Style branch · 1800s → today

Manga & Anime

Japanese storytelling in pictures

Manga is Japanese comics. Anime is animated Japanese stories. The style: big expressive eyes, sharp clean ink lines, dynamic action, deep emotional range. It pulls from centuries of Japanese woodblock prints all the way through to today's biggest TV.

What this style actually is

Modern manga starts with Osamu Tezuka in postwar Japan. Tezuka, a doctor by training, looked at Disney animation and decided to do something even more ambitious in print: long, novelistic stories told in cheap weekly chapters, drawn for kids and adults at the same time. Astro Boy. Black Jack. Phoenix. He set the template.

Manga is read RIGHT to LEFT. The drawing is in service of the story; pacing is everything. A double-page spread might be one impact moment in a 200-page chapter. The white space is the silence between the music.

Anime took those same storytelling skills into animation. Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki, Takahata) made art films that played as kid movies. Madhouse, Bones, MAPPA, KyoAni today make work as visually serious as anything in Pixar or Disney's catalogue. The line between manga, anime, video games, and Western animation is now mostly fictional.

Who shaped it

The artists who built this style.

Famous masters and the lesser-known voices who pushed the work forward.

Katsushika Hokusai

1760-1849 · Japanese

Made woodblock prints that influenced every artist who came after him (Western and Eastern). The Great Wave. The 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Coined the term 'manga' (literally 'whimsical pictures') for his sketchbooks.

Known for: The Great Wave off Kanagawa · Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji) · Hokusai Manga sketchbooks

Osamu Tezuka

1928-1989 · Japanese

The godfather of manga. Created Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, Phoenix. Drew over 700 manga volumes. Trained at medical school but never practiced — became a comics doctor instead.

Known for: Astro Boy · Black Jack · Phoenix (Hi no Tori)

Hayao Miyazaki

1941- · Japanese

Co-founded Studio Ghibli. Spirited Away, Totoro, Princess Mononoke. Storyboards every Ghibli film by hand. Quietly refused to retire several times. Greatest living animator by most measures.

Known for: Spirited Away · My Neighbor Totoro · Princess Mononoke

Akira Toriyama

1955-2024 · Japanese

Created Dragon Ball, the manga that shaped how a generation of artists draw action. Also designed characters for Dragon Quest video game series. Died March 2024; the tributes were massive worldwide.

Known for: Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z · Dr. Slump · Chrono Trigger character design

Naoko Takeuchi

1967- · Japanese

Created Sailor Moon. Transformed shōjo (girls') manga into a global phenomenon. Wrote and drew the original 18-volume series in 5 years while in her 20s.

Known for: Sailor Moon · Codename: Sailor V

Junji Ito

1963- · Japanese

Master of horror manga. Uzumaki (spirals everywhere). Tomie. His ink work is among the most virtuosic in the industry — every page is hours of cross-hatching that makes you afraid to look closely.

Known for: Uzumaki · Tomie · Gyo

How to see it

Three things to notice in any work of this style.

👀

Eye design as character signature

Manga eyes telegraph personality. Bigger and rounder = innocent. Sharper and slanted = cool, dangerous, or mature. Same artist will use different eye styles for different characters.

✨

Effects lines & screen tone

Speed lines, impact frames, glowing energy. Manga uses non-realistic effects to communicate emotion. A character's hair blowing the wrong direction often means an emotional storm, not a wind.

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Panel pacing

Manga panels can be huge (one image per page) or tiny (12 panels per page). The size IS the timing. A two-page spread = a long held moment. Six small panels = quick action.

How to practice it

Beginner to expert, in three tiers.

Pick the tier that fits where you are. Move up when the current tier feels too easy.

Beginner

Build the language piece by piece.

  • Daily eye studyDraw 20 different eyes per day for a week. Different shapes, different expressions, different styles (chibi, shōjo, shōnen, seinen). Manga eyes alone are a vocabulary.
  • Copy a master panelPick one panel from a manga you love. Copy it exactly. Trace if you have to. Notice the cross-hatching, the line weights, the negative space. The copy is the lesson.
  • 1-page mangaOne page. 4-6 panels. A complete tiny story (someone discovers a thing, reacts). Don't worry about quality. Worry about understanding the rhythm of panels.

Intermediate

Build a personal manga page.

  • Character with 3 reference sheetsFull-body turnaround. Expression sheet (12 emotions). Pose sheet (5 dynamic poses). This is what serious manga artists build before drawing a single chapter.
  • 8-page short storyPlan it as 8 pages, ~4 panels each. Write the script first. Storyboard before inking. The structure matters more than the rendering.
  • Screen tone or digital equivalentReal screen tone is fiddly. Clip Studio Paint has digital screentone that gives you the manga look. Master 3-5 tones and use them for shadow, distance, and emotion.

Advanced

Publish.

  • 30+ page chapterA full chapter of an ongoing story. This is real manga pace. Most beginners stop at 8 pages. Get to 30+ before judging your stamina.
  • Webtoon adaptationConvert your manga to vertical-scroll format for Webtoon, Tapas, Manta. Different language: vertical pacing, smaller text, more cliffhangers. Worth learning.
  • Convention tablePrint your chapters as small zines. Get a table at a comic convention. Sell at cost. The conversations you have with readers will change your work more than years of solo practice.

Tools sized to this style

What this style asks for.

✏️

Mechanical pencil 0.5mm HB

Manga is mostly drawn with mechanical pencil. Lead consistency matters.

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Pigma Micron pens (005, 02, 05)

Multiple line weights = the secret to manga inking. Light hatching with the 005, heavy outlines with the 05.

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Smooth manga paper or smooth Bristol

Smooth surface makes ink flow cleanly. Strathmore 300 Bristol smooth or Deleter manga paper if you can find it.

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Clip Studio Paint

The industry standard for manga and webtoon work. Has tools designed specifically for panel layout, screentone, and panel-based pacing.

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Ruler

Panel borders need to be straight. Use a clear ruler so you can see what you're framing.

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Reference manga

Buy or borrow 5-10 manga in your target genre. Read them slowly. The pacing IS the lesson.

I believe that creativity is a battle.— Hayao Miyazaki