A Kid’s Guide to Anime & Manga: Exploring the History of Japanese Animation and Comics by Samuel Sattin, with Patrick Macias (Contributor), and Illustrated by, utomaru
This book is recent, from 2023. It is full of information that hardcore fans would find interesting. For someone, like myself, who is simply dipping his toes into the world of Anime and Manga, it is overwhelming. That does not mean that it is not useful, but I suggest that you focus on areas that interest you.
For instance, words, and their history fascinate me. Etymology is the study of the origin of words. It includes the way word meanings have changed over time. We learn that the Japanese take their etymology quite seriously. There are three different writing systems in Japanese. One is based on syllables and the other is made up of ideograms (kanji), which means that each character is built up from different shapes and has its own meaning while also corresponding to a word. The syllable writing system is broken down further into an alphabet for Japanese words hiragana and katakana, for borrowed words, for instance, from English.
Sounds complicated? It is. For instance, in Japan, “there are different levels of speech based on who you are talking to.” These cultural realities, and many others, are all necessary to have a fuller understanding of the Anime & Manga art forms. There is the importance of cherry blossoms or Sakura; or the prevalence of martial arts, such as judo, karate, and kendo.
In short, the study of Anime & Manga is really delving into the cultural, and history of Japan itself. This book is a good place to start and get a fun overview.
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