yaoi.caFor the non Japanese
Introduction
I do not purport to know how to read Japanese. Therefore, I cannot understand many elements of most manga. It would be a lot easier if they just had action only sequences. Just kidding -- I enjoy stories with depth more than anything.
However, as a new manga fan, it took me a while to get to grips with enjoying manga without knowing exactly what was going on. If I can be of assistance to other newcomers in enjoying manga in Japanese, then wonderful. If you're an experienced manga "reader", then you'll likely find this page a bore.
Manga Book Layout
First of all, it's important to understand which direction the story flows. Even if you do not understand Japanese text, you will be studying the drawings, and therefore need to know in what order the sequences are to be viewed in.
The book itself is read opposite to Western books. You read manga from right to left (back to front).
The dialogue and text on a page flows from right to left and top to bottom. Make sure you look at the artwork panels in the same direction. It can mean all the difference. For instance...
If you follow the path of the arrows in the above scan, you can see: a shout from Hornig calling out to Ludwig, Ludwig calling out Hornig's name, Hornig calling out Ludwig's name, some exclamation, their hands reaching together, almost grasping and then finally coming together in a laced clasp. If you read this in Western fashion, they're hands would be letting go! Not what happened at all (at least not at this point in the story).
So it's important to view in the proper direction even if you can't actually understand the text.
Studying Pictures
Much can be gleaned from studying the artwork. The more detail-oriented the mangaka, the more you can comprehend from the story without knowing Japanese.
Higuri Yuu is just fantastic. She paints a perfect emotional representation of her characters within their faces. Her eyes alone convey so much. In the scan up above, the desperate determination on Hornig's face is so evident.
Don't dismiss background items either as you can learn much about characters that way as well. Not all mangaka devote much effort to drawing detailed backgrounds, but when they do, pay attention.
My Method
My method for trying to understand a story goes something like this:
- Try to find translations or scanlations on-line. Slash-kun has an excellent brief summary site with numerous books listed, which I find quite useful if there are no other translations to be found. If I can accomplish this, then the hard part is really done and the rest of these steps are mostly moot.
- Skim through the story to get a gist of who is who, what the dynamics of the relationships are and a general sense of the story.
- Go through the story panel by panel, page by page, sussing out details.
- View the story again, not quite skimming but also not in a scrutinizing manner either. This tends to round the story out and offer a good perspective.
Some stories I need to pick away at over and over and sometimes even then I don't get very far because so much is happening.
Other times, if someone can translate just a segment, everything else falls into place. That happens quite often and I'm grateful to those who offer their skills.
And if all else fails, I make up my own story and resign myself to the fact that I simply have a book of very pretty pictures.
