Manga

Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics and/or cartoons (not necessarily animated, this includes print cartoons); outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. Manga developed from a mixture of ukiyo-e and Western styles of drawing, and took its current form shortly after World War II.

Literally translated, manga means "random (or whimsical) pictures". The word first came into common usage after the publication of the 19th century Hokusai Manga, containing assorted drawings from the sketchbook of the famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. However, gi-ga (lit. "funny pictures") drawn in the 12th century by various artists contain many manga-like qualities such as emphasis on story and simple, artistic lines.

In the 20th century, manga came to refer to comics, though in Japan, the word is more commonly used to describe children's animation; the English word (comic) is actually the main term in use. Though roughly equivalent to the American comic book, manga holds more importance in Japanese culture than comics do in American culture. Manga is well respected both as an art form and as a form of popular literature. Like its American counterpart, manga has been criticized for being violent and sexual; however, there have been no official inquiries or laws that have tried to limit what can be drawn in manga, except for fuzzy decency laws that apply to all published materials, stating that "overly indecent materials should not be sold." This freedom has allowed artists to draw manga for every age group and about every topic.

Manga magazines usually have many series running concurrently with approximately 20Ð'-40 pages to each series per issue. These manga magazines, or "anthology magazines", as they are also known, are usually printed on low-quality newsprint and can be anywhere from 200 to more than 850 pages long. Manga magazines also contain one-shot comics