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How long did it take you to learn how to read Manga?


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ChronoBall X



Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 389
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:11 pm Reply with quote
As most of you know,learning how to read manga was confusing and strange at first to read it's backwards left-to-right format instead of the usial american comic book style right-to-left,

and so,how long did it take you to get the hang of this format?


for me,it's quite a long story,my first manga was the very first issue of Shounen jump and I was reading my first manga,a chapter of DBZ,and at first,I did'nt understand it's weird format at first,but than I read the directions how to do it,and than in no time,I quickly mastered it,and now i'm a manga reading pro,but however at times,I still get confused on which word bubbles on which characters i'm suppose to read on next,but since than,i'm getting better at reading manga,and once I startted to master it,it becomes alot of fun.

however,there are times when i'm reading the Naruto or Onepiece manga,because as you know,some of the action scenes in those mangas can be pretty sloppy and hard to see what they're doing,and because of this,you can easilly lose your place where your reading,like when Luffy's doing his Gumo Gumo rapid fire,you can barely see the action scenes,making it a little harder to stay in the left to right format.
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Kelly



Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 868
Location: New York City
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:24 pm Reply with quote
First volume took some getting used to, second volume was slightly awkward, but by the third volume I had the hang of it. Now, ironically, it's second nature to the point that flipped seems unnatural to me.
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violented16



Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 81
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:44 pm Reply with quote
The first volume I read was kinda odd, but before that volume was done I was fine with it. The harder part was trying to explain to my 5 year old nephew that there is books that read back to front also, because "his teacher said there isn't such a thing" (yet they sell manga in scholastic...) Very Happy

Although sometimes I will read a volume of manga then pick up a manhwa and try to read it the same way and think "WTF is wrong here" lol
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Lee1981



Joined: 17 Jul 2007
Posts: 109
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:53 pm Reply with quote
To be honest, I thought when I started reading Berserk that it was going to be really weird and hard for me to get around reading it that way, but in actuality once I started doing it it just came natural and easy for me after a few pages into it, so I didn't really have any problems adjusting.
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor


Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 1325
Location: San Diego
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:16 pm Reply with quote
When I started reading manga IN AMERICA, it was still printed "flipped," because they thought people were too dumb to read it in the original direction ...

Yeah, I'm old.

I had a pretty easy time getting used to how manga panels are more abstract and dynamic than typical Western comics, which are a bit more square (my entire diet of "adventure comics" before getting into manga was, like, Tintin). But when the "unflipped" stuff started coming out in mass quantities ca. 2002, that's when I had to retrain my eyes ... the very first volume I read in that format gave me a bit of a headache, but after that I basically had the hang of it.

violented16 wrote:
Although sometimes I will read a volume of manga then pick up a manhwa and try to read it the same way and think "WTF is wrong here" lol


Happens to me sometimes, I'll see a page of a normal English-speaking comic and I try to read it starting from the upper right before I realize it makes no sense. Anime hyper
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Momoko_Yumi



Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Posts: 98
Location: Heidenheim, Germany
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Really seconds. The first 2 sides where hard to read...but when I was in it...it really goes without problem. And now I find it difficult to read comics or manhwas who where written in the western way. But perhaps I found it not so strange to read mangas is because I'm a lefthand.
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Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:52 pm Reply with quote
A few days was all it took; now, I only get confused if there are too many bubbles.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:53 pm Reply with quote
Umm, it took me a bit seeing how I started reading it in Japanese. I didn't know the language, but I was reading manga so as to help me develop some language skills. Reading it wasn't the problem, but when I "graduated" from Koro Koro Comics to Jump comics, you could see that some of the bubbles didn't seem in the right places so I had to figure which bubble went where sometimes. I've been reading manga for 12 years.
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Murasakisuishou



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:46 pm Reply with quote
I think the first right-to-left manga I ever read was either Shaman King or Nausicaa; I can't remember. It was a little awkward for the first volume (I have a habit of putting my thumb behind the page on the right to turn it more easily, but obviously it doesn't work that way with manga), and I kept getting confused about the order of the panels when they were arranged in columns, but I think I got it after reading a couple of volumes. I just had to take it slow at first.
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stuckinfresno



Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 223
Location: Fresno, CA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:37 pm Reply with quote
My first ever manga was flopped and I had no trouble at all! That is until I learned what unflopped manga meant. And to be honest, once I learned that I was like who would WANT that!

Now, I love unflopped manga - I prefer it.

As for my first unflopped, I want to say it was Shaman King, but I don't know. Either way, I caught on fast and had the general idea by the second vol. I was still a slow reader though for many more vols. It probably wasn't until later that I could read manga at my normal speed (I make it sound long but it was like 8-10 vols later). It's funny to remember using the "how to read" guides as I tried to follow the panels. I remember thinking which one was next?

But what was funnier, I once tried to read an english textbook after a manga reading marthon and I forget how to read left to right for a moment! One of the strangest moments in my life. Laughing
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Murasakisuishou



Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 1469
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:47 pm Reply with quote
stuckinfresno wrote:

But what was funnier, I once tried to read an english textbook after a manga reading marthon and I forget how to read left to right for a moment! One of the strangest moments in my life. Laughing


I've done that before :p I once marathonned about 50 chapters of FMA, then I tried to go do my history homework. For a moment I wondered why the book was printed the wrong way Anime hyper

And now I hate flopped manga. It confuses me >.>
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Pityless/Envy



Joined: 08 Aug 2007
Posts: 101
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:01 pm Reply with quote
About 5 minutes of trial and error while reading Naruto
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:11 pm Reply with quote
I think I picked it up almost instantly.

I'm left handed and because of that I've always been fairly capable of switching between either left or right for most things. Heck, when I was little I used to write right to left before I learned to write left to write since it felt way more natural. I've always found it relatively easy to read and to a lesser extent write right to left, backwards, upside down, etc.
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FeralKat



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 402
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:05 pm Reply with quote
I never had a problem, in fact, it was like second nature, but one of my friends refused to read manga because he says it's too confusing to him. Sad
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7358
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:31 pm Reply with quote
first, i studied the back a little on how to read them (confusion at first), and after i went through an issue of shonen jump, i was starting to get the hang of it. Now of course its second nature in comic reading and takes no effort, but i still get confused on some bubble placements and i figure whichever one makes more sense first is the one that goes there.
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