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How NOT To Draw Manga Pocket Manga Edition
Any book can show you "How to" -- this book shows you how NOT to do. Join the only tongue-in-cheek instructional guide you will ever need to Anime Bimbos, Loners with Huge Swords and Big, Gad-dumb Robots.
- GenresManga
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2007
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9 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 18, 2009
As with many forms of popular entertainment, manga is not without its share of formulaic, stilted examples of its genre. In Chris Reid and John Kantz's How Not To Draw Manga, no stereotype is left unskewered as the entire genre is exposed to satiric, parodic prodding and critiquing.
Sadly, that promising venture is given such an unorthodox treatment that it, in aiming for a PG-13 audience, manages to land somewhere in uninhabited territory.
The subject matter delivers many punches "below the belt," but seems to apologize for such snipes with much milder fare. That is to say, the book wants clearly to be risque, but succeeds merely in being juvenile, with a "kid's level" obscenity range - at an age when the potential reader would be comfortable with the breast-and-panties humour, they've already outgrown much of the rest of the book.
Too, the primary hosts (or, to coin a phrase, "graphic narrators") of the book - renamed avatars representing the actual artists and authors of the book - are neither as endearing or cute so much as they are creepy and uni-dimensional. They wallop the readers with their blatent criticisms, making little attempt to hide their observations through satire, which seems to serve as a certain judgement against the perceived intellect of their readers.
The art style itself is decidedly loose and flowing, giving the book itself the appearance of being a couple of generations away from a finished work. The drawings look "sketchy" and incomplete, which may well have been the intended effect. When combined with the sophmoric content, though, it actually works against the book as a whole.
Finally, while there are plenty of genuinely funny bits presented in this book, there certainly were not enough to merit an entire 191-page digest. It seems that the authors were well aware of this complication, as well, with the inclusion of a gratuitous number of fan-service (also known as "cheesecake") pin-up type pages featuring various female forms in costume, or just methods to display panty-shots. At one point, there is an apropos-of-nothing sequence based on the graphic narrators visiting a pet store for the procurement of livestock intended for ingestion (they end up eating a parrot - sorry for having spoiled the surprise). Perhaps the condensed material would have been best presented in a basic 32-page comic book?
(How Not To Draw Manga was a book I had been looking forward to reading for quite some time, as the idea and originality behind the concept appealed to me upon sight. I mention this in fairness to the material and to the artists and writers, who may not be entirely responsible for the disappointment the book proved to be. It is entirely possible that I went into the book with unrealistically high expectations... or, at worst, I am amongst the "anyone without a sense of humor" posse shunned in the blurb on the back cover.)
Sadly, that promising venture is given such an unorthodox treatment that it, in aiming for a PG-13 audience, manages to land somewhere in uninhabited territory.
The subject matter delivers many punches "below the belt," but seems to apologize for such snipes with much milder fare. That is to say, the book wants clearly to be risque, but succeeds merely in being juvenile, with a "kid's level" obscenity range - at an age when the potential reader would be comfortable with the breast-and-panties humour, they've already outgrown much of the rest of the book.
Too, the primary hosts (or, to coin a phrase, "graphic narrators") of the book - renamed avatars representing the actual artists and authors of the book - are neither as endearing or cute so much as they are creepy and uni-dimensional. They wallop the readers with their blatent criticisms, making little attempt to hide their observations through satire, which seems to serve as a certain judgement against the perceived intellect of their readers.
The art style itself is decidedly loose and flowing, giving the book itself the appearance of being a couple of generations away from a finished work. The drawings look "sketchy" and incomplete, which may well have been the intended effect. When combined with the sophmoric content, though, it actually works against the book as a whole.
Finally, while there are plenty of genuinely funny bits presented in this book, there certainly were not enough to merit an entire 191-page digest. It seems that the authors were well aware of this complication, as well, with the inclusion of a gratuitous number of fan-service (also known as "cheesecake") pin-up type pages featuring various female forms in costume, or just methods to display panty-shots. At one point, there is an apropos-of-nothing sequence based on the graphic narrators visiting a pet store for the procurement of livestock intended for ingestion (they end up eating a parrot - sorry for having spoiled the surprise). Perhaps the condensed material would have been best presented in a basic 32-page comic book?
(How Not To Draw Manga was a book I had been looking forward to reading for quite some time, as the idea and originality behind the concept appealed to me upon sight. I mention this in fairness to the material and to the artists and writers, who may not be entirely responsible for the disappointment the book proved to be. It is entirely possible that I went into the book with unrealistically high expectations... or, at worst, I am amongst the "anyone without a sense of humor" posse shunned in the blurb on the back cover.)
October 29, 2010
Now I don't draw at all, but when I heard about this book I just had to get it. I figured that at the very least I'd get a few laughs out of it & pass it along to my manga drawing friends. Years later it's still very much in my possession & I still pull it out to laugh at the very true stereotypes & clichés it portrays.
This book is part manual & part manga. The general layout of the book is a manga telling you how not to avoid the clichés (or rather, how to spot them). The book gives us six characters that are the basis for just about every manga character out there. (No really, it's actually true.) You have the boy adventurer (think Ash from Pokemon), the average everyman (think Tenchi), the brooding villain/anti-hero (think Hellsing), the girl next door (there's one in each manga, take your pick), the sweet little sister type (think Sasami from Tenchi), as well as the sexy older woman/occasional villain type (think Ryoko from TM). The book goes over the various clichés in plot as well as clothing- most of the big clichés are all there!
Even if you aren't an artist you'll still get a kick out of reading this, especially if you are more than a little fed up with the overly clichéd mangas & characters out there. This isn't the deepest reading out there & most will finish it in about a half hour's time, but its well worth the price. It makes for an excellent reference guide, especially if you want to get into manga- or even "regular" comics or webcomics. There's a lot of clichés you don't want to fall into using! Totally worth it.
This book is part manual & part manga. The general layout of the book is a manga telling you how not to avoid the clichés (or rather, how to spot them). The book gives us six characters that are the basis for just about every manga character out there. (No really, it's actually true.) You have the boy adventurer (think Ash from Pokemon), the average everyman (think Tenchi), the brooding villain/anti-hero (think Hellsing), the girl next door (there's one in each manga, take your pick), the sweet little sister type (think Sasami from Tenchi), as well as the sexy older woman/occasional villain type (think Ryoko from TM). The book goes over the various clichés in plot as well as clothing- most of the big clichés are all there!
Even if you aren't an artist you'll still get a kick out of reading this, especially if you are more than a little fed up with the overly clichéd mangas & characters out there. This isn't the deepest reading out there & most will finish it in about a half hour's time, but its well worth the price. It makes for an excellent reference guide, especially if you want to get into manga- or even "regular" comics or webcomics. There's a lot of clichés you don't want to fall into using! Totally worth it.
December 16, 2013
If this was satire, I didn't get it. I hardly found it amusing. oh well...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews