I started reading manga when I was 17 years old. I always thought that I would not appreciate reading them because compared to anime (Japanese Animation) they are “merely drawings”. Static pictures with some text and whatnot and I was like “How come people like this stuff?”.

Little did I know that I was about to open a world that I had never been before and since then, I had read Japanese manga till today. At first, I was confused on reading from right to left (Japanese manga are read that way) because I was used to reading things from left to right (because that was how I always read books). After my initial confusion, I was clicking page after page on an online manga site. Before I know it, a few hours has passed and it surprised me that I was engrossed in reading the manga.




After resting my eyes for a few minutes, a thought came to my head. Since some Japanese anime originated from manga, wouldn't it be wonderful if I read the manga of my favorite anime? One of my favorite anime was “One Piece”. It was a story about a boy who wants to be the Pirate King. Ironically, he followed his dream while performing good deeds although he was a pirate.




Yes, a pirate with morals who loves to eat and fight the bad pirates who threatens the peace of the innocent. Unfortunately, the government marines (the so called justice boys) placed a bounty on his head and wants to capture him as well.

Well anyways, it all started from there and I've read manga almost everyday for a few hours (mangas that are translated to English). There were a lot of them! Some are good, some are bad, and some are so~so. They have a wide range of genre from fantasy, romance, adventure, science fiction, comedy, sports, suspense, mystery, horror, cooking, detective, name it they have it! Seriously, aren't manga awesome?

I even read a shoujo manga (manga that are targeted for girls) and I find them pretty interesting as well. Out of curiosity I did a bit of research about the history of manga and found that its popularity started in the 19th century. Mangas are originally drawn in black and white and even now, it remains that way. Of course there are some exemptions of colored mangas but they are in the minority.






If you like to read books, stories and the like, then you will love and hate reading manga (I'm talking about those stories that really trigger your hate factor because the antagonist perform their roles really well). Just a little reminder, read them in moderation! I know from experience that you tend to forget everything once you started reading them, but if possible try to do it in moderation.


Once you resolved yourself to read manga you should

1. Pick a manga title (you can even pick randomly if you like!)
2. prepare some snacks
3. start flipping those pages!

Well then, join me again next time as we embark on a journey to find the most interesting things that is uniquely Japan!