Trinity Bloodis a fiction. Its genre is 'light novel', originally created in Japanese publishing industry, popular in Japan and Korea.
The definition of 'light novel' is; a lightly-read fiction, which is popular among readers of their 10s and 20s, a large proportion of it being conversations and anime-style art works.
This genre of fiction pursues fun more than reality, of which the writer enjoys articulating the creative games, manga, anime-like world. Thus, people can read this kind of fiction with less hesitation and thinking.
Also, light novels have their own specific brands when they are released to market. For instance, seed novel and J-novel are 'light novel' brand names under certain publishing houses.
In marketing point of view, one volume of the series can be a detecting means to figure out how successful it can be. (as light novel usually includes development and conclusion in each volume)
They can be easily made into anime, and games since they have beautiful art works already included in the fiction. In Japan, it was even easier to try this media-mix with light novels, because there were already a lot of novelized animes and games in the market. It is different now that 'light novel' comes before anime/games, whereas before then, it has been the opposite way(anime made into fiction).
Compared to other genres, books are cheaper and lighter(in weight). Also the unique manga characters on the front page allure customers to buy more of those books. In the end, they would spend more money, just to buy the whole series of it.(One series contains over 7 or 8 volumes in average)
Among those popular animes in the West, lots of them were based on 'light novels'.
: Suzumiya Haruhi series, Slayers, Maria-sama ga miteru, Chrome Shelled Regios, Infinite Stratos, Shakugan no Shana, The Familiar of Zero, Trinity blood, Full Metal Panic, Toradora!, etc
<Trinity Blood> Anime Opening Theme
Remember, this anime was made after the 'light novel' <Trinity Blood> was published, not the other way around.
There are rental book shops in Korea, which lend you mangas(including some manga magazines and fiction books) for certain period of time, with certain amount of fee.
The key difference from library would be; there are mostly mangas in the shop. Many of them run DVD rentals at the same time.
Fees and periods are all different in each book shops. There are 4500 rental book shops left in Korea, and they are on their downhill.
This kind of book shops started spreading throughout the country since early 1990s. In every single neighborhood, or apartment complex, there are one or two (competing against each other) rental book shops.
I, myself, have been a big fan of it. Knowing that it is too expensive to buy every beloved mangas for myself, this kind of book shop was the only way I could reach to enjoy manga. My big hobby during middle school was to stop by these shops after school and to scrutinize what kind of new fun mangas there were. If it were not for these places, I would not have been much acknowledged with manga at all.
Many the book rental shops appeared after 1998 IMF crisis broke out in Korea, as they were rather easy to run with small fund. Once there were upto .2 million shops in their heydays. However, after internet cafes('PC bang' is the Korean term) took over the alley of neighborhoods and scanned files of manga started to be released on the internet, they could not keep their business tight.
Many 'pc bang's look like this
In Japan, there are not many manga rental shops as many. Still, there are book rental shops in shades. Also, there are other kinds of shops like 'manga cafes' and 'book-offs'(second-hand stores) much more popular than in Korea.
The relationship between 'HunterxHunter' publishing cycle and 'Dragon Quest' the video game?
What do you think it is?
People say this, although it is a kind of rumor, the Hunter x Hunter creator Yoshihiro Togashi is so obsessed with the video game 'Dragon Quest' that he stops letting out his work to the publisher when a new game is released.
This could be true, half true, or lie. Then again, he has a huge issue with his comics 'Hunter x Hunter', and it is well known to the readers. In 2009, he stopped serializing the manga for 7 months without any further notice. Fans had no idea when he would start producing one of the most popular mangas in the world.
He started getting his work published in Jump magazine since March 3, 1998. This manga has the most unusual publishing style in Japanese manga history. It's called 'Conti Publishing'. Conti is like a draft art with storyboard before he put pen lines on it. So, it is not a properly completed 'manga'. For the last few years(more specifically volume 18-20, Hunter x Hunter is put up on the Japanese best-selling manga magazine in this state.
Conti-publishing
There is no clue why he keeps on pausing his work, or letting out his conti-state art work. This must have been how he got 'Dragon Quest' rumor from the readers and the fans.
This irregular conti publishing have been criticized by many fans and readers, which eventually helped the artist to publish high-quality art work all over again from 2010. The longest discontinued period was one and a half year. Because of this, there is 20 more volume-difference from the other Jump comics One Piece and Naruto, which have started in similar time.
Nevertheless, except 2010, he has published his comics 1 to 2 volumes each year. It is not really slow compared to the other mangas if we look into statistics. Besides, fans do not seem to care too much about its publishing cycle, since its quality as manga and fun factors set off the negative sides of the creator Yoshihiro Togashi.
Webcomic is simply translated to the comics published online.
However, as 'manga' and 'anime' became almost proper nouns and refer to more specific genres, webcomic can be referred to Korean webcomic.
Many people might think that mangas they are mostly familiar with are solely created in Japan, or created by Japan. Those people are wrong, nonetheless. On the internet, Korean webcomic has its own heydays throughout the world.
In Korea, webcomic is not a common term. Instead, people use 'webtoon', as a combination of'web+cartoon'. Webtoon is highly popular in Korea, for several reasons.
Mainly, people create their arts first in print version. That has been the way comic book artists of the world producing their works. Or at least, they may draw their comics with the help of monitor and tablets, but they do not publish it online before they hand it over to the publishers.
The system has been quite different, though, in Korea. Korea has had high-speed internet since early nineties, as the government set up the infrastructure for the broadband in those days. Thanks to that, people became used to enjoy contents with big volumes.
Of course, there has been already a huge comic book industry behind. This manga market had a lot of consumers, who eventually came to settle down on the internet and started enjoying webtoons as well.
There are many online comics in many countries: including the US, France, Korea, and Japan, since the internet has become the most prevalent tools for modern day society. However, where webcomic is popular the most is Korea. In Japan, the idea of webcomic is online version of published manga. In France, the genre of webcomic is confined to a kind of personal diary. The US web comics are mostly 4-cut structure.
Korean webtoons have very different features from the others.
Webtoon artists are hired by the major websites, serializing their comics once or twice a week.
Korean webtoons from a popular portal, 'Naver'
Webtoon is a great make-living means to many Korean manga artists, as there are already too many mangas(manhwa, in Korean term) published out there, and illegal scanned copies of them exist online.
In the big portals' point of view, webtoon is a perfect way to make people to regularly visit their websites.
Besides, google is not such a powerful search engine in Korea, and a lot of Koreans like to read mangas from the bottom of their hearts. People visit major portals like 'Naver' and 'Daum' on a daily basis, and they get to see their favorite webtoons updated everyday. Korea could be the only country which has a number of dramas, musicals, movies, animations, books based on 'webtoons'. For example, there is a popular webtoon called 'The Great Catsby' serialized through 2005-2010. This was made into a musical in Oct 2010.
<The Great Catsby> Webtoon
The musical 'Great Catsby'
Additionally, you can find a variety of webcomics serialized in the websites, like 'Tenmanga', in other countries as well.(They are translated into English)
The biggest difference between published manga and webtoon would be art style.
They are usually very colorful, as it much easier and less limited to put colours, thanks to 100% digital work. Also webtoons are vertically read(because of the mouse scroll), which makes it possible to change reading patterns and art techniques in various ways.(No cuts between scenes, and continuous action scenes)
Webtoon let artists express their own characteristic styles in broad ways, so they could experiment their work even further(surely, it is quite limited in contents way, as it is serialized in large portals) For instance, some artists focus more on plots rather than detailed descriptions, and vice versa.
Here is a popular example of detailed and colourful webcomic.
A few cuts(respectively) from 'Noblesse'(source: Naver Webtoon)
Excerpts from Noblesse Ep.2
Like this, depending on their drawing styles, artists have different publishing cycles. When they get hugely successful, they receive high premiums from the websites, almost to the level of big company monthly pay. However, just like all the other business, it is hard to become one of them after all.
I should say, One Piece is my personal favorite manga ever since I started enjoying animes/mangas.
There have been countless mangas that caught my eyes, but none of them could deter my passion for One Piece.
For some who haven't been touched by Oda-kami(It's otaku term for the creator Oda Eiichiro. Kami means 'God'.) I will tell you some details about One Piece, before talking about Oda Eiichiro.
One Piece is a popular Japanese manga that has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, and still on-going. The number of comic book volumes has now reached 64.
The manga is about Luffy, a 17-year-old boy(current 19), who gains elastic abilities after inadvertently eating a supernatural fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as the One Piece and to become the next Pirate King. (source: Wikipedia)
Luffy(bottom) and his 'Straw Hats' crews
Oda's unique drawing technique and the large scale of its setting based on pirate world help One Piece became a number-one bestselling manga in Jump magazine along with Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk.
In 2011, Shueisha(a company that sells One Piece manga volumes) announced that they sold over 250 million volumes of One Piece manga so far. Volume 60 is the first book to sell over two million copies in its opening week on Japan's oricon book rankings.
One Piece currently ranked as the best-selling series of all time in manga history. It enjoys a very high readership One Piece has received wide critical acclaim from reviewers, primarily for its art, characterization, humor and story.
Oda Eiichiro said the story would go on until over it hits 100th volume. It suggests we readers all have to wait ten more years to see the ending.
He was brought up in the family full of artistic talents. His father was a oil paint artist, and his sister did art as well. This family background carved him as a young kid who liked to show his pictures to others. After entering college, he dropped out in the 1st year, and he mentioned to the comic book readers that any person must not rely too much on the college education.
He debutted in 1992, with his first manga ever published, 'Wanted' After then, he became an assistant artist to Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of famous manga 'Rurouni Kenshin'
Considering his fellow assistants back then and Mr. Watsuki's current works' popularity, he became noticeably successful after he started drawing One Piece.
His drawing style is so unique, that anyone who has seen One Piece can tell which is his drawing style. Especially when he draws extra characters in the back ground, he put a huge effort into drawing each one's face, clothing, etc. He even said he draws every moving features like waves, clouds, smokes, and so on, not letting his assistants do the job.
To talk about his personal life, he got married in 2004 to a beautiful model, Chiaki Inaba, who acted as 'Nami' in the musical version of One Piece. According to the Jump magazine editors, fan letters from girls reduced to half, after his marriage.
Anime is a short term for animation.
Anime refers specifically to animations created in Japan, or created by Japanese artists.
Anime is not manga, nor the other way around.
Manga refers to printed comics, or cartoons in Japan. (In Korean pronunciation, it's called 'manhwa', but I guess 'manga' is more recognized internationally)
In Japan, most mangas are published in serials of manga magazines. That's how they get to be known to public at first. There are several kinds of manga magazines, and among them, the most popular magazine is Weekly Shonen Jumps, which has been circulating since July 2, 1968.
Rather than monthly magazines, weekly periodicals are more selling. For example,
Weekly Shonen Magazine
Weekly Shonen Sunday
Weekly Shonen Champion
Shonen GanGan
etc.. These magazines have had more than 4 million to 6 million circulations per year, during their heydays
Shonen Jump has covered a large number of famous mangas. There are currently twenty-one mangas serialized in the magazine.
The list of those mangas includes:(in alphabetical orders)
Bakuman, Beelzebub, Bleach, Gintama, HunterxHunter, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Naruto, One Piece, Nurarihyon no mago, ... ...
Some of the all time favorites were from here as well:(what I meant by 'all time favorites' can be different in every country)
Dragon Ball, Dr.Slump, City Hunter, Slam Dunk, Yu Yu Bakusho.... after then, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu-Gi-Oh
Okay, now let's get back to Anime, again.
Many popular mangas are made into animes. From those magazines' popularity survey, TV producers and editors prudently pick one. After having agreements with the original manga creator, they start producing.
The key difference of Anime version from printed manga is usually early ending
Anime is mostly created afterthe manga has been made successful. So that makes story progress gap between anime, and that of its manga version. This could eventually change the whole story line(and the ending)of anime, which in turn makes conflicts between anime producers and manga artists sometimes.
Anime's story line usually goes faster than manga, and that's why it could end earlier than its original manga version.
To avoid that, 'original' episodes inserted into the story of TV anime version. They are created so that TV people will once again earn some time to have TV art works done before they get to catch up with the manga's story.
However, these TV 'original' episodes are not favored by the fans of original manga, since they are hurriedly made up, and often do not fit into its plot well.
Anime-tization can seem to be a very good deal for the manga creators. Nonetheless, as they say, if the anime isn't successful, people blame it on manga's quality, whereas if manga gains popularity, people think it's because of the anime.
He is the creater of the most popular comics(a.k.a. manga) in the world, which is known as 'Naruto'. If you are one of those who have great interests in Japanese comicbook industry, you would notice the name at one sight. As Naruto is made into animes, movies, games, and what not, even those who are not interested in animes might recognize him, considering they could have heard the name from their nephews, etc.
Well, I could imagine this could ring a bell to some people, but not to most of the people.
Seishi Kishimoto
He is a manga artist as well, and he is a twin brother of Masashi Kishimoto.
He made a manga called 'O-Parts Hunter'(in Japanese title, '666 Satan'), which had quite some popularity in Japan and South Korea. Although this manga has its own originallity, theme and good quality in drawing techniques, many people focuses on the fact that it is the TWIN brother of the famous artist who created this work.
O-Parts Hunter(aka 666 Satan)
Sadly enough, it was not a good thing for Seishi Kishimoto. One of the things he suffered was a suspected plagiarism, as his drawing style was so similar to that of his twin brother. Naruto was the one which came out first, and it became hugely popular throughout the world. Aspiring manga readers have pointed out some similarities between characters in 'Naruto' and 'O-Parts Hunter' and accused him of copying the work of his brother. This controversy has continued until some people discovered that the artists were actually twins, which might have affected the similarities. As this accusation went on, Masashi Kishimoto, his more famous brother, had to ask the fans to stop calling him 'copy-cat'
This 'O-Parts Hunter' was released from 2001-2007. A year after it ended, he started a new series called 'Blazer Drive' and published until 2011. On the other end, his brother's work 'Naruto' is still on-going.
I assume you already know one or two websites where you can watch episodes of animes.
However, there must be 'newbie' fans as well, who know nothing about how to find what they want. What's the point of being a manga lover if you cannot read or watch the latest episodes of your favorite mangas?
For those of you who want to catch what your friends are talking about Naruto, here is a couple of good websites you could go, find numerous animes, pick one, and enjoy.
Many people might be interested in comics than you would expect. Same for Animes.('Anime' is the abbreviation of animation, usually Japanese ones)
Then, why should people be shunned by the thought of looking 'childish', or 'geek'?(some people may call you 'Otaku', which is a Japanese term for 'maniac, fan') What a horrid stereotype it is! Comics and animes have the same components as any other kinds of movies do. They have their own world, which contains plots, characters, and most importantly, the unlimited imaginations. We can indulge whatever we want. That is where I'm starting from.
-What is this blog about? Animations and comics, for sure. More specifically, Japanese works which my interests lie in.
-Where is this topic related to? I should say that most Animes and comic books I will be posting about have fictional backgrounds based on the real world, even including imaginary world. For the record; This is NOT about Japan.
-Why do I write this blog? I have liked comics, animes, and any side products from these arts since 10 years ago. During the last 10 years, I have gathered knowledge of this area to the extent that one should call me 'Otaku'.(now, that was a joke)
-Who I'm addressing this blog to? For people who are interested in animes, comics as much as, or more than I do.
-For when, my postings will cover the whole era of the Japanese comics industry from the beginning to the present(although it's quite a long story, I will try my best)
-How am I posting these things? I will produce the contents from my own research based on reliable sources. Most of my research will have references.
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