Manga in Jp.svg
The kanji for "manga" from Seasonal Passersby (Shiki no Yukikai), 1798, by Santō Kyōden and Kitao Shigemasa.
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Manga (漫画, manga) are comics or graphic novels created in Japan or using the Japanese language and conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.[1] They have a long and complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art.[2]

The term manga (kanji: 漫画; hiragana: まんが; katakana: マンガ; About this soundlisten ; English: ə/ or ə/) in Japan is used to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside Japan, the word is used to refer to comics originally published in Japan.[3]

In Japan, people of all ages read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy, detective, drama, historical, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotica (hentai), sports and games, and suspense, among others.[4][5] Many manga are translated into other languages.[6] Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry.[7] By 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued at ¥586.4 billion ($6–7 billion),[8] with annual sales of 1.9 billion manga books and manga magazines in Japan (equivalent to 15 issues per person).[9] Manga have also gained a significant worldwide audience.[10] In 2008, in the U.S. and Canada, the manga market was valued at $175 million. Manga represent 38% of the French comics market, which is equivalent to approximately ten times that of the United States.[11] In France, the manga market was valued at about €460 million ($569 million) in 2005.[12] In Europe and the Middle East, the market was valued at $250 million in 2012.[13]

Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white (due to time constraints, artistic reasons (as coloring could lessen the impact of the artwork)[14] and to keep printing costs low), [15] although some full-color manga exist (e.g., Colorful). In Japan, manga are usually serialized in large manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. Collected chapters are usually republished in tankōbon volumes, frequently but not exclusively, paperback books.[16] A manga artist (mangaka in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company.[17] If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or during its run.[18] Sometimes manga are drawn that are based on previous live-action or animated films.[19]

Manga-influenced comics, among original works, exist in other parts of the world, particularly in Algeria ("DZ-manga"), China, Hong Kong, Taiwan ("manhua"), and South Korea ("manhwa").[20][21]


The word "manga" comes from the Japanese word 漫画,[22] composed of the two kanji 漫 (man) meaning "whimsical or impromptu" and 画 (ga) meaning "pictures".[23] The same term is the root of the Korean word for comics, "manhwa", and the Chinese word "manhua".[24]

The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century[25] with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook Shiji no yukikai (1798),[26][27] and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's Manga hyakujo (1814) and the celebrated Hokusai Manga books (1814–1834)[28] containing assorted drawings from the sketchbooks of the famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai.[29] Rakuten Kitazawa (1876–1955) first used the word "manga" in the modern sense.[30]


Other Languages
Afrikaans: Manga
Alemannisch: Manga
አማርኛ: ማንጋ
العربية: مانغا
aragonés: Manga
asturianu: Manga
azərbaycanca: Manqa
বাংলা: মাঙ্গা
Banjar: Manga
Bân-lâm-gú: Ji̍t-pún bàng-gah
беларуская: Манга (мастацтва)
беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎: Манга
Bikol Central: Manga
български: Манга
བོད་ཡིག: མན་གྷ།
bosanski: Manga
català: Manga
čeština: Manga
Cymraeg: Manga
dansk: Manga
davvisámegiella: Manga
Deutsch: Manga
eesti: Manga
Ελληνικά: Manga
español: Manga
Esperanto: Mangao
euskara: Manga
فارسی: مانگا
français: Manga
Gaeilge: Manga
Gaelg: Manga
galego: Manga
贛語: 漫畫
한국어: 일본 만화
հայերեն: Մանգա
हिन्दी: मांगा
hrvatski: Manga
বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী: মাঙ্গা
Bahasa Indonesia: Manga
íslenska: Manga
italiano: Manga
עברית: מאנגה
Jawa: Manga
ಕನ್ನಡ: ಮಂಗಾ
ქართული: მანგა
қазақша: Манга
Kiswahili: Manga
kurdî: Manga
Кыргызча: Манга
Latina: Manga
latviešu: Manga
Lëtzebuergesch: Manga
lietuvių: Manga
lumbaart: Manga
magyar: Manga
македонски: Манга
مصرى: مانجا
Bahasa Melayu: Manga
монгол: Манга
Nāhuatl: Manga
Nederlands: Manga (strip)
日本語: 日本の漫画
Napulitano: Manga
norsk: Manga
ଓଡ଼ିଆ: ମାଂଗା
oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча: Manga
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ: ਮਾਂਗਾ
polski: Manga
português: Mangá
română: Manga
Runa Simi: Manga
русский: Манга
sardu: Manga
Scots: Manga
shqip: Manga
Simple English: Manga
slovenčina: Manga
slovenščina: Manga
ślůnski: Manga
српски / srpski: Manga
srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Manga
Sunda: Manga
suomi: Manga
svenska: Manga
Tagalog: Manga
தமிழ்: மங்கா
ไทย: มังงะ
українська: Манґа
اردو: مانگا
Tiếng Việt: Manga
Winaray: Manga
吴语: 日本漫画
Yorùbá: Mángà
粵語: 日本漫畫
中文: 日本漫画