Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga

Koji Aihara / Kentaro Takekuma – Viz – 2002 – 2 volumes
the Viz edition stops at volume one, the 2-volume edition is a recent Japanese omnibus that doesn’t line up with the Viz edition… not that that matters

Jason Thompson recently wrote this book up over at House of 1000 Manga. I’d been looking to pick it up for years, but the prices were always insane. They were way down on Thursday night (after I read the article), so I bought a copy. It was here Monday morning. I’m writing it up here Tuesday night. God bless the internet.

For the uninitiated, this is a book that discusses manga on a topic-by-topic basis. It has chapters for shoujo, shounen, seinen, and ladies’ comics, different chapters on how to draw, a chapter on “art,” chapters on mahjong manga, salaryman manga, gag manga, merchandising manga, subliminal messages… the “preview” for the next volume is a discussion of the 4 (or maybe 3+1) major shounen magazines and how the same story would be told differently in each one. It is legitimately educational, and yet each chapter describes the topic to you in the most jaded, crude, and vulgar way possible. Using this method, it is far better than any other “how to” manga book will ever be. There are diagrams and charts describing why the lame friend character is necessary in shounen manga, why ladies’ comics… er, have to be the way they are, and even the evolution of panties. Each lesson uses styles that are equivalent (or at least 80s equivalents) of art from real manga for whatever it is they’re talking about. Frequently their points are emphasized using naked photos or naked drawings of themselves for reasons I don’t want to think about.

It’s impossible to talk about this book without posting pictures, because I think everyone (myself included) reads it in slack-jawed amazement. You just have to see this thing. Everything it says is true. This is incredible because… the book itself is 20 years old, and the English translation of it is nearly 10. There are a few points that could be updated, but almost everything else stands as an eerie pillar of truth, supported on either side by one of the naked authors. The other incredible thing is that it’s not a parody. Not really. I mean, I think it’s meant to be, except it’s all correct information. Even when it’s making jokes, it’s actually taking things from real manga that sound like a joke, but aren’t. Sometimes it even offers decent advice. It could be argued that it offers decent advice on every page.

The ugly art you often see are the “characters” in the manga, the two who are pulling the manzai routine and have to say everything with their veiny eyes bugging out. But each chapter is introduced by the “real” Aihara and Takekuma, and those pages are drawn in a very simple style, with the two bespectacled, dark-haired authors addressing the reader in an educational, calm manner. It took me three chapters before I realized why I found this so unsettling.

The resemblance is coincidental (and not all that close, admittedly), but still. Understanding Comics. Really? REALLY?!

I can imagine that translating this was a horrible chore even without what I’m about to suggest, but I would love dearly for this book to have copious end notes. This book is exactly what I wanted when I picked up Kingyo Used Books, and that stood entirely on the strength of its notations and manga history lessons. I know there are dozens of references that are going completely unacknowledged by either character in this book, and I know for every one I’m catching, there are three I’m missing. At one point, on the chapter on storytelling, what sounds like insane rambling is actually the plot to Offered. The boy having springs on his arms in the shounen training diagram is a reference to… Star of the Giants? I think that’s what the art references, as well (they do bring this series up, but don’t mention that all the other stuff relates to it). The Shounen Sunday description is a strange mix of Momotaro, Urusei Yatsura, and Ranma 1/2. The salaryman chapter is a thinly-veiled reference to the Kosaku Shima series, but I’m not sure if the plot is parodying something else (probably not). Perhaps some of the descriptions are more generalized than I think, but I’m sure there’s still a ton of things that flew over my head. Not that knowing what they’re lampooning is essential, since they are breaking everything down for you, but any detail is appreciated.

And there are just. so. many. jokes. The Ladies’ comics genre, in its infancy when this was written, is rather accurately depicted as being just like erotic comedy for men, except rather than true love coming at the end after a lot of sex, the love has to happen with the sex through the entire book. There’s a Tetris analogy in there somewhere. The chapter on shounen manga brought a tear to my eye with the purity and truth of its explanation, and the panty diagram. I still laugh whenever I see what kind of 4-panel strip is “too funny.” And the magazine breakdowns in the back are the best. There are several prophetic moments (the ninja stuff has been mentioned elsewhere, but let me say I’d never thought of the genre breakdown in the way it was presented here), but my favorite was when they mentioned that Shounen Jump was the most balanced of the shounen magazines, it just needed more panty flashing. Clearly this was written just before Masakazu Katsura really broke through, a pen in one hand and a pair of panties in the other. I believe Jump has had a panty-quotient series ever since. The article on Shounen Champion, my favorite shounen magazine, reveals that each issue boldly kicks the reader in the balls, which explains more concisely than I ever could the content of that magazine.

The straight-faced introductions with the real authors are some of the best parts, though. Their polite tone and frequent apologies, along with their seemingly genuine embarrassment for the things they do, go a long way to balance out the insanity of the real chapters.

This is one of the best books I own. Period. Screw Phoenix. This is the real bible of manga.