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“So, what’s in a manga anyway 🤔? What components are there, how are they laid out, and how can I talk about them? Are there any unique parts that are not found in other comics?”
This page is my attempt to investigate these questions.
For a brief overview on a possible origin of the manga format, check out the ‘Distinctively Japanese’ section on the ‘Manga Beyond Japan’ 🌎🌍🌏 blog page
(For a manga about creating manga, go read ‘Bakuman’ by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata! For a fantastic and educational non-fiction, check out the incredible ‘How to Draw Manga’ series by Hikaru Hayashi and other authors)
The anatomy of a book may not be as intricate or as rigidly-defined as that of the human body, but it’s still worth examining, and manga showcases some really cool features that are unique to the format.
A tankoubon (単行本**)** is defined on Jisho.org as either a “standalone book (i.e. not part of an anthology, series, etc.)”, a (book published as a) single volume”, or an “individual volume of a manga series” (the staff of the Los Angeles Public Library define tankoubon as having a particular set of physical measurements, which is also true, but let’s keep things simple for now)
In other words, a tankoubon is a single printed and bound book/codex/volume of the same title of manga, containing several chapters of that title, and differs from a magazine serialisation or anthology where chapters from several different titles are compiled into a single bound volume.
To illustrate the features of a tankoubon, I’ll be sharing pictures of some the manga titles that I own, namely ‘Naruto’ by Masashi Kishimoto since it is one of the most recognisable and popular titles in the world. Volumes from other titles may be included too as comparisons. Basically, this page is an educational excuse for me to to show-and-tell my manga haha 🤭.
Volume 1 of the tankoubon edition of Naruto, which contains chapters 1 through to 7 [Naruto, v1, by Masashi Kishimoto, published by Viz]
A tankoubon volume compiles several chapters from the same series into a single book. Tankoubon are only released when all of the individual chapters have been released. Naruto followed a weekly release schedule, so 7 chapters would require at least 7 weeks (plus more for translation time and other stuff) for enough material to be available to compile into a single tankoubon.
An issue of Shonen Jump Magazine, which contains chapters from several different titles (Naruto, Hikaru no Go, Shaman King, One Piece, DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh) and some other promo material [Shonen Jump, issue #14]
A magazine issue contains a chapter from each of several series. One issue may be released per week, per month, per 2 months, etc. depending on the magazine. Shonen Jump in the USA may have been released monthly, whereas it’s a weekly magazine in Japan
Although they are read from right-to-left ←←, tankoubon are organised in a similar manner to a regular book, which can be divided into external features (covers), a front matter, a body section, and a back matter (check out Sabrina Cruz’s amazing short video about these sections of a book!!)
Starting with the external features: the front cover, spine, and back cover encapsulate and protect the bound pages while also being decorated with graphics that represent the contents of the volume.
The front cover of a tankoubon typically features the following:
One exception to this is Blood+, where each volume contained its blurb on its front cover rather than the back cover. (I’LL LOOK FOR A PHOTO AND COME BACK TO THIS)
[Naruto v1, by Masashi Kishimoto, published by Viz]
The spine (between the two covers) includes the title, volume number, and publisher which serve to distinguish the volume from others. When a book is shelved, the spine is usually the only visible feature, so these crucial details need to be visible.
The back cover usually contains the blurb/synopsis of the story contained within a particular volume. Other identifying details are included too, such as the ISBN and barcodes, along with the recommended retail price(s) and the age rating (see my page on Manga Age Ratings for more detail!). The publisher has included a fair bit of promo, and an indication of reading direction too.
Going to the internal contents of the book, the front matter includes info about the particular volume itself such as its title page & table of contents (see previous), and a colophon/title verso containing the publication details (see below left). [Naruto v1, by Masashi Kishimoto, published by Viz]
On the left page of the above picture is the title page of Volume 1 of Naruto, and the colophon with detailed publication info is on the right page.
A foreword about the author or the work may be provided too, which might be exclusive to tankoubon versions. Can’t escape those advertisements 😅.
The body section is what contains the main material of the book, which in a manga means pages adorned with sequential images and dialogue (and sometimes narration) in comic-style paneling, as opposed to being filled solely with text. Unfortunately, not every page of a manga receives a printed page number, which makes finding a particular page or panel fairly difficult. The linear narrative means that incomplete pagination is usually not an issue, but it becomes difficult for artists or illustrators (or fans who write fandom wiki pages) who are looking for reference material.
The manga/graphic novel format means that some unique printing characteristics are also found in the body section, such as gutters (or guttered pages) and two page spreads.
Gutter: A narrow blank space that separates panels. Gutters act to divide a single page into multiple smaller illustrations that are perused sequentially, like the still frames of a film. Gutters can sometimes contain translation notes, prompts (e.g., “read this way”), bilingual text, or page numbers. The majority of pages in a manga would have gutters.
Two-page spreads: This is when a single, massive illustration occupies two whole pages (spread from one edge, across the spine, and to the other edge) and is uninterrupted by gutters, which makes a stunning visual impact. Two-page spreads are less common than guttered pages.
The center gutter area in the middle of the pages, near the binding, is often visible from the top and bottom edges of a volume.
A nifty feature present in the body section of manga is that the interval between one the end of chapter and the beginning of another may be occupied by bonus illustrations or remarks from the mangaka (漫画家). I haven’t really seen this feature in other formats such as novels/adult fiction or western graphic novels (but then again, I don’t read much of those). The right-hand side pages in the 3 below pictures show really cool behind-the-scenes comments from Masashi Kishimoto, the mangaka (creator and copyright holder) of Naruto.
Lastly, there is the back matter**.**
The typical back matter components of a book include a glossary and/or index, but the back matter of manga often contains material of a more commercial nature, owing to the original serialised (weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc.) format. Gotta ensure that customers stay loyal and make repeat purchase 💰!