Manga is read from right to left. Most manga are read from the left to the right all the way down the page, but some manga, usually comedies, are 4 panel manga which are read from top to bottom on the right, and then top to bottom on the left. On the top is Lucky Star, which is a 4-Panel manga and on the bottom is Shingeki no Kyojin, a standard format manga.
So now, I ask the most important question of all: "Why would I read the manga when I can watch the anime?"
It's a dumb question that I've heard lots of times, but I will explain it because some people honestly don't understand. The reason why it's good to check out the manga is that 9.5/10 times, the story will continue in the manga and will be more detailed. Added to that, 8/10 times the manga, which is usually the original work, will be different from the anime, either by animation, or story details such as character names, event order, or just events in general. A lot of the time, producers cut scenes out of anime because they don't have enough money to put them in, or they don't think that it will reach as large of an audience. So, when you read the manga, it's like getting bonus content. Also, the manga will be a lot more detailed than the anime, including things that production companies may decide aren't appropriate for all audiences, such as extreme profanity, blood and gore, and anything of a sexual nature. I have a perfect example to show you as well. In the Rurouni Kenshin anime, there was a scene that was never brought over from the manga because the producers wanted to keep the action flowing rather than inserting a bit of comedy before a fight. Here are the pages in the manga:
So, what happens here is pretty obvious, but it happens right in the middle of a huge fight between the Juppongatana and the weaker half of team Kenshin (Kaoru, Misao, and Yahiko). It is hilarious and I never would have known about it had I not read the manga. Another great example of a benefit of reading the manga is with the series Koe de Oshigoto. I won't bother you with the story right now (It will probably show up in one of my rants). There are only 2 episodes in the anime, but the manga is ongoing. After reading quite a bit of it, I found that the plot of the anime ends in chapter 11, but there are well over 60 chapters to the manga, so It's great because I thought the anime was hilarious and I wanted to see more of the story, which is why I picked up the manga. The only case that I currently know of where the anime is farther along than the manga is No Game No Life, which started production when the manga was only on chapter 7. Despite that, it's one of my favorite anime of all time. Now that I have said all of that, I can be confident that you will understand me when I make comments about manga layout or anime to manga adaptation. There is one more thing that I would like to discuss, and that is the classifications of anime and manga.
There are 3 basic classifications as far as anime and manga go:
Seinen-Adult, usually has intense violence, language or sexual content.
Shounen-'Boys', Action stuff like Bleach and Naruto as well as most slice-of-life comedies.
Shoujo- 'Girls', Romantic stuff like vampire knight or Uta no Prince-sama
I'm not being sexist, these are the three main classifications. Shounen actually means boys and Shoujo actually means girls. It's really easy to remember. Seinen is adult. Shoujo is romance. Shounen is action. Shounen is the easiest to remember because of Shounen Jump, the magazine that collects the most popular shounen manga releases of the month.
So, here you go. I've equipped you with some elementary knowledge of manga so that you can understand easier when I do reviews. In the future I might do some kind of spotlight on a show without reviewing it, and this will help you understand what I'm saying a bit more. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
-K.G.
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