I love Manga. I have been reading manga since I was nine, so that’s what, 31 years ago?
Those early days were rough though. Primary problem was that I could not actually afford to buy manga. I barely even had pocket money. But somehow, I managed. I only read Dragonball Z. If you can even call it reading, because….
At that time, only Chinese translations of manga were available in Singapore. At that age, I had picked up a working ability of spoken Mandarin, but reading was another kettle of fish altogether. That I could gain a broad understanding of what was going on in each volume was due to the excellently drawn art and my very rudimentary understanding of Mandarin.
Inevitably, my attention was also drawn to whatever anime was broadcast on TV. I actually spent money on a VCD of Rurouni Kenshin, once. It was his origin arc. Didn’t take long for me to realise that it was a knockoff product. Sigh…
Since I didn’t have a computer, my access to downloaded episodes was limited. What changed the game for me was fan scanlations. I don’t think I have a reliable count of the number of series I completed. I tried to cover most of the popular ones like “Bleach”, “Naruto”, and the ongoing “One Piece”. There were several other titles which I randomly chose like “Dawn: Tsumetai Te”, “Parasyte”, and the currently ongoing “The Duke of Death and His Black Maid”. I also didn’t exclusively read manga. I also read scanlations of some Korean manhua and Chinese manhua series. “The Breaker” and its sequel “New Waves” was a pretty fun manhwa. “Feng Shen Ji” or “Tales of Demons and Gods” was a unique reimagining of an ancient Chinese myth.
This is probably a good time to address the elephant in the room – most of the scanlations of manga I read were not officially sanctioned. The one manga series which I can claim to have consumed in an above board manner is Love Hina, which I read thanks to a generous squadmate while I was in National Service. But I try to apply some retroactive remedial action nowadays by purchasing volumes when I see them. Sanctioned translations are more common nowadays after all.
Nowadays, my consumption of manga mostly happens on the jump website. Currently, I am following “Monster #8”, “The Elusive Samurai”, and “Deranged Detective: Ron Kamonohashi”. My other main source of graphic story telling consumption comes from webtoons. These can be quite innovative, with some of them carrying their own soundtrack as you read. My current favourites include “The Gamer”, “Adventures of God”, and “Tales of the Unusual”. I thought that last one had taken its final bow, so I was pleasantly surprised when it returned recently.
I didn’t enjoy every manga the same way, but I can say that each one of them left a fairly unique mark on me. Generally, I have been fortunate not to have come across a manga whose ending left me wholly unsatisfied of underwhelmed. I can rationalise just about every ending I read, although I have become aware that discussions about manga and/or anime endings are quite the minefield on the web.
When I edit my writings, I sometimes see traces of one manga or another, and it gives me this warm, fuzzy feeling. It feels like a continuous thread of storytelling being passed on from the works I read. I hope that when I publish – and it is when, not if – someday, someone picks up my thread and carries it onto the future too.
What’s your favourite manga?
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