Manga Reading Experience

Personally, I have no real experience with comic books or graphic novels. Not knowing in which direction to head in, I decided to ask my little brother, Trevor, for help. He is a fan of all types of books, but I would say he rather has a huge fascination for the genre of manga (pronounced m-ah-n-ga not man-ga, as he often tries to correct me - also anime is different than manga). Trevor has basically his own personal library of manga in his bedroom, so I asked him to pick something out based on my preferences. He pointed me towards many series, but I chose Alice in the Country of Hearts by QuinRose and Soumei Hoshimo.

What motivated me to choose this book was the cover. Before even having read the title, I knew what this book would be about – Alice in Wonderland. There was clearly Alice in her blue dress and white apron, alongside her a man with white hair and rabbit ears, as well as the Queen of Hearts, and some other figure. The cover was quite inviting as I scanned through probably over 50 different manga titles. I love the original Disney Alice, as well as the film by Tim Burton. I have never personally read the version by Lewis Carrol, or previous versions. My choice really depended on the intertexuality of the book. It is a product of everything Alice that has ever come before it, which is a quirky girl thrown into an unknown place of wonder, where she meets many odd characters.

 Which seemed to be quite comical to my brother is that I held it as I would a normal book. Manga is translated from Japanese to English, which causes them to be read from the back to front. Being accustomed to North American comics and graphic novels, I really had to focus on not reading the left page before the right as I continued on through the book. At first it’s quite hard, but the more I read, the easier it became to just follow through the book. It is really just like reading any other graphic novel once you get into the flow of reading in reverse. It has all the same aspects such as panels, narration, word balloons, etc... although much more exaggerated as most anime and manga is. 

There are three main books to this series, as well as 6 or more stories that branch out to focus on different characters. If I had spare time for leisure reading, I would most likely continue on with this series because of how much I enjoyed it.  I really enjoyed this manga book, and would recommend it to others as a first step into the large world that is manga.