Sophomore Dana Faulkner brushed a lock of wavy red hair behind her ear as she flipped through what some people think is a backwards comic book.

What Faulkner was reading is manga, a style of comic books produced in Japan for people of all ages. Many are available in Howell’s library, and manga sales in the U.S. have increased by 10 percent in 2007 with 1,486 new titles, according to “New Report Finds Manga Sales Up” by Calvin Reid.   Many manga feature large-eyed, nymph-like characters that appear different-looking to Westerners, according to factsanddetails.com.

Faulkner, co-treasurer of the Anime Club,reads manga all the time. (Anime are basically animated versions of manga available on TV or online.)

“Manga and anime has inspired me to draw and meet more interesting people,” Faulkner said, “as well as experiment and learn about Japanese culture.”

Sophomore Kaitlin Wilfing prefers anime so she can get through a series faster, though she still enjoys reading manga.

“Manga illustrations are very clean and sharp,” Wilfing said. “When they try to make more prominent illustrations they love to mess with shading and patterns.”

There are also many different types of genres and series of manga.

Sophomore Kaytlin May enjoys “comedyish” and fantasy manga such as the best-selling Fruits Basket, while sophomore Alex Fritzius enjoys any kind of action, drama, and horror manga.
Faulkner enjoys Vampire Knight, Soul Eater, Ah No Exorcist, and many other series.

“It’s cool because it’s full of fairy tales and it’s interesting,” May said.

For one of these big-time fans, never touching a manga volume or glancing at an episode would make her a slightly different person.

“If I’ve never heard of manga or anime, I’d probably be very biased against the Japanese culture,” Wilfing said.  “Originally I thought it to be like Chinatown…but now I am actually opened to the idea of going to Japan for anything.”

Written by: Chloe Devos