Japanese PLUS Manga course

Manga (漫画) – Japanese comics – fascinate Japanese people of all ages. Manga for children (6 to 15 years) are supposed to help them develop positive virtues such as courage, perseverance, selflessness and friendship. Topics range from stories of heros with hidden talents to stories about music, fashion or sport, often complete with a love story. Manga for adults, from the tamest tales to the boldest ones, cover a wide range of topics such as science fiction, fighting, sport, sex or the search for the ideal partner, all while building stories of comical or dramatic realism around complex plots.

Manga comics find their original inspiration in Japanese mythology. Mythical heroes are adapted, transformed, reinvented and sometimes even turned into caricatures to elicit a cult around their character. In the Middle Ages, the first Japanese comics used to describe traditional scenes were painted on paper rolls. The genre experienced important developments after World War II, when the Japanese population, bankrupted by military defeat, was looking for cheap entertainment. Spreading beyond Japanese borders, manga has now turned into a worldwide cultural phenomenon, into a sort of cult celebrated by the global community which has become very fond of the peculiar universe of its stylised characters.

In Europe, manga started to invade TV screens in the late 1970s. Goldorak and Albator paved the way for other Japanese comics, reaching an increasingly larger audience. While manga characters are mostly depicted in an audiovisual form in Europe, Japanese people still prefer reading comics on paper. Just take the underground train at rush hour in Tokyo and you'll see how many readers from ages 7 to 107 are eagerly flipping through the pages of printed manga!

Our partner school Kudan Institute de Tokyo offers manga classes, in addition to Japanese lessons. Conversation classes in the mornings (20 lessons/week) are complemented by one or two manga classes of 2 hours per week in the afternoons.

Manga classes take place at the Mangajuku school, a renowned institution which has hosted many top manga artists, just 5 minutes’ walk from the language school. Mangajuku is located in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous literary district, and is home to several prestigious publishing houses and bookshops, which work closely with Mangajuku to promote the creation and diffusion of manga. A leading manga school in Japan, the centre provides excellent know-how and a library with thousands of books.

Classes are held in Japanese (if needed, in English as well) and do not require any specific preparation. Whether you're a talented artist or a complete beginner, all levels are taken into account, allowing you to develop your skills at your own pace. Taught by professional instructors specialised in manga creation, the extensive programme offered by the Mangajuku centre covers all the steps of manga-making, from the writing of the story to analogue and digital design.

As part of the programme, the Mangajuku centre includes a trip to Akihabara, a paradise for lovers of manga and anime movies – and a magnet for Otakus and video game fans.  

Image credit: greyloch (CC BY-SA 2.0)