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petrichorafterthoughts · 5 years ago

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a short summary and review of “ manga in theory and practice : the craft of making manga “ by hirohiko araki

Ok so first of all a quick disclaimer : I lost my first draft of this post so it might not be exactly what was planned but hey I’m willing to rewrite it the best I can, so let’s do this.

When November started, I had in mind not to exactly write a novel but to put more efforts and researches in my future projects, part of it being through reading books on how to actually write them. At some point during my journey down the rabbit hole as to what I should read, someone recommended that book to me and so, seeing who its creator was, I bought it. It’s pretty affordable and it’s a fairly short read, you can get it as a hardcover but I personally got it on Kindle so I could read it everywhere without problem.

For those who might not know, Hirohiko Araki is the mangaka and thus author of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, a manga which started weekly in 1986, got serialized, and adaptations of it are still being made to this year. So, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. I will be honest though : I don’t like this work. Jojo is just, indeed, too bizarre for me. However, I admire Araki’s craft, his passion and the knowledge he put into this book.

Ok but what’s in there then Ghostie ? Well, a lot and at the same time not really. This is, for sure, not a recipe on how to make the perfect manga. It’s not a checklist albeit keypoints are scattered here and there. What’s Araki’s trying to explain throughout the pages is what he calls the “ Golden Way “ or the “ Royal Road “, aka how to make a manga an intemporal hit, just like what Jojo is without a doubt. What I really like is the humbleness you can feel in his words even when you know what that guy created.

The focus is put on how the story, the setting, the caracters, the themes and the art mingle together, their relationship (what can you forget, what you can put the emphasize on etc) with a lot of tips and tricks here and there such as a neat photo of the characters sheets Araki used when he first created Jojo. It kind of made me laugh to see that here and just made me see him less as an unreachable professional and more as one of us nerds, down there on this website ranting about our characters, crying when we write angst and making 90 facts lists, most of which will never be used but are still cool to have around.

It also greatly talks about the ki-shô-ten-ketsu or what we’d would more generally call in english a story structure, its backbone per say ; introduction, development, twist and resolution, with the general rule of never going downward with your character progression - your hero must always rise, always get challenged, always surpass themself and always win. There’s no downgrading, no loss and no negative arc, otherwise you got lost on the Golden Way.

And that’s where, in my opinion, this book hits its limitation. You can feel that although it can be read, understood and somewhat used by everyone, its primary target audience are people who want to a) work as mangaka b) will have to go through weekly publication, just like Araki did with the Shônen and Ultra Jump. The advices focus on specific genres (mostly shônen - manga targetting young, “ male ” audience - and seinen - those targetting a more mature audience, even if you can find tips here and there for romance, for example), same with how drawings can be incorporated and how story should progress.

However, I still think it’s a pretty nifty read. Did I learn a crazy amount of things ? No. Not really, actually. I did take a fair amount of notes and quotes because there is also a fair share of references throughout the book which I really appreciated, however even Araki’s says that anyone can read it but no one should follow it straightforwardly. Reading this book was kind of like having a coworker you admire patting your shoulder saying not to overdo it while giving you a fair amount of hacks and shortcuts.

So, in the end, was it worth it ? For me, it’s a yes. Even if I didn’t learn much, it taught me that most things I thought I knew were right and being validated is as important as discovering because it tells you you’re on the right track. So I will finish with this quote from the end of the book ;

“ This is a map to bring you home alive when it’s time for you to advance, but on the way you got lost, or because you’re unsure or because you lost sight of the path, or ran into walls and cliffs, you come back to this golden path - rest yourself, calm your thoughts and find clarity, then keep going onward. ”

#bookreview #hirohiko araki #summary&opinion #november2k19 #book

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