right to left?
Japanese writing are originally vertical. Top to bottom, then line break is from right to left.when we begun interacting with West, this format become a problem if we are doing science, math, engineering etc. So any Japanese technical writing are the same as Western writing format.So currently, any novel, newspaper, legal code are use vertical format while technical writing use Western format.(this has now changed considerably due to the influence of webpage which follow horizonal writing format.So the reason manga use vertical writing is because it is not technical but is a literally writing.Another reason it's that vertical writing is more convenient as manga are drawn in A4 paper. You might notice that most comic panel drawn on A4 paper have shape which are longer in length than width. Vertical writing fit that panel shape
Why does this Inuyasha manga read left to right?
Apparantly, most of the people posting above me have a problem identifying which is the left side and which is the right side. You are right to say that authentic Japanese manga is written from Top Right to Bottom Left. This is so since the Japanese language is written just the same, from right to left, top to bottom. The reason that your link to the 1st episode of the InuYasha manga is written from Left to Right is because those scans came from the English Translated Version produced by the American company, VIZ Media for an American audience. VIZ Media is responsible for translating a number of various Japanese mangas, in addition to also heading up projects to dub TV anime episodes, such as Inuyasha, into the English language. Right now, I am around chapter 472 of the manga, also reading it from onemanga.com, and I can tell you this, for a while now I've been having to read it from Right to Left, as is the standard for Japanese manga.
How to read MAnga?
you read right to left and start with the top right box up and down varies, if for example you got 2 boxes on the right horizontal to each other and there's a big one next to them on the left side with the height of the 2 small boxes combined then u read the 2 little ones and go on to the big one.
Why is manga drawn right to left?
In japanease people write from left to right maybe
What can American comics learn from manga?
Attention to detail.Manga’s are drawn with great detail whether it is characters, background or effects. When you open a manga and start reading it you will be mind blown by how amazingly detailed every page is, so much that you wouldn’t care if it’s colored or not. On the other hand comics are drawn with as little detail as possible and don’t look to appealing and they would look even worse in black and white which is why all of them are colored.For comparison here is a black and white and colored comic panel:And here is a black and white and colored manga panel:You can see how much of a difference details can make. If comic artists decided to follow manga’s example then comics would look even more interesting.
How do I read manga?
The same top-to-bottom way you'd read a western comic, only moving from right-to-left instead of left-to-right. So, the first caption or word balloon will be closest to the top right of the furthest right panel and your reading order progresses down and left from there. At the end of each panel row you start the next from the furthest right panel progressing left.Be aware though that it's only in the last decade or so that English translations of manga have preserved this right-to-left reading order - editions from the 80s and 90s used to be 'flipped', artwork and all, for left-to-right reading order. Some of these are still available, like the Dark Horse 'Akira' paperbacks, or even the contemporary Drawn & Quarterly editons of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's gekiga works ('Abandon the Old in Tokyo', etc.) You can obviously tell which reading order the publisher's opted for by seeing where they've placed the front cover - if the spine's on the left (when the book is shut) the manga has been flipped to be read left-to-right, and if the spine's to the right it's printed in the proper reading order. But this can be confusing when reading a digital edition where's no spine to clue you in - especially in those manga that open with a string of silent panels. Presumably this is why DC have resorted to numbering panels by order in the first few pages of all of their Jiro Kuwata 'Batmanga' releases.
How do you read a manga?
Most manga are typically read from right to left, with the book being opened like you are opening a western book backwards. If you are just reading online, though, this is how it works: 1. Start at the top right side of the page and read the panel(s) there. 2. Progress leftward across the page, then go to the next panel at the right edge of the same page (assuming there are many panels on the page) and read those. Pages are roughly divided into thirds (I say roughly because there are many different sizes of panels and they can be in odd shapes and angles), so if you break it up like that, or whatever seems right, while reading right to left, you should get it down pretty quickly. There is another type of manga called 4-koma, which means 4 panel. These are read right to left as well, but can differ slightly from their "traditional" manga counterparts. 4-koma manga pages have four or eight equal panels, which you read simply left to right in the case of four panels, but with eight panels, you read the right column of panels first, then the left column. Examples of 4-koma manga include "Lucky Star", "Azumanga Daioh", and "K-ON!". Also, there's not really any special preparation you have to go through to get into anime and manga. It sort of just happens. Before you know it, it'll be hard to see shows without subtitles (unless of course you know Japanese), you'll be obsessed with countless fandoms, and you'll be surrounded by one of the friendliest groups of people in the world, both online and off, among many other great things. One second you're "normal" then, *BOOM*, you're an otaku. Just roll with it :).
Why are manga read from right to left? How does this affect reading them?
They're read that way because Japanese writing (kanji) is read right to left. It's the natural way that writing flows for a native Japanese reader. So the panels follow suit, and the pages, and eventually the whole book.Often when these are translated into English, the publisher uses image editing software to flip the pages around so they flow left to right. This can lead to some minor changes in the art- noticeably, most of the cast becomes left handed- and sometimes images have to be shifted from one page to the next. This usually doesn't matter, but in some cases it has led to conflicts with the manga creator.In the English version of Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura published by Dark Horse Comics, Samura stipulated that none of the panels showing swordplay should be mirror images- there are no left-handed swordsmen in the manga. This has meant that Samura has had to painstakingly re-draw panels that can't be manipulated with software, leading to a very slow release schedule of this particular manga.Many English language publishers now retain the right-to-left format of the original works when translating.
Why are manga books written backwards? What else is written like that in Japan?
For a Japanese person, manga books aren’t written backwards.Japanese language is traditionally written from top to bottom and right to left because ancient Japanese written system was imported from the Chinese one and, well, that’s basically how Chinese people used to write. Actually it’s also the case for written Korean.Here is a page of the Kojiki (古事記), the oldest Japanese history book (source):As showed by the arrows, you read it from top to bottom and from right to left.In Japanese vertical writing is called tategaki (縦書き). Vertical writing is always right to left therefor there is no mistake to be made.However, yokogaki (横書き) or horizontal writing, is a little bit tricky (but not that much). Historically, Japanese was written vertically and horizontal writing was only used where a sign had to fit in a constrained space, for exemple a temple or a gate (see picture bellow).One shall not read 『 薩菩大蓮日着旅 』 but 『 旅着日蓮大菩薩 』 from right to left.This is because horizontal writing actually isn’t really one: it’s a special case of vertical writing in which each column contains just one character (see the small characters on the far left are indeed written in columns).The right to left writing system was the norm until the end of World War II. Manga, books, newspapers and mostly everything was using tategaki. Sometime, you could find both but always reading from right to left, like this advertising from 1939 (source):The post-war reforms made the horizontal writing a left-to-right system, probably due to the influence of English during the occupation and also probably because modern typesetting technologies (computer and word processing softwares) were solely available with left-to-right system.The left-to-right system is now the norm and everybody write this way.However, manga, newspaper and books are (almost always) written pre-war style:Magazines are a bit tricky: some open like western’s one, some open backwards, some are written in tategaki and some in yokogaki and some in both. Modern advertising use both system as well.The only rules are tategaki should be written from right to left and yokogaki from left to right.If you ever find a yokogaki which reads from right to left, it’s either pre-war (as seen above), either the writer wanted to make it old-school for whatever reason.Hope this helps! Let me know if you want more informations :-)
What is The Furry Triangle (TFT) in manga?
I'm reading this manga Vagabond and at the beginning of each chapter they have this weird picture with The Furry Triangle TFT in the top left corner and "We love beavers" in the bottom right corner. I can't find any info on google about it. So who are they and what does it mean.