Why “Gap Moe” is the Japanese Term All Manga Creators Need to Know
The term “gap moe” is a hybrid English-Japanese term which uses the English word “gap” (the space between two objects) and the Japanese word “moe” (萌え, pronounced...
The Investigation Plot
Summary: The Investigation Plot is a basically a typical detective/mystery procedural story but with a Japanese twist to heighten the drama. A standard of Japanese TV and...
The Duel Plot
Summary: The Duel Plot is one of the most common types of Battle Manga plots, as the majority of stories in a Battle Manga are based around...
The Righteous Avenger Plot
Summary: The Righteous Avenger plot is an extremely common plot in manga and anime, and appears from time to time in Western media as well. In short-...
Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu- a Japanese way to structure your stories.
A while back, I blogged about a Japanese story structure called Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu (Kee-Show-Ten-Ketsoo), which is normally presented as an alternative story structure which doesn’t revolve around conflict....
DNA Podcast 47 – The History of Manga Part 1
Page from Tagosaku and Mokube’s Big Toyko Adventure In this episode, Rob and Don journey back into the past of Japanese comic books to explore it from...
The Shonen Battle Manga Formula
(This article is the first rough part of what would later become my book Write! Shonen Manga. I’m leaving it up so that people can see how...
Writing Sports Dramas and other Japanese-Style Activity Dramas
If you’ve ever read more than a few manga, or watched a half-dozen anime, then this storyline will sound familiar- a reluctant youth becomes part of a...
The Fall of BLEACH and the fate of the Big Three Millennial Manga
YouTube user Super Eyepatch Wolf posted a fascinating video last year about how the manga/anime BLEACH went from being one of the big three to cancellation. It’s...
June 27, 2017
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The point where Anime and North American Animation Diverged
Earlier this week, I was having an email exchange with my DNA co-host Don and our frequent esteemed guest Jack Ward about anime and American animation. As...