In 2006, manga made $200 million in the U.S. market, not even counting periodicals like Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump.* Manga graphic novels are in every bookstore, and books with titles like "How to Draw Manga" line the shelves. There's no denying its growing popularity—but manga, which simply means "comics," is much more than a single style or genre. For people who ask "I've never read a manga before, what manga should I read?" the best answer is: "What do you like to read?"

Manga is tied to Japanese pop culture in a way that Americans usually think of songs, movies and TV shows. Manga classics such as The Legend of Kamui and Ashita no Joe ("Tomorrow's Joe") embodied the passion and turmoil of the '60s, while Division Chief Kosaku Shima became the spokesman for the '80s economic boom. But with a few exceptions like Kosaku Shima and Golgo 13 (the manga equivalent of James Bond), manga characters do not live for 40+ years, or outlive their creators, like Superman and Rex Morgan, M.D. Manga creators pride themselves on making memorable and sympathetic characters, but they also recognize the satisfaction of a story with a beginning, middle and end. Like a TV drama, long-running manga can wander all over the map, but they know when it's time to go out with an emotional bang. Ask anyone who's read Death Note or Maison Ikkoku.

Manga often involves flights of fantasy—whether literally in the Harry Potter and Naruto sense, or figuratively, such as the implausible but beloved romances of the Boy's Love genre (man-on-man love stories aimed at girls). But beyond genres such as science fiction, horror and ninjas, some of the most powerful manga deal with subjects close to everyday life. Sports and competition stories such as Slam Dunk, Harlem Beat and Hikaru no Go prove that you don't need violence for drama. Cooking manga mix stories with recipes, such as Iron Wok Jan (a must for any Chinese food lover), and the classic Oishinbo ("the gourmet"), running since 1983. Romances and love comedies are among the most popular manga genres, from the dramatic to the hilarious, from the borderline Fruits Basket to stories as different as Nana, Emma, Ranma 1/2 and Love Com.

The boom in translated manga has mostly been titles for teens and preteens, but in Japan, seinen (men's) and josei (women's) manga artists are bestsellers on par with John Grisham and Helen Fielding. From adult men's manga come the pulp fiction of Ryoichi Ikegami, the thoughtful adventure tales of Jiro Taniguchi, and sword-swinging samurai classics such as Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub. Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's crime drama Oldboy was adapted into a Korean blockbuster film and won an Eisner Award for one of the best comics of 2007. In the realm of adult women's manga are artists such as Moyoco Anno, Kan Takahama and Mari Okazaki, who depict life with maturity, humor and pathos. Perhaps no manga creator writes dialogue as well as Fumi Yoshinaga, who has written some of Japan's most thoughtful and funniest comics about high school students, 18th-century aristocrats and French patissieres. Lastly, there are underground manga which defy all categories, such as the works of Junko Mizuno and Kazuichi Hanawa, and classics such as the many works of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy.

The sheer craft and diversity of manga is reason enough for its success, but for some American readers, its Japaneseness also plays a role. And truthfully, isn't it refreshing to read something knowing it wasn't test-marketed and focus-grouped for you, something which is a great read even though it was created half a world away? But the mirror of manga looks both ways. The oldest manga so far translated, The Four Immigrants Manga, is an autobiographical piece drawn in 1931 by a Japanese artist who spent twenty years in San Francisco. Seventy years later, Kaiji Kawaguchi's Eagle depicted the drama of a (fictional) American presidential campaign, from the perspective of a Japanese journalist. Someday soon, perhaps there will be a manga series about American manga fans, about the generation which has chosen to make manga its own preferred form of comics—perhaps, its preferred form of entertainment.

-- Jason Thompson

*Source: Milton Griepp, ivc2 (http://www.mangablog.net/?p=905) (also confirmed in personal emails)