Some more Manga!

Well, as I promised .. I came back to the Manga stuff and will add here some explanations about usual terms about manga. With no more useless talk, here they are, in no particular order

Manga – actually is the Japanese word for comics or cartoons. In the West, its meaning became “comics created by Japanese artists, in Japanese language or created in Japan”.

Mahou – Magical Girl.

Shoujo – can be translated as “girl” in English, but actually refers to manga with a female as main character.

Shounen – refers to a typical boy, aged between elementary school and grad school. The term is used also to refer to the period of time, the youth of a character. Many manga stories that are called “Shounen” are actually battle based, and contain strong friendship relations between characters.

Sentai – the word actually means military team, group or wing [as formation, group]. In manga we ind this word describing a magical team with or without a main character in center. A popular example of sentai is Sailor Moon, in the same time a Shoujo and a Sentai. Actually the main character is a girl, a magical one, surrounded by a team – sentai.

Mecha – used mostly as a science-fiction term, usually describes a form a biped robot, but not necessarily. Something as a mix between a tank and a robot. Used.. as war machines

Chibi – this slang term refers to a small child, or a short person. Could be translated as “little”, but not in the meaning of the size, but more like cute, as young child or small pets are The term gain popularity in Manga after the pet in Sailor Moon series, “Chibiusa”, name derived from Chibi + Usagi. The term can also describe child – version of characters or super-deformed characters, with small bodies and large heads.

Daikaiju – refers to large monsters. Like Godzilla The term is derived from the word “Kaiju” which means monster.

Oni - in Japanese folklore, a type of demonic creature often of giantsize, great strength, and fearful appearance. They are generallyconsidered to be foreign in origin, perhaps introduced into Japanfrom China along with Buddhism. Cruel and malicious, they can,nevertheless, be converted to Buddhism. Though oni have beendepicted in various ways in Japanese legend and art, sometimesalso as women, they are characteristically thought of as pink,red, or blue-grey in colour, with horns, three toes, three fingers,and on occasion with three eyes. In the modern manga it refers to a ogre like creature.

Kirin - The Kirin is a creature from Chinese mythology. It is described in books on folklore as having the body of a Deer, the tail of an Ox, and the hooves of a Horse, with a single horn on it’s head and a pelt of five colours.

 

So.. enough for today! If you want more terms to be explained, shoot them in a comment Next time.. we should start drawing