What is manga?

While many countries have their own comics and graphic novels, manga always refers to a specific style: it originated in Japan, is in black and white, has hundreds of pages and has well-developed plots and characters. Initially a niche interest among non-Japanese audiences, manga has now gained widespread recognition worldwide.

A brief history of manga

Manga has a long history, with the first “Choju Jimbutsu Giga” (caricatures of long-suffering animals and humans) being published in the Heian period (794-1185). In the Meiji period (1868-1912), when newspapers were first published, manga began to appear as four-frame comics. After the war, when Osamu Tezuka, known as the “father of manga,” appeared on the scene, the Japanese manga industry expanded rapidly. And today, the overall comics market is worth approximately 680 billion yen as of 2021, the largest market in history.

People read manga not only for fun but also for education

Manga has developed in terms of both its content and medium last decades. Daily family fights in which your parents say “Read textbooks, not the manga!” may disappear in the near future. Sales of e-comics have rapidly increased and accounted for more than half of the total sales of comics in 2021, and thus children who read comic books are an endangered species, so to speak.

Manga categorized as educational comic books help learners study. There have been various biographical manga published in the last few decades, from the composer Beethoven to Martin Luther King Jr. Recently, a new type of manga has also appeared: commentaries on difficult books. They often have titles like “Manga makes xxx easy and understandable!” Many difficult concepts like SDGs, investment and macroeconomics are transferred to manga and help audiences understand the current situation in the world.

Best manga to understand SDGs better

Some manga are not categorized as educationally-beneficial but contribute to human rights and peace studies. “Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)” by Keiji Nakazawa offers a strong anti-war message by using a semi-autographical method to depict the harsh experience of characters during and after the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945.

“Golden Kamuy,” written by Satoru Noda, is set in Hokkaido at the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912), a former soldier and an Ainu (indigenous people) girl fight and have adventures over a hidden Ainu gold. The manga is not only adventurous but also thought-provoking, as it depicts issues of human rights violations, discrimination against the Ainu people and environmental destruction.

“Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice),” written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Ōima, follows a deaf girl and a boy who used to bully her, as they face their past and reconsider their relationships with the people around them. Many schools use this manga and anime to teach about human rights issues, with a focus on bullying and interaction with people with disabilities.