What is the difference between Anime and Manga?

I am new to watching Anime films (due to my participation in The MoFo Top 100 Animated Films - The Countdown thread) and I am intrigued enough to watch some more. My introduction to Manga is through my reading of Shigeru Mizuki's 3 volume (soon to be 4) SHOWA A History of Japan. Which by the way is excellent.

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Anime is an animation style.


Manga is the Japanese word for "comic".

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Anime = Animation
Manga = Comic

I don't read or watch much of either but I would assume that Manga is more like your classic comic book style while Anime is just a general animated television show or movie.

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Thank you. That's what I was thinking. But Wikipedia (which I rarely trust in matters I know nothing about) led me to believe that there are some "Manga" films which confuses me. Is there a Style element too? Do the story lines draw on different elements of Japanese culture?

The way to look at it is Manga are Japanese comics, drawn in that particular style...


Anime are cartoons, using the same/similar drawing techniques as the comics.

Anime = cartoon, manga = comic book

It probably mean's its a "comic book film" - based off of a Japanese comic book.

Thank you Rodent. I think that clears it up for me. Mizuki's Manga impresses me very much. The Manga films I was referring to are apparently films based on Manga, like the US has films based on comics, such as Batman and Spiderman.




Thank you too 90's.

Anime is a specific animation style that originated in Japan. Manga is a Japanese comic book. It's basically the difference between Captain America: The First Avenger and the comics that it's based off of.

Most anime is based on a manga, although exceptions exist (like Code Geass).

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The literal translation of the two characters in man/ga is just frivolous or morally corrupt pictures. My dictionary (The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, 2nd edition, by Andrew N. Nelson) defines the compound word 'manga' as comics, cartoon, caricature. So beyond manga meaning "comics" (a print medium that uses drawings), I suppose it refers also to a certain (cartoonish) style of drawing, that can be found in animation, comics, posters, videogames etc. I'm not sure how common that second definition is used, however, and it doesn't seem to apply to animation (anime) as a whole, just the comic-like art style used in most animation. There's also gekiga (same second character as manga, which just means 'picture') which was coined in the late 50s or early 60s to differentiate a class of comics that was mostly published in low-circulation magazines aimed at an adult (male) market, but I'm not sure if this term is still in use. There were several crossover gekiga hits and the style and more-violent subject matter were being assimilated into the mainstream by the 70s.

I've been meaning to read Showa. I would certainly recommend another Mizuki manga published in English, NonNonBa.

Hey Erasmus. Here are some of the most influential Anime you should check out. They'll give you a good foundation.

Princess Mononoke
Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Ninja Scroll
Blood: The Last Vampire
Berserk

- Manga means graphic fiction in Japanese, Westerners use the word to designate all comics made in Japan, which constitutes 80% of the world's comics (US share is 4%, estimated on sales of comic books).

- Anime means animation in Japanese, Westerners use the word to designate all animation made in Japan, which constitutes 70% of the world's animation (US share is ca. 10%, estimated based on statistics on MAL combined with data on wikipedia on the number of English speaking series).

It is not. Means ALL animation made in Japan, which is 70% of all animation in the world.

Now you got it right but you should have repeated that statement for anime.

The drawn style westerners associate with anime is actually Tezuka's manga style which is the most popular one but the word is used for any comic made in Japan.

Recently I read the following manga:
- Usagi Drop
- Pluto
- Lone Wolf and Cub
- PMMM A Different Story
- Yotsuba

Each has a very different drawn style, two were adapted into anime TV series, one is related to a anime TV series, two were adapted into live action films.

There is no restriction at all on manga, it covers all genres and all demographics becoming the dominant medium for fiction in Japan and by the 1990's, manga sales were 2.5 billion units (several times more than novel sales in the much more populous US). They even wrote school textbooks, such as calculus and physics in manga form. I am currently reading a huge amount of manga, from sci fi and fantasy manga, historical fiction as well and slice of life dramas and daily life comedies.

Watch the work of the following directors to know the basics about anime films:

Miyazaki (all his films are considered essential)
Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Tale of Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday)
Oshii (Urusei Yatsura 2, Patlabor 1 and 2, Ghost in the Shell, Angel's Egg)

I think thtat Lone Wolf and Cub was classified as a gekiga but it's just called manga nowadays.

I assume it is short for "based on manga". Otherwise, it's a mistake. Manga refers to the comics and anime to the animation. Anime based on manga are very frequent, though the contrary exists as well. They are standalone mediums with different industries, though.

Anime can also be used to describe a style, but it's an informal definition that is ambiguous and confusing. It's better to stay with the original meaning of the word (anime = animation) or just use it to label any piece of animation done in Japan.

One of the wtrangest things that I've ever read was a manga adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, narrated by the cast of Astro Boy.

The ones you see on kids channels these days... are Anime. Which is rubbish. Probably the Manga you are talking is those comics turned into Anime. Sort of Japanese MArvel/DC in a different way.

Not sure.. i dont like that genre at all.

I'll take Top Cat, Flintstones or any animation with four fingers, any day!

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