An in-depth Study on the Animation Industry - Philippine Institute for ...

Japanese Manga books are more <strong>in</strong>tegrated with Japanese culture than Western
Comic books are. Manga books tell stories for all ages about anyth<strong>in</strong>g under the sun.
One will f<strong>in</strong>d various topics rang<strong>in</strong>g from futuristic robots, medieval knights,
contemporary love stories, etc.
On the other hand, Comic books usually are geared towards teenagers with
stories with the basic superheroes vs. supervilla<strong>in</strong>s storyl<strong>in</strong>e. As of this writ<strong>in</strong>g, it can be
observed that certa<strong>in</strong> Comics are beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to be <strong>in</strong>fluenced by Manga-style
writ<strong>in</strong>g/draw<strong>in</strong>g (particularly Marvel’s Gen 13).
Types of <strong>An</strong>ime/Manga
a) Shoujo - those with stories which ma<strong>in</strong>ly focus on the adventures of girls.
Shoujos usually have a romantic content.
b) Shounen – those made specially for young male audiences. These are full of
action, and sometimes may get too violent.
c) Se<strong>in</strong>en – their stories are usually about certa<strong>in</strong> hobbies or special <strong>in</strong>terests like
sports.
d) Yaoi – stories which focus on the relationship (love or sexual) between two
males.
1.4.2 <strong>An</strong>ime vs. Cartoons
<strong>An</strong>ime are often products of best-sell<strong>in</strong>g Manga books. The more followers a
certa<strong>in</strong> Manga has, the better the chance that book to have an <strong>An</strong>ime version.
Consequently, if a certa<strong>in</strong> manga author is really popular (such as Ranma ½’s Rumiko
Takahasi), it is a good bet that whatever other Manga books the author comes up with
will have an <strong>An</strong>ime counterpart (such as Takahashi’s Lum and Maison Ikoku).
Western Cartoons, on the other hand, are usually based on toys that will be
released once the show hits such as Harsbo’s GI Joe. There are also successful movies
like Warner Brothers’ Batman: the animated series, comic books like Marvel’s X-men,
video games like Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.
The manner by which <strong>An</strong>ime and Cartoons are made also differ. Cartoons are
usually created by a set of animators follow<strong>in</strong>g a standard model (such as the animators
of Disney Films who draw based on figure models). <strong>An</strong>ime, on the other hand, usually
<strong>in</strong>volve several animators who specialize <strong>in</strong> different draw<strong>in</strong>g styles. This is most often
the case with Robot-type anime such as Gundam W<strong>in</strong>g and Macross. Usually, a set of
artists will focus on the human characters, while another set of artists will develop the
robots.
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