Manhwas vs. Webtoons

There's this common misconception that Manhwas and Webtoons are the same since they are both Korean Language comics. Let me rebut this and say this is not completely right in my opinion. Many people use Manhwas interchangeably with webtoons and although it's not technically wrong it bothers me how they are classed as the same thing.

I feel like one of the major factors are how the medium is presented. I'll shortlist some of my observations on the given genre (correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Manhwas are presented in paperback book form or in magazines. This greatly restricts target audience (whether it's a tween, older teen or young adult magazine) which in turn feels like the author must meet the demands of what the audience wants. It's a good thing sometimes but generally the author should really be in charge of the story's creative direction. They also have editors, both a good thing and a bad thing, it stops the author from writing anything to choppy but again, restricts them from creativity.
   
   On the other hand, Webtoons are obviously posted online, free for anyone to view. Traditionally when hosted on sites like Naver, they get money based on hits and popularity I'm assuming. It actually gives the artist more freedom in writing the story and the audience is not restricted. The demographic is anyone that has a computer and likes comics.

Top 10 Things I Learnt About Japan Through Manga

Sometimes I'd get into conversations with my friend and occasionally when the topic of Japan comes up for some reason or another I'd spit out information like it was nobody's business. Most of the time they're taken aback, awed by my worldly knowledge but actually it's mostly donates from sitting at home and fawning hopelessly over 2D men.

Here are 10 interesting things I learnt about Japan and it's culture that you can't necessarily read from a textbook

1. Blood Type Horoscopes
   I was always curious why some mangaka would include blood type in character profiles along with height and name amoungst other things. They even made specialised condoms for each respective blood type. It really should be taken with a grain of salt but hey no harm in reading about it. It says that I'm the type to start but not finish thing, that I can agree on.

Template Updated Once Again

I was really unsatisfied with the last template so I decided to spend some of my time updating to my liking. It's nothing flash but looks a lot better than it did before.

I also want to take the time to thank everyone for reading and commenting. I'm usually the passive reader and really get too lazy to comment on things but thanks for showing interest towards this blog.

I have no friends who read manga in real life so this is effectively my only outlet to fangurrrrllll.

The picture is from Dear by Fujiwara Cocoa. I really need to do a overview of it sometime since I love that manga to death.

Rating Systems in Manga

For those of you not familiar with my manga reviews, I do not have a rating system.
Why?
What I've noticed while looking through baka updates and filtering the kind of manga I want to read from the ones I don't, I always take notice of the rating.
If gives me a ballpark idea of whether the manga is good or not.
That is by all means fine and quite useful.
But the problem is a lot of it isn't an accurate reflection of whether it's really good or not.
A lot of the ratings are really subjective.
For eg. there's your stereotypical shoujo oneshot.
For an avid shoujo manga freak like me, I always judge things based on the purpose of the manga. Most of them are just fluff to read to kill time so I would probably rate it, say a 7.5.
On the other hand, if someone was actually judging it, having only read really meaningful stories then they would probably give it a 4.

Same scenario can be used it there is a deeply emotionally driven plot.
Someone like me would rate it a 9 but someone who loves cheesy crap mixed to together with comedy and hot bishies might not appreciate it so much and give it a 7, labeling it boring.

Rating systems only work if you have certain standardized criteria. That's why I don't have such rating systems because dissecting a story and slapping on a number isn't how I feel it's supposed to be seen. Sure you break it down into simpler parts but logic, reasoning and numbers isn't supposed to be associated with manga, especially shoujo.
Your supposed to review it as a whole (how well it's put together), the purpose and it's intended audience.

Some are obviously better in the morals, execution and art. I feel like putting rating systems for those wouldn't be bad.

Well done with this boring post. Look forward to more reviews...

Takano Sensei is qutting shoujo. WHAT AND WHY?

For those that don't know, Takano Ichigo is the mangaka behind Orange which I may or may not have ranted and raved about. She's relatively new on the scene and Orange is probably her best work, her other mangas are cute but mediocre at best.
Even though it was released in 2011 I can dare say it's probably one of the best manga I have ever read. So when I heard that's she's quitting I was shocked.
According to her now deleted blog, a post said that she was essentially tired of haters and she's been contemplating about quitting. "Nothing will change if only one among so many artists disappears" she says, not but you are a top notch mangaka and you haven't even started.
There are plenty of shit ridden shoujo and you don't see them quitting, (insert joke about Watase Yuu). It's just so disappointing. She does plan to finish it off before she quits, not sure if I'm relieved or sad. It's currently on hiatus and I really hope she does the story justice. Not sure if I should recommend it so much anymore since I personally feel it's really good.

Manga recommendations... anyone? And Inu Boku x SS is getting licensed!

So I need more manga to read, like one worth reviewing. I've spent my two weeks off school reading crap manga and re-reading favourites again and again.
I guess it's cos the quality of it has gone down but I feel like it's getting better and scanalating takes ages. I really wish I knew Japanese T_______T

Sorry I've appeared illiterate in my recent posts, doesn't matter how much I proof read it, there's always dumb mistakes when I type. I assure you English is my first language...
Also updated the blogger skin, it's pretty dull but I don't have time to invest in making it look pretty, sorry.

Also Inu Boku x SS aka Youko Boku x SS is getting licensed by Yen Press and is due to release in October this year. I really want to support the author, Fujiwara Cocoa, even if it is purely Japanese raws but I'm so glad they'll be an English version.
Manga in book form will always beat online versions, it's how it was supposed to be read.
I guess it's a matter of personal taste but really give the manga a shot, it's just one of those mangas I'd buy every volume for and there's not a lot of mangas I'd actually buy.

Happy Single Awareness Day

It's that time of year again where Japanese High School girls go ahead and give chocolate to their crushes. Or giri chocolate to boys who aren't so popular.
If your forever alone then go ahead and play a sim date. A lot of them either aren't available in English or you have to pay.

Japan Struck By Magnitude 8.9 Earthquake And Tsunami

I'm sure you've all heard about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Not only that, but there have also been fires and nuclear warnings as the reactor was effected in result of the earthquake. For all of you that don't know, 10 is the highest on the Richter scale so you can imagine that 8.9 was a massive shake to the Japanese citizens.

Schools also have drills but nothing would've prepared them for an earthquake at such large scale proportions.  I have Japanese exchange students who are staying at my school (in Australia) for 1-2 weeks. I hope their family are safe.

I'm also thinking about singers, actors and of course mangakas who could be deeply affected by this. I hope they're all safe and sound.

Please give your support to the series of natural disasters in Japan by somehow donating. If everyone donates a little it could mean a huge difference.

Guys who read Shoujo Manga

Have you ever met a guy who has read shoujo manga (like in real life)?
I mean I've seen a few guys who admit to reading it on the internet, which I find pretty cool. I don't think guys who read shoujo manga are necessarily gay, if they were they'd probably prefer to read more shounen-ai or yaoi.

Anyways, I know this guy friend of mine has recently been getting into shoujo manga and he says that he's preferring it over shounen (at the moment). Of course he'a a total noob at it XD
He doesn't see a difference between manga and manhwa (and even manhua).
And trust me, there is a difference but let's save that topic for another day...
He also gets kinda easily sucked in to the cliches but he'll eventually get sick of it and develop his own taste.

He started off by what type of mangas do I read. I replied shoujo and he's like "what kind?" and it pretty much started from there. It's sort of hard to recommend shoujo to guys because I don't want to recommend something too girly.

Although he says he enjoys Kimi no Iru Machi and he really wants me to read it (which I will as soon as my lag is gone) and Kaichou wa Maid-Sama which we are both addicted to (yes it may be pretty cliched but it's done well :L)

I actually don't have friends that are fanatic with manga like me. They either read ones I don't like, read one or two or don't read any at all so I was surprised that I could talk about manga with my guy friend XD

Haha I'm going to regret procrastinating but whatever.
Well thanx for reading ^^

Other Shoujo Manga Sites

So I kinda screwed up my blogger template and I had to start all over again...
So yeh I wanted to smash the computer so many times XD

First Blog Post

Hello, so this is my first post.
I'm probably either gonna blog a lot or not at all depending on how busy I get...
Anyways, the way I'm gonna review mangas is gonna be quick and not to lengthy; straight to the point.