The Different Types of Manga

Manga originated in Japan in the late 19th century. It is synonymous to the American Comic. As far as I know there are 2 genres in Manga. I'm mainly familiar with shojo.

Shoujo-usually read by girls and most of the stories appeals to girls. Subgenres include

1. Romance-I don't why they have this as a subgenre since most shojo have romance elements anyway.
2. Magical Girl- This includes everything from girls transforming into super heroes (akazukin chaha). Girls being sucked into another dimension (Fushigi Yuugi)
   
3. Josei-a little bit mature in the stories. I only know a handful of josei mangas. One of them is Kimi Wa Petto (Tramps Like Us)

Shonen-Mostly geared towards boys. Robots, action, adventure. Yup, almost like the american super heroes stories. HunterXHunter, Yuyu Hakusho. I'm not sure if "Harem" is a subgenre though. (i.e. Love Hina, Negima, Ouran)

I'm not going to talk about the other types (ecchi, H, y and y) since I know very little about them. And I can scarcely give specific examples since I don't read them.

Finance: 13 Ways To Save Money on Manga (Part 1)

We have all been affected by the reccession. I never really thought about budgeting for real.
Then something in your life happens that totally changes how you think about things. You realize what is important and try to work towards that goal. I was supposed to present some guides first but I think this is important as well. I now give you my strategies for saving money when buying manga.

1. Used or new?
8 years ago when the manga fever has yet to hit Manila and a few comic shops we're starting to notice that there was a market for manga. I was one of the first people to be interested in this. Since it was realatively new, there were not a lot of people who would buy them and much less sell them at a much lower price. Now, a decade later we can see a plethora of people selling manga. Even that bookstore around the corner started to notice this and had stocks on the most popular titles.
I used to care whether the manga I bought was new or second hand. I was pretty much obssesive on the quality of my books. But since then, I've realized that most manga collectors are OC as well. So, more often than not even if you buy them from some other collector. It still looks new. You get almost the same quality at a much cheaper price. The last time I bought something new was 2 years ago. O_o

2. Stop impulse buying and shopping for new releases.
I know this is going to contradict the next item in my list but what I mean here is, when you have the money and go to the bookstore only to find that you don't really like any of the titles that they have, Just leave. Don't go second guessing yourself. You might end up buying a title just because you have to buy something. Stop. Save you money for your next purchase.

3. Booksales.
Always be on the lookout for booksales. My local bookstore usually have sales on paydays. So, I just swing by there twice a month and go through their bargain books. Last time I went there I found 4 volumes of Othello. It went for Php 100 ($2.17) a piece. This was a title that I wanted to read but I was hesitant to buy them new.

4. Be patient
This really pays off. The first time I bought Karekano. It was at full price. The first 3 volumes cost me Php 1950 ($42.39). I liked the story but the series was long and it would take a lot of money for me to complete it. I sat on that series for a while. Then lo and behold 4 years later someone is selling their Karekano. The seller agreed to sell me only those tittles that I didn't have. Because of this I was halfway through Karekano. A year after that another person was selling their Karekano. It came to a point where I was only missing volume 10 of the 21 volume manga. I was debating with myself whether I should buy it new since I bought most of the series used anyway so the overall cost of the series wouldn't be too bad. But I was lucky enough to find a friend who was willing to sell me that particular volume before she sold everything off to Ebay. I still love her for that.

5. Build up your network of friends
Get out and meet people who share the same interests as you. I know a couple of people who collect manga and then ended up selling them. Who do you think got the first pick of their collection? ^_^

6. Save
As I've said in the first item, you don't really have to buy a title if it doesn't interest you. Save that money and wait for it.

7. Omnibus collections
I've noticed that you can save quite a lot on omnnibus collections (3 volumes in 1 book) . If the title was really popular. Some companies would release an Omnibus. Although, a word of caution. If you're like me and absolutely hate spine creases on manga. Then limit your purchases to those hardback editions. I know some manga companies who published an omnibus paperback style. Of course the spince will crease! What with cramming over 600 pages in one book. Aaarrrrghhh!

Stay tuned for Part 2....

Hello!

A very warm hello from one of the affected countries of El Niño. I'm starting this blog to share my enthusiasm for manga. I'm starting it off with a couple of guides, some reviews and summaries.
We can also learn japanese together. I'm a beginner myself and just starting to learn the japanese kana.

We'll that's it for my first post. Hopefully I can post something with more content.