The entertainment sector in media has broadened immensely over the last few decades. The use of different techniques and styles in media production has captured the attention of both children and adult audiences. For instance, anime and manga; the Japanese storytelling media styles, have become immeasurably popular in many English-speaking countries. Ranma 1/2 is one of the Japanese series articulating the manga storytelling style. Both children and adult audiences enjoys the stories conveyed in anime and manga styles due to their lively characteristics. Anime and manga have similar visual styles derived from their hand or computer-drawn images beside their genre differences.
Anime is the animation style used in film and Tv shows exhibiting bright colors, sharp contrast, and thematic essentials of science fiction and fantasy. Its hand-written or computer-generated backgrounds visually and thematically distinguishes it from other animation styles. Manga is a style used in Japanese comic books and graphic novels characterized by overstated facial features and bright colors (Writing Explained). Anime and manga styles create virtual reality through the arts styles and words used in the stories. Characters used in anime and manga stories reflect real life situations like being optimistic, ambitious, death, and life challenges. Additionally, perpetrators in anime and manga genres can change their bad ways and find restoration unlike in common stories, perpetrators are bound to death or imprisonment. Shona and shonen are subgenres of manga depicting different art styles and dialogues. These subgenres address different age groups and genders. Shojo manga are comics for girls while shonen manga are comics targeting boys (Lamerichs). Ranma ½, a series written by Rumiko Takahasi, is a pure example of shonen manga. The characteristics and art styles used in this comic book focusing on a teenage boy, mainly targets the male audience. Precisely, the book has themes of sports, martial arts, high action, less romance, and is less flowery in contrast to shojo manga, which is characterized by high levels of romantic relationships, emotions, outfits, and hairstyles including the flowery art style. Takahasi used bright colors and exaggerated facial features in his book to create the characters.
Works Cited
Writing Explained. “Anime vs. Manga – What is the Difference?” Writing Explained. 2019. Retrieved from https://writingexplained.org/anime-vs-manga-difference. 23 Sept. 2019.
Lamerichs, Nicole. “International perspectives on shojo and shojo manga, edited by Masami Toku.” Book Review. 2017. Retrieved from https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/1038/841. 23 Sept. 2019.